Equilibrium (24 page)

“We’ll turn them back on in an hour,” Larry said. “That gives us enough time to make that imaginary rescue journey to the lake and back.”

F
inally, a break, Claire thought to herself. It had been a frustrating afternoon. She’d sent Dr. Fox a printout of the message that they extracted from Kellan’s ring. He seemed fairy unexcited. He
thought
that Dr. Sen had meant the blueprint of a new machine they had been working on. He’d been annoyingly vague. Well, she guessed that he must have been more certain than he’d let on. He had, after all, emailed some blueprints off to Dr. Sen. She had proof of that in her hands. She could hardly contain her excitement when the email copy was delivered to her, glad that they were monitoring Dr. Sen’s email. She studied the blueprints, glazing over. She’d no idea what she was looking at. She’d have the techies look at it more closely if Dr. Fox remained evasive. And he’d already proven to be just that. He and Rupert Darley had given the slip to the agents who had been assigned to watch them, after they left Ames on Mr. Darley’s bike. In their defense, it was possible that they assumed Dr. Sen’s colleagues were following them. Annoying all the same, Claire had now no idea where they were.

She did have a copy of the email, though. That was something. All she’d had so far was that odd note from Ariele, which she had promptly filed. Time travel–sheesh! To Claire, the arrival of the email was a sign that that things may finally get moving. The blueprints had been emailed off! She could only hope that there would be a response from Dr. Sen soon. The techies had hooked her iPad up so that she would be able to view any information coming through on Dr. Fox’s computer. Her eyes were glued to the screen.

“Hey, Claire. Anything?”

She looked up and shook her head at Keith Baker. “Not yet, but it’s only been a little while since the blueprint was sent off by Dr. Fox. Do we have a team ready for deployment, if there are any signs of action?”

“Yes, we’re ready to go,” Keith affirmed. “Any signs of the Darleys or Dr. Fox?”

 “No, we seem to have lost them. Their homes are under surveillance. Hopefully they’ll turn up soon.”

They both looked at the iPad screen, slightly apprehensively, when the next message came through.

“
Shooting star
? What does that mean?” Keith asked, puzzled by the email he’d just read from Dr. Sen to Dr. Fox.

“Haven’t a clue,” Claire replied, wondering what the cryptic message meant. She would have to get it over to the techs. “I’ll give Dr. Fox a call.”

The frustration that Claire felt earlier in the evening set back in. Neither Dr. Fox nor the Darleys were picking up their phones. Why? This was urgent. The kids were being dropped off soon. The FBI needed to get to wherever
shooting star
was, so they could intercept the perpetrators. Were the parents taking matters into their own hands?

“Keith, anyone come up with possible locations for shooting star?

“Nope.”

“Any signs of life at the Darley or Fox houses?”

“Three girls stopped by there about fifteen minutes ago–Ariele, Ali and Maria–friends of the family, apparently. The girls just wanted to know if they were all right. They were sent on their way. The agents got the dog out of the Darley house–it’s been barking all day–and gave it to one of the girls to look after.”

“So we have nothing,” Claire repeated unhappily. “All we can do for the moment is wait for Dr. Fox to call us back. I’ve left him a number of messages.”

~

I saw Mom glancing at Morgana with a strange expression, unsure in some way. It was amazing how much Morgana looked like Morena. Not only did they have the same chestnut-colored hair, but it was styled exactly alike. Even their expressions were the same– serene. I had to keep telling myself that this was Morgana, not Morena. It had been about an hour or so since Rupert had sent out the
shooting star
email, when it was apparently time to call Agent Adams. Constance, Javier, Morena, Inez, and Kevin had left. It was just us and Morgana still at her house. Harry and Ella were watching TV in one of the guest bedrooms, to keep her busy.

 Mom looked up at Rupert from his lap and sighed. “I guess we better call the FBI?”

Rupert stroked her head and nodded. “Larry, do you want to make the call?

Agent Adams was at the door twenty minutes later.

I didn’t get up from Kellan’s lap, I was way too tired. Agent Adams didn’t look the least bit intimidating, although she definitely had the air of someone very frustrated.

“Agent Adams,” Larry greeted her. “This is Arizona. Harry and Ella are in one of the bedrooms, watching TV. I’ll get Harry in a moment.

She nodded, and walked over and sat down next to Kellan and me. “Arizona, I’m pleased to meet you. My name is Claire. I’m heading up this investigation. I know you’re tired, but I need to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?”

I nodded. I didn’t really have a choice, did I?

“First of all, have you been harmed in any way? Do I need to get you to a doctor?”

I shook my head.

“Well, I’d like you to see one anyway, just to be safe. Where were you dropped off?”

“By the lake,” I said.

She abruptly spoke into her cell phone and then turned back around to me. “My apologies, I had to direct a team to get out there immediately to search the area. Who dropped you off?”

I had to be careful now. I was pleased to see Harry coming back into the room and sitting down beside us. At least he would be able to hear what I said and could stick to the same story.

“This is Harry, my brother,” I introduced. “He was there as well.”

Claire nodded, slightly put out that Harry had joined them. It would have been better to speak to them separately, to be able to check for inconsistencies. However, there was no time to waste. “I was just asking your sister who dropped you off by the lake,” she repeated, for Harry’s benefit.

“Dr. Sen–Raj Sen, that is. And a woman, I think her name’s Sophie. Right, Harry?” I asked, trying my best to seem a bit fuzzy on the details.

He nodded and added, “Yes, and a couple of other guys. One called Dan and I don’t know the other one’s name. There could have been more, I don’t know for sure.”

“Could you describe Sophie, Dan and the other two men to me?” Claire asked. She did have a photograph of Dr. Sen, but needed detailed descriptions of the others.

I sat back on Kellan and closed my eyes as Harry described Sophie, Dan and the two men to Agent Adams. He did a very good job, and although I had my eyes closed, I listened to every detail carefully so I could repeat it.

“Arizona, are you awake?” Agent Adams asked, as she gently nudged my elbow.

I opened my eyes. “Yes, just resting my eyes.”

“I just need to ask a few more questions. Then I promise to let you rest. I need you to tell me what happened to you.”

I gave her the brief description Javier had instructed me to give.

“Arizona, can you describe the house you were kept in?”

Again, I kept it brief, painting a picture of dark,
smelly
, untidiness. I was hoping that Harry was taking it all in and would be able to repeat it.

“Harry, was that your perception of the place, as well? Do you remember any further details? Any pictures on the wall?” the agent asked.

Harry nodded. “Yup, I pretty much remember it the same way and can’t remember any other details.”

“Have you any idea of how far away it may be from here? How long were you driving around for before you got dropped off?” she asked.

“A very long time, hours,” I said. “However, we could’ve been driving around in circles for all I know. Our journey did seem very winding at times.”

Agent Adam turned to Mom. “Dr. Darley, would it be possible for me to talk to Ella?”

“I’d rather you didn’t. She’s been through a lot and she is tired. I’ll let you know if she tells us anything other than what Arizona and Harry have told you already.”

Agent Adams nodded and turned to Larry. “Dr. Fox, may I speak to you in private?”

I was relieved when they left the house. It was all over–for now, anyway. I needed to unwind and wanted desperately to go home. No one said much during the ride home–we were all wiped. It was decided that Kellan and Larry were going to spend the night at the house with us.

The house was surrounded by agents, which was sort of comforting. One of them handed me a note. It was from Ariele, letting me know that Gertrude was with her. I was relieved, though disappointed that I wouldn’t see Gertrude until morning. I had really missed her, her doggy smell. I wanted to grab and cuddle her.

For now, I had Kellan to myself. I led him out to the poolside, where we made ourselves comfortable on a deckchair. I lay in his arms, my eyes closed with my face nuzzling in his chest.

“What are you thinking about, Shrimp?” he whispered softly.

“Hockey.”

He chuckled. “Hockey? Here was I thinking that you were totally into me!”

I pinched him. “I need to get on the ice. I need to feel the rush of slamming a puck into the goal, and I need to check someone really hard,” I laughed.

“As long as it’s not me,” he teased.

“Seriously, Kellan…don’t you feel the same?”

“Yeah, I guess,” he mused. “It would be really good. I certainly need a release. There’s a game tomorrow.”

“Do you think they’ll let us play?”

“Can’t see why not. We can’t sit around here all day, can we?”

I nodded. That would be just awesome–even going back to school. The thought of normality–school, flirting with Kellan, hockey–made me happy. I could feel my lips turning upwards for the first time in days. I was actually smiling. Then I felt a brush against them, and opened my eyes to Kellan’s smile.

~

Claire Adams’ cell buzzed her as she was walking Dr. Fox out to the porch. It was an update from Keith. He was out at the lake supervising the search. The update was disappointing. They’d not found anything of relevance yet. There were tire tracks and footprints all around the lake, but they had not made any positive identification yet. One thing was for sure, the perpetrators were no longer on the scene. The area was totally empty apart from the agency personnel.

This was so incredibly exasperating. This meant that the children and the families were still in danger. She needed to keep her frustrations in check when dealing with Dr. Fox, though. She took a deep breath.

“Dr. Fox, why didn’t you let me know what was going on? Why didn’t you answer your calls? Why did you give us the slip after you left Ames with Mr. Darley?”

Larry had anticipated all those questions. He was calm and prepared. “Rupert and I were followed when we left Ames. We didn’t know it was you. We were concerned, so we decided to head over here, to Morgana’s house.

“Why this house? How do you know Morgana?”

“Morgana is an old friend of mine. I figured that Raj Sen would be totally unaware of my friendship with her,” Larry replied.

“So, she doesn’t work at Ames?”

“No, she works at the SETI Institute,” Larry offered.

“The SETI? That’s where the alien research is done, isn’t it?” Claire asked.

“Yes, SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” he explained.

“Right,” Claire said, swiftly moving on. “Can you explain to me how you knew where to find the kids?”

Larry nodded. “The email told me that they would be dropped off at the s
hooting star
. I was perplexed at first. Rupert and I tried to figure out what it meant. Then it hit us that it probably meant the lake. It’s a tradition here to view the meteor showers by the lake. It’s isolated. It sort of made sense. So we headed down there.”

“Why didn’t you call me or answer my calls?” Claire asked, trying to squash her feelings of annoyance.

“We were afraid to create a circus that would scare Raj away. My only purpose was to go and bring the kids home safely. Had Raj arrived at the lake and found you there, he might have left with the kids.”

“So what did you see when you got to the lake?”

“Just the kids, they had been dropped off by the side of the road. There was no one with them. Whoever had dropped them off had driven off again, I assume.”

“Okay, so here’s the thing,” Claire said. “Raj Sen and his accomplices are still free. You and the kids are not safe until we have them in custody. Do you have any idea what they plan to do with the blueprints? Where they may go?”

“I expect he has a buyer that he’s going to sell the prints to, make a lot of money and disappear. That’s my hope anyway,” Larry said, hoping that his answer would explain Raj Sen never being seen again, in this dimension anyway.

“I’m going to need you to come in and brief our tech team about the blueprints, so we can try to figure out who the potential buyers may be. Do you foresee any harmful outcomes from the blueprints being sold?” she asked, wondering what made these blueprints so valuable.

“No. I’ll come in and talk to your tech team tomorrow. I’m wiped. I’m going to head over to the Darleys’ for the night.”

Claire nodded. “We have all of you under surveillance and will continue to watch you until we are satisfied that you’re safe. The kids can go to school tomorrow and continue living their lives as normally as possible. They’ll be watched, too. We’ll have agents outside the school. Please make sure they’re aware that they shouldn’t head over to the lake and other isolated places without letting one of the agents know, so we can keep an eye on them. We’ll continue searching the lake area tomorrow, and will let you know if we find anything.”