Page 58 of When the Silence Breaks

He tugged out the paper—aged and stiff, decades old—and unrolled it on the floor. “Another map.” He sounded disappointed.

“Only more detailed. I don’t get it. Why not give us this information, this level of detail, on the first map?”

Sarah studied the hand-drawn map. The ink had faded to sepia, but she could still make out the detailed ridgelines and trees. Even a mountain lake. She glanced up at Ryder. “There’s a lake near this cabin. Is this the same lake?”

Ryder didn’t answer as he focused on the map, his index finger seeming to follow an invisible line as it sped over a rockyoutcropping and then stopped. He drew in a quick breath. “This looks like the plane’s wing jutting out from the snow, and with the lettersSOcircled.”

He lifted his gaze to hers and held it.

“Sentinel One.” The name of the downed plane croaked out of her. “This is it. This is where it is.”

Ryder gently grabbed the map and the box and put the items on the table. He moved the kerosene lamp closer. He sat down to get a better look, and Sarah sat on the opposite side. He had that contemplative look again, and she’d wait for him to spill.

“It would seem the initial map led us to the cave,” he said, “but I think my grandfather moved whatever was important here. I think my grandfather drew this map. It looks like his scrawl along the side.”

“But why?” Sarah shook her head. This did not make sense to her way of thinking. “If we hadn’t been driven in this direction, we might not have discovered this. It’s like one of those ridiculous treasure-hunting shows where the clues are so outrageous and impossible. I’m saying how could he expect anyone to find what he’d hidden?”

Crossing her arms, she stared at the open box. Ryder was staring too. There was more inside. They’d been too interested in the map to look. Sarah shined her flashlight and reached into the box, but Ryder pulled her hand back.

“Careful,” he said.

Ryder hesitated, then he lifted the cloth-covered item and held it flat against his palm as he unwrapped it.

Sarah gasped at the small vial. “This is what I was afraid of.”

“It’s sealed with wax,” he said, as if that would reassure her.

The tube contained a cloudy substance. Yellow, thick, and oily.

She shared a look with Ryder. “If this is it, if this is the bioweapon,why in the world would he place it here? This is just irresponsible and hazardous.”

“If this is the bioweapon, he wouldn’t have left it here without a good reason. Maybe it’s a decoy or he knew that proof was needed to convince someone where to go and to proceed with all caution.”

“This was beyond reckless, Ryder, and you know it.” Sarah stood, regretting the animosity that had crept into her tone, especially after Ryder tried so hard to defend his grandfather’s actions. He wanted to think of the guy as a hero, just like she’d thought of her grandfather. She wasn’t so sure what to think about either of those men at the moment.

“Maybe Gramps didn’t want anyone to find it.” He looked down at the box. “Maybe he hid the map and the vial here, moved them from the cave where your grandfather had left them, because some things weren’t meant to be uncovered—not until the right moment, and only into the right hands. He believed God’s timing was perfect and that what was meant to be revealed would be, when the time was right. If and when the silence breaks, that’s because it was meant to.”

“I’m not sure I follow you entirely,” she said.

“In other words, if it’s meant to happen, nothing can stop it. And if it’s not, nothing can force it. Maybe that’s why he left the map and the vial—so only the one meant to find them ever would.”

In God’s perfect timing, of course. Those were some deep thoughts from her wilderness guide. “You’re saying that when the truth comes out, it’s because it was meant to, and it was ready to be heard.” She’d need to mull it over on a quiet night, without the weight of the world bearing down on her. Still... “That’s so cryptic. How could he know or think you—or anyone, for that matter—would find the other half of that coin or what’s in thiscabin? This is ... it’s irresponsible.” She bit her lip. She could blame her own grandfather as well.

She stood and paced, dragging in the dusty, smoky air.

“Believe what you want, but if he wanted it hidden so no one ever found it, he wouldn’t have left this information, well, for someone to find, deliberately or accidentally. He would have destroyed it.”

Great. “Then why not just tell the authorities decades ago?” Maybe each of the men was scared and didn’t know who they could turn to or trust. Maybe they were waiting for that person. That day. That moment. Like Ryder had already said in his philosophical view of this situation, which she found difficult to grasp.

She had no idea what to do with this. Her brother had been murdered. She was one step ahead of the killers, or maybe two steps behind.

“You holding that vial is all kinds of wrong. Please put it away.”I have to think!

Ryder placed the vial back in the box and closed it.

“So now we have a map to the plane that wasn’t supposed to have crashed on the mountain,” she said. “A vial that could be filled with a deadly toxin. Someone following us. Shot at us.”

“You wanted me to guide you up the mountain in search of the plane if it existed and could be found. You didn’t know what you were searching for, exactly. But now you do. What was your plan after you got the answer you sought?”