Crow - The Awakening (50 page)

"I'm deploying more teams and a drone," Jacob said. "We need to wrap this up and bring Steven in."

"I'll set up a place for the drone truck right away and reassign sectors for the additional teams, sir," Laurence said as he sat down in his car and pulled up the GPS.

"Laurence, anything goes now. Just get the kid and cover your tracks with collateral damage," Jacob commanded, then hung up.

Laurence smiled. He had been operating under that umbrella all this time anyway but it was nice to have his boss give him that authorization. He looked around as the agents cleared the building floor by floor. They were using isotope scanners for short range scanning. But it was coming up empty. Steven wasn't there. He would have been found by now. But with the additional assets coming in he was even more confident of bagging this prey. He called the technical support. "I need you to expand the umbrella. Proxy 911 and police communications and grow the diversion to sectors..." Laurence looked at his phone, "...two through ten." He did not want law enforcement to get tangled up in this hunt. They'd be just another nuisance to deal with.

As the team reported in and the section commanders congregated around the car, Laurence took stock of the situation and addressed his commanders. "Okay, we need dart guns and we need to deploy more isotope scanners. We have seven up in the building right now but he's not there so reassign them and get more for your teams. I've got a chip in him too so we'll get his general location as soon as the satellite is in position, then narrow in on him with the scanner."

He put his GPS on the hood of the car and zoomed out to view the greater Seattle area. "We're going by the same sectors as before but we're also bringing in a drone to aid in the search. The control truck will be parked here," he pointed at the GPS, "so we'll call that Castle for this operation." He looked at his team commanders. "Restraint is still recommended but collateral damage and overkill is authorized. The kid is priority. Whatever sector he pops up in, work your perimeters and box him in. Set a net close in and another further out, okay?" They nodded and left for their prospective teams as Laurence grabbed up his own isotope scanner and checked it for a charge.

Radioactive isotopes were impossible for long range location since their range was extremely limited, and chips were difficult for short range because of the error and interference factors but the two together made a pretty good team. Steven had been dosed with both a chip and the isotope so Laurence was confident it was just a matter of hours or less before they had him. With his boss's growing impatience, less would be better.

As an afterthought, Laurence called the armament officer. "We need to up the dosage in the dart guns. The target is highly resistant to sedatives. I want to be able to bring down a rhino." He hoped that would be a high enough dose as he looked over at his sleeping team members as they were removed from the restaurant. They would be dosed with a stimulant as soon as they were back in the van and given a chance to wake up before being redeployed. Steven didn't even blink an eye. Laurence could tell his own patch was working overtime against the heavy dose. How his team members got dosed was something he already had a team investigating. It was supposed to be just him and Steven. He still could not comprehend how they had been so completely compromised and how the sedative had made it to all of his agents. Everyone in that restaurant was suspect. But they had no one to interrogate. Even the staff cleared out as soon as Steven was up on the roof. Laurence suspected that the real staff was either dead or detained.

One of his agents came out of the second building with an evidence bag. "The casualty has been removed, sir. We were able to retrieve this blood, however." He handed the bag to Laurence. He held it up, looking at the vial of collected blood inside. This would hopefully confirm the nature of these people once and for all.

"Any spatter trail or drag marks?" Laurence looked at the agent. He shook his head. Laurence had shot him in the head himself. It was a solid shot and the target definitely took a hit. He was aiming for Steven's arm to incapacitate him, an easy shot for Laurence. But the kid got in the way at the last minute. Laurence had never seen anyone move so fast. He felt like he had already pulled the trigger. But now the body was gone. "Anyone else on the roof?" Another negative. Laurence was stumped. It only took them a few moments to get up there.

Laurence's phone buzzed and he looked at the text. He called the communications officer. "Tell the team we're live. Let's get the show on the road." Laurence reached in the car and grabbed his satellite scanner and waited for it to connect. GPS coordinates started to zero in on Steven's location and they got a good approximation of where he was. Team vehicles were already leaving the area to take up their designated positions as Laurence got in his car and headed toward the nearby shopping district. He was relieved that Steven was so close.

Steven found a spot near the front of the theater and sat down and closed his eyes. He saw the kid die in front of him and he suddenly got dizzy as remembered that moment. He put his head on his knees. It all caught up with him at that moment and he felt distinctly nauseous. The blood was seared in his mind, as was the blank look in the kids eyes as he slumped down from the head wound. The kid died saving his life. Steven shook his head, completely lost as to why anyone would do that for him, especially when he was a stranger and of little value to anyone. Steven wiped his eyes and sat back up, looking around. He was thankful for the dark theater. He didn't even know what movie was showing and wasn't interested. He took a deep breath, shuddering as he fought to control his crying. The kid probably saved his life and had died right there in front of him. He was so full of life and so friendly to him and in a moment he was just gone.

His bruises on his legs were throbbing and he felt them for any bleeding. All he found was some caked blood, sticky and almost fully congealed. No penetrations. Steven was thankful for that. In the height of the moment, he could have been shot and not even known it. He thought of Asherah. She or whatever she represented was also right. Was there something in his subconscious that knew this was a trap? Steven tried to riddle out any possible hints in his conversation with Laurence or the
dinner
that could have triggered those warnings, but came up with a blank. And yet she consistently warned him. Something in him knew the danger. But she was quiet now. He felt safe for the moment and looked around, wiping his eyes.

"Hey, you okay?" A man had sat down to watch the movie and noticed Steven was distressed.

"Huh?" Steven was startled to be addressed by a stranger. He looked around to see if anyone else noticed him. "Yeah, I'm fine," he lied. "Thanks." The guy nodded and turned back to watching the movie. Steven wondered if he should find another place to hide, but remember being instructed to find a place with a lot of people. Looking around, he noted that the theater was fairly packed. He wiped his eyes and looked up at the movie. It was actually still in the previews and advertisements. He remembered the girl. Who was she? He had seen her at the police station when she dropped her papers. It occurred to him that she also was the girl that walked by the restaurant. Maybe she recognized him? And she had helped hide him from his pursuers. Steven wished he could find her, to thank her. And perhaps get some answers. Namely, how she knew who he was.

Another wave of panic washed over Steven as the death of the kid played itself out in his mind over and over again. He sat back in the seat, slumping down and tried to control his beating heart. The nausea had passed and now he was just scared. He sorely regretted agreeing to meet the man and started to get angry that he had been so easily fooled. Part of him must have known. Asherah expressed her distrust of him from the very beginning. Why didn't he listen to his intuition? He figured that worst case scenario he would be arrested and then released on lack of evidence. But these guys weren't interested in evidence. They just wanted him.

Steven started thinking ahead. He was lost without his technology. He left his phone and flashdrive computers back at the apartment to ensure they didn't end up as evidence if he got arrested. Which basically meant he had nothing and no way to see if he was being followed. He needed to get back to his apartment, but was nervous about somehow being followed back there and didn’t want to go until he could get an idea of where these guys were. It was easy to divert them when they were following Brandon after all.

Steven was shocked at how futile this day had been. He had hoped to get Brandon off the hook, and possibly actually get a technically oriented job with connections that could have gone a long way to helping him find his parents. But he was betrayed. That meant Brandon was still in danger and from the acts of these people, perhaps far worse than jail. The kid told him to go home, that Brandon was protected. But that didn't save him. He had to contact Brandon, to warn him. His instincts about Laurence were spot on.

The thought of Brandon stirred up his fear even more. If they were after him, they may try to get Brandon too since Brandon knew him. They knew where he and his parents lived. His parents lived in a gated mansion but he didn't think a gate would be any challenge for these guys. He needed to be warned. Steven concentrated but couldn't recall the phone number off the top of his head. He frowned. He was excellent with remembering things and had a near photographic memory. How could a simple phone number have slipped by? But then he has been dealing with some extreme distractions. Steven shook his head. He was going to have to go there directly.

As he was thinking about how to go about sneaking out and past the people who were looking at him he discerned that someone had walked into the theater. The presence felt familiar. A flashlight was shining around the seats and he could hear people complaining. Steven looked back and saw someone meticulously looking at each row. He saw what appeared to be a gun in his hand and was certain the person must have been hunting him. He slouched down in the seat and slid to the floor. As the man got closer, Steven realized why he felt familiar. It was Laurence.

"Hey, are you having a problem?" The man sitting next to him sounded half annoyed.

"There's a man that wants to hurt me. I need to get away." Steven didn't know what else to say as he started to crawl away

The man looked up at the guy with the flashlight and noticed his gun. "Gun!" he yelled, standing up quickly. Steven crawled past his legs and into the aisle. He looked up the aisle and figured that other agents would be at the entrance to intercept him in case he tried to sneak out. He couldn't comprehend how they found him. While looking for a way out, he noticed the emergency exit at the front of the theater. Taking a nervous breath, he got his feet under him and sprinted toward it, crouching low and hoping to not be noticed. However he was, and the flashlight lit him up and followed his run.

"Put the gun down or I will shoot you!" The man that Steven was sitting next to yelled. Steven looked back and notice that the man had pulled out a pistol and was aiming it at the person with a flashlight. "Put it down, now!" The man with the pistol moved toward Laurence who put his weapon in what must have been a back holster. He kept walking toward the man with the pistol, however. The man stood directly between him and Steven and he looked around the man at Steven. Steven backed toward the emergency exit, watching what was going on, hoping against hope that Laurence would somehow be stopped. But Laurence's confidence showed. He wasn't afraid at all and he didn't slow down. "Put your hands on your head and get on your knees!" The man looked determined and sounded authoritative and Steven wondered if he was an off-duty police officer. Laurence didn't stop walking. "I will shoot!"

Laurence continued to walk towards to the man with the pistol and suddenly covered the last few
yards
in barely an instant. He grabbed the pistol and elbowed the man at the back of his jaw in one explosive, fluid movement, dropping the man to the floor as he disarmed him. With one hand he disassembled the pistol and let the pieces fall to the floor as he walked past the unconscious hero, not breaking step as he continued toward Steven. His target was right by the emergency exit and was now fleeing out the door. Laurence pulled out his own pistol again as he started running toward the emergency exit, expecting to find Steven in the custody of the agent he had placed outside the door.

As he burst out, Laurence found himself in a short hallway that emptied into the main shopping area. He almost tripped over one of his agents who was out cold on the floor with blood coming out of his nose and a gash on his forehead. He looked back at the door and saw blood on the corner of it. Shaking his head, Laurence grabbed his scanner and tried to pick Steven up on it, but the iron content of the brick in the walls was interfering with it. Running to the main hall, he looked up and down, trying to locate Steven. The scanner picked him up weakly and he started running, "He's heading east toward the food court," Laurence said, making sure the bluetooth earpiece he finally found was working. The replies he got back confirmed that it was.

Steven walked fast, trying to stick to the crowds and doing his best to blend in. As he passed the food court he saw a hallway marked 'Employees Only' and ducked down it. There were no people in it at the moment but he had to get out of the building while avoiding the normal entrances. If the agent he accidentally slammed the emergency door into was any indicator, they would be watching all normal entrances. The hall had a couple of corners in it and several doors to various store rooms, equipment access and even roof access but finally it terminated in an exit. He opened the door tentatively, peeking out. There was a loading dock to his left and to his right was a large garbage dumpster. No one seemed to be there so he quietly ducked out the door and dropped down off the loading ramp and hid behind the dumpster. While he expected an agent in every shadow, the loading dock appeared deserted so after a moment he started up the ramp, crouching so he wouldn’t be noticed.