Crow - The Awakening (63 page)

His heart pounding, he backed away rapidly from the window and sat against the bed. They found him and were inside the compound. Steven had hoped the guards would have been a deterrent to them. Not even the cartels would mess with these guards. But these people seemed to be extremely motivated to find him.

"You need to run now, Steven," he heard Asherah say. Groaning, he rubbed his temples. He really was hearing her again. He had to admit, however, that it was a bit lonely when she was quiet.

"Where?" No matter where he went, they ended up finding him. How could he bring this to an end?

"I need my laptop. That's the only way," he said to himself as much as anyone. Steven's fear was starting to turn to indignation and he had a tool he could use against them. He just needed to get through these guys, head clear across town, avoid their traps and get to it. He rubbed his face in his hands, seeing a repeat of the last couple of days happening again. "I really, really need a break."

Steven's mind was already racing, however, thinking of ways he could escape. If he could get back to the car he stashed, he could drive that out of here. There's also the forest that was actually pretty close. If he could get to that he could lose them in the forest pretty easily, even if they had that scanner tracking him. From the forest to the street his bus ran on and on to the house, that would be a huge shortcut.

Steven crawled over and looked out the window again. They hadn't made it to the courtyard yet and appeared to be pinned down by the security. Perhaps these guys have met their match. But Steven wasn't willing to bank on it anymore. It was time for action. "Okay, Asherah. I'm going to run now."

Laurence watched impatiently as his men took up their positions. There could be no mistakes, especially now that he was on full assault mode. He looked into the infrared scope again and tried to assess the defenses. But the walls were extremely well built and he could only get faint smudges that didn't tell him anything about how many guards were where. He hated not having adequate intelligence for missions like this. With the limited time they had at their disposal, his only solution was overkill. He had called all of his teams into this fray and he intended to reinvent the term 'shock and awe'.

The guards were alert, however, and extremely well trained and organized. Laurence began to suspect that these were ex-military soldiers by how they reacted to their attack. The assault on the gate did draw their attention, however they were better trained than to leave weaknesses in the rest of the perimeter. Where civilian services may be tempted to rush to the point of activity, the guards at this location maintained equidistant positions around the perimeter. His men ended up taking fire from firing points at the top of the wall.

"Flank our men with the cars!" Laurence instructed. SUVs moved in on either side of the attackers, blocking the flanking fire. "Blow the wall." Laurence looked down the alley where his men were also ducking flanking fire. They moved in and set the charges then ran back to the covers of their SUVs. The charges detonated and a small hole was blasted into the wall. Too small with the coverage. It would act as a bottleneck. Before he could instruct another charge be set, however, his men moved in and dove through the hole.

Laurence turned to his monitor that was displaying the video captured by the helmet mounted cameras. His men set up a small beachhead, driving the resistance back deeper into the property as more entered through the hole. He was suffering casualties, though, and the lack of adequate preparation was becoming more and more apparent to him. "Flank their position and neutralize them," he instructed.

"They have night vision, sir," one of the agents said as he took up a defensive position behind some concrete furniture.

"Deploy flashbangs," Laurence instructed. Good night vision gear would not be severely affected by them, but they would still be distracting enough to allow his men to seek a better position. He noticed the brief flashes on their helmet cams as they moved along the wall and further into the property to bypass the security force's defensive positions. "Let's get symmetrical coverage. Don't give him any holes to sneak out of." Laurence watched as they tightened their position on the house and attached buildings. The teams split up with interior teams moving into the buildings while the exterior teams took intercepting positions around the complex. Three of his team found a place to climb to the roof and set up sniper positions. In the crossfire between them and the perimeter forces the defenses were forced to take up positions in the buildings.

"Room by room. Clear it and get the boy. As long as you have his signal he's not in a saferoom." Laurence put on his vest and helmet and headed toward the breach. "Move those away from the gate." He pointed to the SUVs as he walked by. The gate had been cleared and the SUVs were too conspicuous to passing law enforcement where they were parked. He ducked into the hole and joined the clearing teams, hunting for his target personally.

Brandon and Rachel ran up the stairs as Steven was about to run down. "It's all out war out there! We can't get through to 911 either!" Brandon ran up to Steven and helped him up off the floor as Steven started to scramble up. "We need to get downstairs. There's a safe room we can hide in."

"They'll find it and blow it up. I've seen the stuff these guys have been using." Steven followed Brandon down the stairs. As they reached the bottom, small grenades were tossed in through the broken windows.

"Close your eyes, Brandon!" Steven closed his and put his hands on his ears. He could still see the bright flash through his eyelids and Brandon fell over, pulling Steven and Rachel down. Time seemed to switch to slow motion as he heard Asherah screaming in his head. He could see agents approaching rapidly and saw little flashes of light as they ran toward them. The furniture above them exploded in a shower of splinters and Steven realized that they were using sound suppression on their weapons.

Brandon rolled over, holding his ears. He reached for Rachel and started dragging her. Another flash-bang went off near them and Steven could hear Brandon crying out in pain and fear. Rachel, however, was looking right at him, with a little smile on her face. Steven was going to say something when she was suddenly beside him, between him and the agents. Steven put his hands on her shoulders to pull her down away from the line of fire when he could feel the impacts on her back. She was shot multiple times, bullets that would have hit him. She fell over on top of him and he tried to roll her off him. But she stopped him, putting her lips by his ear.

"Your parents are still alive, Steven," she whispered.

She pulled back to look at him squarely in the eyes and smiled at him when another bullet that would have hit Steven hit her in the back of her head and her eyes went blank as she instantly went limp in his arms. In shock, Steven could barely register Brandon screaming as he tried to scramble over toward the two of them. A security guard had taken up a position near them and was laying down covering fire as Brandon ignored sharp splinters and glass in his attempt to reach Rachel. The guard was yelling something at them but Steven couldn't hear what he was saying. It wasn't hard to guess, however. And yet, Steven watched Rachel sink out of his arms to the floor, stunned as much by her death as by what she had just said. Dazed, he looked at Brandon as he crawled to her side, cradling her and screaming her name.

Suddenly time caught up to them almost explosively and Steven watched the guard fall on his back and clouds of splinters went flying through the air by their heads as the agents closed in. Asherah was yelling at him to run over and over again, sounding absolutely terrified. It was time to go. He grabbed Brandon by the shirt and dragged him away from Rachel, behind the bar, then started running away from the incoming agents. Brandon followed him as if on automatic.

They made it out into the courtyard behind the apartment. Before them was a large manicured garden and a garage that was attached to the wall. "Is there a garage door on that building?" Steven asked. Brandon nodded, numb. "We need to get to that building," he whispered loudly as they went out into the courtyard. Suddenly the pavement erupted in little explosions around their feet. "Run!" Steven pushed Brandon along as more bullets attempted to find them. Then suddenly the bullets stopped. Steven didn't look back, instead he ducked into the garden behind Brandon.

She lay on the floor with unblinking eyes and watched as Brandon and Steven crouched and ran off to safety behind the bar. Several agents chased after them but they were far behind them and had not found them yet. They would get to live tonight.

Once they were out of sight, Rachel sat up. She spit out the bullet that had entered through the back of her head and felt the wound. It was almost closed. Smiling, she got up and dusted herself off. Hearing faint pops of muffled gunfire, Rachel looked up on the roof where the snipers were. They could be a problem and a severe threat to Steven. Steven could avoid those chasing him on the ground, but the snipers would be impossible to hide from.

Rachel stepped through the busted picture window, walked to the wall of the neighboring mansion and jumped up onto the roof. One of the snipers saw her and trained his weapon on her. She smiled prettily at him and continued walking. This time, the bullets had no affect as she calmly approached them. Casually reaching down where one of the snipers was sitting, she ignored his attempt to block and kick her and grabbed his head and squeezed. His skull burst like a tomato under her grip and he went instantly limp. The other two saw what she did and saw her coming for them. They started shooting at her while frantically scooting backwards. With a grin she was on them instantly and grabbed both of them by the neck with her hands. With a deft flick of her wrists, their vertebrae cracked and she crushed their necks for good measure.

She then sat on the roof next to the twitching bodies, caressing the hair of one of them as he finally expired in her lap and watched Steven run through the garden. He had turned out to be everything she hoped for and so much more.

Steven tripped as he was running through the garden. It was odd since he never trips like that in nature. Brandon kept running toward the garage and Steven looked back to see his pursuers. He scrambled to get back on his feet but his calf started hurting like crazy. He fell a bit, catching himself with his hand. He didn't trip, but had been shot in the leg. Gritting his teeth, he got his legs under him. No broken bones, he surmised. He felt a presence and saw them coming. Turning, he started running. Branches and leaves were blown up around him by high velocity bullets as he ran. These bushes were no match for their weapons.

"Steven, turn around," Asherah said, calmer now, more determined.

"What?" Steven said, still running. "They're shooting at me!"

"You need to see this." Asherah seemed strangely collected now, even though heavily armed bad guys were closing in on him and shooting at him. "Steven! Now!" she yelled and Steven reflexively turned around, almost tripping.

As he looked he saw things shooting out of the brush, entangling the pursuers. Branches and vines were attacking the agents. Steven stumbled to a stop, dumbfounded.

"You need to believe, Steven. This is not your imagination." Asherah sounded extremely sad. He felt her sorrow as more of the vines shot out, entangling the agents.

As Steven watched, one of the agents was ripped in two by the vines. Asherah yelped, "I'm so sorry, Steven. I can't control exactly what they do. But they are protecting you, Steven. This is really happening."

Steven stumbled back and fell on his rear in shock. Roots shot up and grabbed another agent and pulled him down, struggling and screaming until they pulled him down into the ground. He felt Asherah cringing, crying. "They were only supposed to tangle them up," Asherah said apologetically.

"This isn't happening," Steven scooted back as more agents funneled into the garden. He felt the life in the plants, felt their power and their defensiveness. It was like they were more than plants. And he felt Asherah strongly inside his heart as her presence washed over him.

"I'm real, Steven," Asherah assured him quietly as yet another of the agents was speared by multiple branches, making Asherah mentally flinch. The agent was lifted off his feet and pulled back into the brush where Steven heard sickening sounds as the agent was dismembered from inside.

Steven was gasping at what he had just seen. Was he having an episode? Going crazy? Wiping his face, he turned and ran, as much from what he had just seen as from the agents that sought to harm him. He had totally forgotten about his bullet wound. In fact, it no longer hurt. Steven wondered if he was finally cracking.

"I'm so sorry, Steven. I'm so very sorry. I really wanted to show you some other way." He could feel Asherah's extreme sadness so strongly that almost made him cry. He grabbed his head and groaned. This can't be happening now. "But you're not going crazy, Steven," Asherah assured him. "Please believe me. Your life depends on it. Our lives."

"Okay, people are trying to kill me right now and I have to run. But you and me, we're going to have a heart to heart when this is over. Okay?" Steven said through gritted teeth as he crashed through the door of the garage.

"I'm so sorry," Asherah repeated again and he could feel her torment. "That didn't happen like I hoped it would. Oh, Steven, I didn't mean for them to die." Asherah was crying. Steven felt her love for life that mirrored his own love, not for his or her own life, but all life, even the agents. He was horrified by their deaths and Asherah was as well, combined with her torment that her plan had gone so badly astray.

"Okay, we'll discuss that later." Steven felt a surge of sympathy for her. He was well aware of plans that go awry and had been the cause of so many deaths himself. Imagined or not, he hated her beating herself up for that.

As he was running into the garage, slamming the door behind him, Steven almost tripped over Brandon who was
o
n his hands and knees on the floor. From the looks of things, Brandon's meal was now on the floor. The door bounced back on something that got in the jam.