The Veritas Codex Series, #1

by Betsey Kulakowski

  “You want to talk about it?” he asked softly.

  “Not really.”

  “When you’re ready, I’m here.”

  “I just need sleep.” She closed her eyes. He lay listening to her breathe, wanting to say a million different things. His mind raced with questions that remained unanswerable. He didn’t go back to sleep until he realized she had stopped trembling.

  * * *

  The nightmares became more frequent and their intensity more severe. One afternoon, Lauren had just sat down to eat lunch, and Rowan found her with a far-off look in her eye. She’d hardly touched her food and her fork hung limp in her hand. It crashed to the plate. Her breathing became labored as she gasped for air. He caught her hand in his, and pulled her to him, as if his arms could protect her from the demons.

  She screamed suddenly, a blood-chilling scream, that tore through him and he felt his heart shatter as he clung to her. “Lauren, what is it? Tell me what you see?” he said, knowing she would never talk about it when she was coherent. “What is it?”

  “A-gi ... hna ... sv ...” she trembled.

  He had those words memorized. “Ancient evil ... witch.”

  Rowan trembled, himself, burying his face in her hair. Something had to be done. He got up and went to the computer and started looking at flights — for Washington State — against his heart and his better judgement.

  Chapter 23

  “How are you feeling?” Rowan asked when he picked her up from her last physical therapy appointment. He helped her with her seatbelt. It had become a habit after twelve weeks.

  “Better,” she said. She lifted her shoulder and flexed her muscle for him. She winced a little bit, but she had made great strides. “97 percent ... maybe 98.”

  “Think that will be enough?”

  “The therapist says it’ll only improve.” She shrugged. It was something she hadn’t been able to do twelve weeks before.

  “Do you need to go by the apartment before we go to work?”

  “I think I’m good,” she smiled. “I could use some lunch.”

  “We have time to grab something,” he said. “What sounds good?”

  “Food,” she grinned.

  Rowan put the car in gear. “My favorite.”

  * * *

  They had lunch at a beach-front deli before heading back up to the studio. The team was assembling, and Jean-René met them in the lobby at the elevator. “Problem,” he said. He knitted his brows together as the elevator doors closed.

  “What sort of problem?”

  “Insurance problem,” he said. “The execs came down this morning and said the insurance company dropped our coverage.”

  “Because of what happened in Washington?” Lauren asked.

  “Or Peru?” Rowan added.

  “Both. Partially,” Jean-René said, as the elevator doors opened on the sixth floor. “Something about a problem at the lab.”

  Rowan blanched. “The lab? What?” Lauren gasped. He moved past his fiancée on the pretense of getting coffee. He signaled Jean-René to drop it.

  “I know, right? So anyway, they dropped our insurance and we can’t go anywhere until we get it renewed.” Jean-René swallowed hard.

  “It’s not likely you’ll find anyone who’ll insure a high-risk expedition,” Jacob came in behind them, closing the door as he did. “Your e-mod is a 2.75. I’ve never seen one that high.”

  “E-mod?” Rowan puzzled.

  “Experience modifier,” Lauren said.

  “Fine. Everyone, let’s work this out.” Ordinarily Rowan might have flown off the handle, but this was not the time. If they couldn’t get insurance, that might be just the thing to convince Lauren to abandon this folly and move on.

  Without the insurance company’s backing, Jacob wouldn’t release funds to support their efforts, and without the financial backing of the Network, the team wasn’t going anywhere.

  “How are we supposed to produce a television show if we can’t go out on location?” Jean-René grumped.

  “Let’s go start making phone calls,” Lauren said. “I’ll get State Farm or GEICO to insure us if I have too.”

  * * *

  It wasn’t that easy. The word of Lauren’s abduction hadn’t been any secret. Rowan tried going through channels, over people’s heads, but at the end of the day, he hadn’t gotten anywhere. He finally hung up the phone and walked out onto the balcony, leaning on the rail. He ran a weary hand over his face, but he wanted to scream. He was relieved and frustrated at the same time. He didn’t want to go back. He also knew if he didn’t make a fair attempt at securing coverage, Lauren would blame him for not trying.

  “No luck, huh?” Lauren asked. She held a basket of laundry. He carried it into the bedroom for her.

  “No.”

  “We’ll figure something out.” She took a small towel to fold.

  “I’m going for a run.”

  “Want company?”

  “I don’t think I’d be very good company right now,” he said, reaching into the basket for his running shorts. “I need to clear my head.”

  “Is there anything I can do to help?” She put a tentative hand on his shoulder.

  He hesitated. “Be naked when I get home?”

  “Not until after you’ve had a shower.” She raised her brows, but leaned in to kiss him.

  He drew back, grinning. “Maybe I’ll just have you now, before I’m all sweaty,”

  He tossed the shorts aside and pushed her back gently. He climbed on top of her, brushing her bangs off her face, letting his thumb trace the edge of her strong jaw.

  She snaked an arm around him and drew him to her, kissing him again. “That’s a better idea.”

  * * *

  He awoke late the next morning, to the smell of coffee and pancakes. He found Lauren at the table on the phone. She got up as she continued her conversation. She fixed him a plate; poured him a cup of coffee, all with the phone in the crook of her neck. She sat it in front of him as he inspected the feast.

  “So, we’ll have the certificate of coverage how soon?” she asked. She couldn’t help but notice the puzzled look that crossed his face. “Of course. I understand. Can you fax that to my attention? That’d be great.” She sat down and picked up her coffee cup. “I appreciate your help, Greg. Thank you.” She hung up the phone and glanced up at Rowan. “We’ll have our certificate of coverage Monday.”

  “What? Who? How?” He cut off each word, dumbfounded. He’d made thirty calls at least, and she’d gotten it done in one day — one phone call?

  “I had to insure myself when I got my research grant from the University,” she said. “I know people.”

  “But ...”

  “Just let me handle the insurance part. I need you to handle the travel arrangements.”

  “If anything happens to you I just ... I couldn’t go on. We have to be especially careful on this trip. I won’t lose you again.”

  “Nothing’s going to happen to me, Rowan,” she said. “I made a couple other phone calls too. I called that FBI agent. I found his business card in your backpack while I was doing laundry. He tried to talk me out of it too, but he said if I was determined to come, the FBI would lead the team.”

  “I still think we should leave it to them, Lauren,” Rowan said.

  “They’ve had three, almost four months to do something. The trail has gone cold. We are the experts here. We know our quarry better than they do. We can let them worry about the charlatans.”

  Chapter 24

  With Mt. Saint Helens in the background, Lauren filmed her first piece in months. “It has been over sixteen weeks since I was abducted by an unknown person or persons. Despite what the tabloids would have you believe, we are certain that my abductors were hoax-mongers in a Bigfoot suit. We don’t know what their motives were or why they targeted our team. This is why we are working with the FBI on the investigation. We’re joined by Special Agent Andrew Miller and Special Agent Joshua Morrison.”


  Rowan picked up the narration there. “We also have National Park Service Rangers Katie Jonas and Derry Kent. They are with us to aid in the investigation and provide security for the team. We’ve restricted our crew to four members: Lauren, myself, our Director of Photography, Jean-René Toussaint and assistant researcher, Bahati Yseri. No other camera or audio techs are with us. We are also joined by local Bigfoot researcher Pauline Jamison, who works for the National Park Service. She will be our guide.”

  “After a couple of months of rehabilitation, I am ready to find the truth about what happened to me, and the truth about the legendary Bigfoot.”

  Rowan took over the narration. “Since our initial visit to the area, there have been numerous sightings of an unidentified creature raiding camp sites, smashing trash bins. It can be heard howling in the night. At least one witness reports seeing a large bipedal animal crossing the road in front of his car.” He wasn’t surprised how easily they fell back into their routine of playing off each other in their narrations. None of this had been scripted in advance. They each knew what to say. “Based on the evidence we found during our last visit, we believe that while there may well be some hoax-mongers at play in the area, we cannot discount the evidence that suggests we may have found proof of a real Bigfoot living in these mountains. Our goal is to expose the hoax, find the beast, and answer the question—What happened to Lauren?”

  * * *

  “Okay, perimeter alarms are set.” Bahati came into camp as Jean-René clicked off the recorder. “I’ve set trap cams and we’re ready to go dark.”

  Lauren yawned. She stretched gingerly. Travel days were always exhausting, but more so today than ever. They’d left the house and caught a red-eye flight to SEA-TAC the night before, renting an SUV for the team, their equipment and supplies.

  The heavy load on her back was made even more difficult in the thin mountain air. The team had hiked until near dark, finally making it to a place to set up base camp for the night. Now that camp was set, all that was left to do was have dinner and then hit the sack.

  They had the cameras and alarms set up as a passive control. If they caught anything, it would be a bonus. Tonight, they would take turns on watch and use the opportunity to rest. Tomorrow they had another long hike into an area where few hikers dared venture, and even the logging crews hadn’t been there in the past twenty years. It was closer to the clearing where Lauren had been found, and an area where several of the recent sightings had been reported.

  Chores had been decided by lottery. Derry and Katie were in charge of dinner, Rowan and Bahati had first watch, and Jean-René and Pauline had the second. Miller and Morrison had drawn the last watch of the night and would also be responsible for breakfast. Lauren would be allowed to rest tonight and she couldn’t wait for dinner to be over with so she could go lie down. The first day’s hike had been hard on her, and she was exhausted. With three rotations, each team would only have to sit watch for a few hours.

  “How’s the shoulder?” Morrison came over and sat down beside her. She had her laptop open and was checking on weather conditions, just in case. Earlier, rain and thunderstorms had passed through the area and a humid pallor hung over the mountain; the air was still. The skies were starting to clear, and it was starting to cool off just a bit.

  “A little sore,” Lauren admitted. “Not used to carrying a backpack.”

  “I can imagine. You look better than you did the last time we talked.”

  “Oh, believe me. I feel better.”

  “Still no memories of what happened?”

  “No,” she admitted. “Rowan says I’ve been having nightmares, but I don’t remember those either.”

  “He mentioned that,” he said. “It’s not uncommon, you know?”

  “What’s that?”

  “The mind is an amazing thing. It’s programmed to protect its owner. It can remember certain things with such vivid clarity... the taste of chocolate, the smell of your grandmother’s perfume, the day you get married, your first born child, the smell of baby shampoo and powder, but not the smell of the diapers,” he leaned back on one of the cases. He wore a plaid shirt and cargo pants — a distant departure from the black suit and Ray Ban sunglasses. “How easily we forget the pain of a scraped knee, the pain of childbirth, the heartbreak of our first love.”

  Lauren crossed her ankles and hugged her knees. “It’s more frustrating than anything to me.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “I am a scientist. I’m trained to collect and analyze data. I thrive on data. Yet, this time I feel like the data is there, but somehow... corrupted.”

  An amused expression crossed his chiseled face. “You would have made a great FBI agent,” he chuckled.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “We collect data too,” he said. “Once we have the evidence, we analyze it, and work to come to conclusions.”

  “There’s one difference between a researcher and an FBI agent.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You arrest your subject once you analyze them. Me, I just take video and turn it into good television.”

  “Good point, but there are those out there who think what I do is good entertainment.”

  “My second favorite show is Criminal Minds,” she grinned. “So, maybe we’re not so different after all.”

  “I like that one too,” he admitted, blushing.

  * * *

  Lauren sat with her face on her palm, her elbow resting on her knee. She’d been writing in her journal but had nodded off, waiting for dinner. She nearly bolted out of her skin when Rowan sat down beside her. His leg bumped hers, unseating her elbow from her knee. “Here.” He handed her a tin plate of food. It was some kind of Mexican hot dish. It smelled spicy and her mouth watered as she took the warm plate in her hand.

  “You look tired,” he commented. He dug into his own food.

  “Yeah, I’m beat,” she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t draw watch tonight, but I could sure use the sleep.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” She didn’t need to know he hadn’t even put her name in the hat.

  “Besides, I like to watch the stars in the mountains at night. I kind of like the midnight watch.”

  “I’d worry about you,” Rowan said.

  “I’d have my dart gun.” She put a hand reassuringly on the dart gun on her belt.

  “Damned lot of good the dart guns did us last time. The only thing that even makes me feel halfway safe is the presence of all these trained federal agents.”

  The Park Service rangers and the FBI agents packed real guns with real bullets. Regulations restricted anyone else from discharging a firearm in the National Park. Rowan had to negotiate a deal for the dart guns. He didn’t mention they’d brought them with them before. If Rowan had known it was against the rules, he wouldn’t say.

  “Does it look like the weather’s going to hold?” Rowan changed the subject.

  “Yeah,” she said, between bites. She still had the radar pulled up on her laptop. “There’s some rain to the north, but it’s moving to the east.”

  He nodded, taking up his plate. “Good. It’ll be a beautiful night then.”

  “I’ve missed the stars,” she glanced up at the sky, the last rays of daylight slipping below the timberline and behind the mountains.

  “Sure to be plenty of them tonight,” he said.

  She yawned. As soon as her plate was mostly empty, she set it aside, and rested her head in her hand again. Rowan nudged her. “You have to eat it all.”

  “I’m too tired.”

  “Sooner it’s done, the sooner you can go lie down.”

  Chapter 25

  Lauren woke to the smell of bacon frying; her mouth watered. She breathed in the damp morning and curled herself into Rowan’s body, dreamily unaware of the passing of time. Rowan took a deep breath and wrapped an arm around her. He snored loudly in her ear. The magic of the moment was suddenly gone. Now fully awake, Lauren was awa
re the sky was almost the same muted pink it had been before she’d drifted off.

  She lifted his arm to peel herself out of Rowan’s grasp. She pulled on her jacket and then her hiking boots. She crawled out of their tent.

  “Chow’s almost ready,” Jean-René said. The bemusement that curled the corners of his mouth did not escape her notice as she emerged from Rowan’s tent. Now that their secret was out, they gave up any pretenses. The ring on her finger gave her authority to sleep wherever she wanted.

  “I’m starving,” she said, running a weary hand through her hair. “Anything happen overnight?”

  Bahati brought her a cup of coffee. “You didn’t miss anything, Boss. It was quiet all night. At least until Rowan went to bed.”

  Lauren laughed. “Rowan could wake the dead”

  “Yes, but the real question is, can you wake him? We need to get moving.”

  Bahati was right. Daylight was burning and they had another arduous hike ahead.

  Lauren looked back at the tent. “I’ll see what I can do.” She offered. She went to her equipment trunk and found one of the digital recorders. She kept the volume turned down until she found the segment she wanted, then she stood behind the tent, and turned the sound all the way up. A grainy recording of an unexplained yowl filled the meadow. Once it ebbed, there was a moment of silence followed by a second. Before that cry faded, the tent began to shake violently and the zipper was thrown back, Rowan all but fell over the threshold as he hopped out trying to get a shoe on. Clearly, he wasn’t fully awake but when he froze and realized the whole camp was staring at him, he stood with his foot half out of the hiking boot, looking around, dazed.