Copper Wire

In other words, the wire nailed to the wall consisted of a single coil.

And that coil made the desk lamp flicker.

It made no sense.

Ryan followed the coil toward its source, tracing it along the wall all the way to the basement.

He opened the basement door and went inside.

The coil plunged straight into the ground. Whatever supplied that strange electricity lay underground.

Ryan looked down curiously. He was about to find something to dig with when, before he could start,

someone knocked on the front door.

He opened it to find a dark-skinned man with his hand still raised to knock. It was Boyd, who had only just left.

Now he was back. "Want to have lunch together?"

Boyd and Ryan ate lunch at the town diner. They picked up trays at the counter and lined up for food.

Lunch was potato salad. The ingredients were plain, but it tasted decent. Boyd said he had something to show Ryan afterward.

Ryan asked why he couldn't say it before lunch. Boyd explained that if he did, Ryan would lose his appetite.

After their simple lunch, Boyd told Ryan what it was.

Boyd took Ryan back to his house. Ryan had stayed there for the past two nights and knew it well. "There's nothing to see at your place. Just a table and chairs."

"That's enough to make a home."

With that, Boyd pointed to a cage outside his front door.

Cage wasn't quite the right word. It looked more like an iron box.

Its sides were made of iron sheets with holes punched through them. You could see out from inside and in from outside.

It was too big to hold an animal, but just right for a person.

Ryan glanced at it. "What's that supposed