Axiom Theory: Book Four of the Shadow Series (16 page)

Instantly Test knew what
Thad was seeing. Turning to Alyssa, he spoke commandingly. “Go get the others. They’re going to want to hear this.”

In a matter of seconds everyone was huddled around the phone while little Aiden continued to draw at the table.

“Some of these babies are tiny,” continued Thad. “Like they shouldn’t even be born yet.”

“Where are they?” asked Prim without introducing himself.

“I’m not completely sure,” replied Thad. “The room is strange; wires and monitors everywhere. Unfortunately, I’m only seeing it like a slide show. There’s a woman there—she has red hair, but I only see the back of her.”

Everyone in the room made a quick scan of each other’s faces.

“What else have you seen?” asked Cliff.

“The only other thing is that I keep seeing a dam
,” replied Thad. “It looks familiar to me, but I can’t put my finger on it as to why. Other than that, that’s it. It’s a quick blip of all these babies in this stuff and then suddenly I’m standing at the base of this dam looking into a spillway or something.” Thad’s voice suddenly increased in pitch. “Oh yeah, I forgot. There are people fishing.”

“That’s novel,” chimed Lauren, though her sarcasm carried a touch less venom than usual. “Someone fishing at the base of a dam?”

“I know that voice,” said Thad. “How’re you doing Lauren?”

“Fine,” she answered curtly. “But let’s stay on task here.”

Thad huffed audibly through the phone. “That’s it,” he said. “I don’t know anything else.”

“
Thad, this is Prim. Will you let us know if you see anything more?”

“I will,” replied
Thad. “Does it make any sense to you?”

With a grimace, Prim replied. “Unfortunately, it does.”

“Care to share?” asked Thad.

Looking around to the others, Prim shook his head and held a finger to his lips. “Not right now,” he replied.

Confused, Thad replied. “Oookay, well…I’m going to be taking my summer school kids on a field trip to the Insect Zoo at K-State in Manhattan tomorrow. If I see any more between now and then, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

With a nod, Cliff replied. “Thanks, son. You take care. Love ya, boy.”

“Love you too, Dad.”

“Thanks,” said both Prim and Test in unison.

“Take care, all,” replied Thad.

“Hey,
Thad,” said Prim, trying to catch him before he hung up the phone.

“Yeah?” replied
Thad.

“Can I ask you a favor?”

“Who is this?” asked Thad.

“It’s Prim, but that doesn’t matter,” replied Prim
, mildly annoyed. “We don’t have the internet here and we need to find someone. Can you see if you can find a location for a Christopher Dawson? He’s military if that helps.”

“Do you have a general idea of where he might live?” asked
Thad.

“No, I don’t.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Remember, I’m heading to Manhattan tomorrow.”

Cliff could see a vein beginning to bulge in the side of Prim’s neck. Before Prim could respond, Cliff interjected. “Just do what you can, okay, son?”

“I’ll try. I’ll call you if I find something.”

In the
pause that followed, it seemed everyone waited for Lauren or Prim to make a snide remark.

“All right then,” said
Thad. “I’ll talk to you all later.”

As the phone lines disconnected, all remained huddled around the phone in silence.
Though she struggled with her place in all of this, the fear and concern on everyone’s faces frightened Alyssa and she needed answers.

“What does
all of that mean?” she asked, breaking the tortured silence.

With a furrowed brow and a stern look, Prim answered. “It means that we’re running out of time.”

Outside of Aiden’s occasional question, the house had become quiet. It was strange to both Test and Alyssa. Though it had only been a short time ago since the others arrived, so much had happened in that span of time that it seemed like days since they’d been alone.

The plan was for Iku and Prim to locate the twins’ location and nothing more. There would be no engagement. Once they’d found them, Iku and Prim would stay put and keep an eye on them until Lauren and Cliff had come up with more information. The hope was that Dawson would know more of what is going on. Test laughed as he thought of Lauren and Cliff interrogating Dawson; it was the perfect good cop/bad cop scenario.
Though they hadn’t heard from Thad in regards to a possible location, Cliff and Lauren decided that they would pay him a personal visit in Kansas City. Lauren wanted to prod him along, while Cliff welcomed the opportunity to see his son again.

Test and Alyssa sat on opposite ends of the couch and stared blankly at the cracked window across from them. With a million things trying to enter his mind all at once, Test knew the one thing that was on Alyssa’s. Every couple of seconds, he could see her glance to him out of the corner of his eye
, and each time he looked she looked away. After several rounds of peek-a-boo, Test spoke.

“Something on your mind?” he asked casually with a smirk.

Though worry of Lauren’s situation still held a large part of her thoughts, at the moment, only one thing was paramount. Tucking her hair behind her ears, Alyssa replied, almost bashfully. “Well, I was kind of wondering if you’d thought any more about helping Aiden.”

Test reached to her and gently caressed her arm with the back side of his hand. “As a matter of fact, I have,” he replied. “I’ll do it.”

A rush of excitement bolted through her as she patted her thighs and kicked her feet. “Did you hear that Aiden?” she said, planting her feet and leaning forward. “Test said he’s going to help you talk to your mom and dad.”

Smiling so hard he thought his cheeks would split, Test watched Alyssa’s joy and knew what it meant to be happy.

“When can we go?” asked Alyssa.

Caught up in the moment, Test replied. “Well, pretty soon.”

“Like now?”

Holding up a hand, Test tried to slow her up a bit. “Hold on a second though. There’s a couple of things that we should talk about before we go.”

The smile melted from Alyssa’s face as quickly as it appeared. “What?” she asked somberly.

“Well,” replied Test. “This is going to be dangerous. I don’t know if his parents know who I am or not. That aside…
,” he looked down to Aiden, wondering silently if this conversation should even be had in front of him. Reluctantly, he continued. “How do we know how his parents are going to react to seeing him again? I think we need to be prepared for everything.”

Flipping her hair behind her shoulders, Alyssa replied. “Honey, sometimes you
can’t
prepare for everything. I know there are a lot of
what ifs
and things like that, but honestly, how do you think you’d react if you got the chance to see your son again after having lost him?” She scooted closer to him and took his hand into hers. “Do you remember when I told you about how I found out about my parents’ death?” She waited for a moment as he nodded his head. “Getting to tell them goodbye was the best gift I could ever have been given.”

As
Test recalled the story, he immediately understood. “All right then,” he replied, trying to sound positive. “Here’s the plan: I’m just going to walk into their camp, introduce myself, and then bring you and Aiden over. Sound good?”

Test looked down to Aiden who stared up with his big brown eyes. He neither smiled nor frowned; just a blank expression with a hint of sadness.

“You okay, little buddy?” asked Test. “You ready to go see your folks?”

Slowly the little boy nodded his head. “Will they be scared of me?” he asked.

Rushing to his side, Alyssa assured him with a hug. “No, of course not,” she replied as she looked to Test. “They’re going to be thrilled to see you.”

“Will I get to stay with them?” he asked.

A knot the size of Texas became stuck in Test’s throat as he watched Alyssa stumble with a reply. She looked to him and, with a pained expression, pleaded for help.

Test stood from the couch and knelt down beside Alyssa and Aiden. “I don’t think so, buddy,” he replied
, resting a hand on top of the boys red hair.

“Then where will I go?”

Alyssa and Test’s eyes met and, with an unspoken understanding, each of them knew what the answer had to be.

“You can stay with us,” replied Alyssa as she cupped his cheek in her hand. She looked to Test with tears welling in her eyes as he smiled
while nodding his head.

Test saw th
at Aiden’s face was still filled with sadness. “How does that sound?” he asked as he tapped the boy’s nose with the tip of his index finger. As the tiniest hint of a smile appeared on Aiden’s lips, Test’s heart swelled with pride. He knew they were doing the right thing.

****

Traveling at ethereal speed, it didn’t take any time at all for Lauren and Cliff to arrive at Thad’s apartment complex. Though they’d stopped three times along the way for Lauren to recharge, Cliff could tell that she was tired. Her face was pale and she was taking short quick breaths with her mouth agape.

“You okay?” he asked.

Wiping her brow, Lauren wetted her lips and shot the old man a quizzical look. “Fine,” she replied short of breath. “Let’s just get inside. I’m tired of being hot.”

As she stepped away, Cliff watched her place a hand on the small of her back. The wheels began to turn as he heard her voice snapping through the air.

“You coming or what, old man?”

Overcome with concern, he took a step towards her. “I’m comin’,” he replied, looking at her with a puckered face. “You sure you’re doin’ alright?”

“I said I’m fine,” snapped Lauren, though keeping her volume under control. She began to turn, but then stopped herself. “Wait a minute,” she said. “Have you been talking to Alyssa?”

Cliff
’s head recoiled in confusion. “About what?” he asked.

Lauren examined Cliff’s face for a moment. “Why are you so worried about me all of the sudden?”

“Because your breathin’ sounds like a freight train rollin’ down the tracks and you’re sweatin’ like Niagara Falls was comin’ off your forehead,” replied Cliff defensively.

Leaning into him
, Lauren looked Cliff square in the eye. Satisfied that the old man was telling the truth, she turned away and mumbled to herself. “She’d better hope she kept her mouth shut.” She opened the door to the complex and let Cliff pass. As she followed him to Thad’s door, she continued to berate him. “Just because you and Alyssa don’t sweat anymore doesn’t mean that something’s wrong with those of us that do.”

Turning to
Thad’s door and paying her no attention, Cliff knocked gently. From the other side, he heard footsteps and waited as he knew his son was looking through the peep hole. Instantly he could hear Thad’s muffled voice from inside the apartment.

“Are you kidding me?”

The door opened and revealed Thad standing in a pair of gray sweats and a Kansas City Royals t-shirt.

“Hello, boy,” said Cliff. “We was just in the neighborhood and…”

“The hell you were, Dad,” interrupted Thad. “You guys came to check and see if I found anything on that Dawson guy yet.” He glanced to Lauren and commented before Cliff could answer. “You look like crap, girl. You feeling okay?”

Rolling her eyes, Lauren quickly pushed past the two men and entered the apartment. She walked straight through to the kitchen where she opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water.

Thad watched her as he glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah, just help yourself,” he said as he looked back to Cliff. “What’s up with her?”

Stepping into the apartment, Cliff replied
in a distant manner. “Not sure. Maybe she just needs a rest.”

As he stood
next to his son in the entry way, Cliff eyed Lauren carefully as she downed the bottle of water in what seemed like three swallows. The two of them stood while gawking unabashedly as she walked into the living room and plop down on the couch.

“So am I right?” asked
Thad.

Continuing to eye Lauren, Cliff replied. “Yep.”

Thad groaned as he walked away from his father’s side. “I haven’t even had time to look yet, Dad,” he replied as he sat in the recliner perpendicular to the couch.

Pointing to the television, Lauren spoke. “Too busy watching game shows?” she asked
, even though it was obvious he’d been watching the news.

Leaning forward in his chair,
Thad replied. “So what if I was?”

Lauren leaned her head back and wiped her wet face with her hands. As she dried her palms on her lap, she continued to look at the ceiling. “Don’t mess with me,
Thad. I’m not in the mood.”