Boon stayed with Eli and Darla in the main building. He had been asked to remain, and for once he did not protest an assignment that kept him away from his tools. He checked that the phones were charged, brought food to the table, and asked Darla whether she wanted the television turned on for noise. She declined and sat where she could see the door without making it obvious she was watching it.
For a while nothing happened. Petra played cards with two younger riders near the stove, a man from the neighboring shop called to ask about a parts shipment, and someone moved a motorcycle into the workbay. These ordinary sounds were reassuring at first, then unnerving because Eli could not tell whether the routine was genuine or a performance designed to keep everyone calm.
He asked Boon what Presser looked like, although he had already seen the photograph. Boon described a man of medium height in his fifties with gray at the temples and a dark blue jacket. Eli nodded and looked toward the yard. He wanted to make sure he would recognize the person who had come to hurt his mother, even if knowing the face would give him no useful power.
"You're not going anywhere near him," Boon said. "I know," Eli replied. "I just don't want him to be another person everyone knows about except me." Boon studied him, then accepted the distinction without argument.
The unknown number called just after dark. Eli stared at the screen while it rang and thought about ignoring it. Boon told him to put the phone down and let the caller leave a message. But the last anonymous text had preceded the discovery that his mother was being watched, and Eli wanted to know whether this call carried the same warning.
He answered before Boon could stop him. A man's voice spoke without greeting, calm enough to have been rehearsed. "Tell Raina Cross she has gone to the wrong place," the man said. "Carl Presser isn't at the motel. He never was."
The connection ended. Eli lowered the phone and looked at Boon. The mechanic was already calling Raina, his face so still that Eli felt the danger before hearing him speak. "The motel is empty," Boon told her when she answered. "Someone just called the boy. I think you need to come back."
On the south side of the compound, a perimeter light went out. A moment later, another disappeared. The darkness was abrupt enough that Eli noticed it through the window before anyone announced it. Boon turned toward the yard, saw movement beyond the lit area, and switched from speaking to Raina to giving short instructions to the men inside the building.
He told Eli to take his mother to the workbay, where there was another exit toward the timber. He did not ask the boy to be brave or tell him he would be fine. He simply said, "Keep her with you. Stay together. Follow the safe route if you need to leave, and do not come back toward the noise."