ENCOUNTER by Hep Aldridge (bill gates books recommendations .txt) 📕

up the camera we placed at the old village, I saw the men. They were setting up camp. You know it’s getting dark outside now.”

I looked up, and there was still a nice even light emanating overhead. You couldn’t tell what was going on outside the cloak.

“So, tell me about the men,” I said.

Joe had settled down and found a stone bench to sit on while the others stood around him.

“It looks like they will be spending the night at the village. The camera placement gives me a wide shot of the area, and they’re starting to set up camp and build a fire. My guess would be they’re still trying to track us and don’t want to chance missing our trail at night. I think I counted eleven men; two were dressed like locals, and the others were wearing military-type gear, and all were armed.”

“Where the hell did they get more men?” I said to no one in particular.

“Looks like they are turning out to be pretty resourceful,” Dimitri said.

“No kidding,” I said. “So, we know they are at least two days behind us if they find the trail that leads to the roadway. Maybe longer if they have trouble finding it.”

“Right,” Joe said, “and I placed two more cameras out there. Eduardo ran back down the road a few hundred yards and set one up, and I put one at the top of the rockpile, so we should be able to spot them if they find and follow the road.”

“Good thinking,” I said.

“The only problem is that the camera’s signal can’t pierce the cloak. I’m going to have to go back through it to check them.”

“Okay, go back out and confirm they are camped there for the night. If so, we need to use our time here to explore and see what we can find. If it comes down to it, we may have to make a stand on the rock pile. At least that will give us the high ground.”

“We can’t let them find this place,” Doc said.

“I know,” I said. “If they find us, we’ll have to stop them, so tonight we plan for that. Until then, we explore. Joe, go check on their camp and make sure they’re bedded down. Keep the gear at the base of the platform. We’ll fall back there in an hour. Everybody spread out and keep your eyes open. Give a shout if you find something.”

With that, we began our investigation, going from one amazing building to another in a city that looked like something out of a science fiction movie. But in reality, it could be many hundreds of years old or older and looked as if it had just been built.

Chapter Nineteen

The canyon where the city was located was beautiful. The sheer walls vaulted some two- to three-hundred feet upward, and the canyon had widened out to around two hundred yards. The irregular-shaped buildings were spread throughout the area. I could just make out what I thought was the far end of the main road and, with our ranging scope, found it to be a mile away. It was hard to make an accurate judgment since the scope view at the far end was fuzzy for some reason.

The overhead light was fading as if someone was turning down a lighting dimmer switch when our hour of exploration came to an end. There had been a lot of chatter over our Comms as we went in and out of the buildings. We had been able to cover maybe four or five buildings—hastily exploring them as much as we could. This truly was a ghost town.

As we regrouped on the main street and headed back to the platform where Joe and the rest of the team were waiting for us, we discussed the lack of personal items or furnishings in the buildings we had covered. Granted, this was a cursory investigation, and we had only covered a small portion of the city, but it was strange how clean and empty it was. Joe had our gear piled at the platform's base when we arrived and sat down on the lower steps.

“They are down for the night. Campfire glowing and at least one guard that I could see, so we can rest easy tonight.”

We broke out the MREs and lit the little Sterno canisters, not for warmth tonight, just for heating food. In fact, we had taken off our jackets and were enjoying the warmth that was somehow being generated inside the cloak. It also seemed easier to breathe as if additional oxygen was being introduced. The overhead light had dimmed but not gone out. It was like twilight, still enough to see by, but certainly not daylight. The city was still very visible, and eerily, there were few shadows due to the even distribution of light from above.

Between bites of her meal, O’Reilly said, “Looks like we need to prepare for possible visitors, so how are we going to play this?”

We batted around several ideas and scenarios, most of which wound up with us in a major confrontation with the mercs.

“Well, we can’t let them find the city or the library,” Doc said.

“And there’s no way to draw them away. If they find the road, you know they will follow it,” Joe added emphatically.

“So, it looks like we either go out and confront them in the canyon or set up a defensive position here at the rockpile,” Dimitri said.

“Which means if they get through us, they find the city,” Reggie interjected.

“But they may not find the road,” I added. “We had a hard time finding it, so we may get lucky, and they miss it.”

“True,” Doc said, “which brings up a point that’s been nagging me since we got here.”

“Which is?” I asked.

“I don’t think this is the city that the priest described in his journal.”

We all looked at him and then slowly took in our surroundings again.

He continued, “Where are the huge stones that the priest saw being