Crow - The Awakening (66 page)

"Who is replacing me?" Laurence asked, certain that politics was raising its ugly head in the Order and taking advantage of Laurence's misfortunes.

"I am. We will have Steven, Laurence. You're not abandoning him, but just changing tactics," Jacob informed him.

"Sir, I've lost men. Good men. Did they die for nothing?" Laurence tried to appeal to Jacob's sentimental side.

"No, Laurence. You lost my men. And they didn't die for nothing. Come in." Jacob hung up, leaving Laurence staring at the phone in disbelief. He had headed up the investigation into the network anomalies and ultimately the search for Steven from the very beginning. He was the one out doing the dirty work, tying up loose ends, formulating and implementing strategies and spending many sleepless nights hunting for this boy. And now, with just a call, all of that has vanished and along with it, Laurence's credibility. He disconnected his bluetooth and put the earpiece back in its holder and sat there staring at the scanner. It occurred to him that they may have simply retasked the satellite. That Steven may actually no longer be on the property. They had effectively sabotaged his mission, calling off his men and removing his resources without so much as a consultation with him. And there was nothing he could do about it.

Steven barreled out of the garage, throwing gravel as he slid onto the access road and making a huge racket as the unmuffled engine revved up to speed. Steven kept the bike in low gear to keep the engine spinning at high revolutions to increase the cacophonous sound that reverberated down the wall of the compound as he sped down the access road. He wanted to be heard and was sure that half of the sprawling neighborhood could hear him. He didn't see any agents but had no doubt they heard him and hoped that his plan to divert them from Brandon worked.

The bellow of the motorcycle made his teeth rattle as he approached the entrance of the road onto the street. He saw the blasted section of the wall as he zoomed by. It was a smaller hole than he expected for the number of agents that were on the property. But currently there was no one by the hole. No one was even peeking through.

Perplexed, Steven slid to a stop at the entrance of the access road. The street was empty and the expected army of agents simply did not exist. He revved the engine a couple of times, wincing at the loudness of it. He was sitting there inviting them to notice him and chase him and for once, he was being ignored. He strangely felt let down. But they'd snuck up on him before. Maybe they're waiting to ambush him down the street.

He pulled out into the street and drove past the property slowly in a low enough gear to keep the engine screaming. As he eased by the front gate he saw the car. Its lights suddenly turned on and Steven grinned. Ambush it is. He revved the bike a couple of times then released the clutch in a higher gear and took off. The sudden acceleration was exhilarating. "Come and get me!" Steven screamed into the wind as he kicked up the gears and zoomed through curves in the road. It may just be a dirt bike with street capabilities, but it still exhilarated Steven to the core.

The car bounced out of the drive behind him and accelerated toward him. The chase was on and Brandon was free to sneak to the apartment on his own. Steven finally had a plan that was actually working. He did find it odd that there weren't any others. Did they leave and weren't close enough to give chase? It didn't matter, as long as their precious prize was speeding away and they were taking the bait, that's all that counted. Steven glanced up in the sky to make sure their aircraft wasn't hanging overhead. But all he saw were stars. The night belonged to him, this time.

The booming roar of the motorcycle jolted Laurence out of his dark thoughts. He looked around and saw a glow on the trees beyond the wall, back by the attached apartment, and it was coming his way. He saw a flash of headlights peek through the hole his men had blasted when they assaulted the property. Laurence's heart jumped. It was Steven. It had to be. He was making a break for it. Didn't he notice that all of his people had left? But that didn't matter. His prey was right at his fingertips. Laurence saw an opportunity to redeem himself and restore his reputation.

He saw the motorcycle creep by the gate, revving its engine. It was obnoxiously loud to him, even with his windows closed. For all intents and purposes, it looked like Steven was taunting him. Gritting his teeth, Laurence floored it and burst through the gate, sparks flying as he hit the dip in the drive. He raked his wheel over and floored it, causing the back of the car to spin around until he was aimed down the street. He let off the gas to let his tires grip then hit the gas again all in one move and the car made the sharp turn almost instantly, tires squealing in protest. Leaving a cloud of burnt rubber behind him, he accelerated toward the motorcycle that was speeding off down the road.

His final destination was a mystery to Laurence. His GPS showed that once the fancy neighborhood ended, there was little more than pastures and then forest. But Steven was on a dirt bike. Perhaps he was trying to get to the forest in an attempt to gain the upper hand. But at the moment, Laurence had the upper hand. He powered through the curves and caught air from the bumps as he pushed the car to its limits. He saw Steven look back as he was getting closer and grinned. All it took was to tap that rear wheel and he would be scraping the kid up off the pavement.

"Steven, he's catching up fast." Asherah's voice rang in his head as he focused on avoiding potholes and tried hard not to scrape the pedals on high speed curves. He shifted his weight down and off the seat as he went into the curves to lower his center of gravity and give him more cornering speed.

"That's the idea, honey," Steven said through clenched teeth, a bit sarcastically. He noticed a turn coming up and grinned. "This should slow him down just a little."

Steven saw a driveway and hit it at an angle, catching some air as the motorcycle flew over the smooth bump on the side of the driveway. Without hesitation he landed on the lawn and ducked as he passed the trees in the front yard at high speed. He could feel Asherah gasping as the bushes and trees sped by and the bike just barely kept its wheels under him. Crossing the lawn only took a second and suddenly he was flying over the curb in front of the house and zooming down the side street. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?" he asked, smiling widely. Asherah remained silent but he knew she was still there. He looked back and watched the car chasing him spin out into the turn, correct and continue the chase. "Hmm, he's pretty good."

There was a long stretch before the road emptied onto the fire road. He hoped to lose the car there then disappear into the forest. Noticing the car getting closer, he leaned over to lower his profile and get that extra little bit of speed. The motorcycle was spooled completely and the houses were passing by at a terrifying rate. Rapidly the houses gave way to pastures. The two vehicles tore past the fancy horse stalls and pastures, sending horses running away from the instant raucous racket. Steven looked back and suddenly was feeling a little alarmed. The car was right on his tail and getting closer. He looked forward and saw where the road ended up ahead in the distance. "Just a little more!" Steven yelled, leaning closer to the bike and out of the wind stream.

He felt the car touch his rear tire and the bike shook like mad. He kept on it, though, and a bump in the road slowed the car slightly while the bike absorbed it easily and continued racing toward the end of the road. Only then did he see it. Construction signs. The fire road was closed off. There was a large pile of dirt on the edge of the road that looked like it had been there for a while, and a large ditch had been dug across the road beyond it where they were replacing culverts. Steven looked back. The car was inches from touching his rear tire again. There was no way for him to stop and get off without this guy taking him down with his gun.

Looking forward, he aimed the motorcycle for the large pile of dirt. He could hear Asherah screaming from fear in his mind. Any other time and he might have been screaming with her. But he saw the trees beyond the construction. He saw the dirt pile. At this point and time, it was all or nothing for him. "Hey, Asherah...have you ever flown before?" Steven grinned and barreled toward the pile at top speed. The car suddenly broke off, spinning out of control as it tried to stop. That gave Steven a little breathing room, but not for long. The motorcycle hit the pile as if hitting a brick wall and Steven was nearly slammed into the handlebars as the bike came up under him. It took all of his strength to grip the bike and then suddenly, he was weightless.

The sound of the motorcycle was still echoing down the road when Brandon started up the Mustang. He decided he wasn't going to wait even five minutes before leaving this place. What had been his castle, his refuge had been hopelessly and catastrophically compromised. Brandon was thankful his parents had not been there. He had no idea if anyone even survived. Gritting his teeth and expecting a hail of bullets, he put the car into gear and left smoking tire tracks as he accelerated out of the garage and fishtailed it onto the access road, going the opposite direction that Steven took. He ducked low, waiting for the inevitable gunshots. But the only thing that met him out there that warm night was moths in the headlight beams.

Brandon was still trying to come to terms with what he had just experienced as the road seemed to fly by like a dream. Rachel was gone. There one instant and the next...not. She was such a sweet and bubbly girl, so full of life, and now she was gone. He had only been dating her for a few weeks, but he was sure she was going to be the one. And now she was just a memory and the only thing he could see in his mind was the instant she was shot. Brandon blinked and rubbed his eyes, struggling to stay on the road.

He remembered seeing Steven try to get her down, trying to save her. But he just wasn't fast enough. Those guys came out of nowhere and peppered that entire room with bullets and their flash-bang grenades. There was no chance, and yet he and Steven were still alive. How did they live and she die?

Brandon sniffed, feeling nauseous again. He should have known. The warning signs were there from the beginning. He should have trusted his gut instincts. He saw Steven when he first came in. His friend was a total wreck, completely beat up and chased all over town for two days, and yet Brandon naively felt safe in his own little walled kingdom. He should have grabbed them all up, left, and found some place to hide, but instead he ignored the threat and pretended that these guys couldn't touch him. And now Rachel was dead. The guilt of it all weighed heavily on Brandon as his heart broke all over again and he continued to fight the urge to throw up. She was dead and it was his fault.

The trees zoomed by faster and faster as he accelerated down the road that circled back behind their property. He only slowed down when he started sliding around a turn and almost drifting off the road as the tires lost traction in the corner, waking him up from his thoughts as he struggled to regain control. He hit the gas again and sped toward the other entrance, wanting nothing more than to get as far away from these guys as he could. He briefly saw a pizza delivery car parked in the bushes and figured that was the one Steven drove, since he came with pizzas.

With what he had seen tonight, he had trouble believing that Steven was able to evade them for two whole days. These guys were beyond professional. They were expertly fanatical, true believers in their mission. Without hesitation they walked into the expert gunfire of the highly trained security and put them down like they were nothing. The security staff was comprised of battle hardened veterans that had plenty of experience with being under fire. These veterans had survived impossible odds in the various conflicts they had been involved in. And yet, tonight they were mowed down in a matter of minutes. How Steven was able to make it this far was completely beyond him. He should have had no chance against them. But even now Steven was leading them away from him and Brandon was convinced he would succeed yet again.

He was divided on going to his boss at the police station or continuing with Steven's plan. But they fooled his boss too. They practically waltzed right in and took over the police station, and even commandeered one of their security computers. Then they spent an hour interrogating him right there in the station as if they belonged there. The choice between going to the police or helping the one person to have escaped them and survived was becoming clearer and clearer. If his guards didn't have a chance against them, what chance does a civilian police force? His friend, however, appeared to have an uncanny knack for survival.

He shot out of the access road without stopping, showering sparks across the road as his bumper scraped the pavement from a dip in the driveway. This late at night there usually wasn't much traffic through this neighborhood anyway and Brandon simply did not care anymore. Skidding into the turn, he got the car straightened and heading up the road toward town. As he passed the gate he noticed that it was wide open and there were no cars or people in there except those laying on the ground. He thought about calling the police to come in and secure their residence if the agents had truly departed. But he was too preoccupied just yet to do that. A patrol will surely notice the open gate anyway.

As he headed into town, it occurred to him that he didn't have anything to remember Rachel by. She really wasn't much for trinkets or pictures. He loved that even though she was so gorgeous she was far from a narcissist or hoarder. But he had to have something. He decided he would detour to her apartment before heading to Steven's apartment. While she spent most of her time at his apartment, he had a key to her place, too, which was a monumental development for him. He was sure he could find something of hers to remember her by.

Her apartment complex was a classy place. A relatively new tower, it looked fresh and modern. He used her magnetic key to access the gate, drove into the underground garage, and parked in her parking spot. It pained him that she would never park there again. He sat there for a moment, recalling all the times they had sat in that parking spot making out in the car. Often they couldn't wait to make it up to her place and ended up having to duck when other residents walked by. Brandon smiled sadly at the memory.