Crow - The Awakening (64 page)

"Come on, Brandon. We have to get down out of sight." Steven closed the door again and looked at his calf. It wasn't bleeding too much or hurting as much as before but it still felt like a hot poker was taped to his leg. He grabbed a Band-Aid from one of his less critical wounds and repositioned it over his calf and then kept pushing on. He was learning the value of the concept 'run now, cry later.'

"She's dead, Steven," Brandon said as Steven helped him to his feet and pulled him deeper into the garage.

"Yeah, but we can't dwell on that right now, Brandon." Steven was looking around to assess what they had. There was a classic Ford Mustang with a cover over it, and a few dirt bikes. Steven recognized the one Brandon customized and drove through their childhood. "Do these still run?"

Brandon nodded. The staff kept everything fueled and ready to go at the whim of their bosses. One of the benefits of being wealthy.

"Okay, Brandon, we need to get to my apartment." Steven pulled the cover off the car and looked in it. It was in pristine condition, well maintained by the staff and he was satisfied that it would do the job.

Steven pulled out the scanner and looked at it again. Still no dot identifying him. He didn't know if it was still working or not or if his tracker was still transmitting, but the scanner would come in useful in nailing the technology of these people down and Steven was intent on utterly destroying their network and all of their data.

"We need to get to my apartment," Steven repeated. Brandon wasn't listening. "If we can get there I can crack their scanner and throw these dogs off our scent." Steven looked at Brandon, who looked back at him glumly. Steven wasn't sure Brandon was even hearing him, but continued, "Okay, you are going to take the car because they're not looking for you. Take the back way out. I think they're mostly in the houses now." Steven shook Brandon's shoulder. "Do you understand?"

Brandon looked blankly at him.

"Pull it together, Brandon. Yeah, she's dead. You're not. If you want to stay not dead you need to listen to me." Steven slapped him a few times on the face to jolt him back to the now.

"I'm taking the dirt bike." Steven looked at the bike and made sure the key was in it. "They are tracking me, so when I leave, they'll follow me." He looked back at Brandon. "When they follow me, you go. Do you understand?"

"Then what?" Brandon asked, blinking. Steven sighed. He hated having to hold Brandon's hand like this, but then Brandon hasn't been shot at and chased for the past two days. And his girlfriend did just get shot. Steven remembered what she said. That was going to be something he was going to have to ponder on for a while later when this was over. How did she know his parents? He shook his head, coming back to the present.

"I'm going to the forest and draw them in. They can't travel as fast as I can through the trees. That'll give me a head start and I'll meet you at the apartment. If I can get to my laptop I think I can disable whatever they're tracking me with, then it's our turn." Steven was feeling very predatory right now. "I am done with being chased like a helpless rabbit, Brandon. And I'm done being shot at and watching people get killed."

Steven grabbed the dirt bike and positioned it by the garage door. He looked down. "How hard would it be to take this off?" Steven looked at the muffler. Brandon had customized it since the last time he rode it hoping to eek out a little more power. But Steven wanted to be heard. He wanted everyone to know he was leaving and to pull them away from Brandon. Brandon shrugged and grabbed a tool and with a few turns of the tool, slid the muffler baffles out. "Cool. They will hear me and ignore you."

He looked at Brandon. "Brandon, I'm so sorry about Rachel." Brandon looked down, still very much stunned. "We need to focus right now. Okay?"

Brandon nodded.

"Okay." Steven got ready to start the motorcycle. It had been years since the last time he'd done this, but it still felt familiar. "Open the door then close it after me and hide in the car for five minutes, then follow me out. Got it?" Brandon looked at him then got into the Mustang. He grabbed the garage opener in the car and pressed the button and Steven started the motorcycle as the heavy door opened. With a quick glance at Brandon, he released the clutch and barreled out of the garage, making as much noise as he could. This time he was in control and he was determined to keep it that way.

Glass crunched underfoot as Laurence walked through the vast residence. He kicked over the body of a security guard and looked into his blank eyes. "No more worries for you," Laurence whispered before moving on. The property had been largely secured. His men were preparing to blast a couple of safe rooms, and Laurence hoped that Steven was in one of them. His signal was flickering, fading in and out for several seconds at a time. The satellite was at its apex position overhead so the signal should be strong. He looked at his scanner, hitting it on the side as if that would help. "This is going to take forever."

One of his agents herded a couple of maids downstairs. Laurence looked at them as they stood before him trembling. One noticed the body of the guards on the floor and gave out a terrified squeak before covering her mouth. Laurence smiled amicably as he walked up close to them then held up his phone. He had a picture of Steven on it, one that was surreptitiously taken of him as he ate at the restaurant. One maid shook her head, biting her lip. Laurence raised an eyebrow and she shook her head again. Laurence showed it to the other, who averted her gaze. He grabbed her face and showed her the image. She gasped but shook her head. Laurence was disgusted. How can a visitor come to their home and they not know? But then Steven was a very sneaky kid. Perhaps they truly didn't know. He waved at the agent and walked off as the agent shot the maids in the back of their heads.

"Where is their security system?" Laurence rubbed his eyebrows. He was feeling the days without sleep now and sorely wanted to end this and find some place to crash.

"We think it's in one of the safe rooms, sir. We should be in there shortly," the agent replied, catching up with him as he holstered his pistol.

"He's here. On this property." Laurence was so close to finding him and yet so far away. "I need to access those cameras...now."

The house shuddered briefly. Laurence headed for the stairs as he was informed that the first safe room had been breached. "Are the monitors in there?" He asked into his bluetooth.

"Yes, sir. We're pulling them up right now."

"Finally!" Laurence exclaimed. This place had turned out to be more of a fortress than they had imagined. Most of the home's designs were not on record and he suspected a lot of bribes greased a lot of officials to keep the documentation of the buildings there suppressed. They were finding secret passages under the property and the last of the guard were holed up in one. But Steven wasn't in there with them so Laurence just sealed the passage.

Laurence arrived at the safe room. It was in a basement library, built behind a wall of bookshelves. The books were scattered everywhere and piled up out of the way. The shelves had been smashed to get them out of the way. The ragged hole in the wall was big enough for a man to get through. Laurence ducked in and walked into a luxurious room stocked with all the comforts a rich person may desire as he hid from his enemy. Large screen television, fully stocked pantry and refrigerator, a kitchenette, large bathroom and a huge bedroom made this a ridiculously over the top safe room. Laurence looked at a pair of panties on the floor and suspected it was a room that was regularly used.

"Over here, sir." One of his agents waved him over. Laurence stepped over the half dressed body of one of the staff members. It would appear that he was interrupted in the middle of extra curricular activities and was trying to get dressed when the door was blown. Laurence idly wondered where the other party was as he walked toward the monitors. A trail of blood and a petite leg sticking out the half-closed door of the bathroom answered that question as he walked up to the wall that the agents had opened to reveal the camera monitors. There was a bank of twelve large screen monitors attached to the wall, each one displaying the output of a different camera, plus a control monitor at the desk. One of his agents was in the seat pulling up the cameras and all of them looked at different monitors trying to see something that would lead them to their quarry.

"Back up to just before we started the assault," Laurence instructed the agent. He looked at the time stamp and selected one that most closely approximated the time before their arrival. There was little but the usual activity of the staff in the mansion, including a couple sneaking off. Presumably the unfortunate couple that now lay on the floor in the safe room currently. Laurence shook his head. They were missing something.

"Okay, lets pull up the gate cameras and go back to when Steven arrived here."

The monitors switched to those cameras and Laurence watched as the recording reset to the time they guessed Steven arrived based on their scanners.

"There!" Laurence pointed at a video of Steven carrying a couple of pizza boxes. "Smug little brat," Laurence said under his breath. "Which cameras were covering the entrance from the inside?" Laurence looked at the control software. "That one, I think."

The agent selected it and Laurence watched as Steven walked in then entered the guard shack. A few minutes later a golf cart arrived and a young man entered the shack and very shortly after that emerged with Steven. "Follow that cart."

The agents rooted around for the cameras that were aimed at them and found a few candidates that they put up on the wall. "There he goes. Which building is that?"

"Looks like a garage, sir."

"That's an apartment," another agent said. He had come from there as they were clearing the buildings.

"Yeah, I see furniture in there. Do we have a camera on the inside?" Laurence looked at the camera list.

"No, sir. That looks like a recent rebuild."

"Fast forward," Laurence instructed.

They watched as Brandon and the woman left the building, then returned running, and could see them going upstairs and then back down stairs through the huge windows. The camera went white briefly and then when the image came back, all three were on the floor. The woman crawled to Steven, then got shot and slid to the floor. One of the security guards ran in from the back and also got shot. Steven and Brandon ran to the back of the apartment out of range of the cameras. It was a morbid scene watched in double-speed fast forward.

Laurence was about to instruct his men to search that building when he saw something strange. The woman sat back up, looked around then got up and walked out of camera range. "Wait, back that up and replay that in real time." She had crawled to Steven and got shot in the back. Then for some reason, she pushed up so her head was in the way and took a head shot. The quality of the video clearly indicated the wounds when she was shot. Laurence rubbed his temples, wondering how a dead person can get up and walk away. Was she an alien too? And did she get shot on purpose? He couldn't help wondering if that's what happened with the boy that helped Steven back at the restaurant.

"Download the video then destroy it and any offsite backup they may have," Laurence instructed. "I want boots over in that building. Search it again." Laurence walked out quickly and the agent at the monitor bent over to dig computer gear out of his bag, not seeing one of the monitors displaying several agents being ripped up by the plants of the garden.

Tor’eng waited impatiently on the ledge outside of his daughter's cave for the physician to finish with his daughter. They had been worried when she did not wake up when expected, but nothing they did seemed to make a difference. He spent the better part of the day at her side trying to wake her but nothing worked. He was exhausted and feeling very guilty for administering the sedative to her.

Asherah finally did wake up on her own. But she didn't fully come out of her dreams. Now the physician was sitting with her on her sleeping pad in the dusty cave, tending to her as she struggled to wake fully. But she kept drifting off, and when she was awake she seemed to be somewhere else. She would look at them but not see them. Her face was matted with a nonstop stream of tears and she seemed to be in excruciating pain. Tor'eng bit his lip, hoping the physician would be able to help her. The results of the medication were surely having lingering effects and he felt intense shame for having applied them.

One of his subcommanders stepped up to him. "Ra'el's defense force has arrived at the clearing," she said. Tor'eng looked at her and nodded, and she left the chamber that had been hewn into the solid rock of a cliff. Ever since they received the recent message from Lohet they have been building up forces at the primary fracture. Their most powerful gatekeepers were there now attempting to open it. But their hopes rested on a little boy born against their laws who will soon have catastrophic powers. How they got to that, Tor'eng was most curious to find out. But the threat to the Cooperative by their ancient enemy superseded the risk posed by the boy for the moment and the boy was slated for termination at the completion of the mission by one of the best deviant hunters around - Lohet.

But he was there to check on his daughter. She had been very disobedient and in this case that disobedience threatened to bring all of their plans and preparations to complete futility. If the boy developed his capabilities before Lohet was ready, there would be precious little time, if any, to open the gate, neutralize the enemy, and terminate the deviant. If they took too long they would be helpless against the deviant and their plans for the enemy would be futile. He felt terrible at having to keep her away from the forests and up there in this dead cave. When even that didn't work, he sedated her. But something went wrong.

She sat there with her eyes closed while the physician checked her vitals. It was like she wasn't even there, like she was off in her own world. But she was crying, he could tell that. Had he crossed the line in sedating her? But the mission was in peril and she simply refused to understand the consequences. The deviant must be left to Lohet and she must stop tampering with him. He still had problems comprehending how the deviant was able to find her in the first place. The best and most powerful gatekeepers have so far been unable to access the fracture and yet his daughter has been communicating with the deviant boy all this time? But soon the deviant will be ready and the fracture will be reopened. He was sure of that. So long as his daughter did not mess things up.