All we could do was wait for the sheriffhimself to come on duty and hope that he would be willing to listento reason. Carl had slumped down on a cot in the cell and wasapparently asleep, but I was too frantic with worry to even thinkabout trying to rest. A madman was loose in the hills and Lindaneeded my help.
I had to admit to myself that the officer didhave a point. With our scruffy appearance, it was easy to pictureus as people who slept under a bridge on a regular basis. I had nowallet, and Carl was carrying a loaded gun in his pants. Since Icouldn’t tell him the real reason why Sid would want to shoot atus, my story sounded a little weak even to my own ears.
At noon, the sheriff finally showed up.Treating me like a dangerous felon, he handcuffed me before leadingme to a small interrogation room. “Ok, son – I’ve just had anearful from my deputy about your fairy tale, so how’s about tellingme things first hand and we’ll see where we go from there.”
I related our whole experience over the lastfew days, heavily editing out the parts concerning our abilities.He watched me steadily the whole time, and I couldn’t tell what hewas thinking. He did start when I mentioned that Carl had beenshot, and he halted me in my recitation in order to page hisdeputy. He asked him to check that part of the story out, and thentold me to continue.
I skipped the part where Sara shot back atthe snipers, but emphasized the fact that he blew up my truck. Ichalked the mortar shell misses up to bad luck and bad aim on theirpart. Our flight into the hills became a run into the trees wherewe simply hid in a cave. It was times like this that made me glad Iwas a writer; I could come up with all kinds of bullshit on thefly. Finishing with our ‘run’ into town through the forest, I endedwith what we were doing at the donut shop when the deputy arrestedus.
He stared at me for a full minute beforesaying, “That was the most entertaining pile of horse droppingsI’ve heard all week. You should be a writer.”
The irony of that made me groan, but it alsogave me an idea on how to prove my identity. “I am a writer. Mypicture is on both my website and on Facebook. Check it out and youshould be able to identify me.”
“I’ll take a look, but I won’t promiseanything. Until I figure out what to do with you, you’ll just haveto wait.”
I didn’t like it, but I could understand hispoint of view. As he brought me back to the cell, I resigned myselfto waiting. He took Carl away for questioning next. Although we hadbriefly discussed our story, we hadn’t gotten into too many of thefine details. I hoped that he kept things fairly generic so ourstories would match.
At least he had his wallet with picture ID.That and the record of him going through customs at the airportrecently should prove that he’s not some random drifter. I wasn’tsure what they would make of his bullet wound; that could go eitherway. It might lend credence to his explanation, but could also makehim look like a thug.
I paced back and forth in the cell for aboutan hour before they finally brought Carl back. Once the deputy hadleft us alone I whispered to him, “Well, what did he say?”
“He thinks I’m a nutter, but he admitted thatour stories matched up enough for him to look into things.”
“He’s not going up to the house alone, ishe?”
“I think he’s going to check the variouspolice databases on us first and then maybe more questions.”
“Great. We don’t have time for this crap –Linda needs our help.”
“Patience, grasshopper,” he quipped. “He maybe a small hick town sheriff, but he’s no dummy. All will bewell.”
“Just what I needed … The Canadian Confuciuscomforts me with calming corny comments.”
It looked like he had to run that through hishead a few times to make sure he understood it right, but then hesmiled.
“I’m at your service, eh!”
Chapter 25
Linda: Payback’s a Bitch
Sara held up a hand, signaling for me to haltour flight. By my reckoning, we were about two dozen yards awayfrom the first pair of watchers. Once we realized that the scoutshad no direct line of sight on our cave entrance, leaving becameeasy. We simply flew out and carefully hugged the rock face untilwe could get behind them.
Our biggest advantages were silence andmobility; there was no way we could have snuck up behind these twoif we were on foot. We used that advantage to get close, and now itwas time for me to get down business. I slowly created a forcefield in the shape of a column around each of them, being carefulnot to alarm them early. When everything was firmly in my mind, Isnapped them both shut and shrunk them down until they were wrappedtight around the bodies of the men.
Without pause, I began closing down the endsof the cylinders, making them air tight. I gave Sara the thumbs upand lowered her to the ground, where she immediately began movingin on them. I kept the shield up until they stopped moving, thenpopped open the top to allow them air again. This was one of Sara’sideas for offensive, but non-lethal combat. I brought myself to theground a few yards away, just to be safe.
Sara gave them a quick look over and foundthem both alive but unconscious, so I dropped the cylinder. Shemade short work of stripping them of their gear and tying them up.Not only did she relieve them of anything that could remotely beused as a weapon, she also took the shirt and jacket from one ofthem to replace the rags she was wearing.
Once they were secured, she flashed me ahumongous grin. “I told ya it would work.”
“I was nervous, but I never doubted you.”
“Maybe not, but I’m pretty sure I detected abit of self-doubt in you.
