In fact, Anderson thought, they were aĭownright hindrance – because they were the cause of this whole mess. Stood listening and staring into the night, looking ahead for another Numerous dead spots around the park where mobile phones had no signal.Īnderson had caught up to the place where he had last seen Over the weeks, some of the night hikers did find their wayĬell phones but the single available cell tower was useless for triangulating any He shouted at the lone figure just before it disappearedĪround the bend. Somewhere that Anderson knew about - it was clear who this had to be. Since everybody under his command should be The backsplash from the light he had been carrying. Vehicle, a garish red and yellow truck under the light in the parking lot. He had been headed back toward the rescue Open as a command headquarters for the search and rescue operation. But that was aĪnderson had just come out of the Visitors’ Center, kept He had introduced himself as Denis Taylor,Īnd had claimed some familiarity with the jungle, in Queensland. Ready to take almost anybody who showed up. The repeated searches had used up his team of volunteers, so he had been Separated from one another.Īnd apparently also separated from good judgment.Īlone in the rain-soaked darkness, Anderson was beginning to Month they had been called into the rainforest to rescue lost parties of Volunteer search and rescue team out of Forks.

That was why Anderson was coordinating the Night hiking for greenhorns is always a bad idea. Number of sightings had set off a minor tourist rush. It had been a great year for the “ghost lights.” Anderson figured that they were just glowingįungi - luminous mushrooms. Then another, but not nearly adequate to show the path he stood on, nor the tangle of ferns that was the understory in the rainforest around him. In another direction, there was another of the faint lights. Then - impossible to estimate the distance - there was a It would take a few minutes for his eyes toĪdjust – which would not help if there was nothing to see. Overhead, making soft ticks as it landed on his parka’s hood and shoulders. Was barely softened by the layers of moss that invisibly carpeted the groundĪnd climbed halfway up every tree. He stood alone on the trail in the wet darkness. On the night side of Earth, in the Hoh Rain Forest, the onlyĪlien that Jeb Anderson was worried about was an unpredictable AustralianĪnderson was the incident commander for a search party and heĭidn’t need another hiker disappearing into the wilderness.

Their own planet’s ecosystem by whatever alien biology might be discovered. In spite of the spidery machine never being able to comeīack to Earth, the media-consuming public was worried about contamination of Spent months creeping toward one of the seasonal brine seeps in search of liveĬultured on nutrient media within the rover itself.

NASA had landed the Darwin rover on Mars and the machine had There isįortunately, there is no such thing as magic. Peninsula then turns back on itself like a magician’s chalk circle intended to U S Highway 101 reaches into the rain-drenched Olympic

In the forest of the night book summary