Her eyes were fierce, level with his. “When he got the report that he was assigned to kill those boys, he wasn’t heading down here for that.”
“What was he doing then?”
“He was coming here to help them.”
Everyone else was picking through a bucket of KFC, but Hunter didn’t feel like eating. His mom had offered him the choice of going home versus staying here. And while things between him and her didn’t feel quite so strained, the thought of facing his grandfather was too much just now.
Yet he didn’t want to sit at the table with a bunch of people with mixed feelings about him, either.
But Michael had asked for trust, and Hunter owed him this much.
He still couldn’t believe Kate was dead. He kept feeling that he should send her a text about his dad, just to let her know.
“You all right?” Nick was staring at him across the table.
“Yeah.” He wasn’t, but what else was he going to say? They knew everything, from the drive into the mountains, to Silver preventing the gun from firing, to Kate’s death.
Well, not everything.
Becca came around the table and put her arms around his neck from behind. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“I’m okay, Becca. Really.” He couldn’t take the sympathy. He felt so guilty about all of it, and sympathy added to the weight. He refrained from pulling away. “Just . . . sit. Eat. It’s fine.”
When she dropped back into a chair, he felt Gabriel watching him.
He was the only Merrick who hadn’t said a frigging word to Hunter since he’d walked into the hotel room.
Hunter didn’t really feel like getting into it with him, either.
But he met his eyes and held them.
Go ahead, he thought. Fuck with me. Right now. Do it.
Gabriel didn’t move.
“What’s the plan?” said Chris.
Hunter cleared his throat and quit the staring match. “The last thing Noah Dean said to me was that Calla is planning something for Monday. Something big. I have no idea where she’s hiding—and I can’t exactly look for her while Silver is out there, waiting to shoot me.”
“Monday is tomorrow,” said Michael.
Tomorrow? Hunter blinked. The days had all run together.
“What about her plans?” said Becca. “Any idea what this something big could be?”
“Kate said . . .” He had to take a breath. “She was looking on her phone. She said there were two tunnels leading in and out of Baltimore City. They go under the harbor. She thought maybe those could be a target. But they’re miles long—and I wouldn’t have the first clue how to protect something like that. Not to mention I wouldn’t even know where to start. I mean—”
“Why the tunnels?” said Michael.
“That’s the only thing I could get out of Noah. He said ‘tunnels. ’ I can’t imagine Calla hanging out in the sewers, and I couldn’t find anything about caves in Anne Arundel County—”
“There are tunnels under the school,” Michael said.
Gabriel snorted. “You mean the old bomb shelter? That’s a joke they play on freshmen. Like the swimming pool on the roof.”
“No, it’s not.”
“How do you know?”
Michael gave him a look. “Gee. I don’t know. How could I possibly know about tunnels in the ground—”
“What are they for?” Hunter interrupted.
“They lead to the boiler room,” said Michael. “And they run the full length of both schools, connecting under the auditorium. It’s pitch-black down there, full of pipes.”
“Water?” said Hunter.
Michael nodded. “And gas lines.”
“Holy crap,” whispered Becca. “She could blow up the schools.”
Hunter wanted to think that Calla didn’t have it in her—but he’d seen the carnage at the carnival. He’d walked into houses that she’d personally burned. “Can the tunnels be accessed from outside the school?” said Hunter.
“No,” said Michael. “There are access points in a few classrooms and at the back of the auditorium.”
“How do you know this?” said Nick.
“Maybe I occasionally used them. You guys aren’t the only ones who got crap in school, you know.”
“We can’t just go rushing in there,” said Hunter. “If we spook those kids, they could bring the place down on top of us.”
“They might not even be there now,” said Michael. “Why sit in the tunnels all weekend when they can just walk in the front door with everyone else and not arouse a bit of suspicion?”
“Noah and Calla are missing,” said Becca. “People would notice if they showed up for school.”
“I don’t know,” said Chris. “If they’re missing, people wouldn’t be looking for them to walk in the front doors of the