Beyond our Earth

22: Alarming

~~~~~~~~~BRADEN'S POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I got back to the hotel room around lunch time. Elizabeth was waiting for me when I opened the door. She jumped up from her seat and strode over to the door. Her shoes were already on and she held her purse by her side.

"let's get out of here." She hissed.

"Why? What's going on?" I asked.

"I was down in the lobby and these two guys came in asking if Braden Caverly was staying here. They're looking for you and they looked like thugs." She whispered.

"It's okay, I gave a fake name when I checked in." I said calmly.

"Ya,  Ryan Davidson. Your father's first name with your mother's maiden name. It's the most common trick in the book and if I can figure it out they'll be onto you in a second. We have to go." She repeated.

I stared at her, eyes wide. Somehow I felt violated.

"You- You stalker!" I spat.

"Oh come on, it's not that hard to figure out." she retorted.

I screwed up my face, staring at her like she was a psychopath. She ignored it and pushed me out the door.

"I'm not kidding Braden, we need to leave this town and fast." She commanded.

I was forced out of the hotel room and down the hall. There were no possessions for me to worry about bringing with me, thanks to that lovely encounter at the train station yesterday.

We took the elevator to the bottom floor and sped out of the building.

"Hail us a cab, will ya?" Elizabeth asked, as she fished around in her purse for something. I went up to the edge of the sidewalk and waved at the first taxi that drove by. It pulled over next to the curb and came to a stop in front of us.

I opened the door, holding it for Elizabeth. She looked cautiously behind her before getting in. She looked nervous as hell. Not something you'd expect from the chief of police. She got in and I followed, shutting the door behind me.

The cab pulled back into the street and started heading away from the hotel.

"Where are we going?" The driver asked.

He was a stout Italian man who looked to be in his fifties.

"National head quarters of the I.E.T.I. That's on the corner of Perry and Stroud." Elizabeth answered for me, as she reached for her seat belt.

"What's the I.T.I...?" I started.

"International extra terrestrial investigation." She answered. "It's on your list."

I took that as an acceptable answer and relaxed back into the seat.

"You think they'll know about the Lexington abduction?" I asked under my breath.

"Probably, If not there's about a thousand other stories in their records, I'm sure it'll save you the trouble of driving all over the country to find them." She replied quietly.

I nodded. It was a good idea to go there first.

I stared out the window, watching the buildings go by as we drove.

"Funny, I've never heard of this I.E.T.I. until now." I speculated.

"It's a secret organization. They collect records for the government about U.F.O threats. They have the largest collection of stories in the world. Of course, the only reason I know this is because I've worked with them on other cases. I always thought the idea of aliens was a load of crap, but these guys take it pretty serious." She explained.