The Plane’s Children – Chapter Twelve – Emersli1

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Of the eleven sentinels at Amalda Vernon’s Search, four of them had since found their true matches and bonded.  Six of them were still active in the system.  The eleventh had been Matthew Caulfield.

The team had flown back to DC, tired and afraid of what might be happening somewhere in the country, but certain that Amalda Vernon was ground zero.

Now they were tracking down those six unbonded, potentially disappointed sentinels.

Matthew Caulfield, when asked, hadn’t remembered anyone seeming particularly furious to be dismissed.  But then, all his focus had been on Amalda.  He could certainly say that no one had pestered her in his presence in the three years they’d lived together in San Francisco.

But he couldn’t be sure she would have told him about it.  If she’d felt sorry for the sentinel, or guilty … even though she shouldn’t.  Well, Mallie was just a nice person.  She wouldn’t have wanted to cause trouble.

So the team was also trolling through Mallie Vernon’s emails.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t been great about deleting her emails so there were literally thousands of them to go through.  It was painstaking work, but they were sure he was in there somewhere.

“Well, I think we can mark JaVaunte Miller and Michael Raines off the list.  Neither of them is white, and I’ve finally located pictures.”  Bethany Parker displayed pictures of the two sentinels on their working screen.  One was African American and the other First Nations.  Neither of them would be described by Jason Ramsey as White.

“That cuts it down to four.”  Emmet Jackson nodded to his bondmate.  “We’re getting there, slowly but surely.”

“I’ve got a likely prospect.”  Blair put the picture up on the screen.  White male.  Right age.  His hair was bleached and highlighted in the picture, but he was obviously a natural brunette.

“David Wareham.  Background in construction.  Currently in the DC area for work.  Has enough money to source materials.  Could do the work himself …”

“I’m sorry.”  Alone spoke up hesitantly.  They weren’t sure they should speak up in Tony’s workplace, but the Plane had said they were supposed to work together.  And the team hadn’t dismissed their suggestions so far.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve been thinking and … I don’t think we’re looking for a sentinel.”  They threw an apologetic look towards Mick Brandon.  “It’s a great idea, but …”

“What is it mia stella?  What are you thinking?”  Tony took their hand supportively while the rest of the room got quiet.

“It’s just something Steadfast said.  Right at the beginning.  I didn’t really notice it at the time, because … well, I was just so shocked and …”

“It’s fine.  You’d just encountered something completely outside your experience.  Something terrible.  But what did Steadfast say?”  Blair was quick to reassure them.

“That was the buffalo, right?  Rollo?  Sentinel Caulfield’s spiritmate?”  Brandon ventured.

“Yes.  Steadfast seemed shocked and numb, but they said that the monster that hunted them in dreams … wasn’t like our spiritmates.  So … not a sentinel.”  Alone would never forget those first few terrible minutes, standing there with Flicker’s essence all over them.  Steadfast appearing in shock, stammering out questions and confusion.

“So where does that leave us?”  Bethany Parker sounded discouraged.  At least the sentinels had been a lead she could pursue.

“I still think Mick’s on to something.  Maybe we could ask Steadfast … maybe they could think a little more clearly … now that some of the shock has passed?”  Blair looked at Alone questioningly.

“We can try but,” they hesitated.  “They’re very angry with me right now.  Or, well, not actually with me of course.  But I’m the target they settled on.  I don’t know if they would speak with me.  But I could ask Sage.”  

They looked at the team.  “Sage sheltered Steadfast.  They might be able to talk to them.”

Then, out of nowhere, Tony’s phone rang.

They had all feared the worst, but it was just Tom Vernon.

“Hey Tom.  I’m sorry, I don’t really have any information for you right now.”  Tony had seen many times how much the victim’s loved ones craved any scrap of information … desperately try to make sense of the senseless.

“Yeah, I’m actually calling with information for you.  Carter and I were talking to Matt, and he mentioned you were looking at sentinels Mallie might have rejected?”

“Well, that doesn’t seem to be leading where we thought it might …”

“That’s because you need to go back farther.  We didn’t think about it when you asked us about people who might have a grudge.  But Mallie had a boyfriend … before the car accident.  I remember Dad didn’t like him, and Mom teased that he wouldn’t like anyone his princess dated.  But Dad said there was just something that put him off.”  Tom hadn’t thought of it before.  I mean, kids didn’t hold grudges that turned into murderous impulses a decade later, did they?

“Your dad was a latent guide, correct?”  Tony pulled the file up on their workscreen as he talked.  “Listen, I’m gonna put you on speaker.  The team’s all here and may need to hear this.”

“Oh, yeah.  Of course.  Well, I just thought … I don’t remember much of the days right after the crash, but I remember Mallie saying that Frank didn’t take it well.  Her coming online.  Said that it didn’t matter, and they could still be together.  Thing was, I don’t think it was all that serious for Mallie.  She knew she was latent, and I don’t think she’d have dated a mundane seriously.  At least not when, well, when she was young enough to maybe come online.  She was only nineteen.  But Frank was apparently a lot more serious than she’d realized.”

“You have a last name for Frank, kid?”  Jim Ellison was ready to start searching.

“No, I’m sorry.  I’ve talked to Carter, and he doesn’t remember either.  We were just twelve, and weren’t really paying attention.  I mean, we teased her a little bit.  But we didn’t really care.  And then everything was horrible.  Mallie didn’t agree to a Search right away.  She was focused on us.  She felt like we had to be her first priority, so she didn’t agree to a Search until we were sixteen and getting ready for our senior year.  She didn’t expect to meet her sentinel right away, but Matt was cool with us.  A real big brother, you know?”  Tom had happy memories of his family before the accident, but they were a child’s memories.

“Yeah, I know.”  He didn’t, but Tom Vernon didn’t need to know Tony’s pathetic family situation.  An almost-heavy jaguar head landed in his lap with a huff.  Right, right.  He had a family now.  Not pathetic anymore.  “Listen, thanks for calling.  We’ll track Frank down and see what he has to say for himself.”

“OK.  Please, if you learn anything …”

“I’ll tell you anything I can.”

“Thank you, Inspector DiNozzo.”

“You’re very welcome, Tom.”

The team considered the situation.

“So, Mick was on to something with the rejection angle.  We’re just not looking far enough back.” Blair mused.

Emmet Jackson spoke up.  “OK, Beth and I can work together to knock out the last of these sentinels from our list.  Just to tie up that loose end.  And who knows?  He might still be there.  But that will free the rest of you up to find this Frank guy.”

Tony nodded.  “That sounds good.  OK.  You two, stay safe.  Back each other up.  And call for help if you need us.”

The sentinel and guide agreed to all of that and moved out to hunt down David Wareham for a little chat.

The rest of them started looking for Frank.

It took them almost six hours, but they finally found him.

Blair had finally gotten lucky with a call to the alumni president of Amalda Vernon’s high school.  The woman had remembered Mallie, and the older boy she’d been dating.  Turned out, Mallie had filed the paperwork to allow him to escort her to senior prom.

Frank Spaulding had graduated two years earlier and was in college studying chemistry.  They had a home address listed and his mother’s phone number.  She had died shortly after Mallie Vernon’s parents, so that was a dead end … but at least they had a name.

It was a place to start.

Two hours later, they had a lot of information on Dr. Frank Spaulding.  The man had gone into biochemistry, and was apparently a genius.  Ph.D. at twenty-five from Cornell University.  Sucked into a think tank researching brain cancer treatments.  He had several medical patents in his name, held jointly with the think tank.  And two months ago, he’d taken a leave of absence from his job and disappeared.

His apartment was still there, with the lease paid up in advance for the year.  His car was gone.  Neighbors assumed he was on a road trip or vacation of some sort.

“He’s not the friendly sort, but he mentioned that he hadn’t taken time off since he was in middle school.  So he was really looking forward to this vacation.”  The nice lady from next door had been willing to talk, but didn’t know much.

She certainly didn’t know where Frank Spaulding was now.

Unfortunately, neither did they.

It had been a long, long day, and Tony wasn’t the kind of Boss to keep his people working around the clock when there were no new leads coming in.  So at nine o’clock he sent everybody home.

“OK people.  Go home.  Or (looking at Jim and Blair) to your rooms here.  Get something to eat.  Get some real rest.  We’ll pick back up here tomorrow morning at 0700.  Everybody good with that?”  Tony looked around the room.  Seeing no protests, he started shutting his laptop down.

“Hey Boss, do you think you could give me a ride home?  It’s past the time for the buses to run, and you don’t pay me enough to take a taxi.”  Mick Brandon looked hopefully at his supervisor.

“This your way of angling for a raise, or just trying to score a ride in my awesome car?”  Tony grinned at the younger man.

“A raise, definitely.  Your car is oooold!”  Brandon laughed as he ducked out in front of Tony, who followed him, squawking indignantly at the slight to his beloved baby.

Jim and Blair laughed at the antics of the young guide.  They all needed some rest and a mental break.

They’d all start fresh tomorrow.