Charlotte woke to a loud ringing.

It wasn't her cell phone, but rather the room phone. She grunted and forced her body to move from its position in the middle of the soft bed. Her limbs were tangled up in the sheets. Sleep had come late and fitfully. With dreams jumbled and disturbing.

She answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Charlotte, glad I caught you. I have a former worker who would be perfect to interview for your podcast."

"Who is this?"

"Jeremy, Johir. From Carter Industries. "

"Oh, yes. . . you have a former worker who I should interview?"

She sat at the side of the bed, fully awake now.

"Sure do. I contacted him first thing this morning and he was more than delighted to see you. He lives outside of Denver though, on a farm. It's about a 2-hour drive. Not sure if you are up to that."

"I am. Send me his address," she interrupted.

Her mind felt giddy, what a perfect opportunity to gather more stories for the podcast. Even if this man was handpicked by Mr. Johir. She didn't think much of that, he could be flirting with her.

"Alright. Texted it. If you are free later this week, I'd love to take you to dinner."

She smiled; he certainly was flirting.

"I'll have to see. I plan to get a lot more done here, can I let you know?"

"Of course."

They hung up and she opened the text he had sent. Timothy Brown, he had sent only the name. She clicked on the link, which was a map that directed her to a remote farm. He wasn't kidding, it would take a few hours to get there. But the drive would do her good. She had been stuck in Denver since she had arrived. Nature might be just what she needed to get a fresh perspective on the next direction of the investigation.

She got up and showered, choosing a pair of jeans and a tee. It was springtime and the weather was supposed to be nice today. Another detail not lost in her mood. She happily gathered her gear up into her bag and left the room.

Should I stop and get breakfast to go?

Deciding it was a good idea, she walked the few blocks to the coffee shop. The store was crowded, the sunshine bringing out more patrons than usual. She looked for Josh, but he wasn't at the front. Thinking about him made her feel warmth in her chest. Her hand instinctively clutched her collar bone. The skin was indeed warmer, which should have alarmed her, but it didn't. Instead, she felt comforted.

"What can I get you?"

Charlotte snapped out of her trance to see the dark-haired man she was just thinking about.

"Hello!" she said, a smile on her face.

"You are going out to interview someone again?" he asked, his dimples showing. "I listened to you last night, what an episode."

"You did? Thank you. I tried to give everyone some things to think about. . I'll take a mocha latte to go and a muffin if you have any."

Josh nodded and his dark eyes searched hers briefly before he broke away to make her coffee. She tried to pay but he said it was 'on him' today. Her chest radiated with warmth and her mind felt relaxed. Charlotte was certainly smitten with the barista, there was no other explanation for it. At least none she could think of.

I've been single for far too long, that's all it is, she thought.

He handed her a steaming cup with a black lid and a paper bag with the muffin.

"Drive safe today. If you ever need anything, let me know."

She smiled and took the goods, wanting to ask for his number but he was already tending to the customer behind her, so she left. Once outside, she noticed a phone number written very small on the sleeve of the cup in black marker. Josh's number. He was most certainly flirting but also, he had to be a part of the people watching her. That she knew.

Keep your enemies close.

As she got to her car and headed out of the city, she went back and forth in her mind about the handsome barista. He didn't come across as being nefarious. She could trust him. The freeway was packed, and she had to drive much slower than she wanted, but finally she got off at the right exit and onto a two lane highway. Hardly a soul was on this road.

Mr. Johir finding this former worker was weird enough, but what exactly would the man want to tell her? She theorized that it would have to do with digging and building below the ground. Everything she found online had pointed to crews being rotated weekly and sometimes more often, so they never saw the completion of any one area. That alone was beyond bizarre and made no sense. Anyone in charge of such projects wouldn't want to move their crews that often. Nor would they want to keep changing blueprint sections. It would be too cumbersome to retrain over and over.

She sped along through the countryside, mountains looming in the distance. It was beautiful. Colorado had a lot to offer and had his own lore with the supernatural in the local Native tribes. Skinwalker ranch was in this state after all. She had been driving for a little over two hours when the gravel driveway came into view off the road. Her GPS had brought her to the correct address.

She slowed way down, almost at a snail's pace. Rocks popped and crunched under the tires as the road turned into a forested area. Then suddenly, it opened to reveal a giant log cabin. It was a magnificent house, as big as a small mansion. A bearded man with a sizeable belly stood on the porch. He waved and smiled, coming down to greet her.

"Hello there. Charlotte Locke, I take it?"

She shut her rental car door and smiled back at the man.

"Yes, very nice to meet you Mr. Brown."

"Call me Tim. Just Tim. Come, let's go inside. I had my wife make us some sweet tea before she left for work."

She followed the man inside his house, which opened widely as soon as they entered. Big beams crossed up in the ceiling, which was higher than it appeared outside. It was a lodge basically, which somehow suited the man perfectly.

"Would you like to sit out back on the deck or in the living room?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Either is fine, thank you."

He led her to overstuffed couches by a great stone fireplace. She sat down as he went to the kitchen to get the tea.

"Did Mr. Johir tell you what information I had?"

"No, he didn't. Only that you wanted to share things with me for my podcast."

He handed her the cold glass and plopped down on an adjacent couch.

"Well, that's good. He has no real idea what I am going to tell you."

Charlotte sipped her tea, allowing the sweetness to sit heavily in her belly. She wondered what he was about to reveal.

"I have been going back and forth about this since Johir called me at five am."

"He called you at five?!"

Tim chuckled.

"Yeah, that he did. He said I needed to listen to your podcast and give you an interview of the crews I managed. I was more than happy to help him, he has helped me over the years, a lot, but after listening to your podcast episodes. . well, I knew I had to share this with you."

She took out her recorder and notebook.

"Please, no recording. I can't have my voice being recorded saying this. In fact, if you quote me on what I am about to disclose I'll have to deny it. For now."

The hairs stood up on the back of her neck. She had an eerie feeling. Asking her to not record him, to the point of denial, always meant some huge truth was being exposed. She had been here before when researching for a film.

"Ok." she said, setting her items back down, ready to listen.

"I worked on the initial DIA project back in 1989. At that time, we were given huge amounts of money to start the project, unheard of amounts. Mr. Johir was of course still the CEO of Carter Industries, and I was the senior foreman at the company. I'd worked for them for over twenty years at that point. The federal government was the only entity I knew of in my line of work that would write such an unlimited budget for projects. Supposedly this was being built by the city of Denver. Local government, not federal."

He paused to take a drink of his tea and to rub his temple.

"Funding aside, we began work immediately. Clearing the earth. As you said in your podcast, the amount of earth removed from the site was massive. More than I have ever seen in my lifetime working. There were rumors floating around about what was being built, and why we were digging so far down. But we didn't question it too much. Mr. Johir paid us more than we had been prior, to work on the project."

Charlotte wondered where exactly he was going with this. She held the cold glass tightly in her hands, the beads of condensation trailing down her forearm.

"But one day I saw something very out of the ordinary. There was a group of men, touring the site with Johir. They looked official somehow but weren't wearing suits. They attempted to blend in, despite their military style haircuts. My dad was in the Marines, when I was a small child, I know the look. Never once did they talk to any of us except when they were leaving. I was approached by one of the men with a paper. He handed it to me and said I needed to 'fill it out' then give it back to my boss."

The tension in the room was palpable, and Charlotte felt as if she was holding her breath.

"It was an NDA, non-disclosure agreement, for payments over a million dollars. For me to keep everything I was seeing quiet."

He paused to watch Charlottes reaction.

"Did you sign it?" She asked hastily.

"Hell yeah I did. And I am still receiving monthly money today."