Crow - The Awakening (22 page)

Dmitri sat in the lab, contemplating the projects he and Steven had built there for his classes. He had wondered about it from time to time but now that he was actively thinking about it, it fully dawned on him that every single piece of equipment they had built together was for the express purpose of Steven's search for his parents. That was why Steven refused to build the improved fusion reactor they had discussed earlier that day. He took a sip of vodka, finishing his glass then looked around for the bottle. His phone rang before he could find more vodka and he grumbled at being interrupted.

"Hello?" He had thought to let it ring but decided given the events of the day that it would be smart to answer it.

"Is Steven there?" Jonah asked. Dmitri could tell that Jonah was stressed and barely keeping it together and his thoughts of vodka vanished as he sat up, more alert.

"No, Mr. Crow. Steven hasn't come back here. Did he make it home?" Asking if he was missing would have been a stupid question.

"Yes. But he left again and is missing. If he arrives, please call me, okay?" Jonah said.

Dmitri nodded, then remembering he was on the phone, answered, "Do you want me to send him back home again?"

"No. He's pretty upset. Just let me know if he shows up there, willya?" Jonah sounded defeated.

"Sure. I'll keep an eye out for him," Dmitri said.

"Thanks." Jonah hung up.

Dmitri stood there for a moment, then remembered that he was looking for his vodka bottle. Putting the phone down, he turned to see a middle aged man standing in the doorway, leaning on the door frame and grinning. He had the bottle of vodka and was swishing the liquid around as he looked at Dmitri.

"Dmitri Vetochkin, political asylum appears to have treated you modestly," Laurence said coolly, peering around the humble library and computer shop. He curiously looked around the lab as he walked in. "I'm searching for Steven." He glanced back at Dmitri. "Can you believe that there is no reference to the Crow household on any documents in this town?" He wiped his finger on the shelf as he walked by, looking at it critically for dust, then stopped to examine a small piece of computer gear. "Isn't that funny?"

Dmitri didn't answer, fingering his empty glass. He instinctively knew that this man was a heavily trained agent, though he couldn't guess what agency he worked for. His demeanor, so abundant in confidence and full of a well thought out plan with contingencies, said it all. Dmitri had seen that many times before. At one time, he had been that.

"Oh, okay. I suppose it probably wasn't all that funny." He winked at Dmitri, very tickled with himself. "Maybe just a little?" He cocked his head as he examined the equipment on the table. He saw a packing slip from the manufacturer that he had recently visited. "What I don't understand is why you are accepting shipments on behalf of Steven."

"Since you know who I am, I'm sure you know that you won't get anything out of me," Dmitri stated coldly. He was backed in a corner. His pistol was in the other room and Laurence was square in the way. At his age, he knew he was no match for the man physically. It was dawning on him that his wife was about to become a widow. But it wasn't the first time he had considered that.

"Oh, I beg to differ, comrade Vetochkin. I think you have already helped me a lot." Laurence wagged his finger at Dmitri. "Steven is missing, isn't he?" Laurence had overheard the phone discussion and it was easy to come to that conclusion. It dawned on him and he summarized, "You said, 'Mr. Crow,' then you said, 'Steven.' How strange, unless Steven is a... child? Now that is amazing." He smiled broadly at the look on Dmitri's face, confirming his interpretation of the phone call. "It would be nice to know where they live, however." He gave Dmitri an amicable look as he approached him. He noticed a copy of an old flier Steven distributed to sell off some surplus honey from his honeybee business sitting on the table that had Steven's name and address on it. "Ah, here we go." He picked it up and looked up at Dmitri, smiling. "You have been most helpful, comrade," he said sarcastically. He surreptitiously removed the safety cap from his poisoned needle while giving Dmitri a big grin and walked toward him, waggling the bottle of vodka at him. "I think you were looking for this?"

The forest seemed to be a blur as Steven traveled through the canopy as fast as he could. He was mostly on autopilot as he went, following a route that he had followed countless thousands of times. His mind was racing, trying to formulate plans. The forest was dark, just barely illuminated by the scant glow in the sky from the recently set sun. Some clouds had moved in and he could smell rain, but they didn't cover the sky completely and he still had enough light to travel by. As he arrived at his tree, he stopped and sat down on a branch, fighting back more tears. He would have figured he was past that, but the finality of his situation was starting to catch up with him.

This was not how he planned things. He expected to locate his parents, and with their location in hand find help to rescue them. Anything but this. His only thought was being reunited with them, to have them know he was still around and still thinking of them. He desperately wanted to do things over, to undo his disclosure to Dmitri and for things to go back to the way they were.

Breathing hard, more from his emotional turmoil than from the trek through the trees, he wiped his tears and looked up. A fine rain had started falling, diluting his tears. He wiped his face. The moon was still out, creating an almost magical vista around him in combination with the rain. He sighed as he put his hand on the tight weave of the tree house. Even after all these years and clear weathering, the structure was still very sound. He would miss going there. It was the one secure place he had and it had been part of his life for nearly ten years. He got up from the branch and dug his fingers into the bark as he started climbing over to the entrance. He had no solid idea of where he would go from there, but already in the back of his mind he was planning what computer gear he would need to take with him.

As he entered his tree house, he failed to notice shadows moving in the forest around him, so focused was he on the calamity that was happening to him. He normally would sense all life around him in the forest but he was so distraught that he simply didn't care at the moment.

The quaint cob home wasn't hard to break into. No one was home, though. Disappointed, Laurence made a mental note to revisit the homestead later on to close up loose ends. After entering the house, he took a quick tour through the home to make sure there were no surprises waiting for him, then started a more thorough search, pulling out drawers and opening cabinets, looking for anything that could give him a clue as to where Steven was. Laurence stopped by the refrigerator and noticed a schedule with a therapist in town with Steven's name on it. He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of it then continued his search.

Steven's room was already a mess from his quick exodus and the door was broken. Laurence surmised that the kid had locked himself in. From the open drawers and closet, Laurence figured that Steven had quickly thrown together some clothes and valuables and escaped through the window. It may be some time before he returns to this residence, Laurence thought to himself. A sketchpad caught his eye and he sat on the bed and thumbed through it. There were many drawings of an elfish looking female character in it. He photographed one of the drawings with his phone and tucked the sketchpad under his arm as he continued the search. His obsession with this fantastical creature may prove useful in building a profile on Steven.

Out in the dining room he spotted a laptop sitting on their heavy picnic style table. He looked out the window as he walked up to it, making sure no one was pulling up the drive, then looked at the laptop. The power button was blinking, telling him that it was in sleep mode, so he hit it and turned the laptop on. As it woke up he looked around on the table and next to the laptop he noticed a couple of scorch marks that looked like hand prints. Laurence raised an eyebrow as he looked at it then he felt one of the marks with is finger. It was not superficial, but actually burned into the wood. He photographed it with his phone then returned his attention to the laptop. Once he verified it was Steven's, he plugged his flashdrive in a slot and started downloading the contents of the computer while he navigated through the files. Most were college assignments, all mostly mundane. As the computer finished booting up, a media playing program popped up and started displaying latest video in the playlist. What he saw caused him to sit down. The video was a view through the eyes of a golem, something he had seen before from an ancient ship his boss had recovered. He was breathless as he watched the videos, replaying both of them several times. This was definitely a game changer.

Laurence pulled out his other phone and called the only number that phone has ever called. "Steven has cracked into their network," was all he said, then he hung up. He already knew what the response would be. Steven was now target number one and acquiring him or his technology was absolutely imperative.

Sally was still crying when they pulled up into their driveway after searching late into the night for Steven. He had disappeared and was not at any of the places that he has frequented in the past. That left an entire forest where he could be hiding. Something best left for the morning, Jonah thought to himself. But it was a daunting task trying to find him out there. Even with Jonah's Native American heritage and childhood instruction, he was still no match for Steven's prowess in the forest. The kid was clearly a part of it. Knowing his parents, Jonah wasn't surprised. Trying to find him out there would be very difficult if Steven didn't want to be found. He hoped against hope that Steven would cool down and return home. However part of him knew that was not the case. He had lived with Steven's stubborn tenacity for long enough to know that once he set his mind to something, nothing was going to get in his way. That scared him because of what Steven was headed toward.

He helped a very distraught Sally out of the pickup truck and they walked arm in arm inside. She sat down heavily on the sofa as Jonah double checked Steven's bedroom. He didn't expect Steven to have come back, but still checked anyway. He wasn't surprised to see the room still empty, however.

"Jonah?" Sally called out to him. Jonah walked back into the living room quickly. He hadn't come back, but Sally was looking at the laptop. It was open and on and still playing a video in a loop. Jonah suddenly felt cold all over as he looked around. Steven had left the laptop on the table when he ran out, but it had gone into sleep mode. Someone else had been there.

"Maybe we bumped it when we came in?" Sally offered.

"Sally, get the bug-out bags," Jonah commanded as he started pulling the drapes of the windows down. She looked terrified. "Jonah?"

"You have to hit the power button to bring it out of sleep mode." Jonah stated simply as he pulled out a club he had carved years ago and did a house check, making sure no one was waiting in the shadows. They had been discovered and whoever had found them could come back to clean up loose ends. The house was quite empty.

Satisfied, he ran to the pantry and loaded up canvas bags full of food, and took them out to the truck quickly while peering off into the darkness, hoping they weren't being watched.

Sally ran to the bedroom and started pulling their travel bags from the closet. They were all preloaded with their basic belongings. She brought the large bags out and heaved them into the bed of their truck. Jonah helped her strap them down then went to the side of the house and grabbed a large cage. This he took to the coop and started loading their sleeping hens into it. Sally came over and helped him carry the cage back and hoist it into the truck. All the time Jonah was looking over his shoulder for any sign of intruders hiding in the shadows.

"Okay, that's it." Jonah helped Sally into the passenger seat as her legs suddenly got weak. "Come on, Sally. Stay with me."

Without looking back he got into the truck and they pulled away without turning their headlights on. This chapter of their lives was now over as they headed to a small cabin they had set up as a safe house for just this sort of thing.

"Doctor, I'm feeling some melancholy." Laurence laid back on the couch in the waiting room, staring up at the ceiling. "I'm really conflicted and think I may be suffering some separation anxiety." He opened the bag of mushroom tea, and took a sniff of it, making a face at the musty smell. Sighing melodramatically, he looked over at James Dougherty who was zip tied to a chair. "I really think I need help. What do you think?" He grinned. The look of terror on the doctor's face let Laurence know he was ripe for interrogation.

"But enough about me." Laurence sat up. "I'm very curious about the person who drew this, and why he's so obsessed with... this." He showed the therapist a page from the sketchpad on which Steven had drawn Asherah dancing in the meadow.

James shook his head, too afraid to talk. Laurence frowned, looking at the drawing. He found another one, a close portrait of Asherah. "She's beautiful. For an... is she an Elf?" He looked at it then back at James. "Or some sort of cat girl or something? Pointy ears and pouty lips and a drop dead figure, she sure is hot." He showed it to James who didn't respond. "I think it's odd for Steven to be so obsessed. Don't you?" He found another sketch and showed it to James. "No? Come on, James. I want your professional opinion here." He flipped through more pages. "You'd think a normal teenager would draw some variety into his sexual fantasies. But they're all the same. Furry girl, furry girl, furry girl. I'm beginning to think he's got some sort of fetish or something." James fidgeted, struggling against his zip ties.

Laurence found pages that had extensive drawings of the forest and the meadow, and noted that the Elf drawings were often in very specific and consistent settings rather than something just made up. "Hmm, he seems to have a special spot." Laurence held up the sketch of the meadow. "Anything?" James shook his head. Laurence believed him. The therapist didn't look like the outdoors type. He looked at the drawings. Most of the plants looked quite out of place for this part of the country and Laurence wondered if the kid had been traveling to Florida or Hawaii or something.