The Crystal's Curse (26 page)

Joshua grinned. “Yep, just a misunderstanding.” During dinner, he told him Lrence’s theory about his levels and passed on Kafra’s message about his parents. Mrs. Stewart had just left when the doorbell rang. Joshua assuming it was Nathan went to answer it.

Erik stood in the doorway.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Joshua recognized Erik from the description that Lrence had given them and from the gun pointed at his chest. He backed up. Erik stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

“Where’s your grandfather?”

“He‘s not here,” Joshua lied.

Erik ignored him and raised his voice, calling out, “Mr. Carson, you want to join us?” When there was no answer, “Don’t bother, I already cut the phone lines. Don’t make me hurt your grandson, just come out here.” He held out his hand to Joshua. “I’ll take your cell phone now.” Joshua had no choice but to hand it over as Joseph entered the hallway.

Erik motioned for them to go into the living room and sit down on the sofa. Once he was standing with his back to the fireplace, he took out his communicator. “Watcher One, this is Agent Erik, please come in . . . I have located them. I am interrogating the boy and his grandfather about the power source now. I’ll report in when I have the stone. Agent Erik out.” He hooked the communicator on his belt and looked at them.

Joseph said,
“Who are you and what do you want? Look if this is a robbery . . .” He started to take out his wallet.

“Put your money away. Your grandson knows why I’m here even if you don’t”

Joshua folded his arms across his chest. “Why would I know? We’ve never met before.”

“That much is true,” Erik acknowledged with a dip of his head, “but I could see that you recognized me when you opened the door. Do you still have the stone?” he asked casually.

Joshua tried to match the same casual tone, “What stone? We have lots of them outside in the garden.”

Erik rolled his eyes. “Nice try, the one that transported you from Guatemala to here.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about. I took a plane.” Joshua sat back against the sofa and crossed his legs.

Erik raised his eyebrows and looked down at Joshua. “Really, can I see your passport?”

“I lost it,” Joshua replied holding out both hands.

“That’s a shame, but don’t worry, I found it.” Erik reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the passport. “It was still in your parent’s tent in Guatemala. Funny thing, your parents managed to leave behind their passports as well.” Leafing through the pages, he said, “There’s no indication here that you ever left Guatemala, yet here you are in Boston. I wonder how that’s possible. Also, I checked all the airline manifests leaving Guatemala and your name doesn’t appear on any of them.” He threw Joshua’s passport on the coffee table in front of them.

Joseph leaned back into the sofa cushions. He decided to cut to the chase. “What do you want?”

“From you, nothing.” Erik leaned back with one arm resting on the mantel and the other holding the gun. He seemed to be waiting for something.

“Then why are you here?” A skillful negotiator, Joseph knew the more information he had, the better his chances were of coming to some compromise that would save Joshua.

“I’m waiting for your friends to show up and rescue you. I am fairly certain whoever is working with them on the station is notifying them right now that I’m here.”

“What if you’re wrong about us and no one shows up?”

“Oh, I’m not wrong. But if no one shows up, then I guess I’ll have to do something to get their attention.”

“You’ll shoot us.” Joseph made it a statement rather than a question.

Erik smiled an evil grin. “Not both of you, then there would be no one to rescue. Of course, I could just up the ante by getting your girlfriend, Sara, is it, to join us.”

Joshua growled and started to get up. Joseph put his hand on Joshua’s arm to restrain him.

“Or you could just tell me where to find your friends and then I would have no reason to harm you,” continued Erik.

Joseph laughed without amusement. “Now why don‘t I believe that?”

“Probably because you‘re a smart man,” Erik confessed. He looked curiously at Joshua, “You know I can’t help but wonder how your friends managed to alter your brain waves.”

Joshua looked away, trying to decide if confessing to using the stone and offering to give it back would work. No matter how convincing Erik sounded, he couldn’t be absolutely sure that Joshua had transported. Without proof, Lrence seemed certain that the Watchers wouldn’t let Erik hurt them. For now, it was probably best to keep quiet and see what Lrence would do. He returned Erik’s stare with one of his own.

At that moment, Lrence was talking to Vicki. ”Yes, I know it’s a trap, for you as well as me. If I do nothing, what do you think he will do? Exactly, he isn’t going to give up. Okay, fine I’ll notify the others and we’ll come up with a workable plan. No I promise, I won‘t try to handle it all by myself.” He hung up and pulled open the drawer holding the crystals.

Kafra had been standing next to him listening. “Erik is holding the Carsons?”

Lrence selected a crystal and placed it on top of the table. “Yes,” Then he took the gun he had confiscated from the guard holding Sam and Maria and handed it to Kafra.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked, taking the gun.

He went to the portal and began changing the settings. “You contact the others, and come up with one, while I go stall Erik.”

She wedged herself between him and the portal. “That’s your plan? What about your promise to Vicki?”

He moved her to the side. “I promised to notify the others. You’ve been notified and will contact the others.” When she grabbed his arm, he said, “Look, I’m not trying to do this by myself; I’m just stalling for time so you guys can come up with a plan.”

She stood with her hands on her hips looking at him. ”That’s not much of a plan.”

“I know,” he said, kissing her cheek. “But you know as well as I do that Erik is not a patient man. He knows one of us is involved. If someone doesn’t show up soon, he’ll just start shooting till he forces us to take action to stop him.”

“Then I’ll go. He may listen to me.” She carefully controlled her face trying the hide the fear she felt.

Lrence reached up and touched her cheek with his finger. “No. We both know you’re the prize he’s after. Once he has you, everyone else is expendable. It has to be me. He thinks I’m dead. We need him off balance.” Before she could formulate a response, Lrence jumped into the portal and was gone. He appeared in the Carson’s hallway. He listened for a moment, but no one was talking, so he walked through the door and into the front room.

Erik started when he saw Lrence walk in. “Lrence! I thought you were dead.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.” Lrence stood there for a moment surveying the room. Erik had positioned himself so that no one could surprise him. With his back against the fireplace, he had a perfect view of the entire room. There was also no way to get between him and the Carsons. Joseph and Joshua looked to Lrence for guidance. They sat tensed on the edge of the sofa ready to react. Lrence’s brain sifted through all the possible scenarios in seconds. Every one ended in someone getting hurt. For the moment, there was nothing any of them could do. Lrence’s only option was to stall and hope that Kafra and the others came up with a distraction of some kind.

Erik tensed, watching Lrence carefully, waiting for him to make a move. He had spent the last ten years studying Lrence, reviewing every detail of his own memories and probing the memories of others. It paid to know your enemies. He could almost read Lrence’s thoughts as he surveyed the present situation. He smiled when he knew Lrence had decided to wait for a better opportunity. Keep waiting, he thought. It will all be over before you know it. Smiling he said, “No, actually I’m delighted. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to watch you die…. slowly.” He wanted to be calm, stay in charge, but the hate was a slow burn in his gut. After all these years, he could almost taste the desire for revenge. His mouth twisted. His eyes burned.

Lrence moved slowly into the room to perch on the arm of a chair. “You really hate me that much?” He kept his voice casual with a hint of surprise.

Erik‘s reply was a sneer. “Why shouldn’t I? You turned the only woman I ever loved against me. We were happy until you started preaching and got her involved in your… cause,” making air quotation marks around the word. “Then you took her away from me.” His rage barely controlled.

Lrence slid down into the chair and crossed his legs. “You’re right Kafra did love you until she began to see how cruel and insensitive you could be. You’re the one that destroyed that relationship. I had nothing to do with it. I actually tried to get her to stay behind. You think I wanted her to have to give up everything and go on the run? As you know, Kafra can be extremely stubborn when she makes up her mind.”

Erik’s eyes narrowed to slits. Hs nostrils flared. “What I know is that you poisoned her against me. Everything was fine until her big brother showed up. Suddenly I wasn’t good enough for her anymore. If big brother Lrence said we were being mean to the Earthlings, then I was cruel and inhuman for siding with our own kind. She was mine. We were going to be married. She should have trusted my judgment and stayed with me.” He was shaking now. The hand not holding the gun balled into a fist.

Lrence shook his head. “You never really knew her at all, did you?” Looking up he said, “What now, Erik? You wanted to know who was helping the earthlings. It’s me. Are you going to kill me, take me back to the station, what?”

Erik took a deep breath. Controlling his emotions, he said, “First, I want the crystals.”

Lrence raised both hands in surrender. “Of course, I only have two. I lost one of them when you shot me. Let the Carsons go, and I‘ll give them to you.”

Erik waved the gun. “Fine, you give me the one you have on you and we’ll both go back to your portal.”

Lrence had expected him to argue about releasing the prisoners. Why did he want to go to Lrence‘s portal? He could easily call the station to beam him back from here. Maybe he just wanted to destroy it or thought he could use it to get to the others. Obviously, Erik had another agenda. Lrence decided he needed to know what it was. “Why? You don’t need the portal to beam back to the station. My portal is useless to me without the crystals. No matter what you do to me, I won‘t tell you where the others are. If you harm either of the Carsons, I won‘t give you the crystals.”

Erik, arrogant once more now that he had reasserted control, laughed at Lrence‘s confusion. He waved the gun again. “Under the circumstances, I think that you will give me whatever I want. Now hand it over.”

Lrence hesitated. What was it that Erik was after? He decided to stall. “Not without some guarantee that you won’t harm these people.”

Erik laughed. “Don’t be stupid, Lrence. I could easily shoot all of you, and then take the crystal and use it to return to your portal. I don’t really need you. With enough time, I’m sure I could find the other crystal, but I’m in a hurry. I’ve waited long enough for this moment. Here’s the deal. You hand over the crystal you have on you, and we both go back to your portal where you’ll hand over the other crystal. Once I have both crystals, I promise to leave these two alone. Tell you what, I‘ll even promise to stop searching for the other insurgents.” He held out his hand.

It was obvious to Lrence that once they returned to the portal and Erik had both crystals, he would kill him. His hate demanded that, but it couldn’t be that simple. There was no reason why he should give up searching for the others. Lrence studied Erik. He could see that Erik was telling the truth. It made no sense. The only option was to keep him talking. “Why? Why after all these years of searching would you be willing to call off the hunt? It can’t just be your hatred for me. You thought I was dead, yet you kept searching.”

“Hand over the crystal and I’ll tell you.” Erik wanted to tell him. He wanted Lrence to know he had failed, to see it in his eyes before he killed him. Once he had the crystal, there would be no way for Lrence to stop him.

When Lrence handed over the crystal, Erik threw back his head and laughed, knowing he had won. Gloating he said, “I don’t care about the other insurgents, and I don’t intend to harm your precious earthlings, because when I get through they won’t matter anymore. I might as well tell you. I’m going to go back in time to stop you from stealing the crystals and leaving the station. Kafra and I will be married and you’ll be in jail.”

Lrence jumped up. “You can’t. You don’t know what the consequences will be. You‘d be undoing over 40 years of history. If you go back in time, you will change everything that has happened on the Station as well as earth for the last forty years. If you don’t care about earth, what about your own people on the Station? Think what you may be doing to their lives. The Station would be out of sync with Qashur. Everything that’s happened in the last forty years will change. The results could be devastating.”

Erik’s eyes hardened. “I don’t c
are. I have been waiting over forty years. I want her back. Don’t you understand; nothing else matters?”

Kafra walked into the living room.

Chapter Twenty-Eight