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Chapter • 1
Chapter 1
Holly Atchison put down the
binoculars she was holding and rubbed
her eyes. What she wouldn’t give for a
10-minute nap! Then she thought about
where she was—crouched in a dusty
cornfield in the middle of nowhere.
There was nothing to lean against here,
no place to sit down or relax. Worst of
all, she’d seen signs of bugs and spiders
everywhere. She shuddered.
“A great spy you’d make!” she told
herself in disgust.
But that’s just what Holly was doing.
She had left the motel early this morning
to keep an eye on Joe Stebbins. She
hadn’t brought much with her except a
bottle of water.
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FLASHBACK
Suddenly she felt something hard
and cold press into her back. “Don’t
move,” said a man’s rough voice. Holly
froze. “Put down the binoculars,” the
voice went on. “Now get up slowly!”
Holly took a deep breath and stood
up. Her heart was pounding.
“What’s your name?” the man
growled.
“H-Holly Atchison,” she stammered.
“I—I can explain—”
“Shut up!” the man snapped. “I said
to turn around slowly.”
Holly turned and gasped. The man
behind her was Joe Stebbins, the guy she
was supposed to be spying on! With a
comically innocent look on his face, he
waved his weapon, a pair of wirecutters,
not a gun.
“Why, you—” Holly exclaimed.
“Scared you?” he asked. “Well, it
serves you right.”
Holly glanced over her shoulder at
the spot where she’d last seen him. How
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Chapter • 1
odd. She could still make out the figure
of a man near the fence. Or rather, what
looked like a man’s figure.
“Scarecrow,” Joe said, as if he was
reading her thoughts. “I was going to
put him up in the field today. But after
I caught sight of you spying on me, I
decided to use him to throw you off. It
worked, didn’t it?”
Holly could have cheerfully strangled
the man. Too bad she needed his help.
“It sure did,” she said, forcing a
weak smile.
Then Joe grew serious. “I spotted you
the first time about a week ago,” he said.
“Ever since then you’ve been following
me around, sticking your nose into
everything I do. You followed me when
I went to town. You followed me out to
my ranch. You followed me out here.
What’s going on, lady?”
Holly sighed. “I’m afraid it’s a long
story,” she said.
“So go ahead and give me the short
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FLASHBACK
version,” Joe snapped angrily.
“I needed to talk to you about—
about what happened to you three years
ago,” she began, but Joe interrupted.
“I knew it! You’re a reporter!” he
snarled. “I had a stomach full of you
people three years ago. You darn snoops
will do anything to come up with a juicy
story. And you don’t care how wrong
the facts are.”
Holly sighed. “Look, I know you
were upset—”
Shut up and put up your hands.
The words came out of nowhere! Joe
and Holly turned quickly. The man who
had spoken stood just a few feet away
from them. He was dressed in the black
uniform of a security guard, and he
wore dark glasses that masked his eyes.
“You people are trespassing,” the
guard said. His voice was hard and cold.
“This is the property of a private
research center. Our work is top secret.
We don’t allow trespassers on our land.”
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Chapter • 1
“I—I’m sorry,” Holly stammered.
“I—I didn’t realize—”
“Sorry won’t cut it, miss,” the guard
sneered. “We have strict orders to shoot
trespassers on sight!” The man in black
didn’t look like he was kidding. He
raised the gun and sighted down the
long barrel.
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FLASHBACK
Chapter 2
Holly flinched and started to back
away. The guard swung the gun toward
her. “Hey, I told you, don’t—”
At that moment, Joe lunged forward,
jabbing the sharp points of the wire
cutters into the guard’s hand. The man
squealed in surprise. Then, dropping the
gun, he cried out loudly and stumbled
backward.
“Get the gun!” Joe yelled, as he
flattened the guard.
Holly grabbed the gun and jumped
back. Joe got to his feet, pulling the
guard up with him.
“You’re going to regret this, folks,”
the guard warned them. “Just put down
the gun, and I’ll forget what you did.
Otherwise—”
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Chapter • 2
Holly glared at him. “Be quiet,” she
snapped. Then she turned to Joe and
said, “Now what?”
“Take off your belt,” Joe said to the
guard. Then he turned to Holly. “I’m
going to tie him up,” he explained.
“What?” Holly gasped. “Are you sure
that’s a good idea? Won’t that get us in
even more trouble?”
“Maybe. But this guy has a ‘shoot
first and ask questions later’ attitude.
Tying him up will at least keep us
alive,” Joe explained. “Don’t worry about
it—sooner or later, someone will come
out here looking for him.”
Holly didn’t like the way the guard
glared at her as Joe bound his hands
behind his back. When Joe stepped
away, the man twisted his arms back
and forth, trying to free himself.
“Let’s go,” Joe said. He took the gun
Holly was holding and threw it as far as
he could into the cornfield. It landed
with a thud. Then, without another
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FLASHBACK
word, he headed toward the road.
Holly took one last look at the angry
guard before dashing after Joe. “Wait!”
she called out.
Joe walked faster. “Go away, Ms.
Atchison,” he yelled over his shoulder.
“Who owns that cornfield?” Holly
asked, trying to catch her breath as she
ran after Joe. “What kind of research
center hires armed guards?”
By now they had reached the fence
Joe had been fixing on the edge of his
own field. Holly looked at the scarecrow
that was still propped up against the
fence. It had a silly smile painted on its
cloth face and big brown eyes that stared
at nothing.
Holly decided to break the tension by
making a little joke. “I can see how I
was fooled,” she teased. “The scarecrow
looks quite a bit like you.”
Joe laughed in spite of himself. “He
does his job. Why don’t you go
somewhere else and do yours?”
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Chapter • 2
“Look. I am a reporter. But that’s not
why I’m here,” Holly said.
“Oh, sure,” Joe said. He picked up
the scarecrow and tossed it into the back
of his pickup. “How did you get here?
Did you walk out from town?” he asked.
“My car’s parked down the road,”
Holly said.
“Better get going,” Joe said. He took
the wire cutters out of his pocket and
put them in his toolbox. “I can’t say
what that guard will do when he gets
loose. I’m pretty sure that talk about
shooting trespassers was just a threat.
On the other hand, he might come after
us. I, for one, am getting out of here.”
He turned away and put the toolbox
in the back of the truck.
“I know how angry you are,” Holly
said, talking fast. “I know how badly
you were treated three years ago. I know
that people made fun of you when—”
Joe stopped in his tracks. The
expression on his face was grim. His
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FLASHBACK
blue eyes blazed with anger and his
mouth was drawn into a tight line. “I
told you before,” he said in a cold voice,
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
He grabbed the door handle and
started to climb up on the seat.
“Of course not,” Holly said quickly.
“A person who’d gone through what
you went through three years ago would
never want to talk about it. A person like
that would be changed forever. But,
hopefully, the person would try to put
his or her life back together.”
To keep Joe from leaving, Holly
began pacing up and down in front of
the truck. Even though she was blocking
his way, Joe said nothing. He listened
with a wary expression on his face.
“And then,” Holly went on, her voice
shaking, “just about the time the
nightmare seemed to be over, that
person would begin to have flashbacks.”
Joe gasped. “What in the world are
you talking about?” he demanded
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Chapter • 2
angrily. “How do you know all this?
Who are you, anyway?”
“I’m not talking about you, Joe,” she
said earnestly. “I’m talking about Ernie
Ryder and Martin Briggs, Ramon
Martinez and his daughter, Rosa. And
I’m talking about Martha Atchison.”
Joe frowned. “Martha who?”
Holly nodded. “You heard right—the
same name as mine. Martha Atchison is
my mother.”
The color drained out of Joe’s face.
“Those people—”
Holly nodded again. “All of them
were victims, Joe. Just like you!”
Joe started to speak, but just then it
happened!
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