The deputies, rangers, and crime-lab men had been giving Lem and Cliff odd looks
ever since they had arrived, but Lem had not been surprised by that. Local
authorities always regarded him with suspicion and curiosity because they were
not accustomed to having a powerhouse federal agency like the NSA show up and
claim jurisdiction; it was a rarity. But now he realized that their curiosity
was of a different kind and degree than what he usually encountered, and for the
first time he perceived their fear. They had found something—the lair of which
they spoke—that gave them reason to believe this case was even stranger than the
sudden appearance of the NSA would usually indicate.
In suits, ties, and polished street shoes, neither Lem nor Cliff was properly
dressed for a hike down into the canyon, but neither of them hesitated when the
rangers led the way. Two deputies, the lab men, and one of the three rangers
remained behind with the bodies, which left a party of six for the descent. They
followed a shallow channel carved by runoff from rainstorms, then switched to
what might have been a deer trail. After descending to the very bottom of the
canyon, they turned southeast and proceeded for half a mile. Soon Lem was sweaty
and covered with a film of dust, and his socks and pant legs were full of
prickling burrs.
“Here’s where they were killed,” Deputy Bockner said when he led them into a
clearing surrounded by scrub pines, cottonwoods, and brush.
The pale, sandy earth and sun-bleached grass were mottled with enormous dark
stains. Blood.
“And right back here,” one of the rangers said, “is where we found the lair.”
It was a shallow cave in the base of the canyon wall, perhaps ten feet deep,
twenty feet wide, no more than a dozen steps from the small clearing where the
hikers had been murdered. The mouth of the cave was about eight feet wide but
low, requiring Lem to stoop a bit as he entered. Once inside, he was able to
stand erect, for the ceiling was high. The place had a mildly unpleasant, musty
smell. Light found its way through the entrance and through a two-foot-wide
water-carved hole in the ceiling, but for the most part the chamber was shadowy
and twenty degrees cooler than the canyon outside.
Only Deputy Bockner accompanied Lem and Cliff. Lem sensed that the others held
back not out of any concern that the cave would be too crowded, but out of an
uneasiness about the place.
Bockner had a flashlight. He switched it on and played the beam over the things
he had brought them to see, dispelling some of the shadows and causing others to
flit batlike across the room to roost on different perches.
In one corner, dry grass had been piled to a depth of six or eight inches to
make a bed on the sandstone floor. Beside the bed was a galvanized bucket full
of relatively fresh water carried from the nearest stream, evidently placed
there so the sleeper could get a drink upon waking in the middle of the night.
“It was here,” Cliff said softly.
“Yes,” Lem agreed.
Instinctively he sensed The Outsider had made this bed; somehow, its alien
presence was still in the chamber. He stared at the bucket, wondering where the
creature had acquired it. Most likely, along the way from Banodyne, it had
decided it would eventually find a burrow and hide for a while, and it had
realized it would need a few things to make its life in the wild more
comfortable. Perhaps breaking into a stable or barn or empty house, it had
stolen the bucket and various other things that Bockner now revealed with his
flashlight.
A plaid flannel blanket for when the weather turned cooler. A horse blanket,
judging by the look of it. What caught Lem’s attention was the neatness with
which the blanket had been folded and placed on a narrow ledge in the wall
beside the entrance.
A flashlight. This was on the same shelf that held the blanket. The Outsider had
exceedingly good night vision. That was one of the design requirements with