It was time to grid the site. Nora and Skip hauled out supplies from the jeep, including wooden stakes and Day-Glo twine. Vigil set up the theodolite while Skip held the stadia rod for him and Nora gave directions, and in another hour the area had been gridded in precise, GPS-delineated squares. At that moment, Nora saw a corkscrew of dust on the horizon. A few minutes later, Tappan arrived. He stepped out of the jeep with a big smile and looked over the gridded site.
“This is what I call progress,” he said.
Despite herself, Nora felt a glow of pleasure. “You’re just in time to watch us break ground.”
“That was my hope.”
Starting with the first square meter, Nora and Vigil gently dug out bunches of grass and set them aside, then began the serious work of removing the sandy soil, layer by layer. Tappan watched from a shade they had set up next to the excavation, from time to time speaking into the base camp radio.
It was quick, easy going—as Nora expected it would be in ground that had already been dug and backfilled before, even if many decades ago. She and Vigil worked the grids as Skip tossed the excavated sand through two sets of screens, for large and small items, respectively. As the hours went by, they encountered nothing but undifferentiated sand, nor did anything turn up in the screening. The site appeared to be clean—suspiciously clean. There weren’t even the usual random stones.
As the afternoon lengthened, Tappan suddenly called out. “Nora, may I see you a moment?”
She climbed out of the hole and came over.
“I just spoke to Cecilia,” Tappan said. “She and Kuznetsov have been going over the lidar point cloud using image enhancement, and they found something else. A disturbance that looks a lot more recent. I asked Cecilia to bring out the charts for us to look at.”
Sure enough, twenty minutes later another cloud of dust appeared on the horizon. Soon, Toth pulled up in a jeep and retrieved a document tube from the passenger seat. She brought it over, red hair stirring in the light wind. They all retreated to chairs under the shade.
“Thanks for coming out,” said Tappan.
“No problem.” Toth slid a survey out of the tube and unrolled it on the table.
“We’ve been manipulating the point cloud data,” she said. “Take a look at what we found. It’s up in the corner, here.”
About a mile and a half from where they were now working, Nora could see a blurry set of tire tracks entering from the west and winding through the foothills of the Los Fuertes Mountains before heading out of the survey area to the north.
“Here’s a closer view.” Toth unrolled a second chart. The tracks came in from the left side of the survey, ran east through the Gigantes valley in the foothills, and stopped at a point near the far edge of the survey area. Here, they appeared to move around in a few erratic circles before turning and heading away in a different direction.
“These are fresh tracks,” said Toth. “Very fresh. I think what we might be looking at is where Bitan got picked up.”
Nora nodded.
“Not only are they recent,” said Toth, “but what’s more, it looks like an attempt was made to brush them out. They probably weren’t anticipating a subcentimeter lidar survey.” She whisked out a third chart. “This view has been further enhanced.”
Nora peered closely and felt a chill travel up her spine. There was a vague confusion of tracks, both car and foot, evidently brushed out but still visible.
“Those tracks lead into the mountains to the north. But where, exactly?”
“We don’t know. And it may be hard to find out.”
“Why?”
“That’s where the airspace is closed. The old Pershing Proving Range—a long-abandoned military base. Off-limits to ground entry, too.”
Tappan gave a low whistle. “I’m not normally paranoid, but it’s enough to make you wonder. Bitan vanishing…and those tracks going into an abandoned base. Supposedly. I mean, what’s in there? Area Fifty-Two? Can we fly our drone over and take a look?”
“No,” said Toth, “unless you want to lose your drone license.”
“What about Google Earth?”
“I checked it out. Just shows some abandoned buildings. No sign of anything recent.”
No one spoke for a moment.
Toth said, “Another thing. Two sheriffs showed up in base camp this afternoon, investigating Bitan’s disappearance. They want to speak to you, Mr. Tappan, and Skip.”
“Christ, just what we need,” said Tappan. He turned to Nora. “Let’s wrap up here and go see what they want. It’s quitting time, anyway.”