Coming Home: The Finders Series

CHAPTER 11: UNLIKELY HELPER

I was tired, dead tired.  But I was not that tired that I let my guard down.  I sensed the danger long before I saw it in his face.  The manager of this place had been visited by the sheriff, and he had dropped off a wanted poster.  This guy had ignored the picture of the kids on the wanted poster, but he had memorized the image of the kidnapper. Somehow they had known that I was the one with the kids.  I was tempted to strike out at him and make a run for it, but something stopped me.  It was a little deeper in his mind, but it was there just the same.  He knew about the identifier on someone's arm.  That meant that he knew about us.  I went deeper into his memories, and I found what I was looking for, and more to boot. 

" I see a girl and her brother.  Both of them have a strange birthmark on their upper arm.  It is in the shape of a pair of stars." As I said these things, he just stopped and stared at me.  He was scared, but it was the only way I could think of to reach this guy quickly.

" The girl's name is Lynda and the boy's name is Larry.  They are part of the Thompson family, but they're not really part of the family because they were adopted at a young age by the Thompsons." He was turning white as the color just ran out of his face. You would have thought that he had just seen a ghost.  I continued, "She was in class with you in high school and he was one—no, wait, two years behind you both." Phil did not know what was going on, but he just remained silent, as did the kids, and I was thankful for that. I could tell by the look on Phil's face, though, that he wished I would shut up about that about now.  I pressed on instead.  "Something happened with Larry in the second semester in college.  You married Lynda and a short time later, you quit your job and moved out here.  You've never seen Larry since." 

Suddenly filled did speak up, and as startled me because I had almost forgotten that he was there.

"Wait a minute.  Carstairs's aide is named Larry.  I just remembered.  There were some strange things with him there too. For starters, even though he was Carstairs's aide, he was not military.  Carstairs recruited him while he was still in college.  It's unusual because the aids usually have a degree in something specific to the area they are working in.  No one understood why or how he had managed to become Carstairs's aid."

When Phil mentioned the name of Carstairs, I felt a wave of fear. The thing is that it did not come from the man in front of me.  In fact, it did not come from anyone in the room at all.  It came from deep in the back room.  I had an idea who it was that I was sensing.  I decided to risk it all.  Either I would win them over as friends or make enemies of them real fast.  I saw no choice, though.  It was all or nothing now, so I laid everything on the line and went for it. 

" Lynda, please come out here.  I have something I want to show you.  I want you to know for yourself that I am not to be feared." I had spoken it at just above a whisper for his sake, but I also said it telepathically for her sake.  He started to tell me that I had spoken too softly for her to hear, but he never got the chance to finish the sentence.  The door to the back room opened up, and Lynda came into the room. 

She, too, was white as a ghost, and she was noticeably shaking.  Given the sauce on her shoes, I figured she must have dropped something she was cooking.  The Major's name had terrified her.  I looked at the kids and only nodded.  Then the kids and I rolled up our sleeves on our shirts to reveal the identifier.  Both of them looked totally stunned.  First, they looked at us, and then back at each other, then back at us.

Lynda was the first to break the silence.

" What does it mean?" I looked at them, and I knew that this was going to be really tough for him to accept.  I was not sure about her. I took a deep breath and dove into the explanation, making sure to take my time and answer any questions they had to keep them on our side.