“This is Liesel Bohm calling in to report sad news and pass on dangerous information revealed,” said Liesel.
“One moment and I will connect you with the Trustee on call,” said the voice, as equally unperturbed as when she first answered the phone. Liesel wished there was a hint of curiosity at least, were they even alive or was it some weird phone answering computer service?
“I am now speaking with Miss Liesel Bohm, Interim Steward of the Southwest American Region, correct?” asked a new and older voice on the phone, the trustee presumably.
“Yes, this is Liesel Bohm of the southwest region. I presume I am speaking with a council trustee now?” she asked.
“Yes, go on with your report please,” the anonymous trustee said.
“Gertrude Bohm is dead. The other members of the region kidnapped with her and some we discovered that were kidnapped around the same time but not previously brought to our attention were recovered but my grandmother had already been murdered and her remains essentially dissected, they were not recovered but were destroyed,” said Liesel in a robotic tone of voice.
“The rest of the council trustees will be saddened to hear of the loss of your grandmother. Gertrude Bohm was an excellent Steward if a bit eccentric,” said the nameless trustee. “You will be recorded as the permanent Steward for the Southwest American region now that her death has been confirmed.”
“Wait!” said Liesel in a rush afraid the trustee would disconnect the call before Liesel could impart the most important and dangerous bit of information.
“Yes?” said the Trustee in a tone of voice that managed to sound questioning and derisive all at the same time.
“You don’t understand. They did not kidnap, murder, and dissect my grandmother because she was swept up in a kidnapping of some of her charges. She was not confused for a therian or a pherein or an auric, they knew she was a Steward and she was the primary target,” Liesel told the trustee.
“That is ridiculous,” said the trustee. “No one in the human world knows we exist. Those idiots barely know the other non-human species exist and we do not visibly give ourselves away,” she continued.
“We do not know all of the details yet about how wide spread the agency that kidnapped my grandmother is or how many people Stewards were revealed to within that agency but it has happened,” Liesel said.
“How do you know at all?” asked the trustee. “Who is we?” the trustee demanded to know.
“One of the residents of our town is a gauner. He took over one of the bodies of their regional agent in charge of this secret agency. Said they are called the Bureau of Preternatural Affairs and a man called in directly to them, knew who the agency was, and told them all about Stewards and where to get my grandmother because she lived in and chose a rural headquarters and was a bit of a loner. She was the target, Trustee,” said Liesel.
“Now I know you have lost your mind. Some man called in and revealed our secrets to the humans. No human man knows Stewards exist,” said the trustee her voice not yelling but definitely having risen to a higher decibel level. “Why would you trust a body snatcher anyway, and a male one at that.”
“Stop being a bigot and listen to what I am saying to you!” Liesel nearly yelled at the trustee. “There is a government agency targeting non-humans and that includes Stewards because they know who we are now.”
“Just a minute,” said the trustee. “This gauner took over the body of the agent in charge? And you say you recovered the other missing and kidnapped non-humans from the facility they were working out of?”
“Yes,” said Liesel, confused at the seemingly sudden change of tone in the conversation.
When the trustee spoke again, her voice was low and almost snake-like as she hissed coldly, “So you went against Council directive to cut your losses and protect your charges and instead attacked a government facility exposing not only your charges but yourself and other stewards and killed a federal agent and destroyed their facility,” she said.
“We killed more than one agent but that is correct,” said Liesel.
“You will bring them all down upon us you stupid little child!” the trustee half yelled half hissed angrily.
“You are not listening!”Liesel did yell back at the trustee that time. “They were going to hunt us down anyway! I have stopped it if they had not passed on the information yet or at least slowed them down,” she said in a more level voice but still rather loudly as if talking over the trustee.
“The council of stewards will meet and discuss what you have said. Do nothing else,” said the trustee who then hung up on Liesel.
“Well, that went well,” said Liesel to no one in particular as she was alone in the office. Then she stood and walked back into the kitchen and retook her seat on one of the stools at the kitchen island. Gideon raised an eyebrow and offered her a third fresh cup of coffee made just the way that she preferred. Liesel smiled at Gideon and accepted the coffee mug and gratefully started to drink the sweet and bitter concoction.
“That sounded like it went delightfully well,” said Gideon sarcastically to Liesel.
“Yeah buddy, it was awesome,” said Liesel in response, her face and voice deadpan. Then Liesel slouched a little on her stool and her face took on a thoughtful expression. “You know I was not quite expecting the extremeness of the responses from my mother or from the council,” she said.
“Fear,” said Gideon simply.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
After Liesel finished her third cup of coffee that morning, she set it down on the kitchen island, noticing Gideon had stopped after cup of coffee number two for himself because she did not see his mug, it must be in the sink or the dishwasher. Gideon picked up the empty mug she set down and turned to the sink and began to rinse it out.
“You do what you need to do with the data you recovered from the desert site, I will take hold down the fort, or at least wash the dishes and keep an eye on the time for lunch and when the others get here,” said Gideon to Liesel.
“Thanks,” said Liesel, gifting Gideon with another smile. She wondered what she would have accomplished and how she would be doing without him. He had so quickly become indispensable in only a few days. She stood and walked back into the home office and sank into the executive rolling office chair at the desk. She lifted the screen of her laptop and entered the unlock password for her administrative user account. The screen cleared the screen saver and she was presented with a window full of files with names and dates. She opened and read each file by the date that they were originally created to get the best idea she could of the chronology of what the agency did and what they knew as they knew it. Most of the information was not anything knew to Liesel or she suspected to the federal government. She did find two important files though. One was a run down of one Abner Knapp, the man who called the bureau of preternatural affairs with the express purpose to reveal the existence of stewards and tell the bureau how to find and kidnap one, namely her grandmother. The bureau, not being the trusting sort of agency understandably, had run a background check on Abner Knapp and that file detailing both his call and the investigators information was now in Liesel’s possession on her laptop thanks to the mini drive. The other piece of information was a personal log file of Grimsley’s regarding the Stewards, whether or not he believed Knapp fully and how he handled the information - not only detailing how he would follow up on it and kidnap Gertrude Bohm and some of ther town’s residents to discover the truth but also how he had not spread this information further beyond his facility at the agency in case it turned out poorly because of Knapp being deranged. The facility they found in the desert previously headed up by special agent in charge Malachi Grimsley was but on regional site of a larger federal agency with other sites but at least only this one had known the truth about stewards.
Liesel made copies of pertinent information, secured them, and sent them to a handful of key individuals, although who depended on which bit of information she was sendin
g out.
“You might want to get dressed,” Gideon called out from the kitchen. “It is getting late and Bianca and the others could start arriving soon, they do not always call ahead after all,” he said. It was then Liesel realized she was still wearing a thin robe and a pair of house slippers.
“Roger!” said Liesel, locking her laptop screen with the administrator password and removing the mini USB portable drive from the USB slot. “I am heading upstairs,” she called back to Gideon on her way past the kitchen to the stairwell and to the bathroom attached to her bedroom. She took a quick but thorough shower, then pulled on a pair of yoga pants and a rainbow colored t-shirt that loudly proclaimed “Sharing is Caring” and featured a panoramic of the cartoon city of Care a Lot from the Care Bears television show from the 1980s. She finger combed her damp hair and stuck her feet in a pair of plastic dollar store flip flops. Then she made her way back down stairs, her shoes making noise the entire way. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw Gideon holding up a plastic bag.
“Jonah brought me by some clothes so I could get cleaned up and burn this suit. Mind if I take a shower,” Gideon asked Liesel. “By all means,” said Liesel, gesturing with a hand toward the stairs.
“Enjoy your shower and we can burn the suit in the fire pit tonight and toast my Grams,” she added. Gideon wrapped his free hand around the back of her head and drew her gently in for a kiss on the forehead. “That sounds perfect,” he told her before releasing her and heading up the stairs to take a shower and change.
Bianca called Liesel on the phone while Gideon was in the shower and Liesel was pulling out the ingredients to make some sort of lunch. “Hello, Bianca,” said Liesel. “What is the good word?” she asked.
“I have taken depositions from everyone who survived being held captive at the facility in the desert,” said Bianca. “I recorded them all on video of course but I took notes and typed those up for you to get you the important information without subjecting you to the emotional experience,” she continued.
“Thank you, Bianca. How are they all doing?” she asked the city manager.
“The boy has some emotional trauma that extends to before the kidnapping and pretty much all of them are a bit skittish and gun shy but physically they are fine,” Bianca answered Liesel.
“Is the Dixon clan taking the boy in?” asked Liesel.
“Yes, they have welcomed him with open arms, the poor child,” said Bianca.
“We will have to make contact with a psychologist to get some counseling around town. I will see what I can do,” said Liesel.
“Of course, sugar, of course,” said Bianca. “I have already saved the video files to the city computer system and have also forwarded the typed summaries of the debriefings to your personal email so that you can review them today,” said Bianca.
“Thank you, Bianca, again, what would I do without you?” said Liesel.
“I am sure you would get along just fine,” replied Bianca. “I do want to ask you something though.”
“Sure, anything,” said Liesel.
“We, by we I mean the town residents, wanted to have a memorial for Gertrude,” said Bianca. “Just, you know, everyone taking turns talking about her, sharing memories, that sort of thing. There is a big field right next to the high school and we figured we would make a big bonfire since she was in a way already cremated and sit around and do what country folk do when someone they know passes away,” said Bianca.
“Okay, thanks for letting me know, I’ll make it down. Don’t know if I really want to say anything though. I guess I won’t know until the moment arrives,” said Liesel.
“Perfectly understandable, you have not had much time to process, I know,” said Bianca. “They want to talk to you but I told them you needed a little space just like they did. The folks you rescued that is, especially John Dixon and Cody Miller,” said Bianca.
“A whole lotta people rescued them Bianca, I smuggled information out and helped open some doors, that is all,” said Liesel.
There was a pause on the line. Then Bianca spoke again. “Liesel, the elders know, we know, that you did the investigation and found them in the first place. Even if all you had done was open some doors, being there was more than any other Steward would have done,” said Bianca. “Even your grandmother.”
Liesel nodded and then remembered that Bianca would not be able to see her nodding through the telephone line or wireless signal. “Yes, Ma’am,” said Liesel.
“Well I will let you get to lunch, you are probably famished right about now and I do not want you to waste away. Take care of yourself today. Look at those depositions when you get the chance, no rush, and we will see you at the memorial bonfire service tonight,” said Bianca.
“See you tonight,” said Liesel.
“Goodbye, sug,” said Bianca.
“Goodbye,” said Liesel.
After hanging up the phone, Liesel went back to gather food for lunch, it would be a mish-mash of leftovers and random refrigerator contents but she did not think Gideon would complain. As she was laying out the prepped ingredients in a row of containers on one side of the island with flour tortillas at the head, Gideon came down from the upstairs look clean and refreshed, his hair still a bit damp and trying to fall into his eyes. He was wearing shiny black men’s basketball shorts and a grey snug fitting tee shirt. He was bare foot. He walked up and lightly kissed Liesel’s hair before pausing to take a look at the spread before them.
“Fajitas el Leftovers, I love it,” he said.
“It was not exactly a gourmet affair,” Liesel said to Gideon, “but it seemed to satisfy us both.”
“For lunch,” said Gideon, “for lunch.” Then he leered at her melodramatically to which she began huge quaking belly laughs. It probably would not have been so funny on any other day but that day it was just enough to pop the cork on the tension and sadness to relieve it just a little with some laughter.
After lunch, Gideon sat at one end of the once comfortable to sleep on sofa in the living room with his feet up on the coffee table watching the state and local channels to see if anything interesting to their group would appear on teh screen while Liesel sat sideways on the other end of the sofa, her back to the arm, her legs stretching the length of the sofa and her feet resting on Gideon’s lap, her laptop computer was in her lap as she read the brief summaries Bianca had made of the depositions she had gotten from each of the survivors rescued form the desert. Liesel was grateful that Bianca was thoughtful enough to do so, not only to save time for anyone who would want or need to know this information in the future but also to spare her and the survivors the emotional trauma of the videos if and when they were ready to watch them themselves. As the hours grew later, Gideon put on socks and tennis shoes and Liesel changed out of her flip flops for more appropriate foot wear mirroring Gideon’s. Then they both climbed into Gertrude’s small SUV, Grimsley’s SUV currently hidden in the garage waiting for a therian team to come strip it down to unidentifiable parts to sell and destroy, and drove into town. It was the first time Liesel drove Gideon and, from the look on his face, she suspected it might be quite some time before he let her drive him again but he did not say anything about her skill or tendency to speed.
In town they stopped at the little diner just called ‘the diner’ and had brisket and corn bread. Then they picked up a six pack of Shiner Bock beer from the corner gas station, or what would be the corner gas station if the main street had any cross roads of note and drove the short ways to the high school and its neighboring field at the edge of town, just within the town limits. Several people were standing around a large unlit pyre of logs arguing about the best way to arrange them for a bonfire versus a cremation versus just a cooking fire, eventually one of the phereins declared it good enough and spit out a flammable starter onto the wood and someone else lit it with an old-fashioned wooden match. Several logs had been laid out in a circular arrangement around the bonfire for seating.
Ther
e was a small opening in the logs and an old crate was placed there, Liesel guessed that must be what stood in for a podium or lectern at this sort of thing, and she was right. One by one the residents of Zell, Texas from the very young to the very old took a moment to say at least a few words or some not so few to share how they felt about their former Steward Gertrude Bohm and they basically all fell into the category of her being warm for a Steward and a friend and a true townie and a no nonsense Texan woman. Liesel ended up speaking last. As the line of those wanting to speak dwindled to nothing, she stood and walked to the crate and stood on top of it.
“I want to thank all of you for coming to memorialize my grandmother, Grams, Gertrude, Steward Bohm, however you knew her. She had her flaws like any woman but it is comforting to know that the residents of Zell knew her as I did, a woman who cared and spent her days educating and protecting those she loved and felt responsible for, whether they wanted her to or not,” said Liesel as a handful of chuckles sounded around those seated at the bonfire at her last statement. Liesel looked down a moment, perhaps she was overcome by emotion or maybe it was just smoke in her eyes, then she looked around at all of those assembled and lifted her beer in a toast. “To Gertrude!” she said. “To Gertrude!” everyone assembled there responded in unison. “May she be the last our folk must send to the afterlife for any reason than old age,” finished Liesel to a chorus of “Hear, hear.”
Gideon wrapped and arm comfortingly around Liesel’s shoulders after she returned to her seat on a log next to him. A few minutes later a chorus of discordant howls rang through the air punctuated by the snarls and screeches of big cats. As the fire died down to only glowing embers, the non humans of Zell Texas and surrounding unincorporated territory filtered back into the night, some like Gideon and Liesel and Bianca climbed into motor vehicles and drove carefully home through the night with their high beams on to avoid any wildlife, others ran off into the night, perhaps to catch some of the wildlife the others were avoiding.
Welcome to Zell Page 13
