Liesel walked up to Bianca who was once again keeping everything running like clockwork as if she were super administrator. “How are they all, the former captives?” Liesel asked.
Bianca smiled sadly but kindly at Liesel. “As well as can be expected. They all report being pushed to demonstrate their abilities and having blood and tissue samples taken. They were beaten if they resisted, which they all pretty much did it looks like,” said Bianca. “The drugged ones have all woken up,” she finished.
“Has anyone taken complete statements or videos of them so we can document and record what they know if the facility and of the humans who worked or visited there?” asked Liesel.
“Not yet. The medical staff has taken pictures of everyone. This was done just prior to treatment of course and pictures were taken after. They were asked what happened in general terms to identify the best treatment by identifying how they gained their injuries,” said Bianca.
“Once they are fully stable and healed, I would like video debriefings of how they were all taken and full accounts of everything that happened in that facility to them or anyone they could see or hear,” said Liesel.
“Of course, Steward,” said Bianca.
“I do not yet know what was recovered from their computer system before it was destroyed,” said Liesel. “I don’t want to bring the evidence to the town office. I will work on it tomorrow, or today I guess it is now. If you supervise the debriefing and you and I will meet Monday morning to merge our findings, then we can call an elder meeting town council, whatever we call it, to summarize what we know for everyone else. Sound good?” asked Liesel.
“Will do,” said Bianca.
Liesel took another look around the room and could not bring herself to stick around longer than it took to introduce herself and get the captives names and reassure them that the town is here for them and that they are allowed to stay if they choose and to tell John Dixon and Cody Miller she was happy to find them alive as she was sure their people were as well. Then she turned and fled, walking as swiftly as polite decorum would allow, with Gideon following on her heels. Liesel speed walked down the hall and out the front door of the compound and back to the commandeered SUV. Gideon did a quick jog step to beat her to the passenger side door, the advantage of long legs and opened it for her. Once she was in he shut the door, jogged around the front and got in on the driver’s side and drove back around the circular drive and to the road leading them off of the Dixon property and toward the Bohm family home stead.
Liesel practically threw open the door and jumped from the SUV the moment Gideon parked the vehicle in front of the house and they arrived. It was the first time Gideon was not able to open it for her when he was in her presence, but that was something he noted and she did not at the time. She ran inside the house and up the stairs to the second floor. Gideon followed her more slowly and found her standing in the entrance to the master bedroom, looking in with tears streaming down her face and one of her hands covering her mouth.
“Liesel,” said Gideon, softly to alert her to his presence without startling her as he approached nearer. Then he very slowly wrapped his arms around her. Liesel let out a great pain-filled sobbing cry and turned in his arms to face his front. She grabbed his shirt in both of her fists and began to violently weep into the center of his chest. Gideon wrapped his arms around her even more tightly. When the heaving sobs began to give way to smaller keening cries and sniffles, he began to rock her in a side to side motion in his arms there in the hall outside of the bedrooms. Eventually even those cries stopped and Liesel ran completely out of available moisture for tears and silence reigned, broken only on occasion by the slightly ragged nature of Liesel’s breath. Despite the soothing motion of the rocking and Gideon’s warmth, Liesel’s fists were still clenched in Gideon’s shirt with what could be best described as a death grip with her knuckles turning white.
“You need rest,” said Gideon to the top of Liesel’s head. Liesel nodded and pulled away from him, leaning back against his folded arm embrace. Gideon searched her face for something, what it was he did not say but he must have been satisfied with what he found because he released her from the cradling cage of his arms and stepped back slightly to give her room. Liesel let go of her death grip on his shirt, flexing her hands a moment to allow blood flow to return, and walked around him to her childhood room only a couple of doors away. He turned to watch her go in. When she had just passed through the door way into her room, she stopped with her right hand braced on the door jam and turned only her head to look back at Gideon over her right shoulder.
“Thank you,” she said simply without waiting for a reply. Then she fully entered the room and shut the door carefully behind her.
Gideon walked down the hall and then the stairs and called Jonah on his cell phone as he did so. “I do not want to leave her alone here,” said Gideon. He listened to Jonah’s reply for a moment, then he replied himself. “I will check in with you in the morning. Give Amber my love,” he said. Then he took off his belt and shoes and dress shirt. He was still wearing an undershirt and dress slacks but the suit jacket had been long ago discarded by that point somewhere at the facility or perhaps in the SUV on the way back to Zell. Then Gideon lied down on the sofa in the living room space. It was not as comfortable as he had remembered it to be but then again before the night he had spent in Liesel’s arms and her bed, his only experiences in the house at all had been when it was occupied by Gertrude and before Liesel’s return so his body had been several inches shorter and definitely less bulky in the shoulders and arms. Nonetheless, he made himself as comfortable as he could with a throw pillow and the space available.
In her room, Liesel leaned back against the door and took a couple of good deep cleansing breaths, then grabbed a tissue from the box on the night stand and blew her nose, then threw the tissue away. Then she stripped to her panties and her sports bra, tossing her shirt, pants, socks and shoes haphazardly across the floor of the room. She removed the mini portable USB flash drive from her sports bra and placed the drive on her night stand near the alarm clock. Then she allowed herself to fall to the bed. She wrapped the top quilt around herself as if she were a human burrito and not a sad young woman and fell into a deep and blessedly dreamless sleep state.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
It was late morning on Monday when Liesel awoke to the sunlight streaming in through her bedroom window and the smell of coffee wafting up from the first floor kitchen. She found herself still trapped in the burrito-like blanket setup so she rolled to the side of the bed away from the window to free herself from the quilt she was lying both on and within. Then she stretched all four of her limbs at great length and with the associated yawns and strange noises people usually make while doing such thorough cat like stretching. Then she blinked her eyes a few times and then rubbed them to clear away the remnants of sleep and the reminders of allergies, meaning the crusty things in the corners of the eyes. Then she sat up in the bed, threw her legs over the side, felt around with her feet for her house slippers, then rose to her feet. When she found that she did not waver or wobble when she stood, she walked over to her closet and removed the robe hanging from a hook over the back of the closet door. She put it on, wrapped it securely so as not to have any wardrobe malfunctions should someone other than Gideon or Trish or Bianca be in her kitchen or living room and tied the belt with a double knot. She ran her hand through her hair, finger combing as necessary but deliberately did not look in the mirror lest she see what she assumed would be a pink face with puffy features from crying. She opened the door and walked down the hall and stairs while she ran a hand over her face to make sure there were no drool trails or anything embarrassing on her, before she entered the public areas of the house on the first floor.
When she entered the kitchen at the back of the first floor of the house she was greeted by the sight of Gideon with his back to her making coffee. He was wearing rumpled pants and a tank top style undershirt and
nothing else that she could see. Even when you feel like a depressed pile of shit, she thought, the sight of a marginally clothed sexy man making you coffee was still an appealing thing to brighten your day. He must have heard her shuffling steps in her house slippers because she had barely gotten an eyeful of his domesticity before he turned around. He smiled tentatively at her and she smiled back at him.
“You stayed the night,” said Liesel to Gideon, stating the obvious.
“Yes. I did not think you should be alone after everything that happened and you still do not have security for the home stead,” said Gideon. “So I slept on the couch.”
Liesel raised an eyebrow. “That must have been quite the sacrifice,” she said.
“It was a bit more… how should I say, confining than I remembered it being but it has been an eventful week,” he said in reply to Liesel’s statement. “The coffee is almost ready. I assume you would like a mug,” he said.
“Yes, please, and thank you,” said Liesel as she continued walking farther into the room and took a seat at a bar stool at the kitchen island. Gideon turned back around to face the coffee maker. He put a healthy amount of cream and sugar into both mugs of coffee turning them from a brown so dark is was nearly black to a pleasant and warm shade of sweet tan. Then he pushed one of the mugs in her direction while he sat at a stool opposite her at the kitchen island.
Liesel picked up the mug of coffee made by Gideon for her and took a long drink which she appeared to savor before giving a deep sigh and relaxing her shoulders while her eyes were closed. Then she opened her eyes, made eye contact with Gideon and smiled. “Thank you,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” he told Liesel in return.
“For everything I mean, not just the coffee,” she said.
“My response is the same. You are still very, very welcome,” he told Liesel earnestly.
They then continued to drink those first mugs of coffee of the morning in a companionable silence. Liesel pushed her mug forward in Gideon’s direction. “Do you mind pouring me another while I call my mother,” she asked Gideon.
“Of course not,” said Gideon. “Do not hesitate to ask if you need me to help in some way,” he continued.
Liesel went out to the front hall where her cell phone was plugged in and charging. She picked it up from the table and looked for any notifications. She had emails but no missed calls or text messages. Her mother had not felt some magical connection or reason to talk to Liesel after their last conversation and Bianca must have the rest of the towns folk well in hand and was managing them well. As she walked back into the kitchen with her phone in hand, her phone buzzed with the indication of a text message. It was from Wyatt’s number.
Hey babe, I have not heard from you. Are you okay? he typed.
My grandmother died. She replied.
I am so sorry babe. Do you want me to come out and help with arrangements? Wyatt asked.
No. Liesel replied.
I don’t mind babe, the faster you can get this cleared off of your shoulders, the sooner you can come home and start living again. Wyatt said in a lengthy message for a real time immediate conversation.
Liesel did not reply immediately because she did not want to say anything offensive if not necessary.
babe? Wyatt asked after her silence.
There will be a memorial. It is being handled. I am staying in Texas. She finally replied to him.
You’re staying?! What?! Was his stunned reply.
Bye Liesel typed, then she muted the conversation so that she would not get any more notifications even if he continued to reply or comment on that text thread.
Liesel sat back down at her recently vacated stool at the kitchen island and smiled weakly at Gideon. Gideon leaned over the island, took one of her hands in his, lifted it to his lips and gave it a soft but lingering kiss before releasing her. Then he pushed a fresh cup of coffee toward her. “Thank you,” Liesel mouthed to Gideon as she unlocked her phone and scrolled through her contact list until she came to her mother and selected the call feature and lifted the phone to her head.
“Liesel? What is wrong?” her mother answered the phone in concern, fore going the usual phone etiquette pleasantries.
“Mom, I am so sorry,” said Liesel, her voice breaking as she fought back a sudden and unexpected wave of tears.
“Sorry for what?” her mother asked her.
“I was able to help free the towns people that were kidnapped with Grams but she had already been killed,” Liesel said, the tears even more threatening now. She heard her mother gasp and hold the phone away from herself, probably to avoid sobbing while on the line with Liesel.
“Are you safe? Who had her and are they going to come after you?” her mother asked in a rush of concern.
“I think I am safe. I mean, Grams’ wards are looking after me and I did just help rescue a bunch of them so it is not like they are going to turn on me or turn me in any time soon. I have been told I need to add security to the home stead, that is something Grams was lacking, although she was taken from town so I guess it would not have helped her anyway,” said Liesel in response to her mother’s questions.
“So who was it then?” asked Ingrid, her mother. “Who killed her? Did they think she was a monster sympathizer or something like that?” she asked further.
“No, mom, it was some crazy bunch of feds with a laboratory in the desert. Some random informant volunteered information about the Stewards. They know what we are now,at least some of them. I stole the data and then destroyed their copies but I don’t know how big this agency is,” said Liesel.
“Oh god, oh god, Liesel, you need to get out of there. If the government knows what we are, what you are, you need to go to ground and hide immediately!” she said frantically, almost yelling into the phone.
“Mom! Mom!” Liesel shouted into the phone to interrupt her mother’s tirade. “I am not going to run and hide. I took over as steward of this town and this region and I will see that through. Regardless, do you really think that would save me if the feds start hunting down Stewards to experiment on?” Liesel demanded of her mother.
“It would sure as hell slow them down,” her mother replied angrily. “Better those sanctimonious old bitches than my only daughter!”
“Oh my god, mother, you are insane, it is not going to happen. I will increase security here at the homestead but I am not leaving and I am not hiding and I am not pretending I am a human with no knowledge or concern for any supernatural beings might or might not exist,” said Liesel.
There was a pause during which Liesel could hear her mother breathing very heavily as if she were gearing up for a fight or had just finished one. “I will send you a burner phone,” she told Liesel, her voice now flat and hard with lack of emotion, or suppressed emotion at any rate, “Do not use this identity or any of its contacts again.”
“Yes, mother,” said Liesel, then she disconnected the phone call without waiting to see if her mother was going to give her any more directives remotely. It was not going to happen because Liesel would not do anything she said at this point anyway.
“Ah!” Liesel screamed half out of frustration and half out of anger. Then she tossed her phone onto the kitchen island with enough force it was good her phone had a protective case. Then she picked up the coffee Gideon had made her and chugged it down in few gulps without breaking for comment or long breaths. Gideon sat and watched silently, letting her get out whatever it was that she needed to get out of her system without him interfering with her natural processes.
Liesel put the coffee mug down and looked toward Gideon as she began to stand up from the island stool. “I am going to get the portable drive from my room and plug it in to the laptop in the home office and see if it can start revealing its secrets before we have to discuss this with anyone else. Bianca should be getting deposition videos or debriefs or whatever from the former captives this morning as well,” she said to Gideon. At his nod of acquiescence and understand
ing, she turned and left the kitchen to walk up the stairs back to her childhood room to retrieve the drive she had left on her night stand the night before. She grabbed it and palmed it and walked back down to the first floor, and waved to Gideon as she passed him and walked into what had been Gertrude Bohm’s home office. Liesel opened the laptop she had left on the desk and inserted the USB connector end of the drive and set all files to download to a secure folder on the laptop’s hard drive. It looked like it was going to be a long time if the status bar was any accurate gauge at all, it was entirely grey with not even a sliver of the bright green color that would indicate that it was done or even making progress toward being done.
Liesel sighed and closed her eyes and rocked back in the executive style rolling desk chair. She rolled the chair back and forth a few times to relieve excess fidgit energy, then pulled herself back up the desk and picked up the land line phone. She searched through her cell phone contacts for the correct number to dial. “Yes,” came the benign and mild female voice of whomever was answering the phones for the Council of Stewards these days, Liesel absently wondered if it was a council member on reprimand or someone’s daughter who didn’t even know what was going on and thought this was all some sort of weird corporate thing, ah well.
Welcome to Zell Page 12