Tracker Virtual Season - Episode One
Shadows of the Past
The quiet voices in the living room of the apartment over the old bar murmured on.
In the electronics filled
War room, one of the screens suddenly began to show bright pips.
Beeps, too soft to be heard, sounded as the small, blue lights clustered on the screen.
End Teaser
Mel Porter hummed as she worked through her usual morning chores getting the refurbished bar ready for opening, the tasks automatic at this point.
Cole came down from the living quarters over the Watchfire Bar, putting on his jacket. "I thought I could look around for a small storefront for my electrical repair business, Mel."
"Are you sure that's what you want to do?"
"I need to buy replacements or fix the things I borrowed from you..."
Mel laughed, "Can any of them be repaired? They certainly don't look the same..."
"I can repair some of them. I think Vic will be less worried about you if I am working at something he regards as respectable." He smiled at her, "It would be hard to run a business from your spare room. "
"I think the only thing that would satisfy Vic is for you to move out completely." She brought over a newspaper. "I circled a couple of prospects for you, too. They're all close by."
"Would you be more comfortable if I moved? I could see if one of these places has living space, like the Watchfire?"
Mel shook her head. "I'm used to having you around, Cole."
"Thank you, Mel."
"Look, why don't you grab a cup of coffee. I'll be through here in a moment and as soon as Gail and Jonas get here, we can go looking together."
Cole nodded and went over to the coffee pot. He noted that there was a lot of red in the color. Good, that meant it was fresh. Coffee got bitter and almost a grey-black color to it if it sat on the warmer too long. The thousands of tidbits of information he'd mostly set aside believing that this was going to be a temporary stay, all needed to be integrated now… now that he was staying here.
The desire that washed over him as he watched Mel stack napkins and wipe the bottles still surprised him. She was beautiful. He had noticed that in spite of the total focus he'd needed to track Rhee, even in those first few moments by the stalled car.
Now, knowing she must be one of the ancient bloodlines created so long ago by his people, he could allow the warmth to touch him. The empathy in her was so strong and he suspected that much of it was Mel's alone. It had been so hard to keep his personal needs from taking over. The human male body he'd created had reactions that he hadn't really expected. Now, though, perhaps he could learn to love her as a human male. The idea made him shift slightly, the trousers, jeans, these were called, tight against his body.
He sipped the coffee. The tastes and textures of things were fascinating. A material body did have its own compensations for the difference between the total melding of essences that was Cirronian mating and the physical sensations between humans and their lovers.
It was getting harder to remember the freedom of his Cirronian body. At times, that bothered him. It almost seemed disloyal to the memory of his family… No, that was ridiculous. He could never forget them. They were part of his deepest being. The pain of their loss had been eased a little when he was able to return Rhee to Sartop. There was a sense that he could now start over. The shop was a beginning.
End Act One
Mel's voice reached him through the hum of other voices as the doors opened and the sparse lunch crowd began to arrive. Then Gail arrived and they left on their search.
He took Mel's arm as they walked. It felt right. The first building was old, perhaps as old as the Watchfire and really hadn't been kept up. They peered through filthy windows at a dark, stuffy place. A leaking roof had left watermarks all over the walls and ceiling. "I don't think this will work, Cole. This place is barely up to the building codes and would cost a mint to put in lighting. I can smell the mildew from here!"
Cole looked a little quizzical, but he could see that the place needed a lot of work, and they left. The weather had changed, the sun warming the colors of the old brick buildings. The second place looked better, but he felt it was too far from the Watchfire.
The third shop felt better. Mel muttered about the amount of cleaning and
painting it would need, but the construction looked sound and, best of all as
far as Cole was concerned, he could see the Watchfire from the front window. It
was a narrow space, but there were two counters in place that he could use as
well as a skylight.
Mel made sure she had the phone numbers for the management company and they started back to the Watchfire discussing colors for the paint. "A cream color will brighten the place up and you could put shutters in the windows for privacy. The phone is the next thing."
" I could just use the cell phone?"
"Well, maybe Nestov did business that way, but you want a real business and need to have a listed number."
"OK, Mel."
Suddenly, Cole stopped. Mel looked at him, "What?"
"There's something… Gone now. I just…" He shrugged. "I guess I need to get used to the idea that they all are gone now. I almost miss Nestov."
Mel shivered in spite of the sun. "Well, I certainly don't. Being tied up was one experience I really don't want to repeat."
"He was afraid of Zin... I think most of them were."
"But, Cole... That doesn't excuse everything."
"No, Mel"
"I guess its hard to shift gears."
Cole looked puzzled for a moment, then nodded.
The lunch crowd was particularly good for the Watchfire and Cole helped out at the bar until things quieted down.
"Do you want me to call the leasing agent?"
"Thank you, Mel. It would help."
Half an hour later, Mel tapped at the door of the War Room. Cole had several neatly packed boxes sitting beside the door. Most of the screens were dark.
"Cole? We need to meet the Real Estate agent, are you ready?"
He nodded slowly as though he'd been thinking of something else. Finally, he turned away from the machines and followed Mel downstairs.
The agent was a few minutes late and they spent the time looking around the outside of the building. Through the window, Mel pointed out places to set up shelves. "You'll need a locked area for the things people bring in. The utilities will need to be changed over and you'll need a license."
"What is a license?"
"I'll explain later."
Mr. Snelling, the Real Estate Agent pulled up in a late model SUV. Mel thought he seemed a little nervous but the paperwork was all in order. She explained that they wanted their attorney to have a look at it which caused Cole to look surprised.
"Do we have an attorney, Mel?"
"Jonas wanted to check it for me, Cole. Its just a precaution."
The agent looked around the building, "I'm afraid I don't know much about the property. I'm just filling in for a friend of mine. He normally handles these things. I'm really just in accounting. Harve Olsen is the real agent for the property but he's out of town."
Cole took the papers and handed them to Mel.
She leafed through them, "Can we call you a little later today? And when do you think we could begin moving in?"
"Well, once I have signed papers, the credit check shouldn't take
more than a day or so. You could probably start by the end of the week," said
Snelling, uneasily.
He left, Cole and Mel turned to each other at the same moment, "He doesn't
feel right to me, Cole."
Cole agreed, "I don't know why, though. It this what Nestov called "woman's intuition?"
"Hum…"
Cole stopped moving, his whole attitude that of a hunting cat, "Something, wait here, Mel. I thought…"
He turned and walked back to the alley they'd just passed. He couldn't see anything, and came back to Mel, still looking all around for the source of the odd feeling.
"I don't see anyone," said Mel. "You said all of the prisoners were taken back through the wormhole…"
"Yes, Mel. The collector showed all of them as recaptured and in the cells."
"You know, it could just be that you're a little jumpy, Cole. Stress does things to humans…"
"And I've become almost too human. It could be that."
"Nothing wrong with being human," she grinned.
"It does have some advantages," he said, stroking her throat.
As they returned to the Watchfire, he told her the whole story of his losses, not only of his wife, but of his respected position as a Tracker. He explained that he found himself consumed by the only purpose he had left, seeing that Rhee paid for his crimes.
"When Rhee and the others escaped, I think I went mad. All I could think about was returning him to the prison. I followed him to Varda. The trail led to Zin's laboratory. Zin was agitated, told me that he had been attacked and his experimental wormhole used by Rhee to escape to Earth."
"I didn't know a lot about Earth other than that there were legends of our early ships reaching it and loving the green and blue beauty of it. I knew that if Rhee was here, he would start killing as he always had. There was no choice for me but to follow him."
"Cole, you thought Zin was helping you, didn't you. I remember, just before he… ?"
"He killed you. Yes."
Mel was shaking. "I hadn't remembered…"
"I'm sorry about that Mel. I still thought he wanted to help."
She let him take her hand. "I don't blame you, Cole, you brought me back to life!"
The coffee maker was the loudest sound in the apartment as Cole gently stroked her throat, then, tentatively, ever so gently, kissed her. Mel felt his arms close around her, holding her as though she were made of glass. His lips were so warm and a glow seemed to spread around both of them.
Cole sighed and broke the kiss. "There is so much for you to learn. This isn't the right time for this…" and turned away from her, missing the look of frustration on her face.
"Will it ever be the right time, Cole?"
She could see the conflict in his face. She sighed, "How long will it take me to learn?"
"You are intelligent and now have some idea of your potential. I can spend more time with you, too."
"Wonderful…"
"Mel? You are upset?"
She almost stumped her foot in frustration. Then, "Yes, damn it, Cole, I'm not a child. I'm willing to learn about Cirron but…" She closed her eyes. "I need to go relieve Gail. I'll be up later."
Preoccupied by Mel's behavior, Cole went back to the War Room and, without really taking the time to examine his set-ups, started disassembling the rest of the equipment he was sure he no longer needed.
Jonas looked up from his coffee as Mel and the odd man he'd defended against a murder charge approached with the papers they'd talked about. "Thanks for looking these over, Jonas. I know it isn't your specialty…"
"If there's anything nonstandard in here, though , you'd be better off seeing a specialist."
Gail came over with a martini for Mel. "You had a visitor, that model Troy, stopped by. He just wanted to touch base. His agency is moving to LA and he's going along. Oh, and there was a call for you, Cole. I think he said his name was Nestor, something like that. He mumbled."
Mel made a face. "Thanks, Gail.
Cole looked around the room. Nestov had been sent back. Gail must have heard the name wrong. He left the others looking at the paperwork and returned to the War Room to see what mechanisms he would need at the shop. Most of Mel's transformed appliances could be returned to their normal Terran purposes, but there were a few that might prove useful in his new life.
New life… Suddenly he was overwhelmed by the feelings he'd been keeping buried for almost a year. A life, a far different one than he'd expected was suddenly opening up for him. Mel loved him. In a way, he'd known that for months now but he'd hidden that, and the truth that he loved her too.
A faint flicker on one of the screens caught his eye but there was nothing clear when he looked again. Perhaps it would be wise to leave the monitoring equipment in place. He probably needed to return to London sometime soon to investigate further. There were no other prisoners that he knew of but but he had no real way to tell whether there were more of the people like Zin and his cadre. There might also be more of the created bloodlines like Mel or survivors from the ship at Roswell.
Yes, as soon as they had the repairs finished in the Watchfire basement so that no one wandering down there would start asking questions, he could take a little time to be sure that their lives wouldn't be disrupted again.
Mel was beautiful, more than that, she was proof that his people and hers had a shared heritage that made living here on the Earth a joyous possibility.
Tonight he needed to work in the basement.
End of Act Two
He was in the shower the next morning when the phone began to ring. "This is Cole."
"Cole, you have to listen to me."
"Nestov?"
"Yeah, I don't know how many of them, but I squeaked through fast enough to pick up the body I had. I gotta go. Zin hasn't connected with them yet, but he will. Be careful!"
"Wait, where are you?"
The buzz of the open line was his only answer. For a few seconds, all he could think of was Mel's reaction. Then the painful reality of the situation hit him. There were an unknown number of violent criminals, some of whom might not have the same bodies they'd had before. He had to stop them. Zin might still be in the vault… but the system he'd linked to the wormhole could easily have taken him, too. There was no way to tell without going down there and unlocking the vault and he wasn't sure he could do that. It wasn't supposed to open again for a hundred years.
Had the wormhole pulled Zin back to the Vardian lab?
Too many questions and far too few answers.
He'd been wrong to assume that Zin was safely locked away. Zin probably had a lab on Earth, too. He would never have come to the Watchfire without some safety factor. The mind that conceived the jailbreak in the first place would have alternatives set up. Zin probably wasn't working alone either. The Vardian he'd captured in London, the serial killer was from Sartop but Haag, though wanted, hadn't been incarcerated.
Quietly, almost dreading what he would find, he switched on the machines. The satellite covering the British Isles would be in position to transmit in a few minutes.
How could Nestov be back? If he was back, could he be telling the truth? He wasn't honest, either in his Desserian form or as a Human. Could this be some sort of trick? Knowing Nestov, it could, but there wasn't any benefit he could see to Nestov. Warning him that the prisoners were loose again wasn't something that would help the Desserian.
Cole decided to take it as true until he had more data. The satellite connected and he could see the heat signatures of several non-humans. Then, one of them seemed to close in on itself, as though it was being wrapped up. The same thing happened to the smaller one next to it. Had they found some way to mask the difference between them and the humans?
So. There were aliens in London. They might be able to hide what they were. He changed to the Chicago area. There were groups of signatures, most of them in the warehouse areas. One group, over near the waterfront seemed to be growing smaller as he watched. Again, as in London, the signatures seemed to close in on themselves and disappear.
Whatever was hiding the felons in London was also happening here. There was no way he could leave Mel here, unprotected. If they had found a way back, she was in danger. For that matter, so was Jess.
There was a knock at the door, "Cole? You haven't eaten all day. I brought you a BLT." Mel looked around the room as she set the plate beside his keyboard. "You look like you've seen a ghost. What's wrong?"
"They're back, I don't know how, but there are many of them here."
End of Act Three
__________________________________________________________________
In a basement storage area below a small grocery store in London, Haag
turned to Sudor. "You can stay hidden here. I don't want you anywhere near
the Tracker. Zin was sure these suits would work, but you can't go out in them.
They'll attract attention and that's something we don't want."
Sudor flexed the slight muscle structure of the body he'd grabbed. His voice was slightly muffled by the hood and mask of the suit cooling his body to the normal temperature of an ordinary human. "I want something more like my own body, Haag. You can't expect me to live in this one."
"I do expect you to live in it, for as long as you need to stay below the Tracker's radar."
"Zin wouldn't make me put up with this pathetic creature. How can I do anything more than just breathe in it?"
"Zin miscalculated, and badly. He can't get out of the vault and has to estivate until we can get to him. You will obey me, my Dessarian friend."
The slighter figure shrugged. "So, Zin is out of the picture. I still want that bastard, Daggon."
"You'll stay here and forget about Daggon. First things first. You can help us find the bodies that were left when we were returned to Sar-top. If Zin hadn't had that relay point to his lab, you would be right back where you started from. Many of our people didn't get back to their bodies fast enough to keep them alive. There are too many dead bodies for the authorities to ignore. They aren't likely to accept natural causes either. Do you want Interpol to start asking questions?"
Sudor simply shook his head. "It isn't my responsibility."
"If you hadn't killed the all those people he wouldn't be so dedicated to capturing you."
"And how do you know, mister high and mighty? Zin paid me very well and promised me the first shot at the wormhole...
"But he sent Rhee through first... You didn't rate terribly high."
"So you say."
Haag glared at him. "You are a fool. You were in the collector while the rest of were making plans. Keep the damn suit on and stay here. Below ground with the suit on, the Tracker's equipment won't pick you up. He has no reason to even look for us at this point."
The phone rang and Haag turned to get the call. Sudor clinched his fists and slammed the door to the storage area as he left. Haag always thought he knew better than anyone. He checked for the wallet belonging to the former tenant of the body. There were plenty of credit cards. He could be in Paris before Haag even knew he was missing. He hadn't mentioned that his body had the means to get back to Chicago. He would find the Tracker.
That was a score he had every intention of settling.
The phone call took longer than Haag'd planned and it didn't surprise him that Sudor was missing from the safe house. Haag muttered to himself as he checked with the two door guards. The main entrance reported no activity but the back door, "Damn. That idiot. He's going to give us all away."
He set several people to locating the Dessarian; checking the possibilities. Sudor was usually fairly predictable.
Mel worked the midweek crowd alone until Maggie, the late shift bartender, showed up. Cole had disappeared into the basement and she had no idea what he was doing. Around 10, things were so dead she almost closed up.
"So where's your boyfriend?" asked Maggie.
Mel's flushed bright red. "I don't know if "boyfriend" is the right term. He's not... Well, he's not ready for that right now."
"Humm. He loves, you. That's pretty obvious."
"Maggie, I just don't know what to do. I think love him, but I can't, I don't want to push him."
"Sometimes men have to be pushed. My third husband was a darling but if I hadn't pushed, he never would have made a move. Your grandmother liked him, too. She just didn't want another husband after your grandfather. You know, Cole reminds me a bit of Alan. He always seemed to wait before he responded, like he was translating from some other language."
"Cole doesn't do that any more."
"No, he seems pretty normal now, but you have to admit he was a strange one when he first got here. Jess told me about him eating the corn, cob and all."
Mel turned away from her grandmother's friend. "How well did you know Grandpa Alan?"
"About as well as anybody besides your Grandmother did. Adelaide was really happy with him. When he got killed in that robbery, it took most of the life out of her."
The sound of the basement door closing startled both women. Cole looked exhausted.
"Maggie, would you make him a sandwich. I'll take care of the bar."
Maggie looked like she'd rather stay, but headed for the kitchen anyway, leaving the two of them alone.
"Mel, there is an old coal chute from the alley. Could we get some concrete poured for the basement floor through it?"
"I suppose so, but we'd have to get a permit and they're kind of nosy about that. Too many gang killings over the years I think."
Cole didn't quite understand. "Gangs?"
"During Prohibition... there were people who thought no one should drink. I'll find you a book... Sometimes people hid bodies that way."
"Oh. I only need to rebuild the floor. It looks as though Zin's people filled in the other tunnels they dug. This is the only way into the vault."
"You mean the place where you locked Zin up?"
Cole nodded as Maggie came in with a thick hamburger. He thanked her and sat at one of the tables almost wolfing the sandwich down.
Even as quiet as the bar was in the middle of the week, a few people wandered in for a nightcap. One of them was a slightly built man with intense eyes hidden behind thick glasses. He stayed long enough to drink a double scotch on the rocks, paid and quietly, left. Cole was just finishing the 'burger but something about the other man bothered him.
Cole followed, staying close to the wall. The man almost vaulted over a chain link fence around one of the lots Zin had bought. A minute later he vanished into the darkness at the back of the lot. Cole listened intently, but there was no movement, no sound of someone breathing. Finally, Cole turned to return to the Watchfire.
Deep in the shadows where another building backed up to the vacant lot, a shadowy figure nodded to himself. "Just you wait, 'Cole'. This body may work out. You won't be expecting me and I'll get the girl and you. Zin can't have her. You interrupted my work. Now I'll finish it. I'll carve up her pretty face and then take care of you."
Back at the Watchfire, Cole debated telling Mel about the odd man. He couldn't be certain, but the wrongness he sensed made him believe that he was one of the escapees. He double checked the locks and the burglar alarms. Maggie was through for the evening and had gone home. He an Mel were alone in the silent bar.
"What's wrong, Cole? You disappeared..."
"I think one of them was in here this evening.
Mel was white as a sheet. "Are you sure? Oh, Cole, don't tell me that, please don't"
Gently he put his arms around her. "We will get through this. I think we need to call that Real Estate agent in the morning, though."
"What?"
"Somehow, I think we have to wait a while to open that shop."
Mel tried not to laugh, but the expression on his face was just too funny. Between giggles she managed to nod yes at him. "I'll call. You go hunting."
"Yes, Mel."
Return to the Watchfire Annexx