Indigo Incite (The Indigo Trilogy) (20 page)

“This
is…a…1965…Ford Mustang,” Trevor reported in a mechanical voice. “It was…first
introduced on April 17…1964. Here is a…1959…Thunderbird,” he said, moving on to
the next car. “The Thunderbird…was first introduced in…1955. There have been
over…4.4 million Thunderbirds…produced."

“It’s a
nice car,” Sarah said. Ian had been correct; Trevor did seem to know a lot
about cars.

For the
next few minutes, as they strolled along, Trevor continued to point out various
facts about vehicles. When they reached a lone shade tree, he came to a halt
and turned so they faced each other. He let go of her hand and placed both of
his hands on her small, protruding abdomen. Then, he closed his eyes and turned
his face skyward. She looked down at him in wonder. He was smaller than the
average eight-year-old, yet he was a beautiful child. He had blond hair,
dimples, and sparkling blue eyes, eyes that seemed full of wisdom behind his
quiet exterior.

He stood
in immobile concentration for almost a minute and then his serious expression
turned into a thoughtful smile. He opened his eyes, and his gaze returned to
her belly.

“I
like…you,” Trevor said. “You…will…be…my friend.”

She was
unsure if he had spoken to her or the baby and was unsure if she was supposed
to respond, so she said, “Um, I like you, too.”

He
didn’t make eye contact but kept his hands and gaze on her belly. “They want
you…Stay…Stay here.” He was answered by a small but undeniable kick from within.
He took hold of both of Sarah's hands and pulled her down to sit in the dirt,
beside him.

She took
her place and sat cross-legged beneath the large oak. She wasn’t thrilled to
sit in the dirt but welcomed the cool reprieve offered by the large tree.
Beside her, Trevor picked up a small stick and began to draw pictures in the
dirt.

She
watched in fascinated silence as the boy drew in animated concentration. The
subject of his drawing was unclear, but she assumed that the picture would
eventually reveal itself. The branches overhead swayed and whispered gently in
the breeze, and his words floated back to her mind. ‘They want you,' he had
told her, or had he been talking to the baby? Ian had said that the boy was
psychic. Did he know that she and her friends were in danger?

She
glanced toward the mobile home to see if Ian had come in search of his young
friend, but he was nowhere in sight. She looked, then, at the drawings in the
dirt. There was an unmistakable planet with five surrounding moons. Below the
celestial images were what appeared to be hieroglyphics of some sort.

Sarah
pointed to the characteristic symbols, with interest. “What does that mean?”

Trevor
glanced at her briefly and then looked toward the sky. He placed one hand on
her belly again and sat in silence for a moment. Then he smiled.

He
wants us to stay here
,
the now familiar voice in her head said.
He thinks this is a safe place for
us
.

Sarah
looked at Trevor in wonder. “Can you communicate with my baby?”

Trevor
looked at her and smiled sweetly. Then he stood and dragged a foot back and
forth across his drawings, erasing all evidence of their existence. She
accepted his outstretched hand, and he helped to pull her to her feet. Once she
was upright, he didn’t let go. Hand-in-hand, they continued down the dirt lane
as though they had never stopped.

“This,”
Trevor said, when they stopped in front of an old rusty truck, “is a…1946…GMC
truck.”

It
looked like it had once been red, in its earlier years, though it was difficult
to say for sure, considering that the majority of the truck had rusted over.

“It’s
uh…nice,” Sarah commented, uncertain what she was supposed to say about the
aged vehicle.

Considering
Trevor’s mechanical voice, Sarah was pleasantly surprised at his sincere laugh.
As he continued to laugh, she smiled and laughed with him.

“It’s
not nice?” she asked.

He
vigorously shook his head and said, “No!” Then he laughed some more.

“What’s
so funny?” a voice from behind asked.

Sarah
turned to find Ian behind them. “Oh, hi. You found us. I’m not sure. I told him
the truck was nice, and he started laughing.”

He
turned to Trevor. “That is funny. She’s funny, huh?”

“Funny,”
Trevor replied.

“What’s
wrong with the truck?” Sarah asked. “Other than the obvious fact that it’s all
rusty?”

“Nothing,”
Ian said. “I have plans to fix it up, one day. This car lot belonged to
Trevor’s grandfather, Hank, and this truck was his favorite. He always said
that he was going to fix it up and make it look like new, but he passed away
before he had the chance.”

“How
sad. So, that’s how you met Trevor? Because he was Hank’s grandson?”

“That’s
right. When I first moved to Roswell, in search of…a new life, I didn’t have
much of a resumé, so to speak. I had always worked for the IIA and had never
done anything else, but I did know a lot about cars. When I was growing up, I
read every book I could get my hands on, about fixing cars. I have sort of a
photographic memory, and I convinced Hank that I could help him out. So he gave
me a chance, and it turns out, I had a knack for car restoration. Hank accepted
me. He never asked questions about my past, and I felt like I was a part of the
family."

“So after
Hank passed away, you just stayed on here?”

“Yep. He
left the place to me. Trevor’s father was furious. He felt that he should have
inherited the place, but he had never shown an interest in it. He knows nothing
about cars. He’s spent the majority of his life bouncing in and out of jail for
dumb things like DUIs and petty robbery. Finally, Melissa told him that she
wanted a divorce. He told her that he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction and
took off. She has no clue where he is, and they’re still legally married. As
far as Trevor is concerned, I’m the only father figure he has in his life.”

“It
sounds like you’ve really made a place for yourself, here. You think you’ll
stay for a while then?” She thought about his parents and their search for him.
She wondered if he knew or even cared.

Ian
smiled and nodded. “Yeah, that’s the plan. All my life I felt like I was
different and never really fit in. I’ve never felt more normal than I do right
here. I like this town, and I love Trevor. We understand each other.”

He
didn’t say so, but reading between the lines, Sarah suspected that Trevor’s
mother might also have a slight influence on his desire to stick around. Other
than his obvious affection for the boy, she wondered about his feelings for
Melissa. Not that it mattered of course; it wasn’t any of her business.

“Did you
know that your parents are looking for you?”

Ian
looked her in the eyes, for a moment, but said nothing. Finally he said, “I
suspected they were. After I took off, I knew the IIA had a search team out,
looking for me. They’re scared about everything I know and who I might tell.”

“You
knew all of this when you deserted but were still willing to take the risk?”

“I had
to. I looked at what my life had become, and I wasn’t happy. They owned me, and
they ruled every second of my day. At first the job seemed exciting, you know?
It was like in the movies. The idea of being a spy and having adventures seemed
like fun, but soon the exhilaration wore off and I began to see the truth.”

“And
what was the truth?” They had wandered back to the shade tree. Trevor located
his stick and resumed his place in the dirt.

“The
truth was, I was just a pawn, a pawn for a group of people who wanted to use my
knowledge and gifts, to gain power and money. When I saw that they were willing
to sacrifice the freedom of others like me and the security of their own
country, for their own greed, I knew that it was time to get out.

“I went
to my parents for help, but they were just as stuck and weren’t willing to take
the risk. Even though they knew the truth, just as well as I did, they enjoyed the
comforts of life that the IIA provided, and they didn’t want to give up their
research. I knew that I was on my own and would probably never see them again,
but it was a chance I had to take.

“How did
you know that my parents are looking for me? You’ve seen them?”

There
was an accusatory tone to his voice. Sarah hoped that he didn’t suspect she
worked for the IIA, as well. “Yeah, I saw them, but I didn’t know who they were
when I first met them. They found out that the IIA had tracked me down in
Washington. When your parents first heard the news, they thought it was
you
the IIA had found. They came to see for themselves. When they got there, the
trackers instructed them to follow me. I thought that they were just a quirky
older couple. I had no idea who they were. I swear!”

Ian
smiled. “A quirky older couple. That’s a good way to describe them. I admit my
parents are a bit odd.”

Sarah
laughed. “Yeah, just a little, but I like them. I know they deceived me, but it
was only because they were trying to find you. They really miss you, you know.”

Ian
sighed. “Yeah, I know, but I can’t see them.” He shook his head. “I’ve made a
new life for myself, here. I’m finally safe. If I were to see them, or even
call them, the IIA would find me in no time. As long as I stay here, I stay
safe, and I can keep Trevor safe.” He looked down at the boy in the dirt. He
hadn’t drawn strange symbols as before; instead, he had drawn what looked to
be, Ian’s two dogs. She wondered if she should mention the hieroglyphics but
decided that it could wait.

“Keep Trevor
safe? What do you mean?”

“If the
IIA knew of Trevor’s existence, they would snatch him up in a heartbeat.”

“But he
can’t talk…I mean, he can, but…you know what I mean. What good could he
possibly be to them?”

“They
would love to get their hands on him for research. They’ve barely begun DNA
research on Indigos. If they were able to do DNA research on a
Star Child
,
and one with his powers…they would have a hay day.”

“So you
see yourself as his protector….his guardian?”

“That’s
a good way of putting it. Who better to protect him than a former tracker? If I
keep Trevor close, I’ll always know if he’s in danger. As long as we stay in
Roswell, we’re fairly safe, at least for now.”

“How
so?”

“It’s
kind of a long story. I’ll give you the abbreviated version. When I was first
trying to figure out my plan of escape and where to go, my first thought was to
get as far away from the compound as I could. But then I thought it wouldn’t
really matter how far I went, because a good tracker would eventually find me.

“So then
one day, I started thinking about Star Children. Everyone in the agency knows
of their existence. They have Star Children working for them, in fact. But they
only seem to send trackers to certain parts of the world in search of them,
areas where a large majority exist. So I began to graph the pockets of areas
where the majority of Star Children have been found.”

“And
Roswell was a major area for Star Children?”

“No,
just the opposite,” Ian said with a grin. So then I began to look at areas
where Star Children are rarely found, and I began to see a pattern. There were
quite a few spots, but the ones that stood out the most were Roswell and
Kazakhstan. Do you know what both places have in common?”

Sarah
shook her head. “Um…no.”

“Roswell,
as you know, is the supposed place where UFOs crashed in 1947.”

“Right…and
Kazakhstan?”

“Kazakhstan
is a location where there have been over a dozen reported UFO crashes, since
1941 alone.”

“Are you
kidding?”

“No, not
at all.”

“How
come I’ve never heard of that?”

“Well,
there are a lot of world events that never make it in the news, here in the
U.S., but in Kazakhstan, UFO crashes are a pretty big deal.”

“Why are
crashes so frequent there?”

“No one
knows for sure, but some scientists have theorized that there might be some
sort of a vortex, that has a direct line to other galaxies.”

“So each
place has a UFO connection. I get that, but what’s the connection with the lack
of Star Children?”

Ian
smiled. “That’s just it! There isn’t a lack of Star Children. They’re just as
plentiful in Roswell as anywhere else. I’ve never been to Kazakhstan, but I
suspect that if I were to go there, I’d find them there, as well."

“So, how
come the IIA has never found Star Children here?”

“That’s
exactly what I asked myself. I believe that it has something to do with the
vortex. Perhaps it puts off some sort of protective sonar that prevents
trackers from sensing the presence of Star Children.”

“But
you
can sense that Trevor is a Star Child.”

“Right,
but only when there is close, physical proximity. About six months ago, I
sensed that there were trackers near the New Mexico border, and that was too
close for my peace of mind, so I took a weekend trip to Mexico to try to deter
them away. Once I was there, I realized that I could no longer sense Trevor’s
location. I got scared that they might have taken him, and so I called Melissa.
She assured me that he was home, safe and sound. I realized then that there was
something behind my theory. As long as I’m in Roswell, and close to Trevor, I
can sense his powers, as well as other Star Children in the area, but outside
of Roswell, I can’t feel their presence.”