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it didn't have that fanlike purr of air conditioners. More a kind of resonating thrum. |
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"A motor. Like a pump." He picked up its direction. "Over there." |
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He took her hand and walked them past the pool and toward the far corner where their property ended and Magog Woods began. |
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Some kind of machine. Deep in the shadows of the trees. |
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Calvin wished he had kept a flashlight in the car. The garage was empty, of course, and the spare flashlight was long gone. |
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What struck him first was the odd structure. Sitting at the wood's edge was a shed, maybe seven feet high. Like one of those prefab sheds for storing tools. |
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"What is it?" Terry asked. |
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Somebody had constructed a housing over their well pump. The persistent thrumming came from a generator, the exhaust of which passed through the roof. Whoever put it up had worked at muffling the sound, because Calvin could feel heavy vibrations under his feet. He could also feel waves of heat from inside. Running through scrub and high grass behind the structure were thick rubber pipes carrying water. Also heavy orange extension wires that seemed to stretch toward the garage. |
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"They're pumping out the well," he said. |
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Who, indeed. Dr. Tojian had said it would be at least a week for the authorities to take notice. |
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They followed the wires from the housing down the edge of the lawn and across the rear flank of the pool around the flower bed and into the rear window of the garage. |
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Calvin picked up the faint banana odor of spray paint. |
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All the garage windows had been blackened, which explained why they hadn't noticed the light when they'd pulled up. But at the rear was one small half-broken pane. Through it they saw two large vans backed up inside. The far one was closed and dark, but the vehicle at the window had its rear door open, and inside he could make out the green glow of computer monitors and the blinkings of some other electronics. At one screen sat a man with headphones. |
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"What . . . ?" Terry never finished her question. |
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