the ground for a while,” Gabriel said. “I think our path is pretty much set.”
Walter leaned into the swirling breeze and followed the prints, Gabriel at his side. Now that he was soaked, the bitter wind chilled him to the bone, so he started jogging again, still pausing to scar the ground with his stick.
Gabriel nodded at the ground. “I’ve been wondering why you’re doing that.”
“A trick I learned from Ashley. Always leave a trail.”
“Good thinking. It sounds like you and she make a great team.”
As he jogged, Walter glanced at Gabriel. His thin jacket was plastered to his chest, and his lips had turned blue. “You must be freezing.”
“Yeah,” Gabriel replied through chattering teeth. “I’m pretty cold.”
“Now would be a good time for a Sahara treatment. Know what that is?”
“Sure do. I saw you get one after Ashley healed you during the flood.”
Walter squinted at him. “You were there?”
“Yep. I followed Bonnie around for years. I was sort of like her guardian angel, but I couldn’t do much to help her. I guess I was more like a ghost than an angel.”
Walter shivered harder than ever. “That creeps me out. I wonder if any ghosts are following me around.”
“You never know.” Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “I’ve seen stuff so weird, you’d never believe it.”
Walter grinned. “Try me.” He quickly shook his head. “Never mind. It’s not smart to trade creep-out stories with a guy who has dragon wings.”
Gabriel and Walter laughed together as they jogged on and on. After a few minutes, they arrived at the highway. As expected, the tracks disappeared, so they followed the road toward the power plant. Not a single car or truck came in sight as they hustled, making the going easier, but the bitter cold kept biting through their wet layers. Walter continued plunging the stick into the ground just beyond the edge of the pavement.
A half hour later, the entrance road to the plant came into sight. The remains of a fence gate, bent and torn, leaned against a power company pickup truck. Slowing his pace as he approached the guard’s gatehouse, Walter dropped the stick. The upper half of a man’s body protruded through the station’s broken window, hanging limply with his arms dangling near the ground.
Gabriel ran to him and felt his neck for a pulse. After a few seconds, he looked up at Walter, pain in his eyes. “He’s dead. Probably strangled. His throat looks like it’s been flattened.”
Walter lifted the guard’s limp hand and rubbed his thumb across his wedding ring. “I wonder if he had any kids,” he said sadly. He put his shoulder under the lanky man’s body and gently pushed him back inside the tiny room, careful to avoid the blood and jagged glass. As he seated the corpse on a stool and leaned him against the back wall, he spotted a coat and an umbrella within reach. Grabbing both, he pulled back out and showed them to Gabriel. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Dress as guards?” Gabriel asked. “Go into the plant in disguise?”
“That was my first thought, but I’ve seen too many bad movies where the good guy tried it. The script always made the bad guys too stupid to notice.” As he tapped the umbrella on the road, the faint sound of an alarm siren floated across the breeze. “I don’t think real life works that way.”
“You might as well wear it. At least it’ll keep you warm. I’d never be able to fit my wings inside.”
As cold rain continued to fall, Walter gazed down the service road leading to another broken gate. “You say the plant’s at a dam?”
“At the base of it, yeah.”
“It must be hydroelectric.” Walter pointed the umbrella at the gate. “If it’s like the one Professor Hamilton took our homeschool group to see, it’ll be pretty much automated—not many people around.”
Gabriel nodded. “A perfect choice for an energy-hungry giant who doesn’t want media attention.”
“Right.” Walter stripped off his wet jacket and slid his damp arms into the guard’s coat sleeves. The thick lining felt heavenly, and the bottom hem fell close to his knees, providing more warmth.
Gabriel touched the sword protruding from Walter’s coat. “I think this might make someone suspicious.”
“Yeah, but I might need it. At least the blade works on the giants, even if the beam doesn’t.”
“Try to hide it, then.” Gabriel pulled up Walter’s collar. “I’ll see if I can create a distraction from above. If Chazaq spots me, the better it’ll be for