Cole stood, stretched his aching shoulder, and went to tell Mara he intended to leave. She was awake beside Evan on a cot. Eli slept in the corner with one hand curled around the edge of his backpack. Cole paused in the doorway and noticed how ordinary the scene looked from a distance: a mother and father speaking quietly while their son slept nearby. Only someone who knew the cost of reaching that room would understand how extraordinary it was.
"I'm going to meet Cain," Cole said.
Evan straightened. "You shouldn't. He's had years to prepare for conversations like that."
"And he's never had to have one while a federal investigator is receiving the evidence. That's different."
"Let me go with you."
"No." Cole softened the answer when he saw Evan's face. "Stay here. Be with your family. If you leave before Eli wakes up, he won't know whether you're coming back. Don't make him spend another morning wondering."
Evan looked toward his son. He sat very still, then nodded. Mara watched Cole with an expression that had become harder to define since the night before. There was worry in it, certainly, but also recognition of the man who had chosen to return to them after he had learned their names.
"One condition," she said.
Cole waited.
"You come back. Eli asked this morning if the man with the compass would still be here when he woke up. I told him you were nearby. I refuse to make him carry another disappearance."
Cole met her eyes. "I'll come back."
"You can't promise nothing will happen."
"No. I can promise that coming back is what I'm planning for. And I'm not going in alone."
Outside, Voss waited beside her bike. Two trusted riders would accompany them. Cole noticed a protective difference in their manner from the club meetings he remembered: nobody spoke of loyalty as an obligation and nobody demanded he prove his courage. They had chosen to come, and that choice made their presence worth more than a dozen commands.
Darla was already speaking to Sandra Cho on the telephone when Cole left. She raised one hand without interrupting the call. He nodded and stepped into the cold November morning. At the edge of the gravel lot, he looked back once at the farmhouse window. Mara stood beside Evan, Eli between them, small and sleepy and holding each parent's hand. Cole lowered his helmet over his face and turned toward the road.
Haramman Road was quiet, bordered by bare trees and low fields silvered with frost. The sun had risen enough to distinguish one shadow from another, but not enough to bring warmth. Cole rode without haste. Voss stayed beside him through the longer stretches and behind him where the road narrowed. The two riders accompanying them kept a respectful distance, watching without crowding.
The old equipment building sat beyond a broken fence post at the end of a gravel lane. Six motorcycles were parked outside. Cole recognized several as machines belonging to men he had ridden beside years earlier. He had expected more bikes, but the smaller number told him Cain wanted this to appear like a private discussion rather than a show of force.