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barely larger than a matchbox, was cool to the touch. Understandable since Eric hadn’t started a fire in weeks. He popped the top and exhaled his relief upon seeing the key inside.
    He’d kept it safe, and a secret, for eleven years. Before that, who knew how long the General had kept it hidden. A few weeks before his death, the General had revealed a clandestine compartment well-concealed inside his desk at home. Of course it was empty back then, and the General had never explained why it needed to be a secret.
    Yet, Michael Hendricks’ gentle insistence had stayed with Eric all these years. If anything should ever happen to him, and it was followed by strange occurrences, Eric should go to the desk, where he’d find something inside it this time. He should remove it and share its existence with no one but Grace . 
    Eric didn’t immediately retrieve the contents after the General died. But when Grace failed to meet him at Pink’s a few weeks later, he’d gone to the Cape looking for her and found her gone. That was his cue.
    He’d taken the key and hidden it with painstaking deliberation, in each new location he was stationed, and he’d never shared its existence with anyone. That had more to do with his pride than anything else because Eric had always thought it led to something to do with him and Grace, on a personal level—to which Eric didn’t care about the spoils.
    In light of the last couple of days, he began to buy into the notion that whatever it led to, it was big. Maybe even dangerous. 
    Eric examined the General’s bounty, letting his curiosity over what the number thirty-six—the only engraving on the key—might mean.
    Hearing Grace’s bedroom door open, he quickly fished his wallet out of his back pocket and stuffed the key in the compartment behind his credit cards. 
    “Sleep well?” he asked as she appeared around the corner.
    Grace laughed. “About as well as can be expected, I guess.” She raked her gaze over Eric and it left him feeling nostalgic. “So, are we still splitting?”
    “Yes, we are.” He pointed to a duffle bag beside the door leading to the kitchen. He’d tossed in a few changes of clothing while she was sleeping.
    She looked like she wanted to say something, probably ask where they were going. Hell if he knew. His plan was just to get in the car and start driving.
    “You still don’t know where we’re going, do you?” Her words were an inquiry but her voice didn’t deliver it that way. She’d said it like she knew what she was talking about.
    She could see right through him. Eric hated that about Grace. “I don’t know what’s going on.” He shook his head. “But I get the feeling that what you’ve stumbled upon is much bigger than you. Me. Even your father.”  He paused, still unable to wrap his head around it. “This could get ugly. You have to promise me that you’ll do exactly as I say, whenever I say.”
    Eric couldn’t stress the importance of that enough. She had to listen to him and she had to do it without argument. Their lives just might depend upon it before this thing was over.

CHAPTER 6
    THE convenience store’s well-lit exterior afforded Eric a better than average view of Grace chatting with the clerk as she paid for the mountain of junk food she’d carted to the counter. Eric gripped the steering wheel with one hand and braced his cell phone against his ear with the other.
    “No, I don’t think Grace has anything to do with it—” Eric stopped mid-sentence, seeing her heading toward the store’s exit with a large paper bag. He straightened in his seat. “I’ve got to go. We’ll be there before dawn,” he said and disconnected the call. He tucked the phone between his leg and the seat.
    Inside the car, Grace passed him a cold bottle of water and a bag of Doritos.
    “Chips?” His weakness. What were the odds of her remembering that after eleven years?
    “Yeah, and I got some honey buns, cashews and powdered donuts.” She