Crow - The Awakening (56 page)

"I'm not!" Sarah sniffed and wiped her nose. "He would never just run out on us like that."

"But you're not responsible for him, Sarah." Charley hated broaching that subject because Sarah had become so attached to the boy. Steven may have made it easier for her to adjust to being without her baby brother, but it was incurring its own set of complications.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She turned around to face him. Sarah expected Charley's support, not this.

"He can come and go as he pleases. It's his life and he's his own person," Charley responded a little defensively. Steven has been a lot of fun to have around and has definitely made their family life better, perhaps if for nothing more than distracting his wife from thinking about the loss of her younger brother, but he was still old enough to make his own decisions and do his own thing.

"He's part of our family, Charley. Maybe not legally, but he's our friend and something is wrong." Sarah wiped her tears as she turned back around. She had a bad feeling in her gut and just knew that something wasn't right, but no one seems to be taking it seriously. Charley thought she was overreacting, but how do you tell that to someone who is overreacting?

"We don't know that, Sarah." Charley tried to soothe her, rubbing her tense shoulders.

She held up his wallet and wagged it. "He could be out there somewhere, hurt and all alone, and no one cares." It was her younger brother all over again and she leaned against Charley. He really hated seeing her tormented like this but was at a loss of what to say, so he just sat there holding her and running his fingers through her hair.

The house appeared to be empty and silent. Sally sat in her car for several minutes watching it. The garden had become an overgrown mess but other than that the property looked pretty good. She needed to get to her shop to get some pottery supplies. Jonah had forbidden it, but she snuck out anyway. They were going crazy in their cabin and driving each other nuts. If she had her portable turning wheel, some tools, and a few blocks of clay, that would make things so much easier for her.

Taking a deep breath, she put the car in drive and rolled slowly up their drive, behind the house, and parked just by Jonah's shop. She got out timidly, looking around to see if anyone noticed her. The door on Jonah's shop was slightly open and she walked to it carefully, peeking in. Except for some leaves that had blown in, it was still the same sawdust mess that Jonah usually leaves it in, so she closed the door, jumping in surprise at how loud the hinges creaked. She looked at the house to see if anyone was there but it was empty and quiet. She missed that little home, and missed her son.

Her pottery shed was the same as she left it, closed up and tidy. She walked in and grabbed her mobile potter's wheel and took it to the car, then went and grabbed a few bricks of clay and a bag of clay powder and plopped them in her trunk. Her shaping tools were all kept in a little toolbox since she would often take the wheel to the market and show off her techniques to customers so they were easy to grab and put in the car. Sally really missed the market and hoped to be able to set up their booths again someday soon. She went back and looked at her kiln. That was much too big for her car so she may have to sneak back there to do her firing. She walked along the shelves of her unfinished pottery, also waiting to be glazed and fired. She remembered how hard it was to adjust to living out there after growing up in the big city, but now she couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. As an afterthought, she grabbed a few packets of glaze and closed up the little shop.

As she walked past her husband's workshop an idea occurred to her. He would certainly be mad that she went there, but maybe an olive branch would smooth things over. She ducked into his workshop and went to his main workbench. He had a rack of wood carving tools that he used for artistic carving. She grabbed it, his mallet and a sharpening stone and made her way back to the car with her arms full. That should make him happy. He had been trying to carve with his pocket knife and it wasn't working out as well as he had hoped. This little gift will surely make him happy and most importantly, less mad at her. Sally grinned, feeling a little mischievous.

As she went back and closed up her husband's shop she looked at the house again. It looked so quaint and small now, with no one living there. She loved that house. They had built it with their own hands together, with young Steven eagerly helping. Sally put her hand on her chest to still her heart as she relived the memories. Her family, that is what that house represented. The best years of their lives, even if they were spent in hiding. Unable to resist, she walked up and peered through the rear porch window. All was dark and quiet in there. She opened the door and peeked her head in.

"Hello?" she said loudly. "Is anyone here?"

Only silence responded. She walked in and closed the door behind her. Looking around, she couldn't help but remember all the fun they had in that house. She could see them sitting by the fireplace playing their guitars and the piano, having a good time. Or dining at their heavy table. Steven would often do his lessons on that table then take his homework out into the forest to complete. She missed her kitchen, which was perfect for her. She went to the refrigerator. It was still on, but she was certain there were probably things evolving in there so she decided not to open it and kept walking to the pantry. They had cleared out a lot of food already so there wasn't much left except for their large barrels of unground wheat and other grains and beans. No one seemed to have tampered with those. Perhaps Jonah can go over there and grab them. She hated to see that good food go to waste.

Sally closed the pantry door and went back to their bedrooms. Steven's was a mess, as usual. More so since it had been so thoroughly searched. She walked in and picked up a stray drawing of Asherah from the floor. She couldn't help but think how cute the Elf girl looked. How much like her mother she appeared, but distinctly different. Under any other circumstances, Sally would be so proud of Steven to have this girl capture his heart. She decided to take the drawing with her too. Steven had various other drawings scattered about as well. Mostly they were drawings of plants and a meadow that looked like it belonged in the Amazon rainforest. Smiling, she picked up a few of those too. She always adored Steven's creativity and his ability to capture his subject so vividly on paper.

There was a drawing of his parents sitting on the bed. Sally sat down and looked at them. She was jealous of them. For even though she had raised Steven from infancy, they were his obsession. She was still Sally to him. She so wanted to be Mommy. Sally wiped her eyes and left the drawing there as she walked out of the bedroom.

Deciding she had been there long enough, Sally prepared to leave. She found a canvas bag and put the drawings in them. She also grabbed her favorite coffee cup and rooted around for Jonah's. He would be happy to get that big mug of his back. Maybe another excuse for him to be less mad at her for taking the risk to come here.

As she picked up the bag, the phone rang. Its intrusion into the silence of the moment was so sudden and cacophonous, Sally yelped and put her hand on her chest, afraid her heart was going to jump out. It rang again and Sally went to it then hesitated. After another ring, she decided to answer it.

"Hello?" she said timidly. She looked around and through the windows, fearful that maybe someone had discovered her presence here and were coming to get her.

"Have I reached the Crow residence?" the voice on the other end asked. It was a very professional sounding woman.

Sally hesitated. "Yes."

"This is Brianna of the Seattle police department. Am I speaking to... Sally Crow?"

"Yes." Sally put her bag down and sat down. A call from the police department did not bode well and her heart started beating rapidly as all the worst fears she had regarding Steven surfaced in her mind. She found it hard to breathe all of a sudden and tried hard to keep her composure on the phone.

"I'm just following up on a missing persons report placed by a Sarah Windsong earlier today. Are you familiar with Sarah?"

"No." Sally sat still, hoping it may have been a mistake or wrong number or something. Sally took a deep breath, fears of being informed of his body being fished out of the bay abating, but a missing persons report carried its own terrifying baggage for her. Had Lohet found him and finished him off? Or those that were hunting for them? Did he fall into some unfortunate circumstance? And who was Sarah? A new girlfriend?

"She indicated that a Steven Crow went missing yesterday. His emergency contact number on record is this one. Is Steven there or do you know his whereabouts?" Brianna asked politely.

"He's been gone for several weeks. He..." Sally hesitated, not wanting to use the words 'ran away', "...moved out early after graduating."

"Thank you, ma'am. If you hear from him, would you mind giving us a call so we can clear this ticket?"

"Uhm, sure," Sally answered as her mind raced, trying to think of what Steven was up to in Seattle. They used to live in Seattle. Sally suddenly felt her legs go numb. They had worked with Steven's parents in Seattle shortly before they were abducted.

"Have a nice day," Brianna interrupted her thoughts and was about to hang up.

"Wait!" Sally tried hard not to yell into the phone. "Can you give me Sarah's contact information? Please?"

"Yes ma'am," Brianna replied.

Sally grabbed a pen and notepad from her purse and scribbled the number and address down as Brianna recited it to her. Hanging up, she stared at it for a long moment. Her mind was made up. No matter what Jonah said, they were taking a trip to Seattle. She was going to find her son.

Laurence rebooted the scanner for the tenth time, trying to figure out why the chip wasn't registering. It was a special design encapsulated in a material that became sticky in the gastrointestinal system, slowing its egress for several days, so Steven should still be registering on the scanner. They had spent the better part of the night chasing what turned out to be phantom signal as the satellite approached the horizon and buildings in the area started interfering with the connection. But returning to the apartments turned up nothing. Steven had figuratively and perhaps literally gone underground. Laurence already had a team working on mapping out all structures in the area with basements and searching them but they have so far come up empty handed.

What was supposed to become a quick snatch and grab was turning into a complete nightmare. The best trained and most motivated agents on the planet and they still could not find and capture one little teenager. The ridiculousness of it all was grating on his already frayed nerves. He took a drink of coffee then spit it out. "Really?" He looked around at the others in the command trailer. "Really?" He held up his coffee. "We're in Seattle and this is the best you can bring me? You could pave a road with this tar." He poured it in the sink and sat back down. "Someone go get some real coffee please, and make the idiot who made that junk drink the rest of the pot." He frowned as he returned his attention to his scanner.

He went over to the workstation of his technical support. The operator was monitoring satellites. "Are we active?" Laurence hoped the answer would be 'no' and the operator would hit a button and make it all work again. Perhaps he hit something and turned it off accidentally. Incompetence would be preferable to the alternative in this case. He was eager to resume the chase and this waiting was grating on his already fraying nerves.

"Yes, sir. We have this satellite for another ten minutes." The technical operator looked up at him. "I have the next satellite tasking right now but we will be blind for about seven minutes until it comes into position then it'll take a few minutes to process the signal, but I don't think it'll be any different from the last two satellites."

Laurence sighed. He wanted to yell at the tech, but knew that they had to work with what they had and they had only so many satellites at their disposal. Standing up, he went back to his desk and sat down and started working on his report, trying to spot repeating patterns. So far the chase had been a classic demonstration of complete discombobulated chaos. This boy had eluded them at every turn and he had his best men on the chase. What kind of person was this kid? What kind of help was he receiving?

And the encounter with the aliens was a complete act of futility. Laurence rubbed his brow with his fist. They were after Steven, so at best Laurence was able to prevent that, and that is how he sold it to Jacob. But they shrugged off the weapons of the drone and handily converted it into a smoking pile of wreckage. A half dozen of his men ended up in pieces as if ripped apart by something of immense strength. He hoped more clues could be gleaned from the claw marks on the hood of the car. Maybe even DNA. Because so far, the aliens were winning and hadn't even brought any big guns of their own to the party.

Looking at his watch, Laurence called the team commanders, "Rotate your teams. I want fresh eyes on the lookout." He hadn't had sleep for over a day but he wanted the boots on the ground to be as fresh as possible during this lull in the chase. The afternoon was already dragging on. How long would Steven stay hidden? Laurence knew the kid had to come out of hiding sooner or later. He wondered if he should take a nap, just in case this dragged on for much longer. But one of the agents brought him a thermos of coffee and he decided to go that route instead. "Much better." He took a long sip of the hot stuff, feeling revitalized already.

He revisited his map of the sectors. After losing Steven he had redeployed his net over a greater area, trying to cover as much ground as possible. Anywhere Steven popped up, he would be just a moment away from an agent, ideally. As he grabbed for his mug, he glanced at it and saw a vibration pattern on the surface of it. A deep rumble shook the trailer, followed by slight shaking. He looked around. One of his agents looked up and said, "That wasn't me." Laurence grinned then gave him a look while the other agents laughed. As he was about to respond, a much sharper tremor shook the trailer, bouncing it, then causing it to shake and creak back and forth. The mug spilled onto the floor and Laurence cursed at the waste of perfectly good coffee.