Facing Evil [Part 2 of 3]
By Starwinder
Vin waited until they were back in the limo that Kirk had had bring them to the Federal Building before saying, "Wanna tell me why we came here?"
"Bailey Malone is one of the few FBI agents in Atlanta that never doubted me. Dr. Waters is one of the few people in the world who truly understands what I've gone through with Trevor. She had her own serial killing stalker. He was called Jack of all Trades. Perhaps you've heard of him?"
Vin was silent for a moment running the non-de- plume trough his memory. "I've heard of him. Bad bastard."
"Indeed, and Dr. Waters had a daughter to protect whilst he was stalking her. The poor child grew up knowing all too well the horrors that lurk in the world. Dr, Waters left the FBI for a while after he was finally dealt with. I suspect that she needed the time to recuperate. They had thought that he was dead at least once before, perhaps twice."
"Like you thought that Trevor was gone for good a time or two."
"Yes."
"We'll make sure this time." Vin reassured him, reaching to take Ezra's hand, squeezing it gently.
Ezra nodded but said nothing. He stared out the side window, his eyes hard. They would, indeed, make sure this time that Trevor never came back to haunt them again.
In the meantime, they still had another stop to make before they reached Denver.
Their real estate agent, Marisa Hardin, had called to let them know that everything was ready and they could sign the papers on the house at an attorney's office in Boulder.
They would stay in Boulder for the next week, making arrangements to meet with the rest of the seven there to make plans before going on to Denver.
JD and Nathan stared in open awe at the condo that Ezra and Vin were staying at in Boulder.
"It belongs to Kirk's company," Vin informed them. "They keep it for visiting VIPs. It's completely furnished right down to bed linens and towels, pots and pans. Company pays for everything, water, lights, gas, cable, phone and hi-speed Internet connection."
"By staying here we need not leave a paper trail," Ezra added. "Kirk simply informed the building manager that his stepson would be using the condo and we moved in. No sign-in, no bills, no paper trail."
"Hell, they've even got people here to buy your groceries for you. We ain't had to go out since we got here," Vin said.
JD and Nathan nodded. No paper trail was good, Trevor couldn't track them that way and not going out lessened the chance that they would be seen and word could get back to Trevor of their location.
"Kirk left us one of the company SUVs for transportation. I'll give you the keys, Nathan, and you can bring it around to the loading zone by the lobby. It's four wheel drive so there shouldn't be any problem getting to our new home in it."
"Ya'll aren't taking any chances are you?"
"No. I doubt that Trevor has any one watching for us in Boulder but better safe than sorry. It will be only a few dozen yards from the elevator in the lobby to the car and we will be bundled up in ski jackets, caps and dark glasses so that it's unlikely that anyone could recognize us."
"That SUV's got real dark tinted windows, too," Vin added. "Reckon we'll be safe enough."
Nathan chuckled, "Good. I'd hate for my new employers to get killed before I get my first paycheck." The affectionate grin that went with the statement took any sting out of it.
"Yeah," JD agreed, "Damn well rather you guys were safe than sorry."
They let Nathan drive heading out of Boulder, simply giving him directions until they reached a remote rest stop, then Vin took over the driving. He had more experience driving in the mountains than any of the others and he knew the way to the house best as well.
If Nathan and JD had been impressed with the condo they were truly impressed with the house.
"There is plenty of room here, guys," Vin told them.
"There's apartments over the garage, the stable and the kennels."
"The one over the garage is a three bedroom, two bath unit," Ezra added, speaking to Nathan. "I thought perhaps you and Mrs. Jackson might like that one. It will of course be rent free, as you will need to be on site as much as possible as the Search and Rescue team's medic. Has she decided if she is going to stay at Mercy General and commute to Denver?"
"She's thinking about taking a sabbatical. With housing provided, I think that she probably will. She's getting anxious about starting a family."
"As a full-fledged doctor I'm sure that she could get seasonal work at one of the ski resorts up here. She could work three or four months a year and make as much as she is at the hospital there."
"She's less worried about the money than leaving the sisters at Mercy General short handed." Nathan said with a sigh. "There's never enough good doctors willing to work at what is basically a charity hospital. The pay's not good enough."
"I'll speak to Kirk. He's always looking for charitable works to support. He might be willing to provide an endowment that would pay enough to lure one or possibly even two young idealist doctors to join the sister's staff."
"That would be great!" Nathan said, grinning at Ezra.
"I cannot of course make any promises but I will speak to him and I will be as persuasive as possible."
Nathan snorted, "Then it's as good as a done deal, Ez. We all know that you could sell sand in the desert, fire in hell and ice door to door in an Eskimo village in the middle of a blizzard."
"Good Lord!" Ezra gasped, "I had no idea that you gentlemen thought that I was some sort of magician."
Nathan laughed. "Our very own wizard."
"Yeah," JD put in, "You'll just Obi Wan him and he'll do whatever you want him to."
"Obi Wan him?" Vin asked.
"Sure, Vin ain't you ever seen Star Wars where Obi Wan Kenobi uses The Force to get the Stormtrooper to let them pass?" JD asked.
"Of course I've seen it!" Vin snapped, before adding in a mumble, "Just didn't know that Obi Wan was a verb now."
Ezra grinned and winked at him.
Vin laughed and slipped an arm around Ezra's waist, leaning down to murmur in Ezra's ear, "Guess that means I got my own Jedi Master."
Ezra laughed.
They had entered the house while they were talking.
JD was checking out the ground floor while Nathan moved through the enclosed walkway between the house and the garage to check out the apartment that Ezra had told him about.
Vin and Ezra sat down on the couch in the main living area and let JD explore to his heart's content. It was close to an hour later that the other two men returned to the living area.
Vin looked up at JD with a grin, "Did you find the security room?"
"Oh, yeah!" JD enthused. "It was great for it's time but it's pretty outdated by today's standards. I guess you want me to update it?"
"No. I want you to sabotage it."
JD gaped at him and Nathan's mouth fell open. "You want him to sabotage it! Are you crazy?"
"No," Ezra said.
"Like a fox," Vin said with a grin.
JD and Nathan stared at them.
"You're both crazy," Nathan insisted.
"Nathan, I have a better security system than any one could ever build. I have a Sentinel." He turned and looked at Vin, smiling at him.
[We need to tell them. They are our family, the center of our clan and tribe.]
[I know.] Vin smiled back at him.
"A what?" JD asked.
"A Sentinel. A Sentinel is a person with five heightened senses. They are throwbacks to ancient tribal times when they guarded and protected the Tribe. Vin can detect the slightest change in his environment. A Sentinel cannot however work alone, every Sentinel needs a guide. Fortunately Vin has his."
"Ez is my guide."
"Sentinels are very protective of their Guides."
"It's sort of the Sentinel's Prime Directive: protect the guide," Vin explained.
"Are you sure about this?" Nathan and JD asked almost together.
"Yeah," Vin said. "The Sentinel thing is why Kojay, Chanu and Jon stayed with us on the island. They were helping me learn to use my senses and helping Ez learn to help me control them and to use his own Guide abilities."
"What kind of abilities do Guides have?" Nathan asked.
"Mostly empathy," Ezra explained. "Some telepathy but, at least with me, only with my Sentinel. I've always been able to sense other people's emotions particularly anger, hate or the intent to harm me. The closer they are, the easier their intentions are to detect. Trevor trips my spidery sense just by being in the same city. Kojay has been instructing me in the use of my abilities as well as instructing Vin."
"So, you'll know when he's near?" JD wanted to be sure that he understood what Ezra and Vin were telling him, "And Vin will be able to tell where he is."
"Exactly and there won't be any way for him to know that he's tripped our alarms." Ezra assured him. "Plus the telepathic link between Sentinel and Guide will allow us to communicate silently."
"Do the others know about this?" Nathan asked.
"Kojay and Chanu went to Denver to explain it to Chris, Buck and Josiah." Vin said. "They'll explain about the clan and tribe stuff, too."
"Clan and tribe stuff?" JD asked.
"The Seven are the center of the Clan. Chris is clan chieftain, Buck his partner and the heart of the Clan. Vin is the Sentinel. I am the guide. You, Nathan are the Healer, Josiah the Shaman. JD is the young warrior learning from us all. The Clan spreads out from there. Through JD, Casey is part of the Clan. Through you, Rain is. Miz Nettie is connected through both Casey and Vin. From there it spreads out to include all our many friends as part of the Tribe, everyone from AD Travis to Inez, to Yosemite, the man who cares for Chris' horses when he can't be there. Literally every one that any member of the clan cares about is a member of the Tribe."
Nathan and JD were silent for a few minutes absorbing what they had been told.
Finally JD asked, "So, how do you want me to sabotage the security system."
"I want you to make it unreliable. I want to have a record that it has failed before when Trevor gets past it."
"Intermittent failures over a period of weeks leading up to Trevor's breaking in." JD frowned then grinned, "I can do that. Have the system go down for no apparent reason a time or two. Not that hard really. It is an old system, inherently unreliable."
"How long will it take?" Ezra asked.
"I should be able to get it set up today." JD said.
"Do you have everything that you need?"
"You told me to bring my tech kit. It's in the car. I should be done in a couple of hours."
"In that case I believe that Vin and I shall take a nap." Ezra said with a grin, standing and tugging Vin up with him. He nodded to Nathan. "Make yourself at home, Nathan."
Nathan snorted as they headed up the stairs. "Nap my ass," he said but he was smiling.
JD just grinned. "Worse than you and Raine were, huh?"
"Not really." Nathan admitted with a smile.
"Come on you can help me get my stuff in. The security room is way up in the attic."
JD and Nathan accepted Vin and Ezra's invitation to have supper with them and stay overnight at the condo before heading back to Denver.
When Ezra sat the salads on the table, Nathan raised an eyebrow as Vin picked up his fork and started eating his.
"You got him to eat salad?" Nathan's tone held disbelief.
"He doesn't get his roast beef and baked potato until he does." Ezra smirked.
"He's got broccoli for me, too." Vin said with a pout. "Don't get my dessert until I eat it."
"I'm allowing you to put it on your potato and pour cheese sauce over it. That is concession enough." Ezra stated.
Vin smiled at him. "Reckon so," he said softly. Taking Ezra's hand he added, "You're worth eating a few green veggies for."
After the meal was finished and they had cleared up the dishes, they retreated to the large living room to talk.
JD was the one to broach the subject of when Vin and Ezra intended to return to Denver.
"So, are you guys, gonna be heading back tomorrow?" He asked.
"Yes," Ezra replied. "We need to let Trevor make contact with us. The best place to do that is at the storage facility where the packing and moving company put our things when they packed up the townhouse for us."
"You think that he knows where it is?" JD asked.
"Yes. From what the P. I., Zorn, told Detective Paulson, he had already given Barton that information before Trevor killed Barton. So, if Trevor hasn't staked the place out himself, he probably has someone, if only a street person, watching it to let him know when there is any activity around the unit."
"Isn't it dangerous for you to go there?" Nathan asked. "What's to stop him from just shooting ya'll there?"
"Not how he works." Vin said shortly.
"Indeed no. He needs more than just to kill me. I'm the only one of his victims that got away, the only one he never broke. He doesn't just want me dead. He wants me broken and begging. Besides, I never said that Vin and I would be collecting our things. I paid the company to move everything out of the townhouse and store it. It would be out of character to come and get it myself. I'll contact the facility and have them clear out the storage unit and move everything to the new house."
JD and Nathan nodded.
"So," JD said with a grin, "starting tomorrow, the game's afoot."
The others laughed at the remark.
JD grinned back at them. "I've always wanted to say that!"