Crow - The Awakening

by Michael J. Vanecek

  "I feel naked," Penipe complained, rubbing her shoulders with her hands.

  "You are naked," Sirel pointed out as she teased Migalo's head of hair. She had left a little fuzz up there to emulate a close-cropped haircut.

  Penipe looked down. "Besides that. It feels really weird." Penipe reached for her clothing and got dressed while Sirel put away the shaver then tossed Migalo's pile of clothing to him. He frowned as he pulled a sock off his head.

  "It's so... Terran." Migalo held up a pair of boxer shorts. His own clothing was far more functional, allowed for better movement and was robust enough for him to hunt in. The Terran clothing looked flimsy and like it would fall apart the first time he tackled an elk.

  "That's the idea," Lohet said as he examined his paint job in the mirror and tested his smile, finding just where he had to stop before showing his own canines. There was nothing he or Migalo could do about their teeth except to do their best to just hide them. Penipe's were not nearly so pronounced and were much easier for her to hide. Practicing his smile, he stood up and straightened his clothing. He, too, had dressed the part, opting for a sports coat over a turtleneck sweater and a modest pair of slacks.

  Sirel sat on the tank of the toilet, sullen when Lohet turned his attention to her. He picked up a small case and stood in front of Sirel who tried not to look at him. "Smile." She complied reluctantly, doing her best to hide her own teeth. "That won't work, Sirel. You will need to cover them."

  "I hate those things!" Sirel complained, pointing to the set of caps that were meant to cover her rows of sharp shark-like teeth.

  "You should try shaving," Migalo grumbled, grinning at her. She made a face at him.

  Lohet looked at him, then the other two. "We're very close. This is no time to lose focus."

  Sirel pouted, then put the upper and lower caps on her teeth one at a time. They clipped onto her razor sharp teeth tightly and she made a face, feeling distinctly uncomfortable with them in her mouth. Lohet nodded while she felt them with her tongue and scowled.

  "Now you look like Migalo with that frown." Penipe grinned as she inspected the teeth. Sirel snapped at her finger. "I think they'll do okay."

  "They're hard to get off to eat." Sirel played with them with her fingers. Penipe looked at her, sympathetic. All she had to do was shave and wear a pair of sunglasses. So long as people didn't look too closely, she easily passed for a Terran. Provided she resisted the urge to jump up into a tree, that is. But while being hairless was disconcerting, she wasn't really uncomfortable.

  "Okay. How's the tracking going?" Lohet was eager to get back on the hunt for Steven. They had a big city to search and their time was running out. He was developing faster than they had planned for, thanks to the couple of years of medication, so their window of opportunity was all the more narrow.

  Sirel walked out of the bathroom and the rest followed, with Migalo bringing up the rear as he tried to figure out the buttons on the shirt. They went into the living room of their safe house where Sirel had set up her tracking station. A holographic monitor was hovering over the table, and on it they could see everything Steven was doing digitally, but still no hint about where he was doing it from. "We can't track him through the network anymore. He's using the Sadari network exclusively now. We can see what servers he cracks, however. He's been focusing on the servers of the company Meruk and Lelana worked at with the Crows.

  Lohet leaned over, peering closer at the screen. "He hasn't been able to get into the old physical archives. He may try to go onsite."

  "I'll tap into their surveillance," Penipe said, cracking into the security servers that monitored that company. "If he tries to break in, we'll see it."

  "Pull up schematics and list the possible entry points he may try." Lohet pointed at the screen. "We can focus on those points and anticipate his ingress."

  Penipe moved data blocks around and frowned. "We have some blind spots."

  "Those are the spots he'll try to exploit if he goes for it," Lohet said.

  "The deviant may not go after those archives," Sirel piped up, wondering if it could be a diversion. He had already sifted through the company pretty thoroughly. Why was he hitting them again? She examined the data stream he was pulling off the servers. "There are the video files, too. He's acquiring the old surveillance archives."

  "They were deleted before we could get to them, however. But not by him." Lohet paced around the table. "Could someone be feeding him these archives?" He looked at Sirel. "What if the Sadari have been leading him on all this time?"

  "For what purpose?" Sirel asked. If they knew where he was, they could just pick him up at any time. Lohet shook his head. But he found the ramifications troubling. There was a lot they didn't know about their enemy's motives. It could very well be they had no intention to pick him up at all.

  "We need to canvas area hotels. Perhaps homeless shelters," Penipe brainstormed as she pulled up lists. "And seismological stations. If we're close he may have another dream."

  "How close do we need to be to affect him that way, though?" Lohet asked himself as much as them, looking over a map of the Seattle area. "We may need to activate more safe houses and rotate through them to better incite the deviant into a dream."

  "Isn't that dangerous?" Migalo piped in. "He could bring down the city."

  "Given the troubling questions we have, it's a justifiable risk." Lohet looked at him.

  "Better a city than worse." Sirel looked at Migalo, who looked down to avoid her gaze. Her world was reduced to a seething ocean of magma because of a deviant.

  Steven took in a deep breath, enjoying the scents of the forest. It wasn't quite as wild as the deep forests he grew up in, but it was still extremely pleasing to be in. Towering trees enclosed him and ferns and underbrush blanketed the forest floor. He was thrilled to have found this at the end of one of the bus routes that passed by his apartment. Until he got to the forest, he didn't really appreciate just how deadening the city was to him. The forest was life to him, and he soaked it in.

  Looking up into the treetops, Steven found a tree and scaled it easily up into the canopy. He pushed off the trunk and grabbed the branches of a neighboring tree, and swung in to land on its trunk. It may have been several weeks since he was last in the forest, but it still remained with him and before long he was traveling through the treetops rapidly and almost silently until he came to a small clearing. He dropped out of the tree and landed on the soft detritus that carpeted the forest floor and walked around the perimeter of the clearing, savoring the scents of the flowers blooming in it.

  As he walked through the clearing, he noticed another one of those tropical dandelions. He stopped for a moment, looked at it, and remembered the meadow. Rolling his eyes, he walked on. He wasn't going to let that ruin his forest experience. He was too thrilled to be in the forest and doubted anything would be able to put a damper on that. The day was gorgeous, perfect for a romp through the forest. He felt almost intoxicated from the energy that was flowing around him.

  He did see some other plants that he sorely missed from home and dug up a couple to take back to the rooftop garden. He searched through his pockets and found a couple of sandwich bags and stuffed the root balls in them, then started trotting back to the trail. As he re-entered the forest he could swear someone was dodging between the trees like a shadow. He considered chasing the person, but was a little creeped out so maintained his course. He couldn't feel that person, which disturbed him even more. Normally when in the forest he was connected to all life in it and he could feel everything, even down to the smallest creatures if he focused.

  If he was paying attention, he would have known that a puma had been stalking him and was about to jump out of the underbrush up ahead. However, he was distracted by the renewed flood of life around him, like a starving man given a table full of food. He looked around for the shadow, but was suddenly tackled by a puma just as he felt her presence at the last moment. The mountain lion pounced on him, roarin
g with a sound that reminded Steven of a screaming woman. He reacted, trying to divert the attack but she hit him square in the chest and knocked him to the ground, and they rolled in the underbrush for a few minutes until they both jumped up, facing each other. Steven dove in, getting the puma in a headlock and started poking her ribs. She squirmed free and pounced back on him, knocking him against a tree and started biting at his neck.

  "Ow, that hurt." Steven rubbed an old painful spot that he had gotten from the robbery attempt. He swatted at the puma who dodged, spun around and lay at his feet on her back, swatting at his legs. Sitting down, Steven scratched the large cat on the belly, realizing just how much he missed his friends. She wiggled and gnawed at his arm as he pet her, enjoying the attention. Smiling, Steven pet her face and scratched behind her ears. "I should have come out here weeks ago," he said to the mountain lion. He had not noticed just how intensely the concrete of the city seemed to suck out his vitality and felt positively euphoric to be back in the forest. It was a feeling of being home.

  But, as with all things, his little reverie had to come to an end. It was getting late and he didn't want to miss the last bus. He got up and started trotting again and the puma followed behind him, trying to swat his feet until she got bored and ran off into the forest to hunt. Steven stopped several times to pick mushrooms that he had been deprived of by city living until his bag bulged and then continued the trot until the forest thinned.

  Feeling very refreshed, Steven emerged from the forest and walked the few blocks to the bus stop. Even refreshed, he still had the creepy feeling that he was being shadowed. He looked around, but felt silly. There was no one around. He wondered if his imagination was starting to act up again, especially since he was seeing those plants again, and decided to prioritize the hunt for a source of ingredients for the medicinal tea that had helped him.

  Glen spilled his coffee in his lap for the second time that morning. Grumbling, he found some wadded up napkins to wipe it up. He couldn't figure out how the other surveillance agents managed to not spill. Looking up, he took note of another customer walking into the mailbox rental place, and through the window noted which box that person went to. No, it wasn't Steven's. He took another peek through the dash mounted camera to make sure it was still recording. Someone back in analysis was going to be as bored as he was watching the hours and hours of video, but it was critical to not miss anything.

  Normally their surveillance involved hidden cameras and them being completely out of sight, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. But since the brass really wanted to acquire this target, it called for an over-the-top physical presence. On detection, the target was to be acquired no matter what the circumstances or collateral damage. But there were few things Glen disliked more than stakeouts. Still, it was a mission he had no problem volunteering for, given the hopeful product of that stakeout. Their target has had direct contact with aliens after all, and the one who apprehends him would definitely be noticed by the elders of the organization they belonged to.

  A phone call interrupted his thoughts. He looked at the caller ID and didn't answer. It was a simple recall code and required no response. Someone else must be relieving him early. Sighing, Glen put his coffee in the holder. He thankfully stretched his legs then started the vehicle, eager for a very welcome break. Looking in the rear view mirror, Glen noticed a similar vehicle pulling up behind him and he nodded at the driver.

  The sniper looked down out of the window of the apartment, noting that the suburban was leaving. He was about to call him to find out where he was going since that was his ride. But a knock at the door of the apartment he was using interrupted him. It was a vacant apartment so who ever was knocking was suspect. He pulled his pistol, twisting on the silencer, and stood to the side of the entry way. Ready to respond, the sniper opened the door a crack. He saw a young teenager bopping to something he was listening to on his earplug headphones while he waited for the door to be answered. In his hands was a large insulated pizza box. He looked past the kid down the hall but didn't see anything suspicious.

  "I didn't order pizza," the sniper said through the crack in the door. The boy still didn't notice that the door had opened a little so he opened the door more, getting the teenager's attention as he kept his pistol hidden from view. The delivery boy pulled the earplugs from his ears and smiled widely.

  "Hi! Thirty minutes or less, guaranteed. I have two large pizzas for you, one with pineapple and Canadian bacon and the other with sausage, pepperoni and..." he looked at the ticket, "...extra cheese." He said before the sniper could say anything.

  "I didn't order those."

  The delivery boy looked at the number on the door and showed him an addressed ticket. "Is this you?"

  The ticket actually had his name on it. The only person who knew he was here was his boss. He was about to tell the boy to leave when it occurred to him that the suburban may be bringing in other agents for a lunch meeting. "Yes, I guess it is." He surreptitiously put his pistol in its back holster and dug for his wallet as he opened the door a little more, still scanning the hallway behind the boy. The kid grinned, holding out his hand.

  "Ooh, I can't break that. Do you have anything smaller?" he said as he saw the large bill the sniper had pulled out of his wallet.

  "Sure, let me see here," the sniper pulled out a few more bills and gave them to the kid, and stuffed the larger bill back in the wallet. "Keep the change."

  "Excellent! If you need more pizza, you know who to call!" The kid ran down the hall and hit the down button on the elevator, waving back at the sniper who poked his head out the door to watch him go while he put his earplugs back in his ears and started bopping again.

  Back in the apartment he opened the pizza and smelled it. He was a bit hungry. He thought to wait for the others, but decided to go ahead and grab a slice. He walked back to the window and looked down at the mailbox rental. Nothing different there. Another black suburban had pulled in below so it looked like all was normal. He waited for the others to come up for lunch and resisted the urge to take another slice.

  Steven got off the bus in front of the mailbox store and walked in, completely oblivious that anyone would have been watching it. The attendant looked up from his fishing magazine as Steven walked in. "Hi!" Steven said as he pulled out his key and looked for his box.

  "Up one and over to the right," the attendant said.

  "Oh yeah." Steven said, finding the attendant's memory remarkable. But then, he did spend all day here every day after all.

  Steven checked his mail and grabbed a box containing a new smart phone and an envelope with his permanent drivers license in it. "Sweet! It finally came in!" Tickled, Steven pulled out his drivers license. He raised an eyebrow at the picture. "Well, it could be worse, I guess." He looked at the attendant. "My last one was taken right after I sneezed."

  The attendant grinned and shook his head. "Bet the girls loved that picture."

  Steven smiled. Well, no girls, but it was an odd looking picture. Nonetheless, he decided not to go into that with a stranger. Happy that things were starting to work out for him, Steven walked out of the store and down to the intersection in order to cross the street and wait for the bus at the bus stop on the other side. He was eager to dig out his smart phone but thought it might be prudent to do that in the security of his greenhouse rather than out there in the hustle and bustle. Besides, he still had to program it and it probably didn't have much of a charge, if any.

  A moped was parked on the sidewalk chained to the bus stop. Steven looked at it, wondering if maybe he should get one with his next paycheck. But the buses were doing just fine at the moment and he was reluctant to spend that much money on something that may not have much benefit for his search. Still, he would like a little more freedom to go where he wanted to at any time rather than waiting on the bus. The decisions that cropped up on him when he got a little money, Steven thought wryly. Money can be a real hassle sometimes. He pulled out his box and inspect
ed it, casually reading the text on the box as he passed the time waiting for the bus.

  A kid in a pizza delivery uniform walked up to the moped. He smiled at Steven as he unchained it. "Hey there. How's it going?"

  "Great! How're you?" Steven asked him, looking up, surprised.

  "Never better." He took the uniform jacket off and tossed it in the trash can along with the pizza insulator. "Well, have a nice day, Steven," he said, grinning at him as he sped off on the moped.

  Steven looked as he weaved through pedestrians on the sidewalk and finally jumped the curb off onto the street then he glanced back at the trash can. Did he just call him by name? Shaking his head, he wondered about all the strange things he'd seen in the city and missed the normal life of the forest. He looked at the drivers license again in the sunlight and grimaced. The picture was taken in a half blink that made him look like he was stoned. Shaking his head, he put it in his wallet and threw the envelope in the trash, and got up as the bus pulled up.

  Laurence fumed at the team members who stood at attention, fidgeting nervously. He had a crumpled up envelope that was addressed to Steven's mailbox. "I give you a simple task. Watch a store and intercept a kid." He looked at the both of them. "You've had to crawl through sewers," he said to the sniper. "You had to break into a DARPA research facility," he said to Glen. "Here, all you had to do was grab a little boy. No firefight, no chases, no threat."

  "We got played, sir. Someone knew we were surveilling that business," Glen insisted, handing Laurence his cell phone. Laurence went through the history and noted the number and time. It was posted just a few minutes before the relief was supposed to arrive. "I saw the relief pull up behind me. He had the tag and everything."