Crow - The Awakening (51 page)

Out in the parking lot he saw a bus a couple of stops away. Looking around to be sure he wasn't being followed, he ran between the cars, trying his best to get to the closest bus stop before the bus arrived. He approached a line of bushes and crouched behind them, looking around to see if he had been noticed. As the bus arrived, he jumped over the hedge and hopped onto the bus, and took a seat near the back, relieved that he had evaded his pursuers.

Laurence stopped at the food court, turning around looking for any sign of Steven. The scanner was no longer picking him up. "He's dropped off the scanner. Converge on the food court and spread out," he said, startling people who where walking by. Laurence pulled out the satellite tracker to verify that he was still at the mall. "Wait, he's gone mobile outside the mall. Triangulate his position and get the drone in the air." It was time to apply some air power to this equation and their drone was state-of-the-art.

Sirel stepped into Lohet's room. He was concentrating on the map, trying to make sense of the pins he had attached for their dream-tracking. Something wasn't right. It seemed too random to him, as if they were being led astray from their prey. Sirel sidled up to him, floating up and looking over his shoulder. "Sirel, I think Asherah is becoming a serious problem," he said, frowning.

"Do you blame her?" Sirel played with Lohet's long white hair. He shook his head.

Lohet looked around at her for a moment, thinking. "Perhaps I can take that into account and read the pins appropriately." He looked back at the board, seeing the misdirection in a new light and patterns jumped out at him.He grabbed another pin from the queue floating in front of him, and used it to trace the patterns he was seeing in his mind as he started forming new triangulation results.

"Of course. But something is happening now." Sirel smiled, excited about the news she had for her commander and friend.

"What?" Lohet said, only partly listening to her.

"There is a lot of chatter on the radio indicating an active pursuit. Someone is being chased and they've brought in a lot of people and equipment to find him." Sirel grinned, winking at him. Suddenly she had his full attention.

"Steven." Lohet released the pin and waved the map and pins away, then walked out with Sirel skipping behind him. He walked into the main area where Migalo was refreshing his shave and Penipe was studying the readings that Sirel had noticed. She moved blocks of data around as they seemed to float in front of her and set up triangulation of the signals, trying to locate where the highest concentration was.

"There." She pointed. A shopping district, it appears. "It's not police either. Military grade communications. Took Sirel a few minutes to crack through their encryption." Penipe looked at Lohet.

"We need to get involved now. If Steven was being chased, where would he go?" Lohet looked at them.

"Not home," Penipe said, shaking her head. She figured he would try to avoid that option as long as possible in case he was tracked back. "He'll want to go somewhere where he feels like he has some power and the ability to hide."

"A park or forest," Migalo said. They looked at him and he shrugged. "It's where we've had the greatest trouble chasing him." Steven was most at home and secure in the trees, and was nearly impossible to catch once in the trees, especially when the forest defended him.

"But he's downtown. Where would he go?" Penipe looked back at the floating computer display, moving data around and examining a map of Seattle.

"Grid the pursuit and identify all parks in that area," Lohet said to Penipe as he went to get his jacket. It was time to mobilize and exploit this opportunity.

Penipe zoomed in on the map and searched for parks or nearby fingers of forest. "Here's a couple but they're insignificant."

"It's a start." Lohet came back out.

Migalo gave a toothy grin. "Finally. Some action!" He followed the other three outside. Sirel grinned, curtsying as they all gathered around her. She held out her hands for them to grasp and with a whoosh they were gone up into the air and towards the chase.

Brandon sat in his room looking at his phone. He had completed his exams without any problems earlier that day. He had half expected federal agents to come bursting into the classroom to arrest him, but no such thing happened. He still decided to call in sick to the intern job. He was relieved to hear them express sympathy because he wasn't feeling good and look forward to seeing him later in the week. No alarms, no insisting he come in and explain himself. For all intents and purposes, it was as if his interrogation never happened.

"Hey, sweetie. Are you feeling okay?" A lovely brunette with wavy hair tossed a crumpled up piece of paper at Brandon, bouncing it off his forehead. Brandon's girlfriend scooted the rolling desk chair over to the bed where he was sitting and leaned against the bed, playing with Brandon's short, cropped hair.

"Yeah. I guess. I just hope Steven is okay." Brandon scratched his head. He couldn't call him without risk of being detected again. After last night, he was very reluctant to push things any further than he absolutely had to. "He said they couldn't find him, but these people are over the top." He fiddled with his phone, trying to make a decision. "He said they cloned my phone. I don't even know when they had a chance to do that."

"Brandon, your friend is going to be just fine." She looked at him, bending over so that her face was in his line of sight. He tried to ignore her but she mirrored his pout with exaggeration. Brandon couldn't help but grin. If nothing else, she was good at making him feel better. "You worry too much!" she said, poking the tip of his nose and giving him a quick kiss.

"Yeah, but, you weren't there. I've done some crazy stuff but this was really scary. Especially when they started following me." Brandon looked at her. How could he explain that to her? She had lived a fairly sheltered life after all.

"It's always 'yeah, but.' Yeah, but where are they now? I think it was all a useless ploy to entrap your friend." She mussed with his hair and pushed her chair back to the desk to continue her studies. "These people are always pulling stunts like that. That's why lawyers are needed."

Brandon grunted. His parents wanted him to become a lawyer and had apparently recruited his girlfriend to keep the pressure on. But he found all of that so extremely tedious and boring beyond belief. He liked getting his hands on the work. Not on a stack of papers.

She looked back at him, "If they really wanted you, don't you think they wouldn't have already come and taken you away?"

Brandon looked up, very happy he had someone to talk to. Suddenly his girlfriend looked so hot, sitting there in her sweats while she studied. She turned and saw him staring at her and sighed, rolling her eyes. "Not tonight, honey. I spent all day out and about and I need to get this assignment done."

Brandon pouted, but understood. School was very unforgiving to personal schedules and demanded priority. Laying back, he figured it was just as well. He hadn't slept much and really needed to turn in early.

Steven sat on the bus trying to think about his next step. A gang of kids got on the bus, and sat at the back of the bus. Several other passengers got up and moved. Steven looked around at the kids and shrugged. They started joking among themselves loudly as Steven tried to get back to his thoughts. The distraction proved too much as he kept getting bumped while they pushed at each other and wrestled. One almost landed in his lap as he tried to duck. "Sorry, dude," he said to Steven as he sat back down, pushing back at the other guy. Steven smiled briefly then looked back down.

Even their rude interruption of his thoughts didn't bother him. Steven mainly just wanted to get away from where his pursuers were searching and find some safe place to sit back and collect his wits. Lacking a car, the bus seemed to be the next best candidate, provided he was not noticed when he got on. No one seemed to be chasing him or even paying much attention to him, so he was hopeful that he had finally escaped.

He needed to get to Brandon but was still fighting nausea from seeing that kid die. His heart hurt for the kid and he felt extremely guilty. Who was he that someone would die for him? Especially someone as outgoing as that kid, who took the time to help him. Steven looked out the window as the bus pulled up to another stop, and looked at all the people around him. Any one of them would be more important than him. And yet these guys were after him because he could play on computers. Steven failed to comprehend why that was so significant as to kill someone over.

Another bus stop jostled Steven and he looked up. An elderly black lady got on very slowly. The bus was packed and she looked for a place to sit. Everywhere she looked, the passengers looked the other way, pretending not to notice her. Steven shook his head and was suddenly very angry. He waved at the lady over to where he was sitting. "Here, ma'am. You can have my seat," he offered, stepping forward to grab her arm as the bus lurched forward suddenly, nearly causing her to lose her balance.

The group of young men had continued playing and wrestling loudly, laughing and carrying on boisterously and bumping Steven, until he suddenly got up. Now they all were silent, staring at Steven. Steven helped the woman to his seat as she gave him her heartfelt appreciation. He shrugged modestly and stood up in the aisle. It was still strangely quiet and he looked down at the others who had been so noisy just a moment ago. One gave him a thumbs up and winked. Steven smiled and grabbed onto the rail as the bus lurched again as it went to the next stop. He heard them start to chatter again and felt relieved to fade back into obscurity again.

Suddenly the bus slammed on its brakes as a vehicle suddenly swerved in front of it and stopped, blocking its path. Steven lost his grip from the slippery rail and fell to the floor. One of the young men grabbed his arm and helped him to his knees just as he saw heavily armed agents storm onto the bus commanding everyone to remain seated. One pointed at him and his legs grew numb. He looked around for a way out. The door near the rear of the bus was open too, but an agent entered that way and lunged at him. Steven got up and tried to evade his grasp only to fall into the grasp of the other agent who slammed him to the ground hard enough to rattle his teeth.

The youths suddenly started yelling at them and before Steven knew it they were engaged with the agents, beating them with steel pipes. The agent that had tackled him and was trying to get his arms behind him to put zip-ties on fell limp and Steven pushed out from under him. One of the gang members grabbed his arm and pulled him off the bus. "Run, dude." Steven looked back as the fight spilled out of the bus, occupying the agents who did not notice him sneaking around the back of the bus. The youth that pulled him out clocked an agent that tried to point out Steven with a steel pipe, knocking him to the ground.

Steven looked around and saw one of the SUVs still idling. No one was at the wheel and Steven rushed to it and climbed in. Putting the vehicle in reverse, he spun out, jumping the curb as he tried to get the vehicle turned around. The rear window suddenly spidered at some impact and Steven looked to see agents taking aim at him with their assault rifles. He had not considered that the vehicle was bullet-proof but was immensely thankful that it was. Putting the SUV into drive, he floored it and sped away while trying to remember his drivers lessons from a year ago.

He saw another vehicle jump the curb and go around the bus to give chase. Steven swerved at the next intersection, overcorrecting as he tried to control the vehicle. It was a lot heavier than he was expecting and he figured it was from the armor. But he didn't stop and kept pushing forward, barreling down the street and dodging traffic as he tried to lose his pursuers. But they stayed close to him as they tried to herd him. Suddenly they pulled back and Steven looked around, wondering what was going on. He saw a side street and turned to go down it, just in time to see part of his front quarter panel fragment to pieces. He flinched as pieces of it bounced off the windshield.

Steven looked around, trying to see what shot him. It felt like he was hit by a tank, but all his pursuers were keeping their distance now. He steered quickly down another street just as he saw bits of pavement explode beside the SUV. He leaned forward and looked up, wondering if someone was in a helicopter shooting at him. But he didn't see anything in the night sky, until suddenly he saw what looked like a beam of light erupt from what looked like empty sky. Part of his hood fragmented as dozens of projectiles smashed into it and Steven sat back in surprise, swerving as he tried to regain control of the vehicle. "What was that?" He skidded down another street and started looking for cover. He saw more pieces of pavement explode as he turned and he realized that they had anticipated him going straight. He continued turning down side streets and swerving down the road, trying to present a more challenging target.

As he neared another intersection the pavement exploded in front of him to his left and Steven instinctively turned onto yet another side street. He spotted a couple of SUVs up ahead and realized he had been herded. Gritting his teeth, he yanked the vehicle onto a driveway and smashed through a fence, bumping hard through a backyard and narrowly missing an above ground pool. He smashed through another fence and emerged onto an alley and sped down it as fast as he could, smashing trashcans as he went. He grimaced at the thought of the homeowners having to deal with the mess he just made of their backyard but was jolted from that thought when he burst out onto a regular street, sideswiping a speeding SUV and forcing it into gasoline pumps at a gas station across the street.

Steven didn't look back as he saw an orange glow light up the cab and kept the pedal floored hoping that would be enough of a distraction to let him get away. He kept looking for something to duck under, like a covered garage or something. But that would limit his escape paths if he got blocked in.

As he was pulling up behind a vehicle, he flinched when it was hit by a hail of bullets that looked like beams of light coming down from above. It exploded in a raging fireball. Steven put the SUV in reverse when the vehicle behind him suffered the same fate. They were trying to box him in by destroying the vehicles around him. He screamed as the vehicle next to him erupted in flames as its roof shattered and shrapnel bounced off the SUV. He had briefly locked eyes with the passenger and she looked so terrified. Now she was dead and he cried as he put the SUV in drive and slammed into the wreckage in front of him and pushed through it. All of these people were dying because of him he didn't even know why.