Dillon Hunt And The Desert Oasis Resort by Chad Stewart (books suggested by bill gates txt) 📕

“Yep. The last residence of John Taylor Sebastian,” Derek replied soberly. He then looked to Dillon again. “You did bring the watch and arrow head, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did,” Dillon said, reaching into his pocket. He was about to pull them out, but Derek stopped him.

“Not here,” he whispered. “Let’s wait till we’re inside.

Dillon nodded and zipped the bag back up.

They both approached the front door. “Does someone else live here now?” asked Dillon.

“Actually someone does. But the friends I work with have made sure that they won’t be back for at least two hours.”

The way Derek talked about his friends sent a chill down Dillon’s back. He wasn’t sure why as Derek didn’t say it in a cryptic manner or by using a Batman voice, but the mention of others from a secret organization that he didn’t really know anything about was kind of creepy. Dillon shook the thoughts away as he knew that the questions he had for Derek about the people he worked for would have to wait for another time.

Derek turned the door handle, but the door appeared to be locked. He then reached in his pocket and produced a small square black device. He pushed a button on the device and a small flat rod snapped out of the end of it. Derek forced the rod into the door lock, jiggled it around a little, and then pushed another button. Dillon heard the distinctive sound of the locking mechanism moving and then the “click” as it finished its revolution. Derek looked down at Dillon and smiled. “Standard issue,” he said with a light chuckle as he opened the door.

Now Dillon really did want to meet the people that Derek worked for if only to get his hands on one of those awesome devices!

Derek entered the hallway and motioned for Dillon to do the same. When they were both in the house Derek shut and locked the door again. He turned to Dillon. “Okay, now you can pull out the watch and the arrow head.”

Dillon took the two items out. “I’m not sure what you want me to do with these,” he said.

“I don’t know either,” replied Derek. “But those items were mailed directly to us by John just before he went missing so I have to assume they are incredibly important in finding out what happened to him. I’m trusting you to be able to figure out what they’re for.”

Dillon swallowed hard as he began to feel the gravity of the situation come down on him. “Okay,” he said at length, “but you need to give me a moment to think about this.”

“Sure. No problem. But let’s think about it somewhere else in this house.”

“Okay. Where?” asked Dillon.

“I’m thinking we start in the room he used as a study while he was here,” Derek replied.

“Okay. Where is that?”

“Follow me,” said Derek as he started to move through the house.

The two trespassers went down the hallway, through another room, and to a set of stairs. Derek took them up the stairs and to the room that was directly across at the top. Dillon was amazed at how large this house seemed. It didn’t look nearly this big from the outside.

The room they entered appeared to be a kid’s room now. It had a single bed, a small dresser that was decorated like Lightning McQueen, and tons of toys scattered throughout.

“This was his study?” Dillon asked, not even trying slightly to hide his sarcastic tone.

Derek nodded as he began to move around the room as though he was trying to remember the layout from when John was the renter.

“Were you in this room before?” asked Dillon as he noted Derek’s movements.

“Not exactly,” he replied, still moving around as though he was picturing a desk here, and some chairs there. “I Skyped with him a number of times while he was performing his work here,” he said, glancing back at Dillon who was now looking more intensely at the watch.

Dillon opened up the watch and looked to where the hands should have been. It was weird that the hands were missing. He just assumed that it was incredibly old and they got damaged somehow and were beyond repair.

“Did this thing work when you had it?” Dillon asked. “I mean, do you know what happened to the hands?”

“No,” replied Derek with a curious tone to his voice. “I always just assumed that it got damaged before it got to us.”

Dillon looked more closely, then grabbed his pocket knife out, flipped it open, and started trying to pry the glass off. Surprisingly it came up without much effort.

“That was way too easy,” Dillon said as he looked to Derek.

“Well we know it was opened at least once when the hands were taken out,” Derek postulated, coming closer to see Dillon at work with the watch. “But why would John do that?”

“I don’t know. Unless … ” Dillon took the arrowhead he had found and started examining it. “Here! Look,” he said excitedly to Derek as he pointed to something on one side of it.

“It looks like a small hole,” Derek said, not quite catching on.

Dillon nodded as he took the arrowhead and placed it into the watch where the hands were supposed to go. It fit perfectly! As soon as he connected the arrowhead with the watch pin it started to spin. Dillon began moving around the room holding out the watch and seeing what the arrowhead would do. It spun around a little and then started to aim to the right. He walked that way, then it started to aim to the left a little. Every time Dillon moved the way the watch was pointing it would readjust a little until it finally stayed pointing at the wall where the kid’s dresser was.

Derek quickly moved the dresser out of the way. There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary with this part of the wall, but the arrowhead was definitely pointing at it, and Dillon figured there had to be a reason. He moved closer to the wall and inspected it. Everything seemed to be normal. He ran his hand along it and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

“I don’t know what to make of it,” he said, seeming a little confused. “Maybe we just need to cut into it to see what’s there.”

Derek didn’t like that prospect. “I don’t think we can do that,” he told Dillon seriously. “Keep looking and I’ll search around the rest of the room to see if there is anything else that can help us out.”

“Did anyone else from Orion come here before us and search for any clues that John might have left behind?” Dillon asked before he started poking around.

“Yes. That’s the disturbing part,” Derek replied. “We had some of our best people with their high-tech equipment come in here and they found nothing. Some of them suspected that there was a dampening field around the resort as our surveillance equipment couldn’t see anything from either the inside or outside. The only signal that seems to get in or out are cell signals. That’s probably because they’re trying to maintain a low profile. Not having cell service might elicit too many complaints. The happier they keep their guests, the more business they do, which means more profits.”

“What about the more non-subtle tactic of taking walls apart?” Dillon asked.

Derek shook his head. “No. We prefer to stay as covert as possible. That would have just drawn too much attention. We have to resort to stealth until we can find out who, or what, we’re dealing with here.”

Derek paused for a moment as if trying to choose his words wisely. “Orion doesn’t like attracting any attention to itself if possible. It’s kind of a mandate that’s been laid out.”

Dillon nodded, trying to take it all in, then looked back to the wall. As he did, he noticed, what looked to be three small dots on the wall. For some reason he didn’t notice them when he first looked, but now they were here, plain as could be. Immediately his mind whirled back to when he first found the arrowhead. The pattern of the dots seemed familiar. He took the arrowhead off the watch pin and looked at the bumps he had seen before. They appeared as though they would be a perfect match. He took the arrowhead and put the pins into the holes. There was a click.

Derek heard the click a few feet away and rushed over to see what Dillon had found. As he came over he saw Dillon push on the wall. A section about one foot by one foot depressed into the wall and hinged to the left. It was a cleverly designed door as the seams were so well hidden that you couldn’t even tell there was a door there.

“Remind me to ask John, when we find him, how he was able to make such an ingenious hiding space,” Derek said.

The mention of finding John alive gave Dillon hope. It was nice for him to hear that Derek was optimistic about that prospect. The thought of this also gave Dillon a longing that Tom Tom might still be alive as well. This brought a seriousness to him that he rarely experienced. He knew he had to do what he could to help these men, and for some reason Derek believed that he was the one to be able to help do just that. Dillon, on the other hand, had huge doubts about this.

“Well … go on,” Derek prodded when he saw that Dillon had paused after opening the door.

Dillon bent down and looked inside the hole. The only thing he saw was a medium sized black backpack. He reached inside, grabbed hold of one of the straps, and was about to pull it out when Derek suddenly cocked his head toward the door.

“What?” asked Dillon with a tone of urgency in his voice.