Ashton Daigle

As requested, Ryan Hendrickson showed up at William Chambers’ office several hours early on the afternoon of the chaperone meeting, to discuss the Thanksgiving camping trip. As usual, Ryan found Chambers in his office.

He knocked and Chambers, who was on the phone, motioned for him to come in. Ryan did and sat down as Chambers continued to talk.

“Could it be some sort of glitch with the cameras themselves Max?” he asked, into the receiver. “I see. Well, look, give me a few minutes and I’ll be over. Good enough.”

Chambers hung up the phone, shaking his head.

“Is there trouble in paradise?” Ryan asked him

“I don’t know exactly what the hell is going on,” Chambers admitted. “We’ve been having some…”

His voice trailed off.

“To be honest, I don’t know what to call it, happenings for lack of better word I guess, on the perimeter on the southwest quadrant,” Chambers said. “We’ve had camera blackouts and the dogs have gone crazy out there a few nights in a row.”

“Could be an animal,” Ryan offered.

“Probably an animal,” Chambers agreed. “It could be deer, maybe even a bear or a catamount. They’ve been known to frequent the area. If it didn’t coincide with the mysterious camera blackouts, I probably wouldn’t think twice about it. But, as you and I are trained to think…”

“There’s no such thing as coincidences,” Ryan said.

“Precisely,” Chambers said. “I was just getting to go ride out to the guard station. Come along.”

They walked through the halls, out to the parking lot. However, instead of taking Chambers’ car, a Range Rover, Chambers nodded to a small gold cart.

“I use this to get around campus,” Chambers said. “The students get a kick out of it. They yell out “four” when they see me coming, little smartasses. By the way, have you had your little chat with the powers that be yet?”

Ryan climbed into the golf cart and nodded.

“I was just getting ready to tell you about that,” Ryan said. “I haven’t officially resigned yet. The folks down at human resources said I have to put in another eight months before I can actually retire. Talked to Bob and Walter about it though, and, deviant-minded as they are, they found a loophole.”

“Yes,” said Chambers curiously.

“I’m on paid leave for the next eight months, but there’s a catch,” Ryan said.

“Which is?” Chambers asked, a slight smile playing across his lips.

“The leave is actually being classified as a teaching sabbatical, which means I’m supposed to be teaching somewhere for the….”

Ryan’s voice trailed off as Chambers burst out laughing. It was then that the realization hit him.

“You son of a bitch, you set this all up didn’t you,” Ryan said, smiling.

“Indeed I did,” Chambers said. “It was all I could do just now to keep a straight face. I wanted t keep you hanging, make you ask me for a job, but the giggles got the better of me. You’ll be teaching French classes immediately following Thanksgiving break. I take it you’re still fluent.”

“Oui,” Ryan laughed. “Wow, that was easier than I thought it would be. I didn’t even know you had any openings.”

“We didn’t,” Chambers said. “But as you so often like to pint out, I am, after all, the headmaster. I can do these things.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Ryan said. “Thank you. Thank you William.”

“Don’t mention it,” Chambers said. “I couldn’t very well convince you to walk out and have nothing there to fall back on; idle hands being the work of the devil and all that. A man like you would go crazy with nothing to do.”

They pulled u at the guard station, killed the golf cart and walked inside.

Max Skinner, head of security for Piedmont, and former Green Beret, looked up from a computer monitor as they walked inside.

“Well, well, look what the cat dragged in,” Max said, nodding to Ryan.

“What’s up bud?” Ryan said, waving.

“Rumor has it you’re coming to work here,” Max said.

“That’s what I’ve been told,” Ryan said.

“Well, we’ll have to see if you pass screening first,” Max joked. “Anyway, I’m glad you came along. We can use the extra eyes. Come on back.”

Max led Ryan and Chambers into an anteroom, where there were several televisions set up, along with a wall of video monitors, all running real time at various points across campus and around its perimeter.

“We have two different anomalies happening here,” Max explained. “First off, we have the cameras that blink out snowy. In other words there’s static, whatever you want to call it just like an off channel on an old television set. That started first, probably about two months ago, and not regularly, probably maybe only once a week, if that.”

“Okay,” said Ryan. “Not to be state the obvious, but what about wiring?” Ryan asked. “Is it protected enough from the elements?”

“This is 2008 hoss,” Max said. “There ain’t hardly no wiring any more. But the little we do have, a fucking tsunami could hit and we’d still be able to get live feed. This is expensive shit; top of the line, state of the art, no bullshit.”

“Tell him about the rest,” Chambers said.

“This is where it gets good,” Max said.

He moved to one of the VCR’s and rewound a tape. He hit play and then pause.

“This is how it started,” Max said.

He hit play and the screen was immediately filled with the fence line, the grounds and surrounding forest foliage. The grounds were illuminated in green light used by most night-vision goggles and cameras. One minute, the grounds were there, the next, the entire screen blacked out.

“Looks like it just went out,” Ryan said. “How long was it down?”

Max fast-forwarded the tape and muttered, “Around twenty minutes, and then, look right there. It’s all clear. That was last month.”

Max changed tapes out and said, “This was about two weeks ago. Watch careful.”

This time, it clearly appeared as if something moved in front of the camera. It was fast, but definitely discernable. This time, the video remain black for ten minutes, and then went back to normal.”

“You see that?” Max asked. “It moved in front of the camera too fast, overshot it n then moved back.”

“You have audio on these things?” Ryan asked.

“Checked them myself, sent them to Quantico even to their sound specialists,” Max said. “They came up with nothing but crickets chirping and an owl.”

“How big are the cameras?” Ryan asked.

“Small, very portable,” Max said. “They’re too small for someone to spot with a naked eye at night. Plus, I’ve been moving them almost nightly.”

“I’ve seen the fences, 14 feet high, razor wire on top, no one could scale that without leaving something behind,” Ryan said. “How far does that perimeter run?”

“About a hundred yards, give or take,” Max said. “It’s monitored by two cameras, with a blind spot of about eight yards between the two when we have them set in their usual locations. There is a single spot, a ravine, hill or sorts where someone could wiggle under, but again it’d be a tight squeeze. Plus, I’ve had a camera set on that spot for the past two weeks and nothing. I even set a few bear traps under the fence.”

Ryan looked surprised.

“Really,” he said.

“Yep,” Max replied. “Every other night, one night snapped, next night open. Nothing in them, not even any broken sticks when they are sprung.”

“Shouldn’t the audio be good enough to pick up a trap slamming shut?” Ryan asked.

“It should, but it doesn’t and it hasn’t,” Max said.

“Okay, next question,” said Ryan. “Have you posted a live sentry? Because I’ll tell you what, it sounds like someone is fucking with you.”

“I figured we’d get around to that eventually,” Max said, glancing at Chambers. “You want to tell him William or should I?”

“The Saturday before last, we sent Max’s second in command out,” Chambers said. “We did him up in full night combat gear and sent him out shortly after dusk. He was a good kid, solid background, former Navy Seal, so he was a tough bastard too. He passed rigorous background tests.”

“I get the picture,” Ryan said. “But I don’t like that you’re talking about him in the past tense. What happened?”

“Well,” Max cut in, “I stayed in constant radio contact with him until around two in the morning. It didn’t look like we were going to get anything so I sacked out, with the radio next to me. Anyway, around four, he come busting in here freaked the fuck out, babbling. About what, I couldn’t even make out. He turned in his ID badge, his sidearm and M-16 and quit on the spot. I tried to talk sense into him but he was out of his mind. I decided it would be best just to blow off steam and I’d check him out in the morning.”

Ryan nodded.

“I sent Max to the man’s house the following morning,” Chambers said. “Max found him there. He’d hung himself.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” moaned Ryan. “This is the first I’ve heard about this?”

“As you can imagine, it’s not the sort of thing we care to advertise about,” Chambers said. “The only people who know besides Max, myself and the state police is you Ryan.”

“Something or someone scared the living hell out of that boy,” Max said. “I’ve barely slept a night since it happened. I’ve been out every night, but if I go down to one end, the camera fucks up on the other end. The damned dogs won’t go near that end of the property, and they’re trained attack dogs, shepherds, good dogs. I got six of them and together they could easily take down a man or a fucking bear.”

“So now what?” Ryan asked.

“Tonight, after the chaperone meeting, I’d like you to pull sentry duty with Max,” Chambers said. “If it is a person, and I feel that it has to be unless it’s Goody Cole’s ghost, we have the element of surprise. They won’t be expecting a second guard.”

Ryan nodded and said, “I’ll do it.” He then paused and turned to Max and asked, “What have you seen out there?”

“Haven’t seem or heard anything,” Max said. “But I’ve felt it every night I’ve been out.”

“Felt what?” Ryan asked.

“Like I’m being watched,” he said.