Eternals Among Us: Book one

by Larry W. Miller Jr.

  Tina sighed. “So, you do know.” She said softly. “Are you with Dominic?” She asked.

  “Not directly, no.” Roy replied. “…and before you ask anything more about that, I must warn you not to. I cannot divulge who I work for or who Dominic works for. Your investigation is over young lady.” Roy cautioned. The determined look on his captive’s face told him that she wasn’t ready to just give up though and that made him happy. She had no idea that she was being recruited to his agency. She had no idea if she would ever see home again and yet she had not given up. That level of spunk was rare, and he enjoyed it. This young lady was smart, dedicated and driven. She was actually a perfect recruit if there was such a thing. She hadn’t broken in the face of hardship either. Her resolve was still steady. She was obviously trying to reason a way out of here, or maybe even planning to make a break for it later. She was gathering information about her surroundings while engaging in conversation with him. It was most impressive. Her eyes were sharp too. He decided to change her focus for a moment.

  “Do you mind if I put some ointment on your wound? I wouldn’t want you to get a scar on the side of your face like that.” He said. Tina’s hand instinctively went to the side of her face and the soreness that resided there.

  “Is there a big mark?” She asked, suddenly worried.

  “It’s not bad, but I don’t want to take any chances.” Roy replied. “So, do you mind?” He asked again.

  “If it’s all the same, just give me the ointment and a mirror and I’ll handle it.” Tina replied. It was a sound answer and a wise choice. Again, Roy approved.

  “As you wish.” Roy said and he tossed the tube of ointment over to Tina. He got up to get the mirror. They didn’t really have one, but they did have a polished steel sheet. He moved it over to where she could see herself in it and then backed away to allow her access.

  “Oh, that’s worse than I thought.” Tina remarked. It was obvious to Roy that the whole area was tender. She was applying the ointment on very gingerly, trying not to press too hard. Still, she made the occasional hiss sound as she caught a raw nerve here and there. She tossed the tube back at the end and then settled back down.

  “So, what else can you tell me if not who you work for?” She began. Roy got the feeling that this grilling could go on for hours and he sighed at the thought.

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  Tina’s mother came home to find an investigation team in their home. A body with his head smashed in was lying in the main room and she almost screamed. Red and yellow tape lines seemed to be everywhere, there were evidence tags strewn about on little dots of blood or anything they deemed necessary. The bat was bloodied as well, and she recognized it right away. The shock still had her tongue as the investigators tried to escort her out of the room.

  “What is this all about?” She finally managed to ask as she was sat down at the kitchen table.

  “There’s been a murder ma’am.” The investigator replied almost needlessly for the woman had already seen the body. We’re looking into it, but it looks like your daughter was accosted here in the residence and retaliated with deadly force.” He said so clinically that it hardly registered what he was saying.

  “What!?” You are telling me that Tina killed this man?” She asked for verification.

  “Yes ma’am, it appears that way.” Then he looked at his partner and then back at the poor housewife. “Do you know where your daughter is at this time?” He asked her now, his notepad out.

  “No, she’s usually home or out with her friends when I come home.” Tina’s mom replied. Tina couldn’t be a murderer. It just didn’t fit.

  “We’ll need a list of her friends then.” The investigator said without missing a beat. “We’ll need to question them about her motivations and possible encounters with strangers like the victim.” He said as if reading from a textbook.

  “What? No. I’ll not give you her friends so you can turn them into criminals. They’re good kids, they just have a little too much energy.” She said.

  “Hmmm, sounds like they need something more constructive to do then.” The investigator replied, still scribbling notes on his pad device.

  “You are taking this way out of context.” Tina’s mom responded. “Just find out who really did this.” She pushed.

  “Do you have internal surveillance built into this abode?” The investigator asked.

  “Of course, haven’t you checked the recordings yet?” She asked in response. This all sounded too incredible to be believed.

  “No ma’am, they are encrypted and require your authorization to open or they cannot be used in court.” The investigator rattled off, still sounding like he was reading from his pad. Perhaps he was.

  “So, you tell me my daughter murdered someone but haven’t even checked the video? That’s some pretty sloppy police work if you ask me.” She looked up at the center of the house. “Authorize video playback of today’s surveillance log.” She commanded.

  “Accepted.” The house responded back.

  “Thank you ma’am, we’ll check those out as soon as we get you out of here.” He said, trying to hustle her along quickly.

  “Oh no you don’t!” Tina’s mother replied. She was angry enough now that it would have taken all of them to get her out that door. “We’ll watch the video together.” She said. Then she moved to the main room next and stood beside the body on the ground. She looked up at the center of the house again. “Please playback video surveillance from the moment this man entered the house.” She ordered.

  The recording began to playback filling an entire wall in crystal clarity...

  The door slid open. The man behind it started. “Oh, I’m sorry.” He said holding up his hands as he eyed the teenager with a bat. “I came to adjust your communications box.” He explained quickly. He pointed to the emblem on his coveralls. “See, I’m from the company.” He added. The emblem was that of the ship itself. How it had been labeled a company was still beyond anyone’s understanding.

  “I didn’t report an outage.” Tina replied, still holding the bat defensively.

  The man nodded. “Uh, no. That’s not how we do business. The computer has identified a fault and your communications box is about to fail. If I replace it now, there will be no outage to report.” He tried to explain.

  “Show me the replacement box.” Tina pressed. “Show me that you are who you say you are.” She added.

  “Oh, I can see we’re going to have a problem here.” The man said. He reached behind himself and pulled out a box. It was a small box, only a few centimeters across. He popped open the lid and a communications box was inside. The wiring was ready to plug in. The device looked brand new.

  Tina shrugged. “Okay, you can install it.” She relented. “But I’m going to keep my eye on you.” She added menacingly.

  “Look, I’m just doing my job, don’t hit me with that.” He said. His voice didn’t crack but his tension sounded high.

  Tina lowered the bat a bit and relaxed her stance ever so slightly. The man moved like lightning. He struck the bat with some kind of club that extended as he drew it.

  “You show promise, but you are too trusting.” He said as he clocked her across the temple. Tina went down in a flash and her last act was to swing the bat at the man’s knee. It collided remarkably well considering the half-hearted swing. They were both lying on the floor, Tina knocked out, the man holding his shattered knee.

  “You bitch!” He screamed at her.

  “She was too much for you?” Another voice said. The fake cable installer looked up and cringed.

  “She got in a lucky shot.” He replied, now come and fix this.” He demanded.

  “Sorry, medical isn’t my specialty. I came for her.” The man said. His one mechanical leg made a lot of racket as he trudged around the fallen agent. He eyed the room carefully and then he picked up the bat. The agent screamed just once as it came down on his head, making a mess of the carpet and the wall behind him. Then th
e maintenance man dropped the bat onto the floor and scooped up Tina. He inspected the bruise on the side of her head and shook his head in response with a tsk, tsk sound.

  “Sloppy work.” He said to himself. “I’ll get you seen to young lady.” He said and then he and Tina were gone.

  The investigators stared in horror. Tina’s mom was triumphant.

  “You see, she didn’t kill that man. She was trying to defend herself from a predator. Then that other man came in and took her away! You need to find my baby!” She said, her voice rising with each sentence.

  “Yes ma’am, this changes things. It is still a murder case, but it is also an abduction.” He said clinically.

  “You’re damn right it is. Get out there and find her. I’ll expect a cleanup crew to clean up this mess. The intruder has to be missed by somebody. I’ll also want to know why he came here in the first place.” She said, making her list of demands even as she was ushering her uninvited guests to the door.

  “Wait a minute ma’am, this is still a crime scene. We can’t just leave it unsecured.” The investigator complained.

  “I will lock this place down. Find my little girl and do it quickly. That one-legged man can’t be that hard to find.” She said and she closed the door with them on the outside.

  She turned back to the horrific scene in her main room. “What have you gotten yourself into little one?” She asked her absent daughter.

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  Lock and company were busy at school when the abduction went down so they had no idea what their friend was going through. In fact, Tina was suspiciously absent and that made them worried, but not overly so.

  “Maybe she was just playing hooky.” Jamie suggested.

  Emelia shook her head. “Not those classes, she never misses either of them. She’s indisposed somewhere.” She said.

  “How could you know that?” Lock asked and Jamie nodded that he wanted to know that too.

  “I tried to call her, and the phone didn’t answer. It’s not that it went to the message machine either, it just rang and rang. That means the phone, wherever it is, is just sitting there on and nobody is there to push the accept button.” Emelia complained.

  Lock’s eyes perked up. “You mean her phone is left on? I can find that.” He offered. Then he reached for his pad. Then he paused and looked up. “You guys can’t see how I do this.” He said in an uncustomary serious tone. The others moved to the next table and made a show of looking away.

  Lock tapped his pad and kicked it into the new mode. He traced the phone in seconds and stared at the results. The phone was in a corridor below the habitat area.

  “Hmmm, what was she doing there?” He asked aloud.

  “Where is she?” Emelia asked urgently.

  “Her phone is under the living quarters in an empty corridor.” He replied. “We should go retrieve it and look for clues as to her whereabouts.” He said, ever the sleuth.

  The group was up in a flash and they were all headed out of school and down towards the housing district. Once there, the access way popped open to the presence of Lock’s miracle pad and they were on their way down. The phone in question was right where the computer said it would be, lying in the middle of the corridor. The lights were at fifty percent and that was odd for this area. They would usually be off entirely.

  Lock stopped, as if listening for something and the others froze in place.

  “What is it?” Emelia asked in a whisper.

  “There’s a good chance that someone is down here. The lights are normally off down here.” He replied just as quietly.

  “Great! We will either find our lost sheep, or we run into one of the culprits you’ve been chasing down here.” Jamie said, not quite as quiet as the other two and they both winced as his voice no doubt carried too far.

  “Shhh, which part of we might not be alone down here didn’t you understand?” Emelia asked. The look on her face was of scorn and Jamie felt properly chastised.

  “Do you think that Tina’s down here?” Jamie asked more quietly this time.

  “No. If she was, she’d have found and answered her phone. No, this is only a single clue to her whereabouts.” Lock replied. He was in his element now. He wanted to show off his brilliance, but the technology assisting him was supposed to be hush-hush.

  Jamie was confused why they weren’t leaving now then. “So, why are we standing around then?” He asked.

  Lock was busily swiping things on his pad, and he ignored the question for several long seconds. “I was hoping to catch a fresh trail.” He replied, but his eyes never left the screen. He looked up somewhat discouraged. “But I got nothin’.” He concluded.

  “Then let’s get out of here and figure out what we need to do next from a safe point.” Jamie pressed. His anxiety was climbing as illustrated by his voice. He was getting louder too and that was not helping anybody’s nerves.

  “Okay fine, maybe there’s a clue in this phone. We’ll take it back to my place and check it out.” Lock said, giving in to the mob rules. He wanted to continue his investigation down here. He was an agent now. Although he couldn’t tell them that. Maybe it was better if he came back by himself anyway. He wouldn’t have to hide from anybody, and he could follow his whims as needed. “Let’s get back.” He said and there were no arguments.

  The group retreated back up to the housing area and then split off to their separate abodes. Lock took the phone as promised. He had it open and unlocked in a laughably short amount of time. The phone had been recording while Tina was being abducted! The last message was a video message. How had she managed that? Lock swiped the video to his main terminal, and it displayed on the wall screen.

  The image began as a grayish blob. The phone was in a pocket, most likely a jacket pocket. It was recording sound though and what it recorded was a scuffle…

  “I didn’t report an outage.”

  “Uh, no. That’s not how we do business. The computer has identified a fault and your communications box is about to fail. If I replace it now, there will be no outage to report.”

  “Show me the replacement box.” “Show me that you are who you say you are.”

  “Oh, I can see we’re going to have a problem here

  “Okay, you can install it. But I’m going to keep my eye on you.”

  “Look, I’m just doing my job, don’t hit me with that.”

  “You show promise, but you are too trusting.”

  The scuffle was very short and suddenly the lighting of the video changed as Tina fell to the floor. Her jacket opened ever so slightly and allowed additional light in. There was a man on the floor holding his knee.

  Someone else came into the room. From the angle Lock couldn’t make them out, then he spoke…

  “She was too much for you?”

  Lock’s eyes went wide. He knew that low grumbly voice. It was the maintenance man.

  “She got in a lucky shot.” “Now come and fix this.”

  “Sorry, medical isn’t my specialty. I came for her”

  The sound of a scream ending with a ‘thunk’ was clearly heard.

  “Sloppy work. I’ll get you seen to young lady.”

  The phone recorded a lot of jostling around as the man Lock knew hauled Tina away. The recording stopped as the phone fell to the deck. It didn’t take an image of the retreating pair since it landed face up. Lock was stunned.

  Why had he taken Tina? What had Tina done to gain his attention? Was she taken to get at me? There had been no indication of this before. He needed more information. But who could he contact? He chose to call Tina’s mother.

  “Excuse me Mrs. Hull, I was wondering about Tina, can we talk?” He said simply.

  The image on his phone was small, but he could clearly make out Tina’s mom. The girl was almost a spitting image of her mother. The look of concentration Mrs. Hull was displaying was troubling.

  “You’re that Lock kid, right?” She replied.

  “That’s me.” He said, a
t least happy to not be forgotten. “Look I’ve found Tina’s phone and I think we need to talk somewhere without people listening in.” Lock reported and Mrs. Hull’s face turned hard.

  “Okay, but you can’t come here. The house is on lockdown for a crime scene.” She explained. It was Lock’s turn to look surprised. “There was a murder here today.” She spilled.

  Lock froze. “Seriously? We’d better talk soon then.” Lock pushed.

  “I agree.” Mrs. Hull replied.

  Lock didn’t smile. “I’ll send you coordinates. I’ll meet you in this secluded place in an hour.” He said, acting fully like the agent he was now.

  “All cloak and dagger huh?” She replied. “I suppose it is in order.” She added when he failed to understand her reference. “I’ll meet you in an hour.” She affirmed and then cut the connection to await the coordinates.

  Lock thought about where they should meet but he already had the location in his mind. He pulled it up on his pad and then sent the coordinates to Tina’s mom. He was worried about his friend; he couldn’t imagine how much her mother was worried. That level of concern shouldn’t even exist. Still, she would want the recording he had just found. He was ready to give it back to her too. Despite the fact that it could hold possible clues, he was ready to move on without the device. He already had a suspect. He needed to move on this quickly. Hostages never lived long and the longer a kidnap victim was lost, the less chance you had of recovering them. Lock was determined to help Tina avoid that fate. He dared not call the others. If he had caused Tina to be accosted, he would have to seriously rethink his current course of action and life choices. He couldn’t risk any of the others. That was why he hadn’t brought them home in the first place.

  Lock spent the next thirty minutes making his way to the place. The normal coordinates for this hiding spot would have led any normal passerby to a café. That was not lock’s destination. Long ago, Lock had instituted a method of inverting coordinates. He had briefed all of his friends on this and he was pretty sure that Tina’s mother also knew. If not, the actual location had a message directing her to invert the numbers. It was a second level of security for their transmission and also for their secret meeting. He knew that Tina was in danger. Just as he had been in danger when his trial was thrust upon him. Something big was happening all around him and he needed to understand what it was. But right now his focus was Tina and getting her back.