Annja shook her head. "I'm trying to figure out what the h.e.l.l is going on, like why we have three armed men roving around, warning you off an expedition to prove the existence of big foot. Doesn't that strike you as slightly out of the ordinary?"

"Of course it does. Don't insinuate that it doesn't."

"And David? What's his role in all of this? Did you two have an understanding? Was there something there?"

"Like something romantic?" Jenny asked angrily.

Annja nodded. "A lot of people hook up on the Internet. It's no big thing. I'm just wondering if there was a spark between you two. Maybe something that led you out here, even if the promise of discovering some real evidence wasn't as convincing as it could have been."

"Now you're questioning my motives. That's nice. You think I deliberately defrauded the university so I could come on the trip? What, that I'm too poor to come out on my own if I wanted to?" Jenny turned and stormed away.

"That didn't come out right," Annja said.

"It didn't sound good, that's for sure."

Annja rushed ahead. "Jenny, neither of us come from money. But I didn't mean to imply that you're financially hard up."

"No, just that I would willingly lie to my superiors so they could bankroll this little camping trip. What's worse? I wonder."

Annja sighed. Jenny picked up speed and Annja let her catch up with Joey, who was navigating his way over a tangle of fallen logs. Overhead, the moon peeked out from behind a cloud and showed a fair expanse of the forest.

Annja could make out the lay of the land. Joey seemed to be leading them uphill on a very slight slope. Probably he would make camp someplace where they were surrounded by trees. Annja knew the best hidden campsites always took advantage of natural surroundings to blend in. And she was sure that Joey would know how to make best use of the environment to guarantee that they wouldn't be disturbed.

After they'd rested and gotten some much-needed sleep, they could trek into town and see the sheriff. Annja wanted to ask him some questions and get his take on this David guy. She still didn't trust the story. It seemed far too strange to believe, even if Jenny was determined to do so. She'd obviously lost all sense of objectivity on the situation.

And then there was the matter of the three riflemen. The sheriff definitely needed to know that he had those guys prowling around, looking to scare folks off for some unknown reason.

Joey stopped up ahead. He gestured that this was where they would make camp, and Jenny immediately sank down onto a log, resting her head in her hands.

Annja came up next to her. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? Not necessarily for what I said but for how I said it. I should have waited until you felt better to explain how I was thinking things through."

Jenny looked up at her. "You've always been somewhat impatient."

Annja smirked. "No argument there. Time, I've found, is a pretty crazy thing. I don't like to waste it."

"And sometimes-"

Annja nodded. "Sometimes it gets in the way of my good manners. Absolutely."

Jenny nodded. "All right. I don't agree with you, per se, but I appreciate the apology."

"We've known each other too long to let this come between us."

"Fair enough."

Joey came back into the small clearing carrying armloads of pine boughs. He dropped them into a big pile and then left to go for more.

"I could sleep for a day," Annja said. "I've been all over this forest for the past day."

"Me, too," Jenny said. "I don't think I'll ever look at pine trees in the same way again."

Joey came back twice more and combined the piles until he had a good area large enough for all of them to sleep on. He added some leaf litter, tested the bed and declared it suitable for sleeping.

Jenny collapsed onto it immediately. Annja followed and then sat up when she saw Joey going out again.

"Aren't you sleeping?"

Joey nodded overhead. "Remember where you are? The Pacific Northwest? See that cloud? It's going to rain."

Jenny groaned. "Not again."

Joey smiled. "I'll get some branches and more boughs so we can have a waterproof roof over us. Once that's done, I'll get a small fire going to warm the shelter. In an hour we'll all be asleep."

Annja turned as the first of Jenny's light snores reached her ears. "Looks like someone's already out."

"Good," Joey said. "I'll be back soon."

Annja watched him go and then turned to look at Jenny. She wondered what her friend had gotten mixed up in. Jenny was exhausted and she'd almost died tonight, and yet she seemed determined to continue her quest, regardless of the threat to her safety.

Annja knew she'd go along. There was no way she could turn her back on her friend, not knowing what she did about the situation. Even if it was precious little.

Jenny would need protecting. If not from the external threats like the mysterious gunmen, then from herself. Annja had seen obsession kill other people and knew that Jenny could easily fall prey to the same fate.

I won't let her die, she thought.

Joey came back into the camp dragging branches behind him. "She still out?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I don't want her hearing this."

Annja frowned. "Hearing what?"

Behind Joey, Annja could hear a low howl of some sort. It sounded like a cross between a coyote and a banshee. She looked at Joey. "What the heck is that?"

Joey busied himself with thatching a roof together. "I don't know. Now if you'll help me make this roof, we can get to bed and hopefully forget we ever heard that. Because it's not something I've ever heard before."

"Ever?"

"Never," Joey said. "But whatever it is, it sounds like it's coming this way."

Chapter 11.

Joey and Annja thatched a roof together more quickly than she would have thought possible. But Joey was a master at building shelters, and Annja had done more than her fair share of roughing it, so he got her squared away as he laid down the branches and boughs. He stood outside the shelter, even as the howling sounds grew louder.

Behind Annja, Jenny stirred and then woke up. "What's that noise?"

Annja shushed her. "Joey's making sure that the shelter can't be seen from outside."