THE CAMPFIRE CRACKLED and popped—something Williams normally would have found soothing after a long day on the road. But now its loudness and intensity only reminded him that the radio had gone silent around noon and had been broadcasting dead air ever since. He tried to assure himself that this was normal and to be expected: the station couldn’t have been more than a make-do operation; surely it would crackle back to life when they least expected it—probably in the middle of the night after they’d just gotten to sleep. Still, it was peculiar, and Ank himself had expressed his concern more than once, something he did again as Williams lay with his head propped up, watching Luna watch the fire (from a good distance away), and wondering what she might see in it that she could simply stare in
