Crow - The Awakening (44 page)

"Well, fix it. They are good people," Brandon scolded him. "I can't believe it. You guys were like peas in a pod. Except for your sneaking around, of course. But what kid doesn't do that?" He looked at Steven. "What the heck did you do?"

"I found my real parents." Steven looked down. "Well, recent videos of them."

"Huh? That can't be it. Every adopted kid searches for their roots at one time or another. Man, you had a good thing back there. Your parents were crazy about you." Brandon fumed. He liked his best friend, but sometimes he was really stupid for a smart guy. "I think you need to find them and mend fences." Brandon gave him a stern look.

"I don't know where they went." Steven looked at Brandon, who was now his only remaining link to his past. Suddenly he very strongly regretted leaving home. He guessed that they might be at the cabin, but couldn't know for sure. There was no contact with the outside world at the cabin. It was very deep in the forest with nothing around it and no phone service at all.

"Well, give me your phone number and I'll let you know if they pop back up." Brandon pulled out his phone. Steven sighed and pulled out his phone, identified and accessed Brandon's phone on the network and added himself to Brandon's contacts. "Whoa. You are still hacking, aren't you. Is that why they're so ticked?"

"I had to hack to find my parents," Steven pouted.

Brandon knew they were staunchly anti-computer, but couldn't believe that would have driven such a wedge between them and their adopted son. "Listen, you're like a brother to me. I'm telling you that you need to fix things. They are the best thing that's happened to you. And you need to stop that hacking. It's going to get you in trouble."

"It's not really doing any good anymore anyway. I miss home." Steven was heartsick. "Now my friends there are dying." He sniffed and wiped his eyes, fighting the tears. Home was supposed to be his cushion if things went wrong. But that was falling apart and he truly felt even more isolated.

He looked at Brandon and thought some company from home would be nice. "You want to come up? Sarah and Charley would like you." Steven wiped his nose.

"Gonna have to be later, dude. I know you're in a bad place now, but I've got an early class tomorrow and haven't finished studying." Brandon looked at him. "You hang in there, Steven."

"Yeah. Thanks for the ride. It was really nice seeing you again." Steven got out and watched Brandon pull out, swerving to miss a small car that zoomed by. He could hear Brandon cursing at the car as he pulled into traffic and drove away.

"There. That's him." Laurence fidgeted as he looked over the shoulder of the security specialist as they reviewed the security videos. "Who is that he's with?" He took out his phone and captured the image on it.

"That would be one of our interns," Rhonda said. She had headed up the investigation into Philip's illegal medical sales and now found herself chained to Laurence. She found him pushy and insufferable, and wanted more than ever to be finished with him and move on to something more pleasant, like pulling her toenails out with a pair of pliers. She shook her head and crossed her arms. She hated having to cooperate, but her boss was insistent.

"Call him in. I want to talk to him," Laurence ordered. Rhonda chaffed at his bossing her around.

Rhonda looked at him, scowling. "Why?" What does he want with one of the department's interns?

"Homeland security business. Just call him in." Laurence looked back at her and she rolled her eyes and walked out of the room. Laurence grinned wryly and returned his attention to the video screens.

"Okay, let's look at the outdoor footage at that time," Laurence told the technician. He watched as the tech opened up another file and navigated to that time. Steven and Brandon had just exited the building, then Brandon left. A woman walked up to him and bumped right into him and threw her papers around, apparently on purpose. Laurence blinked. "Rewind that a little more." He watched as the woman stood by a car holding her folders as if waiting. She looked to the side then started walking quickly. What did she look at? Laurence followed through and watched as Steven knelt down to help her pick up the papers then Laurence was shocked to see himself almost tripping over Steven.

He stood up, dumbfounded. His target was right there getting underfoot and Laurence had actually tripped over him. He felt sick and furious with himself at the same time. But something was bothering him. The girl knew he was coming and exactly when. "He was right there. I practically tripped over him and it was because of her," he repeated his thoughts out loud as if it would drum up something new.

The technician looked up at him, curious but not asking. After watching Laurence bully his boss, he wasn't about to get in his cross hairs.

"Copy those files." He handed him a flashdrive, impatient to do more research on the woman.

The technician plugged the flashdrive in and started to copy when there was an error. He tried again but the video files were gone. "Hmm, this is weird."

"What?" Laurence looked down at him. He hated it when one of his techs said that. It usually meant something very bad.

"The files just disappeared." The technician navigated manually to the directory and still failed to find the files. He looked at the journal logs of the file system and failed to find any trace that those files existed in the first place. "Man, this is really freaky." The technician was starting to get creeped out. These files existed on a raid system across several disks, so it wasn't just a bad hard disk or something. He started a diagnostic of the raid controller to see if there was an anomaly, but it came back looking perfect.

"Who else has access to the system?" Laurence asked.

"Just us here. This is a nonconnected system," the technician answered as he tried to dig through the system logs looking for any sign of activity that could explain what had happened.

Laurence looked at him. "Did you delete the files?"

"Of course not!" The technician looked at Laurence, offended at the suggestion. "You were right here watching me." He turned back to the system and ran it through a reboot. After a few minutes, the files were still not there. "This is crazy. I'll start a low level disk diagnostics on the system to see if there are any fragments I can recover, but those files are gone."

Laurence fumed. He took his flashdrive out of the computer and paced. He was set up before he even got here. Someone knew beforehand when he would get there. He wondered if the snarled up traffic was also part of the diversion. Every step of the way, just as he got somewhere, someone would step in and derail him completely.

"I'm sorry, sir. I have no explanation for what happened. This is extremely weird," the tech said apologetically. Laurence looked at him, then decided to appropriate the server. "Turn it off and give me the system. Someone got in there and I'm going to find out who."

"But..." the technician hesitated, wondering if Laurence's authority included confiscating police equipment.

"You've got a backup system, right?" Laurence looked at him sternly.

"Yes sir. It's offline now, though."

"Get it online and use it. I want that system now." He pointed, not taking no for an answer. He pulled out his cell phone and made a call while the technician disconnected the system and pulled it out of its rack enclosure. "Yeah, when are you getting here? Really? Good. Get in here now." His backup had just arrived.

He bent over and looked at the system, trying to find any physical tampering while the technician activated the backup system and brought the cameras back online. Just as he looked up, he saw the lady who had dropped the folder of papers standing in the center of the frame of one of the cameras, looking right at him. She smiled and waved at him, then walked off.

"What the...?" Laurence bolted out of the room, almost knocking over his backup and ran past them, yelling back at them, "Secure that computer!"

As he crashed into the reception area everyone looked up, stopping what they were doing. The lady was nowhere to be seen. He ran outside and looked for her, then back to the counter. "Did you see a short brunette with wavy hair standing right there and looking at the camera?" he asked the clerk.

The clerk shook his head, a little shocked by Laurence's rude intrusion.

"Anyone? She was just here a second ago." Laurence looked around at the others who were standing there staring at him.

Everyone looked at each other and shrugged. If there was a pretty lady standing in the reception area, they would certainly have noticed it. Laurence shook his head, incredulous, and looked out the door. Someone was playing with him, and they were doing things with computers that shouldn't be possible. If she wasn't there, then she somehow found a way to super-impose herself in the camera system of a computer that was not connected to any networks. That was impossible however and he was disgusted that no one had seen her.

"Less than useless," Laurence grumbled to himself as he walked back into the security room while his agents were signing possession papers for the tower. Rhonda was in there frowning. "Did you get a hold of the intern?" Laurence asked.

"Yes. He'll be here shortly," she replied coldly.

"Good. Where are the interrogation rooms?" She pointed down the hall and Laurence found one and sat down hard on the table to think. He was already on the verge of being reassigned, and these ridiculous developments did not bode well for him. He needed results badly.

"Brandon Williams," Laurence said as he looked through a folder. He wondered why they didn't have all of the information in a digital format he could use his tablet for.

"Yes, sir," Brandon answered, fidgeting.

"You're graduating this year. Congratulations," Laurence said dryly as he turned the page.

"Thank you, sir." Brandon wasn't convinced that was sincere but figured playing the polite card wouldn't get him in trouble.

"How are you acquainted with Steven Crow?" Laurence looked at Brandon with a piercing gaze that made him uncomfortable.

"We grew up together." Brandon groaned inside. What had Steven done now? He said he was cleared and they released him, after all.

"Best friends?" Laurence raised an eyebrow.

"Just friends." Brandon tried to distance himself a little from Steven. This guy was starting to give him the creeps. "What has Steven done?"

Laurence ignored his question and continued the interrogation without hesitating. "It says here that you grew up in Seattle."

"We had a vacation home up in the mountains," Brandon explained.

"Ah, rich kid." Laurence grinned.

"No. Rich parents." Brandon was paying his own way now and wasn't about to give credit to anyone else.

"When was the last time you saw Steven?" Laurence tapped the table with his pen.

"This evening." Brandon knew about the cameras and was sure this man had seen the footage. But he decided that anything that man didn't know he wasn't going to find out from him. Not until he talked to Steven.

"Did you come to pick him up?" Laurence knew that Brandon had been working there but wanted to see how Brandon would react.

"I was just finishing my shift here." Another verifiable tidbit of info that Brandon stuck to.

"How did you know Steven was incarcerated here?" Laurence asked as he checked off another item on the records he was reviewing.

"I didn't. We just bumped into each other." Was this man trying to implicate him in something? Brandon's mind raced, trying to figure this meeting out. He got a very bad feeling about this person. The look on Rhonda's face told him everything that he needed to know. She was not at all happy with this man, either.

"Boyhood friends from out of town and you just happened to bump into each other?" Laurence raised an accusatory eyebrow.

Brandon nodded.

"You left together. Where did you go?" Laurence looked up, watching Brandon's face.

Brandon had not thought that far ahead and barely caught himself from stuttering. "I dropped him off at the bus stop." A lie.

"Best friends and you drop him off to take the bus?" Laurence sounded unconvinced on purpose.

"I have early exams in the morning and he said he lived across town." Half truth. Brandon gulped and looked around.

"Where?" Laurence leaned forward.

"Where what?" Brandon asked.

"Where did he say he lived?" Laurence was intensely interested in Brandon's answer. Brandon got the feeling this man wasn't looking to have a similar chat with Steven.

"I... didn't ask." Brandon fidgeted. He wasn't good at this lying business.

"Best friends and you don't know where he lives?" Laurence looked aside at him as if catching Brandon in the lie.

"Just friends, sir. That's all," Brandon corrected him.

"When did you see him before that?" Laurence leaned back, giving Brandon a chance to breathe.

"Christmas break." Brandon thought that was about right. He remembered it was shortly after Steven's birthday.

"He's been in town all this time and you are just now meeting each other?" Laurence leaned forward.

"I didn't know he was in town," Brandon insisted. He knew Steven had run away from his last visit but no one knew where he'd gone, so it wasn't entirely a lie.

"Best friends and he didn't tell you he was in town?" Laurence smirked.

"Just friends, sir," Brandon corrected yet again.

"Did you at least get his phone number?" Laurence asked.

Brandon hesitated. He couldn't hide the contact if his phone was requested from him and being caught in a lie here could unravel everything. "Sure."

Laurence looked at him, holding his hand out.

"Oh, sure." Brandon fumbled with his phone and handed it to Laurence. His hand shook a little as he held the phone out. He really hated being on this side of the table.

Laurence looked through the contacts, and through them again. "What do you have him listed under?"

"Steven Crow," Brandon said, confused.

"There's no Steven Crow in here." Laurence looked at him. Brandon stood up and took his phone back. Sure enough, Steven wasn't in there.