Crow - The Awakening (14 page)

"I guess. But, I don't like it." He stopped and looked up at her again. "What else can I do? I can't sit back and do nothing when no one else is looking for my parents. I mean, they're not even on anyone's radar. It's like I'm the only one that knows they're missing. The more I search the more I'm convinced I'm the only one looking." It was no end of frustration to Steven. In all of his searches through so many databases, including FBI archives, he had yet to come across any reference to his parents, or any kind of investigation regarding their disappearance. If it wasn't for the fact that he had to have parents to exist and for the word of his godparents, he wouldn't know they existed.

He frowned, feeling dejected all of a sudden. He often felt this way now after so many years of futile searching. Was it even possible to find his parents after so many years? He had expected to at least find hints of their existence by now. Five years and what did he have to show for it? Asherah grabbed his hand and held it in her lap with both of hers. Steven found her touch pleasing and he felt better immediately. "I wish I could make it easier for you, Steven."

He put his other hand on hers and looked thoughtful, remembering the years of support Asherah had given him. "You have, Asherah. I can't imagine having gotten even this far without you. I would have given up a long time ago, but you were always there for me." She smiled and he could tell she was blushing under her fur and they sat there for a moment looking at each other.

Steven fidgeted, feeling his heart suddenly racing, and changed the subject. "I think I'm going to go into computer engineering. I haven't told Sally or Jonah yet, though." He sighed. "I don't know how they'll take it. But it seems like a natural fit for me. The degree plan looks pretty simple, too."

"You'll know more than your instructors," Asherah said. She wasn't flattering him.

"Yeah. I'll just have to play dumb during the classes." Steven gave her a lopsided grin. "But it would help give me a cover for some of the things I need for the search. I'd like to intern at the company Sally and Jonah used to work at, for instance. Get closer to what my parents were actually working on."

"It could get dangerous, Steven." Asherah looked worried. He had told her what Jonah had shared with him about his parents. What they had discovered had gotten the notice of some very bad people and was likely why they were now missing. Steven knew he was treading in dangerous waters.

"Perhaps. But I have the advantage of knowing the danger and I've gotten very good at staying out of sight." Steven appreciated her concern. It made him feel like he wasn't doing this all alone. Suddenly, he felt hungry and pulled his hand from hers to reach into a basket sitting next to him and pulled out a large, lumpy, green fruit. Asherah was always surprising him with something new and exotic to snack on. She regularly brought him a treat when he visited the meadow. He reciprocated with various mushrooms, figs, and honey, all of which she really loved as well. He sniffed the fruit, squeezing it gently. It smelled almost of cantaloupe. Looking at her, he took a big bite out of it and was immediately shocked by the overwhelming taste of the fruit. It reminded him of rich nectar or fresh uncapped honey. "Mmm, this is really yummy. What do you call it?"

Asherah leaned forward. "Bi'lomba Nia," she said slowly, enunciating it for Steven, who had been learning her native language for a few years. She grabbed Steven's hand and fruit in both her hands and took a bite from the fruit, wiping her lower lip as she chewed the fruit. "My favorite." Steven forgot to breathe for a moment as he watched her take another bite from the fruit in his hand. She looked at him and grinned as she dabbed at the juice that tried to dribble down her chin.

He coughed, then remembered the Elvish he had learned. "It's called sweet fruit?" He expected a more exotic name for such a strange looking fruit. Asherah shrugged her shoulders. Steven took another big bite. "Mmm. It's about to be my favorite too. This is delicious!" He grinned, wiping juice off his chin.

A smile eclipsed Asherah's face as she beamed at his appreciation. He had noticed her smile long ago and found it really attractive. When she smiled, her whole face lit up and she seemed to just radiate her joy. It was a genuine expression and he knew she meant it. Everything around her seemed to perk up when she expressed her happiness. He stared at her for a long moment, lost in that observation and she made a funny face at him, making him laugh. "Ah, I need a napkin now," he said as more juice dribbled down his chin.

Steven looked around for something to wipe his chin with when he was suddenly distracted by a beep from the laptop. Asherah wiped his chin with a napkin she dug from the basket when he forgot the dribble of juice and focused on the laptop. "Hello? This is new." His search program had keyed on a piece of data. He'd already filtered out many such keys on a daily basis, but remained hopeful that each one could lead him that much closer to his parents.

Sometimes he felt things were hopeless, especially when having to sift through so many such false notices, but Steven put a stopper on that attitude, treating each possibility as a potential lead. If he focused on the hopelessness of the enormous job he had embarked on, then the feeling of futility would never go away and he'd certainly fail in his search.

But this wasn't what he was expecting to find. While virtually all of the false positives he has had to filter out came from databases, this one was different. These were actual files that were somehow associated with his parents. He opened another command window and typed in another search algorithm to refine and confirm that search result then waited. The sun was warm on his back, still high in the sky but he hardly noticed as intent as he was on his laptop now. "Look, this is odd." Steven turned the laptop a little.

Asherah scooted over, leaned against him and looked at the readout, then looked at Steven, quizzical. "What am I looking at?" Steven looked at her, suddenly getting an enormous charge from her touch. Lately he had been finding her close presence absolutely electrifying and his chest hurt a little. He had to shake his head and focus back on the task at hand.

"Uhm..." Steven looked back at the computer and tried hard to clear his thoughts that had momentarily gotten discombobulated. "They're video files. A lot of them. From a security company." Steven's eyebrows furrowed as the search narrowed down on what he was looking for and suddenly his attention came into sharp focus. "They're from the tech company Sally and Jonah used to work for." His heart was racing, this time not because of Asherah. His godparents worked with his parents. Was it possible that those files could still be around after all these years? "The problem is, the security company doesn't exist anymore and I think the tech company got absorbed by another or merged or something. They're still there today, but different. So unless someone has recycled their old servers and recently connected them, I'm at a complete loss..." He trailed off, focused harder on the screen and typed another command, and suddenly a window with thumbnails of the video files popped up. Steven gulped and looked at Asherah. She looked back at him, her already large eyes all the wider. He licked his drying lips and looked back at the laptop.

After clenching his fist a couple of times to still his shaking hand, Steven tapped the button on the mouse pad and opened one of the video files that showed a high tech scientific lab. Amongst the sophisticated equipment, his godparents and a man and a woman were huddled around some piece of laboratory machinery staring at a monitor. The woman was decidedly pregnant.

Steven's mouth ran dry. "Are those?" Trailing off again, he pulled out his sketch pad and looked at a rendering of his parents he drew from his last dream that was taped to the underside of the cover. It was a detailed drawing of his parents that he had dreamed about so many times. He looked back at the couple in the video. He held the drawing up next to the computer screen, comparing the two. The surveillance video was rather fuzzy, but the similarities were remarkable and left little doubt in Steven's mind. "Asherah, that's Mom and Dad!" Steven bounced with excitement, overwhelmed by the discovery.

"Is that really you?" She pointed to the woman's belly.

"Yes? That has to be. Wow. They're real. They're really real!" Steven was at a loss of words. He'd never seen them except in his dreams, not even a picture, and yet there they were, in the flesh. "They worked with my godparents. That has to be them."

He had been searching for so many years and hoped to find little snippets and hints of information about them. Vague leads was all he had really expected and he was certain he would have to follow cold trails from those leads. But this was far above and beyond anything he had ever hoped for. Actual videos of his parents. He fast forwarded through several of the videos and they all featured his parents working fervently on whatever project was occupying them. Steven typed a command to retrieve those files to his computer up in the tree house and also a copy of them to the laptop he was currently on. "This is just... spectacular, Asherah." He was stunned.

Asherah wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tight. "Oh, Steven, I'm so happy for you." She was positively effervescent and it was infectious. Steven got even more thrilled over the discovery. This search had been an obsession of his for so long and yet, until now, seemed an act of futility that was no end of consternation for him. Now he had a result. A fantastically significant result.

Steven looked over at her as she put her head on his shoulder and her hair tickled his cheek. He was exceedingly pleased with the turn of events too, and even more pleased to have someone like Asherah to share it with. No one was as close to him as she was. He tried to get serious, and patted her hands. "Okay, this was about fifteen years ago. We still don't know where they are today." The thought sobered him a little. He had just stumbled across a remarkable lead, but the trail was still fifteen years old.

"You'll find them. I know you will." She kissed his cheek and squeezed him in her embrace. He sighed and shook his head in amazement. For a while he was beginning to give up hope. This little discovery has vindicated for him all the sneaking around that he had to do, and justified all the breaking into networks that he did. He expected to find obscure bits of information, not extensive videos. But there his parents were, completely oblivious that anyone was recording video of them, working on whatever project they were working on - perhaps even the project that resulted in their disappearing! Finally he had a solid lead to continue his search. Steven looked at the equipment they were using and decided identifying that gear would be the prudent thing to do. That may shed some light on just what it was they were doing.

"Yeah. I really am going to find them." Steven was even more convinced now as his confidence level started returning. He turned to Asherah, reflexively putting an arm around her and embracing her tightly. He kissed the top of her head and they sat there soaking the moment in while he looked at the video. After a while, Asherah's closeness became more apparent to him and his chest hurt again. Could she tell that his heartbeat got faster? But he didn't mind anymore.

After a long moment he pulled back and became transfixed by her large eyes. Steven never quite noticed before, but looking into her eyes was like looking into pools of liquid moonlight. A wave of vertigo briefly washed over him. She was crying for him, happy that he was finally making progress. He smiled, tenderly wiping her tears away. She held his hand and smiled as he gently stroked her face.

"You're crying," Steven observed.

Asherah nodded. Steven instinctively kissed her wet cheek and he could tell she was blushing under her fur. "I can't tell you how happy I am," she said softly as Steven pulled back to look in her eyes again. "I've hurt with you all this time and now I am so..." She lost her train of thought.

His heart was suddenly pounding in his ears and he felt intoxicated by her closeness. She leaned forward almost imperceptibly, and without another thought Steven leaned the rest of the way, hesitating briefly, then kissed her deeply. He found it remarkable how soft her lips were. Asherah caressed the side of his face with her hand, then took a sharp breath and pulled away a little, her eyes wide as she gazed deep into his eyes. Her face filled with wonder as she shook her head. "You're real," she whispered. She touched his cheek with her hand again and gasped, her eyes wide. "You're really real."

Before Steven could respond, she kissed him again hard, holding his head with both of her hands as he instinctively wrapped his arms around her. Steven heard a noise, almost like a buzzing that seemed to permeate the air around him. He felt it coalesce around them, like an energy that filled the air with a cyclone. Then he heard something else, or rather saw something, or perhaps felt it. His senses were all getting mixed up and supercharged and it was like a river of memories and experiences were flooding in. But it was as if a whisper washed over him, softly immersing him. It was Asherah. Steven felt a tingling all over, as if electrified and he knew she was feeling similar. He experienced her experiences as well, like some sort of feedback loop. She was in his head, and his heart felt like it was going to burst. The back of his head started hurt a little, but not a bad pain. It was more of a pressure. Something seemed to pop and quite suddenly the ground below them heaved violently, breaking their kiss and leaving them both breathless, looking at each other. "Did you feel that?" Asherah asked.

"Mmm hmm." Steven felt the aftershocks reverberating through the ground that he sat on but he couldn't break his gaze from her. He was seeing her with more than his eyes now. Whispers in his head that were clearly her thoughts and experiences. It was a dizzying experience but it seemed so perfectly natural. She grinned at him and caressed his face again. Reaching up, she kissed him again. Softly, with less urgency this time. Steven felt a surge of joy coming from deep within him and he knew it was from her, mixing with his own joy. "What was that?" he asked, breathless, his eyes still closed as she nuzzled his cheek.