B008IFNJZM EBOK (21 page)

             
“I thought you three were not going to split up?”

             
“We flew there together and saw no airborne threats so we decided we could cover all the area between here and Strathdownie if we split up on the return trip.”

             
“We don’t know for sure, but legends say if a female gets within a hundred miles of a male, she should be able to sense his presence.”

             
“What about the males, can they sense you the same way?”

             
“I guess, this is all new to me.”

             
Tom heard another bird approaching and Chelsea came up and sat next to Tom as it too, flew into the trailer.

             
“That is Hadiya.”

             
The pair sat there waiting for Hadiya to come up in her robe.

             
“Where is the hair brush?”

             
“I’ve got it up here.”

             
Chelsea handed the brush to Hadiya and now also sat on the roof.  She began to brush her hair.

             
“Before you ask, I never sensed another vampire on my trip.”

             
The two women sat next to Tom as they could see the two guides coming out of their apartment and going over to the restaurant across the way.  The sky was beginning to change to a sunrise  brightness in the east and Tom was starting to worry.  Chelsea and Hadiya smiled at Tom.

             
“What?”

             
“You really do care about her don’t you?”

             
“Of course all three of you are risking your lives for me.”

             
“I think in Iolana’s case there is more to it than that.”

             
Tom smiled as he heard another bird approaching.  At the same time, one of the mercenaries on the team came out of his apartment and began to also go to the restaurant.  Tom and the women laid down flat on the trailer as the man began to turn reaching for his pistol.  By the time he turned, Iolana had flown down the opening and the shadow turned back to continue on to his breakfast meal.  Tom slid down the ladder after the girls and they quickly covered Iolana before Tom could turn.

             
“Sorry, I was just worried about you.  You are Okay?”

             
Iolana was still out of breath as she was handed the brush by Hadiya.

             
“Nothing… did either of you….”

             
“No we didn’t sense anything either.”

             
“We will have to hurry Tom.  We will go and use your shower.  You must go and make your report on our scouting mission.  Tell them they are clear to go as far as Strathdownie today but also tell them they will run into a big storm on the way.  They must travel no farther today.”

             
“Okay,”

             
Tom went to the restaurant to wait for Nathan and his sister to arrive before briefing the others.  By the time he returned, the girls were all back in their coffins.  Tom was not yet asleep when he could feel the diesel cab’s engine increase in rpms and start moving.

***

             
The semi backed up and waited for the other vehicles to take the lead.  Mr. Berdy Hahn was assigned driving the rig.  In front of him was Platt Neander in his Lori loaded with their equipment.  In front of him was Elizabeth and Nathan and in the lead Lori was the two guides, Crosley Pittman & Jerrick Sawyer.  The four vehicles pulled out on the road and headed west.  The skies were gray and they all knew they would probably be driving directly into a storm. 

             
Crosley Pittman looked over at Jerrick Sawyer alongside of him in the lead vehicle.

             
“You know they are all crazy… They are not going to find anything.”

             
“But look at the bright side… We are really making a handsome sum of money.”

             
Jerrick looked out the window.

             
“What would you do if we did find this Bigfoot character?”

             
“Simple, we strike a deal with the bodyguards and kill it.  Then the four of us would be millionaires for the rest of our lives.”

             
“Did you talk to them already?”

             
“I might have brought the subject up with the lieutenant.”

             
The pair laughed.  To Jerrick and Crosley this was a ‘win/win’ situation.

             
Tom rolled over to see the three women in their white robes.

             
“Oh good, we have something for each of you.”

             
The cursed lad removed a small sack from under his pillow.  The three ladies watched him as he untied the pouch’s string. 

             
“My sister and Nathan think that given your great flying range and your ability to sense the presence of another of your kind, we think you will be making an initial contact either tonight or tomorrow night.”

             
He removes what look like three silvers dollars each with a small Velcro strap.

             
“We want you to each wear one of these around your neck.  If one of you feel close to this Khu character, we want you to fly down and land.  After landing, you are to change back into a woman and the strap will open as your neck expands dropping this to the ground.  After you are back in your body, Press this button.  Then reseal the strap and change back into a bird.  Nudge your head through the hoop and fly back.  Does that make sense?”

             
“What do these things do?”

             
“They are electronic ‘lock-down’ devices.  They will record and store the exact position where you are via GPS.  That will allow the day team to know where to travel in order for us to make contact with Khu the following night.”

             
“That won’t work.”

             
“Why?”

             
“We will never be able as a bird, to stick our head back through the hoop.  But what we can do, is to pick it up with our claws like we were carrying sticks to build a nest.”

             
“Okay, whatever works…  How far are you going to travel tonight?”

             
“We are hoping for another five hundred miles out and back.”

             
“Well if you are fed and ready to go, I’ll wait for you on top.”

             
Tom went up the ladder.  As each woman came up in the form of a bird, he turned on their unit and held it out.  One by one, each picked the unit up with its claws and flew off.  Now all that was left would be to find out if contact would be made tonight or tomorrow night.

***

             
The first one to return that evening was Chelsea.  Tom held out his hand and she opened her claws and dropped the device in his hand.  It was only midnight and he wondered if she had felt another vampire presence during her flight.  She came back up wearing jeans, a T-shirt and her robe.  She had her hands in the pockets of her open robe garment.

             
“I felt him!  I dived down and did exactly what you had told us.  I converted back to this appearance and pushed the button.  I then changed back into a bird and flew directly back here.”

             
“That’s great!  How far from here do you think you were?”

             
“Maybe a couple of hundred miles northwest...  No more than that.  I had the most northern route of the three of us.  Now what do we do?”

             
“As soon as the others return, we wake up Elizabeth, Nathan and the guides.  Nathan knows how to read the data and the guides will be told where to go next after we break camp here.”

             
“Then what will happen when we set up camp next to my location?”

             
“Not sure really...  I think one of the guides who can speak Khu’s language, myself and maybe one of you…”

             
“I’ll bet that one of us will be Iolana.”

             
Tom smiled.

             
“Yes it probably will be.  We can’t take all three of you into his camp.  He might panic and run feeling outnumbered.”

             
Chelsea stood up.

             
“Hadiya is coming!”

             
“Where?”

             
“She is a vampire remember?  I can sense her as well as others.”

             
It was about twenty minutes later that Tom could see Hadiya off in the distance.  The pair moved back from the entrance and a second device was dropped in Tom’s hand before she went through the hatch.  She emerged smiling.

             
“I got a reading!”

             
“Me too!”

             
Tom was grinning.  Nathan’s plan using these devices would surely pay off.  Chelsea and Hadiya knew what Tom was scanning the skies for.

             
“You really like her don’t you?”

             
Tom looked at Chelsea.

             
“Very much.”

             
Hadiya poked Chelsea.

             
“I think someone is in love.”

             
Tom looked at the two devices in his hand.

             
“I can’t tell her how much I want to be with her… not with this curse hanging over my head.”

             
“It will be alright.  We will find that cure.  I think you should know that she has very strong feelings from that night at the club when you first showed up.”

             
“Not only did our friend think you were handsome but brave for a ‘warm blood’ to come into that club given its clientele.”

             
The girls sat on each side of Tom as they watched the stars now breaking through the tail end of the storm that had passed by.  Another two hours passed and Hadiya and Chelsea jumped to their feet.

             
“She is coming!”

             
“Where?”

             
“Farther from the south.”

             
Chelsea points and Tom begins to watch in that direction.  Twenty minutes later, the third and final device had been dropped into his hand and he waited for his Iolana to come up through the hatch.

             
“I got a reading!’

             
“We did too.”

             
“Well ladies it’s time to wake up the others.”

***

             
Nathan was entering the longitude and latitude from all three devices into his computer and had a satellite view of Australia on the screen as three stars appeared.  He looked at Elizabeth and at Tom and the three women.  The ladies came behind him to view the results on the screen.

             
“The red star is the reading from Chelsea’s device.  The blue star is the reading from Hadiya’s device and the green star is the reading from Iolana’s device.”

             
Elizabeth is puzzled by the display.

             
“According this, the distance between the three is almost five hundred miles.  I don’t understand.”

             
One of the two guides came into the room.  Crosley Pittman walked to see what was on the screen.

             
“Did you find your native?”

             
“We think so but the three readings we got do not line up.”

             
Crosley’s eyes were locked on only Chelsea.

             
“So these are the three night shift women?”

             
Elizabeth realized that Crosley had never been introduced to them.

             
“Oh sorry, this is Iolana and this is Hadiya…”