"E. G. Ross - Project BTB" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ross E. G)

CHAP T ER 15


SALVO P RESS INFO


COP YRIGHT P AGE


E.G. ROSS BIO


MORE SALVO PRESS T IT LES




PART 1: Lost in the Caves


CHAPTER 1
Everything has a reason. If you persist, you can find it. I try to remember that. I know it's true. I just
don't always understand how to make it work, at least not right away. It takes practice, I guess.
Patience, too, because life can test your trust in reason. Can it ever! Take this weird business with
Darkhorse.

How was I to know way back then that I'd stumbled into what became World War 3, into what the
historians sometimes called the Engels Extension Conflict? How was I to know that I'd helpcausethat
war? Me, a stupid teenage kid! How was I to know that an out of the way town was the secret base for
some of the oddest-

Well, just a minute now. I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me calm down and start at the beginning. My
name is- Uh, no, that doesn't matter. Not yet. Probably best that you don't know for awhile. That no one
knows.

Let's see, then. Where do I start? With Dan, I suppose. It always seems to come back to him.

I don't remember how my cousin Dan and I first discovered my half of the caves. Maybe it'll come to me
as I start to tell it. I hope so. It seems that I ought to be able to remember more. However, as Dan used
to say, the difference between "ought" and "can" is sometimes a canyon. The simple explanation is that
subsequent events overshadowed the discovery; dampened my recollections. They say traumatic events
can do that. Lately I try not to consider it too intensely. I'm afraid that if I got started on it again some
Saturday morning after one too many beers during the all-night Friday poker game, I might be tempted to
tromp up to Darkhorse Butte and take a look in my half of the caves once more.

No matter how waxed I got, Dan couldn't go with me. Not anymore. I haven't seen Dan in-what's it
been? Thirty years? Yeah, about that. Been awhile. Common sense tells me I'll never see him again. I
hope, though. Because everything has a reason. Dan used to pound that into me. Reason wins, he said,
even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.
Guess I'd better step back. Explain a few things.