Crow - The Awakening (49 page)

Suddenly the couple started wrestling and the man fell over, landing directly into Laurence. Laurence caught him. "Whoa there, buddy," he said as he helped the man up. He looked up to see a chair coming down on top of both of them and blocked it, instinctively kicking out at the enraged woman. She huffed, taking the kick in her midsection and fell back onto the ground. The man yelled angrily and elbowed Laurence in the jaw, knocking him back into the booth.

Steven had jumped up from the bench out of the way, trying hard to hear past Asherah's insistence that he run to get an idea of just what was happening. He was startled by what was going on, but more alarmed that Laurence had become a little less friendly. And yet, Brandon could still get in trouble if he ran. He was completely divided on what he needed to do. He looked around. Was he under arrest? Why were the other people Asherah pointed out asleep?

Someone yanked his sleeve and he turned to see the pizza delivery kid he had seen down by the bus stop. "Hey..." Steven started to say but the kid interrupted him. "Dude, you need to come with me now." Steven was about to ask why when the teenager grabbed his arm in a vice-like grip, pulling him and he found himself almost being dragged over the back of the seat and toward the kitchen. The kid was tremendously stronger than he looked and it was all Steven could do to keep his footing and keep up.

"Where are we going?" Steven asked. The kid looked out the back door of the kitchen then pushed Steven back. It emptied out into the alley but Steven could see someone running toward the door. More agents?

"This way." He ran, waving Steven to follow. Steven hesitated, indecisive. Was he creating more of a problem for himself by running? But Asherah was yelling at him and now this kid was as well. "Come on, dude!" The kid came back and grabbed Steven's arm again and started running. "Man, those guys are bad news," the kid exclaimed as they ran, urging Steven on. He tried not to trip, more to keep from being dragged than anything else. He was convinced that if he fell, this boy would bodily drag him along without slowing down.

Steven looked back and saw several people bursting in through the front door, all carrying what looked like handguns. One saw him and yelled, aiming the weapon at him. That motivated him to run faster. They burst through the rear entry of the restaurant into a hallway of the office building. Steven emerged just in time to see the kid clothes line a burly agent, knocking him down, then waving him on.

"What's going on?" Steven yelled as he ran past the agent who was curled up in agony. "How did you do that?" The agent appeared to be twice the size of either of them and yet the kid put him down without missing a step.

"Those guys want to hurt you, Steven. Up here, this way." The pizza delivery kid opened the door to the stairwell and Steven ran in. They headed up the stairs rushing toward the roof. Steven wondered about the logic of that.

"Where do we go from there?" Steven couldn't imagine that going to the roof was a good idea from any perspective. There was nowhere else to run from up there. They would be trapped.

"They have this building covered." The kid ran ahead and Steven pushed hard to keep up, getting his forest legs back. "Hurry, dude." For the first time Steven had found someone who was faster than he was and it grated on him. Usually he was the one who was slowing down for others. He could run through the forest for an entire day and not break a sweat, and could climb the tallest trees faster than most people ran. But he was in concrete desolation without the strength of the forest to help refresh him and he felt it as he struggled to keep up. Even so, he was keeping his own.

Steven heard a sound down below and saw agents run into the stairwell. One shot at them and he heard a bullet dinging off the handrail he was walking by. Startled, Steven found new energy and started running faster, almost overtaking the kid. He remembered Brandon, however.

"They'll go after Brandon!" Steven looked back. "I was giving myself up so he'd be safe."

"He'll be fine! We have him covered. You just keep running." The kid pushed Steven along even as they were taking steps three and four at a time at a full out run.

"We who? How?" Steven asked as the kid hit the roof door with his side and it swung open with pieces of a heavy chain flying out from them like shrapnel. It hit the stop with a bang that dented the door and they burst out onto the roof. He winced at the sudden glare of sunlight and followed the kid as he ran across the roof.

"Trust me, Steven. Brandon is fine. Now, you need to jump." The kid ran to the edge of the roof and without losing a step he jumped, sailing over the alley to the neighboring rooftop, landing lightly and stopping to wait for Steven. Steven came to a screeching halt as he looked down. "Come on, man! You can make it!"

Steven looked at the kid then at the alley. It was at least
twenty feet
to the other building. "Steven, remember jumping in the treetops," Asherah whispered calmly in his head. "You can do this."

"This isn't the trees, Asherah," Steven said. He looked back as Laurence burst out of the stairwell onto the roof and looked around for him. He ran several steps away from the edge and then started running toward it. He heard Laurence yell and felt bullets passing through the fabric of his pants. As he approached the edge of the building he remembered the creek he tried to jump across. Shaking his head, he ran faster then coiled himself as he reached the edge and pushed off as hard as he could.

For a moment, Steven was flying. He focused on the edge of the neighboring building and got his feet under him. The kid stood near the edge with his hands out and as Steven's feet hit the very edge he grabbed Steven and rolled him onto the roof. Steven flowed with the roll and came back up on his feet before he realized he had landed. "Wow." He looked back but the kid was pushing him again.

"We need to get off this building before they get down." They were running toward a trash chute at a full sprint.

"You've got to be kidding." Steven looked at it. It was a long canvas tube that extended all the way to the garbage bin on the ground. The roof was being resurfaced and large slabs of asphalt and junk had been thrown down the chute.

"When you get to the bottom, find a place with a lot of pedestrians and you blend in. Go back home and stay hidden," the kid said to him, shaking him. "Are you listening? If you get home you will be safe."

Steven nodded. "Who are you?"

"That's not important. You need to not get caught. We can't protect you if you get caught." The kid pushed Steven who grabbed the frame of the chute.

"Who can't protect me?" Steven looked back, insistent. "Who are you?"

His rescuer was about to answer when he looked back and suddenly shifted between Steven and the agents on the other roof. The move was unnaturally fast, so fast that he would have missed it in a blink. Steven saw him wince in pain and fall to his knees, turning as he leaned hard against the frame of the chute. Blood was pouring out and Steven screamed, grabbing the kid with his free hand. "Dude! You've been shot!" He looked back at the agents who started running back to the stairwell.

The kid shook his head and was about to say something when a bullet hit his head and he slumped down like a rag doll, his eyes open but lifeless. Steven gasped, holding the kid with his free hand, shaking him and yelling, but the kid didn't respond. More bullets hit the chute frame he was holding onto and Steven yelped in surprise and reflexively let go. He found himself falling down the chute and landing hard on the slabs of asphalt roofing. He rolled over to the edge of the trash bin and peeked over the edge. No one appeared to be hunting him there yet. But he was certain they would be soon. Looking up, Steven hesitated for a moment, wiping tears and wanting to help the kid who saved him. He heard Asherah yell loudly enough to make his head hurt, "Run!"

Shocked into action, Steven jumped out of the trash bin and ran up the corner of the building. The afternoon crowd was starting to collect on the sidewalks as people were getting off work and coming out to shop and eat at the many restaurants and coffee shops along this avenue. He looked back up the alley and sorely wanted to go back, to somehow unwind the clock and warn the kid, but the agents were surely coming. Shaking his head and wiping his eyes so he could see clearly, Steven went back to the corner and peeked around.

A gaggle of students were walking his way giggling over something and Steven inserted himself into them as they walked by, trying hard to blend in. He peeked back where he came from and saw a few men running down the alley he had just emerged from as they formed a perimeter around the building. He ducked when Laurence stopped and scanned the pedestrians, looking for him.

"Hey, cuteness, who are you hiding from?" a sweet voice asked from beside him.

Startled, Steven turned around and saw that he was walking next to the pretty young brunette with wavy hair. She appeared to be about his age and was grinning prettily at him. Blinking, he looked back then at her. "I'm not entirely sure, but I think they want to hurt me." He looked down at his pants that had more than one hole in it. He could tell his legs were bruised where the bullets just barely touched him, but there were no punctures.

"Don't worry, sweetie. Hang with us." She put her arm around his waist and her other friends pressed in closer as they walked down the sidewalk, shielding him from view.

"I don't want to get you in trouble." Steven looked around for a place to hide. "These guys have guns."

"Steven, you stick with us and you'll be okay." The bouncy brunette grinned at him and they rounded the corner and walked into a shopping district. He looked back as they turned, watching the agents mill about the office building looking for him. Laurence was on the phone with someone.

Something occurred to him. "Hey, how do you know my name?" He looked around at the girl he was walking with, but she was gone and he found himself walking in an entirely different crowd as he entered a mall. They had seemingly just melted away, and Steven realized that he was out of sight from his pursuers and for the most part, safe. He looked around for her as questions started to add up in his mind, but there were too many people there. He found a movie theater and decided a couple of hours in there would give him some time to shake his pursuers. And time to figure out what to do next. Brandon's paranoia turned out to be for a good reason after all.

"I need tracking for chip identification..." Laurence looked at his notes,"...1789036." Laurence spoke into the phone, trying to bring himself back to calm. The second building was being searched but he was getting the feeling that Steven has eluded capture yet again. "Yes, patch results to me and my teams." He looked at his scanner that looked like a larger smartphone. Nothing yet. "Aren't you getting anything?" He looked around scanning the pedestrians walking by. "Well hurry!" They had to retask another satellite since the one they had reserved had passed out of range already. Steven was escaping further and further away from their grasp and technology was failing them. Laurence rubbed his eyes, frustrated by the turn of events. He could not believe he had let Steven slip right through his fingers. He was right there, even ate dinner with him.

His connection was interrupted as his boss got on the line. "Status?" Jacob asked, curtly. He was clearly not pleased by the delays. Laurence rubbed his temples with his free hand. Where was his bluetooth earpiece device? He searched his pockets but couldn't find it. The couple that knocked him over and then mysteriously disappeared when Steven also disappeared must have dislodged it.

That couple also represented an anomaly. Their fight appeared to have been totally staged specifically to distract him and let Steven escape. He couldn't believe he didn't see through their ruse. He already had agents looking for them but they were gone to the wind. In fact, all of the other patrons had pretty much disappeared, scattering as soon as Steven was safely away. Laurence was getting a bad feeling about the whole thing and wondered if his own setup had likewise been set up. His agents were not supposed to be dosed with the sedative and yet they were, and very heavily. Could they have all been aliens?

"The contingency plan is being implemented, sir. Steven did not respond to sedatives. I dosed our drinks personally and made sure I gave him an extra heavy dose. He should have been out like a light." Laurence looked down at his feet. "And... he had help escaping." Laurence hesitated. "I think they were helping him, Jacob." The implication did not bode well for them. Laurence was confused. At one time, the aliens were chasing him, and at another helping. Were there more than one faction of aliens here, and if so, were they at conflict with each other? Things were getting more and more complicated the deeper Laurence dug into this case.

Jacob was silent for a moment and Laurence continued to look around and take reports from his collection team. "If he has been captured by them, then he is lost," Jacob finally said, subdued. "We've never been able to locate any of their bases of operations or fully break into their network."

Laurence knew that and figured Jacob was saying that to himself as much as to anyone. Steven was key to getting into their network. And by breaking into their network they could finally make some progress to actually tracking these creatures down.

"They didn't look like they were trying to capture him, Jacob. And I'm not entirely sure Steven is human. I'm sending his cup and utensils in for DNA testing," Laurence said, walking back to his car.

"Indicators?" Jacob asked shortly.

"A hunch right now, sir. He was running with them rather than away from them." Laurence leaned against the car, thinking. "And I did see him jump across a twenty foot alley and the heavy dose of sedative did not affect him." Laurence looked at his watch, waiting impatiently for the tracking satellite to be moved into place. "He's no Olympian athlete, Jacob. Just a scrawny kid. And yet he sailed across that alley as if he was hopping off a curb." Laurence remembered, "He also successfully evaded the aliens back in the hills too. This is no ordinary kid we are after. I have to admit that I have woefully underestimated him. That won't happen again."