Crow - The Awakening (73 page)

"You've been a naughty girl, haven't you?" He smiled. Her look told him all he needed to know. "This is a prison cell." Laurence looked out over the edge. "No bars though. And they let you out to play."

Laurence walked back to her and sat down. "Okay, Asherah. Steven is apparently quite smitten with you. And from the way you smell and your cute little flower petals in your hair, you are obviously smitten with him. You guys have figured a way to meet up and I'll bet you've been sneaking around to do it." He leaned his elbows on his legs and rested his head on his clasped hands. "But it's okay. You can tell me about it. I won't tattle. I am really, really interested in knowing how you two do it." He caught himself and smirked, "I mean, how you travel to Earth. You know what I mean, right?" He looked down at her muscular but soft thighs and raised an eyebrow. "Well, mostly, anyway."

Asherah didn't say a thing, staring at him in resigned terror. Laurence grinned. He was confident he would get her to talk. They always talked. Even when they didn't talk. "I went back down there. If you used something it's not out there anywhere. Steven didn't look like he was using anything. So, it must be up in there," Laurence rapped her forehead and Asherah flinched, gasping as the zip tie constricted her movement. "Ooh, don't do that, honey." Laurence adjusted her head so the zip tie didn't cut her air off completely, stunned by how soft her fur was. "You know, you are a spectacular specimen."

He walked over to a bowl of mushrooms, grabbed one, and sniffed it. "Want one? Maybe it's 'shroom power?" He walked over and put one by her mouth. She turned her head, gasping for breath again as she did so. "No?" Laurence put the bowl down. "Maybe it's not you at all?" Her pupils confirmed his guess. "It's all Steven!" Laurence exclaimed. Asherah twisted and strained against the restraints, gasping for air even more. "You know, I knew from the instant I met him that he was a special kid," Laurence laughed, shaking his head. "That would explain why you haven't poofed out of here." Laurence paced back and forth. "But, if that's the case, why didn't Steven just poof here?" Laurence was perplexed and looked at her. Her eyes were tightly closed, tears streaming from them.

"I've chased that kid all over Washington and even captured him once and not once did he just... poof. He's a slippery cuss, though. But nothing like this." Laurence held out his hands and looked around. He walked over to her again and sat down, staring at her. "If it's him, maybe he doesn't know it?" He looked out of the cave entrance from where he was sitting. "Because, I have to tell you, if I was Steven, I would have come here and completely forgotten about Earth. This place, just... wow." He rubbed his eyes. Laurence was feeling the days without sleep, but tried hard not to show it.

He looked back at Asherah. "You know, the faster you talk, the faster I get out of your hair. I just want to go home." Laurence smiled. Asherah looked at him in silence. "I think this is where I'm supposed to begin the torture. You know, for its recreational value." Laurence smirked and leaned toward Asherah. "I don't want you to answer me too quickly and ruin a good torture, okay?"

But Asherah was no longer paying attention to him, however. She was looking somewhere else. At him, but not at him. She was crying freely now and said something Laurence didn't quite expect. "I love you, Steven. We will go together," Asherah whispered softly.

Steven collected himself, planning his next steps while he rode the elevator up. He had to access the signal that the receiver was using then set up a proxy where he could feed their trackers any information he wanted. It was actually trivial for him and he already had the steps he was going to use laid out in his head. Speed was of the essence. They couldn't fix on his current location for a second or his plan could fail altogether. He closed his eyes and revisited those steps to make sure he didn't miss anything. He mentally worked himself up to act quickly, as if getting ready to sprint a race. They hadn't shown up yet, but if they zeroed in on this apartment before he had a chance to redirect them, then he would lose his private little castle and his friends here would be in danger.

Thoughts about Asherah intruded again. He remembered the greenhouse and wondered if she would be there. He was surprised that he actually hoped so. Her silence was disquieting. The last time she was quiet she said her father had drugged her. He wondered what would be the reason this time. As conflicted as he was about her, he still found that her voice, her mental presence, even her visual presence all did something for him. Strangely, it made part of him feel alive. Steven couldn't quite nail it down. Imagined or not, he was wondering if she wouldn't be a benefit to him rather than the detraction that James had said.

As the elevator came to a stop, he shook himself out of his thoughts. He was exhausted and sorely wanted some good sleep. And a good meal. He remembered his stash of dried figs, and there was surely a bunch of fresh veggies he could grab to put together something tasty. Did he have any mushrooms left? He couldn't remember. It's been only a couple of days but it seemed like an eternity had passed. Brandon will probably be hungry too. But then if the death of Rachel was still too fresh on his mind, maybe not. Steven sighed, feeling badly for Rachel. She was beautiful and vivacious, and apparently really attracted to Brandon. Her last words were troubling, however. What did she mean? How did she know his parents?

As he was pondering that, the elevator door opened and he walked out and looked around. It was quiet up there, but there was a group of people over where everyone usually hung out at night. Steven decided to avoid them and the million questions they would certainly ask and headed quickly to his greenhouse when he saw Brandon sitting with them. He didn't look happy, but then he did just have his home trashed and his girlfriend killed. The others seemed to be pretty quiet too. Are they trying to console Brandon? He hesitated, thinking he should go over there, too. But he remembered the tracker. He had to disable the tracker before Laurence had a chance of finding him and them.

He entered the greenhouse and pushed through his jungle. As he made his way towards his desk, he strained to see if Asherah was there. He had some questions for her and it was time for answers that made sense. But he was distracted and in a hurry. Perhaps he’d have to address that issue later.

While pushing through the last fronds of his palms, he noticed someone standing in front of his laptop looking at it. At first he thought it was Asherah, but the shape was wrong. It was a man. "Hello?" Steven wondered if one of the guests had gone in there and was playing with his laptop. Not that he could do much. He kept his secret network hidden and his programs were cryptic enough that only he knew how to use them. He did have regular wireless access on the laptop, but that was usually turned off and unused nowadays. With no games or silly gimmicks on there, most people would find his laptop pretty boring.

The man looked over his shoulder, then turned around and smiled. "Hi!" He pointed to the laptop. "Is this yours?"

"Yes." Steven walked up and looked at the laptop. The man hadn't changed anything, however, and Steven breathed a sigh of relief. Usually guests stayed out of the greenhouse. It was warm and sticky in there and they preferred the cool patio. At least until winter comes. Steven may have to relocate the laptop then. But now wasn't the time to be thinking about that. "I'm sorry, but I'm in a real hurry," Steven said.

"I think that's amazing. I've never seen anything like that before!" The man gushed as he got out of Steven's way. "And believe you me, I know computers."

Steven looked at him. "Really?"

The man nodded and held out a hand. "Jacob Bradly."

Steven shook it and mumbled his name as he looked back at his laptop. He needed to get to work right away so he started accessing the scanner. Steven was able to find its network easily enough. Now to identify the network it was using and hack into their software. "Wow, you're really good at that!" He looked over Steven's shoulder as Steven worked feverishly, trying to ignore the distraction until he was safe.

"I've taken a few classes," Steven said, trying to avoid more questions.

"More than a few. I think you've got a lot of untapped potential there, Steven," Jacob said as he watched Steven break into his network and redirect his satellites. "It's absolutely amazing watching you work."

Steven grinned. He had never looked at what he did from anyone else's perspective and to him it was like breathing air. Nothing special. He couldn't find his active signal, but found his history. He took that and copied it into the system as active. A few more keystrokes and he stood there waiting. He watched as his signal was duplicated thousands of times over the continental USA. He then excluded his actual location from that list and sat back. Let them chew on that. Later on he would start playing with that to lead them where he wanted them to go and he would start to have some fun with these morons.

"Wow. Just wow. I can't believe how easy it was for you to do that," Jacob was beside himself. "You know, I do a little hacking too, but I've never seen anything like that before."

Steven turned around an looked at him. He was grinning widely and shaking his head, clearly in admiration. "You know," Jacob continued, "...there was this one time when someone even trapped me in a sandbox. Pulled me into a honeypot and clamped it down on me. Can you believe that? That guy was a complete ghost."

Steven frowned. That sounded familiar. Jacob patted him on the shoulder. "But I sure am happy to finally meet you in person. You have got to be the number one hero on my list."

"What?" Steven was confused now. Had they crossed paths before? Then it dawned on him. He did trap someone in a honey pot and sandboxed him in as he evaded being tracked. That was long ago, however. "Uhm, I think you have me confused with someone else." Steven started edging for the door.

"No way, Steven. You are a legend. You just don't know it because you're always cooped up in your hole." Jacob laughed as he followed Steven out. "But then, aren't we all?"

"A legend to who?" Steven asked over his shoulder as he reached the door.

"Well, I belong to a group of people who are really geeky. You have no idea just how famous you are. Like a cult hero." Jacob walked up beside him. "I can say for a fact that I am your biggest fan."

Steven felt uncomfortable with all of the attention and looked around. His friends and their friends were still sitting over in a corner with their backs to him. Brandon sat looking down at his knees. He wanted to go console Brandon, but now there was this obnoxious guy hanging all over him. Maybe he was drunk. "Look, I don't know who you are and I really need to get to my friends."

"Oh, I understand perfectly. Really, I'm not trying to creep you out or anything." Jacob held up his hands as Steven walked toward his friends. The man followed a few steps behind him. Steven almost tripped over his pile of wood and new raised beds and the nail gun he was using. Someone had moved the pile while he was gone. He was distracted by the man behind him and looked over his shoulder at him. Steven was starting to get a bit creeped out. He was going to have to have a discussion with the guys about who they let up here on the roof.

As he got closer he frowned even more. They had not turned around or looked up to greet him. "Hey guys. What's up?" Steven walked over then noticed something that alarmed him. All of them were zip tied to their chairs. Stopping, he looked around at Jacob who was wearing a huge smile. "What is this?" Steven backed up a little, his eyes darting around into the shadows. A half dozen agents seemed to materialize from the various places they had sequestered themselves in and Steven's alarm level went to the roof.

"Really, did you think it was going to be that easy?" Jacob said. He walked past Steven and sat down next to Brandon, putting his arm on the back of the seat that Brandon sat on. Steven looked at Sarah and Charley then with a gut wrenching realization recognized the other two. "Sally! Jonah!" He yelled involuntarily. They both didn't move, staring at the ground.

"Don't mind them. They aren't ignoring you but we've kinda told them not to move or make eye contact or say anything." Jacob leaned forward, "I think it would kill the mood and ruin the moment. Don't you think?"

Steven suddenly felt sick as he backed up, shaking his head. Sally was crying, trying hard not to sob out loud and Sarah was biting her lip, trembling in fear. "This isn't happening."

"Oh yes it is," Jacob said. "Did you expect any different?" He leaned back again then got retrospective. "But perhaps you did." He shook his head. "I really have to apologize for Laurence. He's got a big heart and is really motivated, but he's like a tornado in a China shop. He really is."

Steven looked around, trying to find any way out. The agents stood at their posts silently and all were heavily armed. The elevator was well guarded, as was the fire escape. Those were the only two ways out. And even if he left, what about his family and friends?

"Now me, I'm a big believer in working smarter and not harder." Jacob was clearly enjoying himself. "I think you agree, don't you? I've seen your garden beds here and they are genius. Almost self maintaining. Why work hard when you don't have to?"

Steven's heart was racing, trying to find a way out but coming up blank. No matter what he thought of, he didn't see any way where his family and friends made it out unscathed.

"Now, we are very interested in you, Steven. It doesn't have to be hard, you know. We do appreciate and reward cooperation." Jacob squeezed Brandon's shoulder and looked at him. "Your friends and parents would definitely appreciate your cooperation. Wouldn't you?" he asked Brandon. Brandon didn't respond but glowered. Jacob mussed his hair and stood up.

"Why? I am no one," Steven asked, desperation and foreboding filling him to the core.

"I disagree. You have accessed alien technology and we are intensely interested in that. I think we can help each other out a lot." Jacob said as he crossed his arms, looking at Steven.