Mag-log inCat Dyatlov was sitting at her kitchen table, staring at her computer screen. Agent Wren Gold had asked her to write another program to help process all of the information found in the newly discovered complex. She heard her front door open and looked up to see her sister Izzy coming in, carrying coffee and a bag of takeout for their dinner. “I can’t believe you are still working on that,” Izzy said to her as she set everything down on an empty corner of the table. “Did you even take a break while I was gone like you said you would?” “No, I didn’t. I want to get this done, and I am trying to decide how to do something,” Cat answered her. “Well, stop thinking for a few minutes, and we will eat. Maybe that will give your brain the break it needs to make the decision. If you still can’t make that choice after we finish eating, call Agent Gold. You can give him the options that you have and let him decide.” “You might be right. I may ask him which way he wants me to go with it anyway.
The others all stopped what they were doing and looked at Lindsay. She took the page and began to read it. It was James; there was no doubt. As she began to read it, she saw that it listed a different date of birth from the one she knew. Everything was different than what she knew it to be. The last line was the only thing that she knew to be true. It listed his status as deceased/killed.“I need some air,” Lindsay said as she stood and handed the page to Little Bob. Wren began to stand and follow her. “No, just no,” she told him. “Crook, you want to go outside?” Lindsay asked as she walked to the door. Crook hopped off the couch and followed her outside before she closed the door. She sat in her favorite chair and put her face in her hands.She was trying to breathe. It felt like someone had taken all the air from her lungs, and she could not pull any in, no matter how hard she tried. She fought a feeling she had never had before and had no idea how to explain it if someone asked her
Wren got up and went to the door, knowing the last thing they needed were visitors of any kind right now. When he opened the door, Little Bob and Big Bob were standing on the porch holding pizzas. “I don’t know what is going on here, but we thought you might be hungry. And before you ask, I found out that Yuri was covering for Max at Lindsay’s request,” Little Bob said as Big Bob pushed past Wren and into the house. “I’m starving,” Max said, taking the pizzas from Little Bob and placing them on the kitchen counter. “You two do not need to be involved in this,” Lindsay told them as they walked into the living room. “Too bad. We’re here, so we’re involved,” Big Bob said as he dropped into a chair. Lindsay let out a deep sigh, looked at Wren, and told him, “It’s up to you. You’re running this. It’s your call if these two are involved when they aren’t working.” “Fine, you two want to know what’s going on, I’ll tell you,” Wren said. “This will be the condensed version since you alrea
Wren was grinning when he walked into their house, followed by Izzy. He could not help showing how happy he was to have found the little alien called Blue. When Lindsay saw him, she started smiling, too. She was just glad that he looked truly happy for the first time in a long time. “Why are you so happy?” Max asked. “Did you go to the base, and they wiped your brain, so you forgot what you saw today?” “What? No,” Wren answered. “You have no idea how happy we all are that we have Blue back. When the explosion happened on the base, we all thought he had been killed the same as we thought Aaron White had been. The sad part is we were all far more upset about losing Blue than we were about losing White.” Max got up from where he was sitting and motioned for Wren to take his seat by Lindsay. Wren sat down as Max walked into the kitchen. He returned with a cup of coffee for Wren and handed it to him. “Is this your night shift secret formula?” Wren asked him as he took the cup from Max.
Lindsay, Max, and Cat had arrived at her house just before 1 p.m. They brought Cat’s computer and other equipment inside and placed everything on the kitchen table. They were utterly exhausted, but they still had work to do. Cat was setting everything up when Lindsay sat down in the living room for a moment as she tried to regain her composure and collect her thoughts. Her ears were still ringing a little, and she had a nagging headache at the base of her skull. Max walked into the living room, sat beside Lindsay, and handed her a cup of coffee. “Careful, that’s my night shift stuff. If you spill it on the couch, it will melt a hole all the way to the floor,” he said. “Thanks, Max,” she said as she took the cup from him. “Why don’t you go lie down in the guest room and try to get some sleep?” “Because after what I saw today, there is no way I will sleep. I may not sleep for weeks after today.” “I know what you mean. Wren and I looked in every drawer in that morgue. I can’t even be
“Are you feeling better, Blue?” Wren asked, holding his hand out to it again. The little creature repeated what it had done earlier, making a soft cooing sound. “We can’t leave him here.” “I won’t argue with that, but what do we do with him?” Lindsay asked. “I’ll carry him, and we can put him in my car, and I’ll take him back to the base,” Wren said. “Izzy, do you have a Mylar blanket in your bag?” “I do somewhere,” she answered as she began looking for it. “Here it is.” She handed the blanket to Wren. He pulled off the wrapper and unfolded it. He carefully wrapped the blanket around the little creature, covering the top of his head and body, and picked it up like a child. When Wren picked it up, it snuggled into his arms and put its head on his shoulder. Wren held him while Izzy quickly repacked her bag and stood. They walked back to the control room where they had left Cat. She was downloading information from the computer system onto external hard drives she had brought with
Lindsay sat in her office, going back over the personnel files, still trying to find a replacement for Keith. She had found two reserve deputies and a new applicant, all of whom would have been good choices. Unfortunately, when Lindsay called them, all three declined, and one of the reserve officer
They put everything in the back of her car and began the drive out to the farm where the cow had been killed. Wren called the farm owner and let him know they were coming back out to have another look. Wren explained they needed to identify what had killed the cow. After that, they were mostly sile
They ate without talking much. Wren was still trying to wrap his head around the number of calls and their variety. Lindsay was still thinking about the little creature she had seen and wondered how much of a danger it might pose to people in the county. As they were eating, there was a knock on th
Lindsay and Cat continued working their way through stack after stack of files. They went back to about one month before Lindsay took over the department. The problem was that the first report of anything truly unusual was the event that happened at the Sycamore River that had injured Amber Clark.







