Chapter 44 Cell #5-Evan.

Evan woke to the sound of footsteps echoing.

His whole body hurt, but that's not what stilled his heart.

Everything about his situation made a layer of cold sweat cover his skin.

It was the dim light of a monitor to his left that read, "WATCH ME" on a simple scrap of paper taped to the top corner. It was the dank scent of old and new mildew that tickled his nose. It was the blackened brick walls with what looked like scratch marks some six feet above the floor and there was something else.

Evan slowly sat up and looked around him.

Oh, shit, he thought in a panic. This isn't right.

He stood gingerly, leaning over with his hands on his knees for a moment to steady the tilting nightmare that was his vision. On shaky legs he hobbled to the nearest brick wall and steadied himself as he walked the perimeter of the room looking for the most obvious missing feature.

How did I get here? Where am I? Evan's mind was trying desperately to wrap itself around what was happening, but however hard he tried, none of this was making sense. He looked down at himself. His clothes were covered in black automotive grease.

I remember going to the auto shop with Creed and helping the guy rig the best kind of lift for Mom's chair. To do that I had to crawl under the van and get my hands dirty. Evan looked down at his hands. There was grease under his nails.

Okay, what happened next?

He worked to try to piece together the chain of events. I went home with Creed and Meg gave me a hard time about being dirty, so I went to my room to take a shower. Evan frowned at his still greasy arms.

Evidently, I never got that shower. Tentatively, he patted himself down, trying to figure out how injured he may be. He had some cuts and scrapes on his elbows and his jeans were torn at the knees. One finger was swollen and tight, possibly sprained or even fractured he thought, trying desperately to keep his mind intact.

Otherwise, he was fine. He ripped off part of his own T-shirt and used it to wrap his swollen ring finger to his pinkie, giving it stability and support so he didn't accidentally damage it further.

After he secured a snug knot, he looked around. His eyes caught the dimming glow of the laptop.

He walked to it and carefully sat on the hard dirt floor.

"WATCH ME," the note screamed.

Using the trackpad, Evan woke the laptop from its sleep mode and saw the screen was already set. All he had to do was press play.

Something about this moment made him want to vomit. With the soundtrack of a rhythmic dripping of fluid echoing from somewhere, Evan's shaking finger tapped the trackpad, pressing play.

Chapter 45 The Tracker.

Alik and Farrow headed around to the front of the house where Alik had "seen" the two white vans loaded with their family members.

"Okay, now what?" She asked tentatively.

"Give me a minute," Alik whispered, staring at the front door.

Farrow tried not to blatantly stare at him, but she did sneak glances. His eyes were nearly glowing their beautiful violet blue.

"Okay, let's follow you bastards," Alik mumbled to himself.

He reached his hand out and pointed in the direction he could see the vans drive.

"Can you see anything about the vans?" Farrow asked softly, not wanting to disturb his concentration.

"They're simple white vans. If you give me a piece of paper and a pen, I'll write the tag numbers. I'd get them myself, but I don't want to take my eyes of the vans in case they make a turn or something."

"No problem," Farrow muttered as she held the steering wheel with one hand keeping the SUV steady while she searched through her bag with the other. She found a pen. One down. As for paper, she handed him a stray napkin that was lost in the clutter in the center console.

Without looking at his hands, he scrawled the two license plates numbers.

"They're turning left," he said, pointing.

"Left, got it." Farrow breathed and signaled.

"It looks like they're headed to the private airfield that's over here." Farrow glanced at Alik and saw he was chewing on his bottom lip, squinting with his brilliant blue eyes as though trying to see even further away.

"Yes, that's where they're going. Pull up to the main hanger. Let me see if I can tell where they were heading."

Farrow had barely stopped the in the gravel parking lot when Alik flew out of the SUV and jogged as though trying to keep up with someone.

Farrow was right on his heels.

"Can I help y'all?" a voice called out to them from under the hood of a Cessna.

Farrow glanced at Alik and saw he was lost in his vision, so she needed to speak fast.

"Yes, sir," she began by wiping the seriousness off her face and painting on a beautiful, pouty-lipped, oh-woe-is-me expression.

"Yes, can you tell me if two white vans came here earlier today to catch a flight?"

"Sure, enough." The young guy ducked out from under the plane's hood and stood his full height. Grease streaked his face and his hands were dark with grime. The blond hair of his crew cut peeked out of the hole in his ball cap worn backward. He smiled appreciatively at Farrow's curves.

Farrow risked a self-conscious glance back at Alik and was thankful he'd missed the leisurely visual perusal the mechanic helped himself to.

"Can you tell me where they were headed?"

"Kentucky, Louisville," Alik walked up beside Farrow and slipped his hand into hers, weaving his fingers possessively through hers.

"That's right. They loaded up a bunch of stuff," he scoffed at the way Alik pulled Farrow behind him just enough to emphasize his possessiveness. "Then they took off with their own Falcon20 jet."

"Do you know if they have enough fuel to fly there or will they need to stop over?"

"I filled the bird myself, buddy. She's got enough to go all the way to Jersey and then some." The mechanic smiled proudly, rocking back and forth in his stained work boots.

"Thanks," Alik waved one hand and pulled Farrow with the other.

Once they were out of human earshot, Farrow had to get something off her chest. "Why so possessive?"

"What do you mean?" Alik had walked her to her door and opened it for her.

"I mean, the this-is-my-woman-so-stop-leering action over there." Farrow ignored the seat behind her and remained standing.

Alik shrugged, glancing around them as though on patrol. "I really don't know what you're talking about."

"I can take care of myself, Alik Winter."

Alik stopped scanning the space around them and locked eyes with the girl who made his heart stop.

"I know you can take care of yourself, Farrow. I think it's sexy as hell how efficiently you can take care of yourself! But I just lost half my family and I'm not losing anyone else. Too much depends on us." Alik's voice was low, and deadly serious. "So if I come across a little Neanderthal-esque you're going to have to understand it's my way of showing that I care."

Farrow nodded once and sat in the driver's seat without saying a word, but it was the smile she was trying to hide that caught Alik's attention. He closed her door and walked around the back of the vehicle shaking his head. Women! How can they think of romance at the most inopportune times?

Once back in the SUV he was all business searching his smart phone for commercial flights leaving either DFW or Dallas Love Field. "Shoot. There's nothing that's leaving immediately and the closest I can get us there would still require a drive once we get there. Besides, we wouldn't be able to bring any weapons aboard," Alik sighed heavily.

"Do you think you could train your-what are you calling your gift?"

"I don't know. Retro-cognition sounds better than clairvoyant. But either way, I feel like a useless freak."

"Stop doing that! At least you have an extra gift!" Farrow scolded. "What I was going to say is, do you think you could focus your retro-cognition to keep track of any speed traps?"

"Maybe, I don't know. This is all new to me."

"Well, let's try it. I'll drive the limit and you keep your sensors peeled. If we see you're right time and again, we'll know we can trust it, and then I'll just floor it to Kentucky."

"You do realize there's no room for error. If I mess this up, we'll be pulled over with a butt-load of weapons in the back. We won't do anyone any good stuck in jail."

"That's why we're going to test it first," Farrow said logically.

"Okay, let's go-we've got a long drive ahead of us." Alik was reading from the map on his phone and committing it to memory without even trying. He held the phone out to Farrow who was stopped at a red light. "We've got to take I30 East to Arkansas."

"Got it," she said, following the signs. Within minutes, they were headed in the right direction. Farrow had the cruise control set up exactly at the speed limit. "Okay, Alik. Anytime you're ready."

"Give me some time. I'm not even sure how to separate all the retro images I'm getting so I only register the law enforcement."

Alik's indigo eyes glowed. Farrow wondered if they would actually glow in the dark. A little smirk on her lips was all that would give away her thoughts of learning if Alik's eyes would glow in the dark.

Focus, Farrow, she reproached herself. We are on a mission of life-and-death proportions. Stop being so lovesick!

She risked a glance at his eyes once more before thinking how grateful she was that Alik's gift had nothing to do with reading her emotions. Poor Creed, Farrow realized for the first time how exposed that guy's feelings were to Meg. He couldn't save any face even if his life depended on it.

All you have to worry about is doing something he'll be able to retro-cog later, she told herself. The more she thought about it, the more it hurt her brain.

So if he can see something you've done, she reasoned to herself, then he could predict what you were going to do next and prevent it from happening. So, essentially, he could control future events by...

"See that big red building ahead on the right? There's a patrol car pulled behind it waiting for a speeder." Alik sounded excited about the cop being there.

"Let's see if you're right."

As they passed the spot, both looked to see a black-and-white highway patrol car and the officer holding a radar gun right at them.

"Wow, excellent. That's one for one. Let's see if you can find three in a row before I start breaking the law," Farrow suggested.

She watched Alik nod, still concentrating deeply on the world that only his violet eyes could see.

Thirty minutes passed in silence before Alik spoke up again. "Unmarked ahead. He's running a speed trap with motorcycle cops being the ones to zap us."

Sure enough, they passed regular-looking American-made car, but in the driver's seat was a uniformed cop holding up a radar gun.

A half mile ahead they passed two motorcycle cops that had two vehicles pulled over.

"Two for two. So far, so good."

Only about five minutes passed when Alik said, there's a cop in her patrol car pacing drivers in this strip of highway. Farrow was amazed, but unsure how to test this prediction. "She's pacing the red SUV seven cars ahead of us," Alik said and pointed at the vehicle driving right behind the SUV.

"That's amazing. I didn't even know they could do that."

"Cops can do a lot more than we know in their efforts to serve and protect. Did you know even an aircraft can report speeders?"

"No way,"

"Way. I'll have to keep my eyes up sometimes, too."

"Too bad Meg isn't here. She'd be able to use her influence to stop a cop from looking in our trunk, or even giving us a ticket."

Alik sighed sadly making Farrow regret mentioning his missing sister.

"I think we're safe to speed up, don't you?"

"Just give me a few minutes. It's a lot more tiring than it looks."

"Using your gift?"

"Yeah. Now I understand a little of what Meg goes through when she uses hers. I don't think mine makes me nearly so weak though. Just a little," Alik yawned widely, "used up."

"I packed some food. Would a protein bar help?"