Leigh and Eric Grau lived in a nice two-story house in the outskirts of Omaha. The lawn was nicely manicured, despite the tragedy the family had just experienced, and from the outside, it appeared as if the couple had made a nice middle-class life for themselves with not a care in the world.
As Elliott and Cadence made their way to the front door, dressed in professional black suites, Cadence couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of sadness, not only for the poor girl who had died but for the reluctant monster who had claimed her life.
It was a long way down. Glancing past the sheer drop off, she saw the rippling tide smashing against the sharp rocks at least forty feet beneath where she stood. She peered through the darkness using night vision to calculate exactly where she needed to land in order to clear as many of the jagged shards sticking out of the frothy sea where it crested against the shoreline. Noises behind her alerted her that her time was up. Without another thought, she hurled herself out into the darkness, praying that her calculations were correct. In an instant, the frigid water cut through her, but not as deeply as the sharp rock she’d caught with her shin just before the water engulfed her. It took her only a moment to push the pain out of her mind and r
The pain in Laura Comer's right eye was excruciating. Despite the fact that she had been taking prescription strength numbing drops for the last few weeks in a failed attempt to somehow deaden the incessant stinging, it still felt like a sharp object was wedged in the back of her eyeball. Blinking seemed to send a razor blade deep into recesses of her vitreous. Regardless of the fact that Cowboy Sam had assured her that his own eye had healed within a week, she was now convinced that the only way to stop the pain was to have her eyeball removed. She was considering just such a move, drastic as it may seem, and contemplating why she had ever allowed some backwoods Guardian to remove it. At least, without her IAC, or Intelligence Assistance Communicator, a small computer that was implanted into ea
Four months later…"I really love this song," Aurora shouted over the blaring bass line and reverberating beat of the drums. "What's the name of this band?""The City," Meagan replied, her hands over her ears. "I like them, too, but it's way too loud in here. They need to turn the stereo down. How in the world are we supposed to carry on a conversation over this racket?"
Seated in a large booth in a relatively quiet diner, Cadence could still feel her ears ringing. Meagan was physically rubbing her temples, while trying not to ogle the good doctor too noticeably. She couldn't help but snicker at her friend next to her. Only Meagan could try to make a migraine look sexy."Basically, the reason we wanted to meet with you," the Guardian doctor was explaining while waiting for the waitress to arrive and take their order, his voice hushed, just in case the other four or five patrons cared to eavesdrop, "is to get your take--possibly your assistance-- regarding a ba
"That's it, I was right! It is rutile!" Christian exclaimed, paper in hand, bursting into Aaron’s office. Elliott glanced over his shoulder, a puzzled expression on his face as he paused midsentence to see what their lead tech person was so excited about.Aaron looked a little less confused but still needed some clarification. "Christian, come on in," he said sarcastically. "I take it you got your report back from Dr. Patrick then?" He sat behind his imposing oak desk, peering at his teammate with an intense blue stare.
"So, anyway, as I was saying," Elliott stated, returning to the conversation they had been involved in before Christian burst through the door, "we think Giovani and Zabrina may have entered the Amazonian rainforest. There's just no sighting of them after they landed in Peru. So, we are sending a team in to see if we can track them in there.""In the rainforest?" Aaron asked, attempting to clarify.
By the time Cadence reached her hotel room, she was very near to tears. It had been a long, busy two weeks, and she seriously thought her road trip was just about over, and she needed to return home at last. Though it would have been very simple to multi-task, she changed into pajamas, grabbed a bottle of water and made herself comfortable on the bed before she sent her first message. "Hey! What's up?" she asked, attempting to keep her tone nonchalant. Despite the fact that the IAC worked through their eyes, they could actually hear the other person's voice, which included tone."
Giovani awoke to the sound of howler monkeys in the trees above their makeshift hut. He hardly ever slept; it wasn't necessary for his body anymore. He was a highly efficient blood metabolizing machine. Yet, since they had determined to make the inner recesses of the Amazonian Rainforest their home, he had found himself sleeping more and more out of sheer boredom.Zabrina, on the other hand, always seemed to find something to keep herself occupied. He could hear her now puttering outside, likely building something or putting a more appealing spin on something they already had. In his entire ex