Crow - The Awakening (74 page)

"Aliens? This is still about... aliens? Are you guys nuts?" Steven was incredulous. He thought it was just Laurence for the most part. But now this Jacob fellow was also spouting that lunacy.

"Oh, I'm sure we're all pretty nuts, Steven. My mother even had me tested. But I'm sure once I get you back to our base you'll see things differently. Area 51 doesn't hold a candle to what we've uncovered, my friend." Jacob grinned.

Steven began to get furious. "You have tormented me, chased me across town, killed people, killed my friends, destroyed their homes and all that because of... aliens?" he asked, yelling.

Jacob thought for a second. "Mmm, yep. That about sums it up."

Steven shook his head. How do you reason with people like that? He was completely spent. Looking down, he saw his nail gun. Gritting his teeth he picked it up and put it to his temple and looked at Jacob. "If I am so valuable to you that you would go through all this effort, then I'm sure you'll appreciate this. My family, my friends, they go free or I die right here and now. Do you understand?" Steven looked at Jacob as he moved over to the ledge and stepped up on it. No one was going to sneak up and tackle him there.

Sally screamed and sobbed then bit her lip as she tried to hold it in. She looked at Steven and he started crying, too. He had no other way of bargaining. There was simply nothing else he could do. He was the prize. The only thing they valued. What they were willing to kill and cause wanton destruction to get. That was his only bargaining chip left.

He felt Asherah in him and amazingly she wasn't yelling at him like she usually was when he was in danger. She was resigned to whatever Steven did and he felt a flood of melancholy wash over him. "I love you, Steven. We will go together," Asherah whispered softly. He could feel her pain and yet now he felt her relief. Shaking his head, he refocused his attention on Jacob, blinking away the tears.

Jacob was silent for a long while giving Steven a calculating stare. "You know, Steven. I believe you. You never cease to surprise me. But yes, you really are very important to us."

An agent walked over to his friends and family and pulled out a pair of wire cutters and cut their zip ties. Jacob watched them as they huddled together in the corner holding each other. He turned to Steven and held out his hands. "See? I'm not unreasonable. We're not interested in them. Just you. It's always been you, Steven."

Steven was gasping, holding back his tears as he put his nail gun down. "I want you to know right here and right now. If I get a hint that they are even remotely being threatened, it's over. I'm done."

Jacob nodded. "Your friends will be okay, Steven. That was the original deal from the minute you walked out of the elevator. You have my word." He walked up to Steven and held his hand out toward the elevator. Steven stood there looking at his friends and family. His heart broke that he may never see them again, but he tentatively thrilled that he had hopefully somehow purchased their safety. He glared at Jacob and started toward the elevator.

The elevator door opened and a handful of men walked out carrying briefcases and toolboxes. Some of them went to the greenhouse and the others walked over to Steven's apartment. "What are they doing?" Steven asked stopping as he approached the elevator.

"Don't mind them, Steven. They're just here to gather up your belongings. You'll be living with us for a while and I'm sure you won't mind having your stuff, right? Especially that remarkable computer of yours," Jacob said amicably.

Steven looked him in the eye for a moment then turned and walked toward the elevator again. The agent guarding it stepped to the side then followed him in. Jacob nodded to the other agents then got in and the door closed. Steven fumed and felt utterly defeated.

Jonah held Sally tightly as she sobbed. He kept her from running to Steven, knowing that these guys were still a threat to all of them. Charley likewise embraced Sarah and they looked at each other. Their situation was still precarious. Jonah knew better than the rest. Cutting their zip ties did not free them. It just gave the illusion so they could capture their target and leave. But he was already captured the instant he stepped out of the elevator.

One of the agents took up station nearby, watching them. The others fanned out, digging through the beds looking for anything Steven may have hidden, and several went into Steven's apartment. Sally flinched as an agent walked near her and started pulling the pile of wood boards apart to see if anything was under them. She looked up at what they were doing and then at Jonah who looked back at her. Sally suspected the same thing Jonah did and she put her head on his chest while he stood there watching the hubbub around him.

"You're not going to let us go, are you," Jonah asked the agent. He looked at him expressionless for a moment then shook his head slowly.

"Why?" Sally asked.

"Loose ends, ma'am," he answered frankly, but politely.

Sally just looked at him, her mouth open.

"If it's any consolation, you won't feel a thing." The agent actually sounded sympathetic.

"What are you waiting for?" Charley asked, embracing Sarah.

"The cleanup crew needs to complete their task so we are certain you are no longer needed, sir," the agent answered curtly.

Sally shook her head. "You're acting as if you're building a birdhouse or something. We are people and you are just going to kill us?"

"Yes, ma'am." The agent gave no indication of emotion and remained firm in his resolution to complete his orders.

"But you could let us go. We are no threat to you or your organization," Sarah pleaded.

"You are not a threat today, but could be tomorrow. We don't leave loose ends," the agent said, as if trying to mollify her. Sally was appalled at just how impersonal the agent was about it, as if he was fixing a sandwich.

"Do you know just how ridiculous that sounds?" Sally was getting angry and Jonah restrained her, pulling her back. "You guys waltz in like you own the place and give and take whatever lives you choose as if you're all that. But you're not! We know people who would hand you your butt on a napkin!" she screamed at him, almost breaking free of Jonah's grasp. She sank down, sobbing, crying for Steven and for them all.

The agent looked at her impassively and held his ground, maintaining guard on them.

The laptop was definitely a curiosity. The technical analysts examined it as it sat on the desk. They decided it would be prudent to gather its information before moving it or turning it off, just in case it had any fail safes built in that would brick it.

"Create a VPN to base and lets get this copied over," Ned instructed the other technician as he opened his bag of computer tools. "I'll ghost the hard disk." He pulled out an external hard disk and plugged it into the laptop.

"This system is completely whack, Ned. I don't see where to connect it to the network." Mark said as he examined the menu options.

"There, try that." Ned pointed to something that looked like a list of networks. Mark pulled it up and saw an extensive list of nearby wireless networks. Most of them were unsecured.

"Wow. That's impressive," Mark exclaimed. He chose one and established a connection then got down to setting up a virtual private network with their systems back at base. "The kid designed all of this?"

"They say he did. Look at this. Carbon fiber, metal frame. I bet it's water resistant. Look at that rubber o-ring around the base. And wow, this thing rocks." Ned was surprised at how fast it was copying files over. He'd never seen any wireless network accomplish the copy so fast. "We may as well be tapped in on a hard line. Look at the bandwidth this laptop has opened up!"

"I can't wait to get this back home and crack into it. If it's anything like his little flashdrives, I'm sure we're going to learn a few things," Mark said, restraining his drool.

"Lohet!" Sirel yelled. She was jumping up and down like a little girl. "Look, look, look!"

Lohet rushed out of the bedroom to see what Sirel was so excited about. She stood back, still jumping up and down. What the little floating screen displayed was unmistakable. Lohet passed his hands over the screen and the virtual screen expanded in the air before them so they could all see better. Sirel was squealing. "We found him! We found him!"

Penipe rushed out, startled by all of the racket. Migalo came in from the porch, picking fur from his teeth with a shard of bone from his latest meal. Penipe frowned at him as he spit the fur to the side, but she returned her attention to Sirel who was now rolling on the ceiling in extreme delight. She got on all fours on the ceiling, looking at Penipe while upside down. "We found him, Penny!"

"What?" Penipe walked over to Lohet who was narrowing down the location.

"It would seem that he has accessed the regular network and now we are triangulating on his laptop," Lohet said, concentrating.

Sirel floated down and landed on his shoulders. "There." The triangulation wasn't done but she instinctively knew what it was going to find. True enough, as their software closed in around the laptop, its center was squarely in an apartment high-rise.

"What floor?" Penipe asked. The triangulation was still working that out. The laptop was accessing a wireless network in a neighboring building but they were able to ascertain signal strength and use other wireless devices in the area to capture the signal and further refine the triangulation.

"Roof," Lohet said. He wasn't surprised that Steven would have chosen somewhere high. He was a tree loving person after all. He shut the computer's display down and handed the brass tube to Penipe who put it in her belt and followed Lohet outside and Migalo and Sirel joined them there.

Sirel smiled broadly, and held out her hands. "Shall we go?"

All three grabbed Sirel's hands and in an instant they were high above Seattle, rocketing toward a highrise and a major step closer to finding Steven.

"We're done here!" Ned called out to the agents.

The agent guarding the prisoners nodded and pulled out his pistol. He twisted a silencer on it as he looked at them, deciding which one to take down first. As he did he noticed something out of the corner of his eyes and turned his head to look and froze eyes wide. "That's impossible!"

Sally snarled at him and before he could turn his attention back, she swung a hammer that solidly impacted with his temple, and the agent dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. She screamed at him in fury and threw the hammer at him as Jonah rushed to her side, trying to shield her from any further attack.

Lohet walked by her, looking at her long enough to meet her eyes then continued on toward the greenhouse. The signal came from there. The other agents looked at him and remembered the video from the park where the drone was destroyed and immediately pulled their weapons to fire. Sirel came down between two of them and touched them, then skipped toward the greenhouse as they convulsed and fell to the ground, their bodies smoking. An agent turned to run, only to come face to face with Migalo who gave him a toothy smile. Shocked, he turned to run from him but found his legs unresponsive. Migalo growled and bit him on the back of the neck, crushing his vertebrae. An agent by the greenhouse took it all in, completely shocked and stood there frozen, his hand still on his holstered pistol. Lohet grabbed his head and crushed his skull as he walked by, dropping the agent out of the way of the others as they all walked into the greenhouse.

Mark and Ned were busy packing up the laptop when they heard some pandemonium outside. They looked at each other and figured the prisoners were being difficult. As Ned turned off the laptop he saw something reflecting in the black screen, illuminated by the overhead florescent lamp. A woman. He turned and his mouth dropped. Her beauty was unsurpassed, and he stood there completely dumbfounded as she walked up to him and put her hands on his face. Mark was going to say something when he turned and saw a little girl grinning at him. "Sir? Will you pull my finger please." She giggled as she reached out with a finger. Mark stood there, shocked to see her. She cocked her head to the side, walked closer and touched him, and he was shocked in an entirely different manner, dead before he dropped to the floor.

Ned sank to the floor, completely lost in Penipe's eyes. He was spontaneously, completely, and overwhelmingly in love with her, beyond any reason or clarity of thought. Her eyes captivated him and he felt as if he was floating. She followed him down as he sank, holding his face as she bore deep into his mind, which opened up to her and spilled out all of its secrets as he surrendered completely to her.

Penipe stood up, and the four of them stood there looking at the body on the floor. Even though his eyes were glassed over, he had a look of complete ecstasy on his face. "Well, at least he died happy," Sirel giggled. She pulled the computer from Penipe's belt and turned it on, pulling up a map. Penipe peered at it, waving her hand to move the map to where she wanted and she pointed, marking the map. "It's an old gold mine."

Migalo was aghast. "They took the deviant down into a mine? Are they crazy?"

Sally burst in, followed by the others and she ran up to Lohet. "Please save him, Lohet. Please!" Sally begged. Lohet looked at her, remembering the previous conversation they had. He decided not to belabor the point and nodded. Sally hugged him, sobbing, and he looked over at Jonah, who shrugged. Sarah, Charley and Brandon stood there gaping.

Sirel walked up to Sarah and looked at her. "You look kinda like Sally," she said in her singsong voice. Sarah nodded, not sure what to make of her. Penipe put the computer away and looked at Lohet while Migalo circled around Brandon, sniffing him.

"I smell golem," Migalo growled. Brandon flinched, pulling his arms in as Migalo got closer to him.

Penipe looked at him and recognized him. "He was at the mansion. She was with him."

"He had a golem for a girlfriend. Oh, how sweet," Migalo snarled and walked out. Brandon looked at him, stunned, then at Penipe who glanced at him then started walking after Migalo. Sirel skipped after the two.