Shadow Of The Past Trilogy ∞ THE DISPLACED

32 ∞ intrusion

Day Eight ∞ Friday, August 17, 1979

WEAVER STOPPED BY A COFFEE SHOP to get some breakfast and doughnuts for two on his way back to Dawson. As he approached the entrance, his watchful eyes were drawn to a lone, platinum-blonde woman sitting at a sidewalk table with a coffee mug—staring straight at him. She wore a flowing light gray blouse and gray slacks, and as he came closer he noted that she was a middle-aged woman with clear, pale eyes and pale brows. She kept the cup in front of her expressionless face, sipping slowly, watching him without waver until he pushed the door open to enter the shop.

Something was off here. Weaver waited for the door to close behind him before turning to look out through the window at the back of the almost-white head of hair. Who was this woman? Why was she watching him? She didn't appear to be trying to flirt with him, and her entire countenance spoke against her working for some other agency. Thoughtful, he joined the line to make his purchase.

When Weaver returned to his car, she was still at the table. He put the food aside, reached under his seat to grab the camera, and took a series of shots as the woman rose to stare across the parked cars, straight at him. He captured a few more frames before finishing the roll, then lowered the camera, narrowing his eyes as she turned and walked away.

∞

"So at least now we know what was tripping us up the other night." Dawson chuckled. He was wearing the headphones over one ear. "Our alien is a ghost. I would've liked to have been there and see that for myself." He took another bite of the doughnut. "Should we call in the Scooby-squad?"

Weaver gave him a long look. "It never said it was a ghost. It said it was an Aumega... whatever that is."

"Omega? As in alpha and omega? First and last? By your description it seems to consist of pure energy, packing a lot of power. Before there's matter—and after all matter's gone, there's energy. You know, E equals MC squared? That's like alpha and omega."

"Hmm." Weaver hadn't thought of it that way. "Then... would it really need a spacecraft to come here?" He turned his eyes back to the monitors as the Honda Civic reversed out of the garage. "Looks like they're about to leave." He reached for the other set of headphones and put it over his ears. He heard footsteps in the hallway and the doors opening and closing.

"Yep, they're leaving."

"Give them ten minutes in case they forget something." Weaver put aside the headphones and got his hard-case kit bag to systematically check its contents—as was his habit. Not that he needed to—he knew exactly what he had in it, and in which compartment.

"Let's go."

They emerged from the basement of the vacant house and made their way through the broad band of woods that separated them from the backyard of 9 Pine Ridge Lane. They came out almost adjacent to it.

"We're downwind. Where's the dog?"

Dawson lifted the binoculars to his eyes to study the side of the house. "Not in the kennel. Wait... I see it near the front of the house... Yep, it's tied."

They circled a few yards into the woods to approach the house from the rear; they made sure to brush off their pants and shoes thoroughly before stepping onto the back porch and pulling on their latex gloves. They found the back door unlocked, and they entered, closing the door behind them.

Dawson took the camera from Weaver to start mapping the interior as Weaver headed straight for the bug he'd installed near the phone in the hallway. He was about to replace it with a wiretap when he changed his mind.