Dillon Hunt And The Desert Oasis Resort by Chad Stewart (smart ebook reader TXT) 📖

“Hey sis!” Dillon hollered as he approached Claire in front of the mall. Shortly after he and Derek left John’s old house he called Claire and arranged a place to meet. Thankfully he kept his phone far enough away from the stone when they were at the house so that it didn’t lose too much battery power.

“How was your sightseeing?” Claire asked, appearing to be bored by Dillon’s pastimes.

“Oh … it was good. I got to see where the first houses were built, and the old library,” he said trying to play it up. “Oh yeah! And they have this cool fire station!”

Claire rolled her eyes. “Lame,” she said. “You’re such a weird kid.”

“Maybe, but sometimes weird is exciting,” he said, wondering what she would have thought if she knew the truth about what he was doing.

“Sure thing. Whatever you say.”

Dillon just smiled as they walked over to where the bus was going to pick them up again.

As they waited in silence he contemplated all the events that had happened that led up to this point. He also went over in his head the next stage of the plan. Derek felt that it was best if he took John’s things in order to keep them safe. He did let Dillon keep the watch and arrowhead however. Dillon felt that maybe Derek figured he at least earned that.

The plan was for Dillon to sneak out of his room at one in the morning, meet Derek just outside the resort gate, and head to the information center. It sounded simple, but Dillon’s stomach was in knots! He had almost been killed three times now, but hey, who’s counting? He at least felt more comfortable that Derek was with him in this. The guy obviously knew how to handle himself and that gave Dillon some measure of comfort. He also assured Dillon that he would make sure his room was watched so he didn’t have any run-ins with more goons out to harm him. He also guaranteed that his family was safe. That was the biggest comfort of all for the young boy in the middle of this crazy ride.

He had mixed feelings about whether he was doing the right thing in helping out this Orion Group find John Taylor Sebastian. He wished he knew who they were. That thought nagged at him and made him feel uncomfortable. He was helping a mysterious organization who apparently operated from the shadows.

As he thought about it more he wondered, Am I doing the right thing?

19

Escape from the Hotel

During dinner Claire tried not to make too much eye contact with Mom and Dad. She didn’t want to be put into a difficult position about having to answer questions about her’s and Dillon’s trip to town.

“So how was town today?” Mom asked.

There it was! The bomb Claire was trying to avoid.

“Oh it was great!” Dillon jumped in. “We saw so many great sights and Claire was really good about it.” Claire looked up at him and he smiled back at her as if to say, “I’ve got this.” She thought for sure that he was going to blow it, as he was notoriously not good at keeping things from Mom and Dad.

“That sounds good,” replied Dad. “What did you like the best?”

“I think the library was probably the best spot, but I’m sure Claire liked the mall when we got back and had lunch there.”

Claire nodded. “Ya, the mall was definitely the best.”

“Well I’m glad the two of you had such a good time,” said Dad. “And thank you Claire for taking care of your brother. We appreciate you doing that for us, and I’m sure Dillon does too.”

“Ya thanks sis!” Dillon said enthusiastically.

Claire gave Dillon that look that said, “Don’t overdue it.” In truth, it did appear to her that something was changing in her brother; she just couldn’t put her finger on it.

Jordan stared hard at his brother and Claire for a moment then resumed his eating. Claire couldn’t help but feel that Jordan suspected that something was up with the two of them and hoped that he wouldn’t say anything that would cause Mom and Dad to start “probing” into their time away. She was beginning to realize that Jordan wasn’t always your typical shallow sixteen year old boy who raved about girls, gamed all the time, and was more concerned about how he looked then about anyone else.

After dinner Dillon went back into the business center with his books. He was really nervous about the plan he and Derek made to go and find the entrance to the underground caverns of the Oasis and he wanted to do some more reading to make sure he was as prepared as possible. He cracked open the book Tom Tom had recommended to him about the creatures of the desert. After flipping through a couple pages he was struck with the creatures he was seeing in the book and the ones he had encountered so far in real life and in his dreams. He saw the coyotes, spiders, rats, and even snakes. The ones he had seen in person and in his dreams were obviously different as they had been changed somehow. He shuddered to think what other monsters they might be creating.

“Are you Dillon Hunt,” came a deep smooth voice, which startled Dillon. He jumped a little as he looked up.

There, standing in front of him, was an elderly native man with long grey hair that was neatly tied back in a pony tale. He wore a collared shirt and a silk vest. The cologne he wore was warmly fragrant and smelled like a summer’s breeze. He smiled warmly as he looked down at the boy.

“Ah … ya … that’s me,” Dillon replied, not really knowing what to say.

“Sorry to have startled you. But my name is Geoffrey Eagles-rock. I’m a friend of Janeen’s.”

Dillon was frozen. He didn’t know what to say or do. Geoffrey didn’t say a word, but let the awkward silence persist. Dillon had a feeling that he was enjoying watching the boy squirm.

“May I sit down?” he finally asked.

“Ah … sure,” Dillon responded.

Geoffrey pulled a chair over and sat down. “Janeen told me that you were wondering about the symbol we have carved on our wall at the front desk.”

Dillon didn’t say a word. The sound of his heart was deafening in his ears.

“You know Dillon, as I told Janeen, we don’t really know what that symbol means. But you know that’s not true don’t you?”

Dillon didn’t say