“It’s customary for Elders to let those below them search,” the Chief of Staff said.
Chevalier glared at him and he sat back in his chair.
Kyle showed Chevalier his rough sketch of search areas and once it was approved, they both headed off, leaving Quinn and the Council as search contact.
The Chief of Staff looked over at Quinn, “Why do we search for her? We’ve never bothered finding missing mortals before.”
“That missing mortal can obliterate every Equites in less than a year. There’s no defense against her abilities and besides… she’s an Equites and she needs help.”
***
“So she follows more like Allen than the others,” Zohn said when Megara left for class.
Chevalier nodded, “Yes.”
“I’m amazed that she hasn’t shown any Winchester abilities.”
“I’m not sure she has them.”
“Heading back out?” Quinn asked him.
Chevalier nodded, “Everything’s fading… I can barely feel her anymore and I want to find her before it disappears all together.”
“Does it get stronger the closer you get to her?” the Chief of Defense asked.
“No, or I’d be able to find her.”
Kyle tapped on the desk, irritated, “How can she still be gone? It’s not like Emily not to contact her family, at least her children.”
Zohn shrugged, “All I can come up with is that we don’t have the entire story. They did something that’s preventing her from contacting a single heku.”
“What about that lead in Inveruno, Italy?” the Chief of Finance asked.
“Dead end,” Chevalier told him. “That woman did have red hair, but she was years older.”
“How can we not find her!? Next week it’ll be 4 months since she walked out of that house and went into hiding,” Kyle growled.
“We’ll find her,” Quinn said. “She may not even be hiding. 7 billion people on this planet and we’re looking for one tiny mortal.”
“Well our spies say that the Valle thinks she’s in Columbia,” Zohn told them. “Thukil and Powan are there and it’s not a big country.”
“I just hope when they run into the Valle there isn’t a war.”
“I’m sure there would be some type of fight. I can’t help but think the Valle know more about this than they’re letting on.”
***
“Why are we here? Mark would kill us,” Silas said as he looked down the street to the dark face of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Kralen glanced around, “She’s afraid to go back to the US, maybe she decided to try Ireland.”
“Do you know how many Flynns are in Ireland? We can’t track them all down to see if she sought out family.”
“It’s worth a try.”
“Except that our teams are supposed to be in Edinburgh tonight.”
Kralen smiled, “That’s the beauty of it… our teams are in Edinburgh.”
“We’re supposed to be with them!”
“It’s a hunch, Silas. Go with it,” Kralen said as headed down the dark road.
“You and I are going to search 82,000 square kilometers of some pretty wild terrain?”
“Sure, why not?”
Silas just stared at him.
Kralen looked back at him, “Fine… according to Camber’s book, the Flynns came from Bracknagh. It’s only about 75 kilometers from here.”
Silas started walking, “I’ve never heard of Bracknagh.”
“No one has. It’s not exactly a thriving metropolis.”
“Well at least if she’s there she’ll be easy to find,” Silas said. “Lead on.”
Kralen immediately blurred, heading west out of Dublin past dark houses and even darker fields. They both stopped a couple of hours later just before crossing the Figile River into the village.
Silas looked around, “You weren’t kidding about small.”
“There’ll be a pub open,” Kralen said as he pulled a picture of Emily out of his pocket.
“You carry a picture of Em?”
“Not normally, no.”
“Fine, let’s get this over with before Mark finds out.”
Kralen kept to the shadows and headed deeper into the small village in search of a pub. It wasn’t hard to find, and the noise from inside was loud and boisterous.
Silas shook his head and opened the door. No one seemed to notice the big strangers as they strolled over to the bar.
The bartender looked up at him and was obviously leery, “What can I get for you?”
Kralen smiled and held out Emily’s picture, “We’re looking for her.”
The bartender didn’t even glance at the photograph, “Haven’t seen her.”
“You didn’t look.”
“Don’t matter, I don’t know her,” he said in the deep Irish accent reserved for small town folks.
Silas put his hand on Kralen’s arm, “Let’s try someone else.”
Kralen nodded and went over to a group playing darts, “Can I bother you Gentlemen for a moment?”
“No Gentlemen here,” one of them said, and then turned and smiled at them. “What can we do for you?”
“We’re looking for a woman…”
“… aren’t we all?” he said, and was patted on the back by a laughing man behind him.
“Short, red hair, green eyes,” Silas said.
“You’re in Ireland, Lad. You just described half of the women in this county.”
“Right,” Silas said, and then took the picture from Kralen and handed it to him.
The man studied the picture and then handed it back, “You best leave her alone.”
“You’ve seen her then?”
“Nope,” he said, and turned back to the dart board.
Kralen studied him and it was obvious he’d seen Emily and wanted nothing more to do with them.
Silas walked over to four men playing a poker game and laid the picture on the table, “Where can I find her?”
One man picked up the picture and then laid it back down, “Dunno.”
“Have you seen her?”
“Dunno,” he repeated.
Kralen took the picture and motioned Silas outside. Once out of earshot of the mortals, he turned to Silas, “I think they know her.”
“I get that impression too.”
“So let’s do surveillance.”
“She goes to a bar once a year, that could be a long surveillance.”
“We could control one of them and ask,” Kralen said.
Silas looked over as one patron stumbled out of the pub and headed down the street, singing a song about smiling Irish eyes.
Before Silas could disagree, Kralen blurred to the old man and had him instantly locked.
“The girl I showed you a picture of, have you seen her?” Kralen whispered to the man.
He replied in a soft whisper, “Aye.”
“Where?”
“She comes to the pub every night.”
“What’s her name?”
“Elizabeth Flynn,” he said in a monotone voice.
“Where does she live?”
“I don’t know.”
Kralen nodded and then broke the gaze, “You ok there?”
“Aye,” the man mumbled. “I musta fallen asleep.”
“Must have,” Silas said, and they watched him stumble off.
“We better call in Mark,” Kralen told him.
“Let’s just wait it out until tomorrow and make sure before we call them all and admit that we aren’t where we should be,” Silas said.
Kralen grinned and backed into a shadow across from the old pub. They watched throughout the day as the small Irish community came to life and went about their lives. They hoped to catch sight of Emily, but had no luck. It wasn’t until nightfall that they moved to get a closer look at the pub’s door.
They didn’t have to wait long, and both watched in shock as Emily walked up to the bar and disappeared inside.
�
�Let’s just go grab her,” Kralen suggested.
“No, we need to get Mark here, now.”
“You go. I’ll keep an eye on her.”
Silas nodded and stepped back to make the phone call.
“Mark here,” he said, irritated.
“We found her,” Silas whispered.
“I’ll be in Edinburgh by morning, where is she?”
Silas sighed, “We’re not in Edinburgh… Kralen and I are outside of Dublin.”
There was a soft growl, “Are you sure it’s her?”
“Yes,” Silas said, cringing inwardly at what he knew was a punishment coming from Mark when this was over. He gave Mark instructions on how to get to them, and then walked over to Kralen, who was looking in the dirty window of the pub.
Emily was sitting across from a man in his late 60s. There was a crowd gathered around the small table and it was obvious that bets were being made. The bar tender dropped a shot glass in front of them and put a bottle of Green Spot between them.
Emily poured each a shot and then downed it at the same time as the man across from her.
“Great,” Kralen whispered.
Silas and Kralen watched silently as Emily and the man across from her went on to drink 15 shots a piece. The old man was now leaning crookedly on his seat, grasping the table as he watched Emily, and the cheers from the pub patrons grew louder.
“Hit me,” Emily said steadily, and one of the patrons refilled their shot glasses.
“Do it Lass!” one of them yelled. Emily picked up the shot glass and quickly drank it, then watched the man across from her. With shaky hands, he picked up the shot and slowly brought it to his lips, spilling half of it on the way.
Suddenly, his eyes glassed over and he toppled off the chair. The pub erupted in loud cheers and shouts, and money was quickly exchanged among them. Kralen focused in on Emily and the hollow look in her eyes. She poured herself another shot and downed it before standing up unsteadily, and then she picked up her winnings and shoved them into her pocket.
One of the younger patrons stepped up toward her and took her arm. He was tall and solid, with dark brown hair and a five o’clock shadow, “Let me drive you home, Elizabeth.”
She jerked her arm away from him, “I don’t need your help, Kelly.”
“You going to walk home then?”
Emily didn’t answer, but stumbled toward the door. Kralen and Silas moved back into the shadows so she wouldn’t see him.
“Elizabeth,” the bartender said, following her out. “You aren’t driving are you?”
“I’m not driving,” she said, irritated, and headed down the small street. She shocked the heku when she pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and lit up, inhaling deeply as she walked.
An old Ford Pickup was parked along a dark alley, and Kralen started to blur forward when she sat behind the wheel and started it up.
Silas stopped him, “We can’t interfere. Wait until Mark gets here.”
“She’s too drunk to drive.”
“You want her to turn you to ash? She’s drunk and doesn’t seem all that happy.”
Emily finished her cigarette and then pulled out onto the street, almost hitting a light pole on the way out. The heku blurred behind her, keeping to the shadows. She managed to make it to a farm on the outskirts of town without hitting anything, and stopped in front of a row of tiny, one-room cabins that served as bunk houses for the sheep ranch.
The heku watched as she fell out of her truck and then crawled into the closest cabin, locking the door behind her. They moved up to the only window to watch her inside.
Emily leaned against the wall to pull off her cowboy boots, and then staggered and fell into the table, but caught herself on a chair. She picked up a bottle off of the counter and took two pills with a glass of water before falling into bed, still fully dressed, and instantly going to sleep.
Silas whispered, “There’s so many things wrong with what we’ve just seen.”
Kralen nodded, too mad to speak.
“Let’s just keep an eye on her and we’ll fill Mark in. He’ll get in touch with Chevalier and we’ll figure out what to do.”
The heku watched her sleep through the night without ever moving. It wasn’t until the other field-hands started to stir that they were forced to move back into shadows.
An hour later they heard Emily awake in the bunk house. They moved to an old, abandoned barn where they could see most of the farm. There were 8 bunk houses total, and each housed a single field-hand. One central building seemed to be a shared shower and bathroom.
Emily walked out after a few minutes, wrapped only in a towel. It was obvious she was hung over, and maybe even still a little tipsy.
“Damnit, Elizabeth. We’re heading out in less than 20 minutes,” an older man said from the largest house.
Emily flipped him off and headed for the showers.
“The men are showering in there,” he called out.
“I won’t look,” she mumbled, and walked into the out-building. Seconds later, all 7 men came barreling out of the building, wrapped in towels and in various stages of showering. One man was trying to keep the shampoo from running into his eyes, and yet another was holding a towel over himself that was too small to wrap around him.
“Do something!” one of them yelled to the older man at the house.
He sighed and walked up to the shower, “Elizabeth! You can’t just go in there and shower with the men! We’ve told you that… you have to wait until they’re done.”
The men waited until Emily finally came out, freshly showered and still wrapped only in a towel. Kralen and Silas could both tell that she wasn’t in a good mood.
“No more,” the older man said to her. “It’s not fair for you to traipse in there when they’re showering!”
“Fuck off, Reilly,” she grumbled, and headed for her bunk house.
“Bitch”
“Mick”
“Póg mo thóin.” He turned when she shut her door, “Go finish showering, so we can get out of here.”
The men hurried into shower, and Kralen looked over at Silas, “Damn.”
“Wonder what’s up with that,” Silas said.
The heku heard the man Emily called Reilly making dinner plans for the field-hands, so they knew they would be back by nightfall. They decided to wait at the farm and search Emily’s bunk house to see if they could find anything to help explain why she didn’t seek out heku when she was released.
Emily came out later with her hair braided and an old black Stetson on her head. She was in her normal jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt, but had a red flannel shirt tied around her waist. The heku sighed when she produced a pack of cigarettes and lit up before walking over to where the field-hands were gathering.
She crawled into the back of a large truck with the others, and then turned when Reilly pulled out a piece of paper. “Shawn, Michael, and Patrick will be checking the traps. I want Elizabeth and Aiden on castration, and I’ll help Davin with docking.”
“Why the fuck do I have to do castration again?” Emily said.
“Because that’s what I said.”
“Let me dock.”
“No… besides… I’d think you would like cutting the balls off of something.”
She just glared at him.
“You promised me I wouldn’t have to work with her again,” one of the men said.
“Bite me,” Emily hissed at him.
“Stop being such a Bitch!” he yelled.
They were still fighting when the truck took off across a muddy pasture toward a massive herd of sheep.
Kralen immediately headed for Emily’s bunk house and found it unlocked. He and Silas stepped inside and shut the door behind them. The cabin was messy. Clothes were strewn around and there were empty whiskey bottles and ash trays full of ashes.
Silas covered his nose, “I hate the smell of tobacco.”
Kralen nodded and picked up a bottle of pills from th
e counter and looked at it, “The bottle’s not marked. Just some blue pills.”
Silas looked over, “Take one for Dr. Edwards to see.”
He nodded and slipped one into his pocket before kneeling down and opening the cabinet below them, “Damn.”
Silas gasped when he saw the shelves of alcohol, “Wow.”
“Drinking pretty heavily it seems.”
“We’ll see what Chevalier thinks.”
Kralen nodded and then stood up and started looking through the drawers.
Silas grabbed a stack of mail and began going through it. He pulled one piece out and showed it to Kralen, “Cell phone bill.”
“So she even has a cell phone, but hasn’t called us.”
Silas tore it open and started to read, “She made 4 calls last month.”
“All month?”
“Yes, to the same number too.”
“Call it.”
Silas dialed the number, but no one answered. Just when he hung up, he heard Mark call to him from outside the cabin.
Kralen winced, “He’s mad.”
Silas nodded and they both left and then blurred away as Mark led the way. Over forty heku were waiting in a grove of trees off of the farm, and when Mark stopped and turned around he was obviously livid.
“You were supposed to be in Edinburgh!” he shouted.
“Mark… I’m sorry, but I had a feeling she might seek out her Dad’s family here in Ireland,” Kralen explained.
“So you felt free to break an order!?”
“We found her.”
“I don’t care! You do not break my orders!”
Silas tried to change the subject, “She’s not well, Mark.”
Mark frowned and looked over at him, “How so?”
“Drinking, smoking, taking some type of pills. She’s moody and seems like the mortals here hate her.”
Kralen nodded, “Not only drinking every night, but driving after. She almost took out a light pole.”
“That doesn’t sound like Emily,” Mark said, deep in thought. “Why would she smoke? And she hates pills.”
“We don’t really know. She has a cell phone bill, but has only called one number.”
Ancients and Old Ones : Book 8 of the Heku Series Page 60