Symbiota Sapiens

Chapter 11

The contact information for the boy from the first kidnap attempt brought us to a narrow two-story house well outside the city limits.

We'd been careful getting there, first taking the time to steal new identification and construct new identities to go with them. On top of that, we'd avoided using the new credit cards at all, opting to steal a car from the long-term parking at the airport.

Then a circuitous route, three vehicle and appearance changes, and a worm virus to disable every internet-accessible security camera in the city for a strategic five minutes.

Now we sat parked on the side of the road, waiting for the time window specified in the instructions to begin.

"Why isn't he here yet?" Julian complained.

"Dude, school just got out two minutes ago. Give him time to walk, huh?"

::I could access satellite imagery to track his progress.::

:No. I bet someone's already using satellites to find us. If we start butting into the satellite controls they might notice and check to see who it is and what we're looking at.:

::Good point. Well, there's always traffic cameras.::

:Let's just leave it. Someone keeps finding us, somehow. Until we know more I think we should adopt a minimalist approach to using resources.:

::Fine. Well I'm scanning on high sensitivity for his transmitter. Passive scanning, don't worry. But he's probably set his to passive scan as well.::

:True.:

"Is that him?"

I looked up. Across the street a blonde-headed boy was walking towards us, backpack slung over his shoulder, kicking a pebble along the sidewalk as he walked. It was definitely the boy who'd helped us before. Here, though, he looked so...normal. Like some normal kid.

"Yeah that's him."

"Jeez. He's young." Julian said doubtfully.

"In his body, maybe."

"Yeah." He reached for the door handle.

"Just...let him get inside, okay? Then we go to the door. Like the instructions say."

We waited as he sauntered up the sidewalk and into the house. The minute the door closed behind him we were stepping out of the stolen car and walking, around the side, to the garage door.

Julian rang the doorbell. It opened almost immediately.

"Thank you for waiting. That would have been awkward."

I had to look down, the little guy was practically at waist-level.

"Hey. You said after you got in. I can follow instructions."

"Well thanks for following them, then." He grinned at us. "Come on in guys, have a seat at the table. Milk and cookies? I'm Rom, by the way."

He turned and led the way into the kitchen.

"I'm Julian. And hell yeah, I'd love milk and cookies!" Julian grinned back at him.

The kid turned his head to glance up at him, then did a double take.

"Oh shit. I didn't realize you two were- I mean, I thought it was just because he was your friend. Well, that changes things I guess."

"Huh?"

"Don't worry. I'm not from around here, remember? I don't have a problem with it."

"With what?" I broke in.