Page 10

CHAPTER

TEN

KARLIN

K arlin looked into the crackling firepit, not wanting to take her eyes off of the dancing orange flames. For the first time since that morning, she felt like she could finally relax a little.

The others, including Axel and Bajwa, were lost in conversion for the moment, and no one seemed to mind her silence. Overhead, the sky was inky blue and filled with stars, and the bonfire gave off the perfect amount of heat to cut through the chill of the desert in autumn.

The day had managed to feel both long and short at the same time.

She and Bajwa had shown the guests the cabins, the small gym, the yoga huts, the sauna, and everything else the modern retreat compound had to offer.

She had also made sure to point out the direction of the main Senera research compound and gave everyone a brief rundown of the work they did there.

Finally, she’d given everyone a tour of her on-site lab. She dreaded that part of introduction day, but Bajwa always insisted on it. He thought that giving the patients a glimpse at the scientific side of what they did would help them to feel more at ease, but for Karlin, it was the opposite.

Having a bunch of strangers in the small room made her feel like her most private sanctuary was being invaded.

Even at the main compound where she often worked with other people, she could usually grab a couple hours a day of solitude.

The lab was her happy place, where everything in her life actually made sense.

Still, she always tried her best not to let on to the patients how uncomfortable she felt. She did enjoy teaching on some level, and most of the group seemed to enjoy asking her questions and engaging with the subject, so she had tried to see the bright side of the forced tour.

By the time they’d enjoyed a long, relaxed dinner, it was cold enough that everyone had leapt at the possibility of building a fire in the pit behind the dining hall.

All day, she’d found herself on edge, reading into everything Bajwa did or said, constantly afraid that he suspected something.

Axel, on the other hand, was the picture of calm and serenity.

He’d sauntered along near the middle of the pack, asking just the right amount of questions and offering the occasional witty comment. She had to admit, she was impressed, though the cross she’d seen hanging around his neck earlier nagged at her.

Did his confidence come from practice and being good at his job? Or did he experience the same sort of deeper peace that her brother, John, always claimed to have?

She wasn’t going to ask, though that didn’t stop her from feeling nervous about talking to him alone tonight.

On the drive up to the retreat site, they’d agreed to meet up and debrief each day, at least when they were able to without arousing suspicion. It made sense, and as they dug deeper into investigating Senera, it would be essential.

But it was still terrifying. Something about him seemed to pull at her, and the fact that she couldn’t put her finger on it was driving her crazy.

“Karlin? Hello, earth to Karlin?”

Bajwa’s singsong voice jolted into her brain.

She snapped to attention, blinking away the glow of the flame that had imprinted upon the backs of her eyelids. “Sorry, Dr. Bajwa, yes? What?”

He chuckled. “Relax, Karlin. Destiny here was just wondering if you enjoyed your time at college up in Michigan. Her sister is considering studying classical literature at Hillsdale.”

“Oh,” Karlin said, forcing a smile as she shook off her scattered thoughts. “I’ve heard Hillsdale is really nice, though I confess that my knowledge of the classics pretty much ended with reading Hamlet in high school.”

“I read that one!” Axel chimed in. “Well, okay, I forget most of it, but the witches were pretty cool. Bad, obviously. But cool.”

Karlin stared at him as Destiny started to laugh.

“The one with the witches is definitely Macbeth,” Destiny said, plucking away a piece of floating ash that had landed on her tight black curls.

“Anyway, Karlin, I was more thinking about the Michigan weather than anything. My sister and I were born and raised in Dallas. But going to a college that will support her faith means a lot to her.”

“That’s wise, young lady,” Paul chimed in from his place across the fire, giving an approving nod from beneath his ten-gallon hat. “Puttin’ the Lord first will always pay off.”

“If Hillsdale aligns with her values, it might be worth braving the cold,” Karlin said politely. Was everyone here aside from her and Bajwa some kind of Jesus freak? “But I would definitely warn her that it’s going to suck until she gets used to it.”

Cora gave a dramatic shudder as she tossed her sleek brown waves over her shoulder. “Sounds terrible. Give me the beach back home in Los Angeles any day of the week. If I go my entire life without ever having to shovel snow, I’ll be happy.”

“West coast men are too soft,” Axel scoffed. “Destiny’s sister will find a good guy in Michigan, and he’ll shovel the snow.”

Cora crossed her arms over her oversized t-shirt and stuck out her tongue at him. “I don’t need a guy anyway. Not right now. I’ll enjoy my tanning time in peace, by myself, thank you very much.”

“I’m with you, sister,” Lily said with a chuckle. “I’m from Vegas, though. I wish I’d had a beach to miss.”

Karlin smiled. It was good to see the group beginning to open up a little, and so far, everyone seemed to be getting along.

She watched as Lily leaned back in her camping chair, holding her water bottle out in one hand. “If I close my eyes, I can almost imagine this is a cute little cocktail with an umbrella and everything. Don’t worry, I would spare you all having to see my bikini.”

Even Bajwa chuckled at that. “Well, Ms. Moonchild, it would be pretty cold for that tonight.”

Karlin watched as the others chatted with the older woman, who had begun to jokingly beckon for a towel boy to bring her a robe. Something about Lily looked slightly familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

In any case, she wasn’t in the mood for investigating anything or anyone at the moment.

She leaned back in her own foldable camp chair and stretched her toes out toward the warm fire, closing her eyes as the others continued their conversations. Soon enough, everyone but her and Axel would go to bed, and there would be plenty of time to talk, whether she was ready for it or not.

ASHER

A rock slipped under Asher’s sneaker as he approached the final stretch of the steep path, and he found himself flailing through the air for what seemed like a comically long amount of time.

When he finally landed, his hand was burning, and even worse, Karlin was smirking at him from the door of the small cabin where he was supposed to meet her.

Awesome.

“I’m fine!” he called out across the remaining distance. “This cactus broke my fall.”

He got to his feet, pulling a couple of stray spines from where they had embedded themselves in his hoodie’s sleeve before walking toward her.

Steep red stone walls rose all around the small valley, blocking off some of the cold wind, though it was still chilly without the fire. The place reminded Asher of being on the inside of a giant bowl.

“Fortunately for you, that was barely a cactus,” Karlin said with a laugh, beckoning him forward. “But seriously, you’re good?”

He nodded, accepting her invitation to enter the shadowy structure. Unlike the modern guest cabin he was staying in, this one looked old and decrepit, with a slightly crooked roof and several missing roof tiles.

As his eyes adjusted, he realized that the dim interior wasn’t any nicer than the outside.

Two rickety wooden chairs sat around a small log table with an empty bookshelf behind it.

The only other furniture was a short stretch of cabinets on the opposite wall, a threadbare futon, and a black pot-bellied woodstove that had been left unlit.

A single candle was burning in the middle of the table, giving just enough light to see by.

“Is there really nowhere else that we can meet?” he asked, plunking himself into one of the chairs as Karlin did the same. “That hike on the way in was rough, especially that last hill. And can we at least start a fire? It’s dark. And freezing.”

“Apparently it’s not just those west coast men who are soft,” Karlin joked.

“Ha-ha. Seriously, what is this place? It’s kind of a dump. No offense.”

“I’m actually not sure. I’m guessing it came with the land when Senera bought the place,” she said, casting a glance at the small window near the front door. “Anyway. Never mind that. We need to get to the important stuff. We don’t have all night.”

Asher nodded, picking at a hole on the edge of his chair’s armrest where decades-old stuffing was beginning to spill out.

Now that he was actually alone with Karlin, he was beginning to feel a little bit nervous.

Her personality was a bit of a roller coaster to navigate.

Two minutes ago she’d been smiling and teasing him, and now she was all business.

It made him feel like he was constantly losing his balance.

Still, he knew he could help her come around. He’d only known her for a couple of days, and building trust took time.

“Allow me to give you today’s briefing, ma’am,” he said, matching her serious tone.

“To begin, I was awoken around 0600 with the help of the Samsung alarm clock your organization so kindly provided. Following that, I went to acquire breakfast in the dining hall, wherein I found a near-total dearth of protein–”

“Axel,” Karlin warned, rolling her eyes. “Be serious.”

“I am!”

She glanced at the table between them, and then at the bookshelf.

“Looking for something to chuck at my head?” he added, giving her a wink. “Karlin, come on. I’ll stop being a butthead. But you really need to relax a little. No one has any reason to suspect we’re in here.”