The Millennial Box by Julie Steimle (snow like ashes .TXT) 📖

picked up the pile he had folded and placed there hours ago. He handed them to her.

Zormna looked at him and took them from his hands. Closing the door, she said, "You didn't have to fold them."

He shrugged.

"What did you do all night?" She continued to talk through the door, dressing and combing her hair. She didn't put on any makeup because she never wore any. This was one fact Jeff liked about her. She was so low maintenance.  

"I went to a bar," he said.  

Zormna opened the door looking surprised. "You went to a bar?"

"They had a diner. I got some cocoa." Jeff stepped away from the door and picked up the biker jacket. Zormna took it from his hand. "That's where I got the cobbler."

"How long were you there?" she asked, peering at him.

He shrugged. "Long enough to meet Steele."

Zormna gaped. "That bounty hunter? What was he doing? Was he following you?"

Shaking his head, he said, "Nope. Turns out, M had Sicamore hire him. He'll be working for the FBI, but I think we'll have no problem getting the satellite from him when it is all over."

Zormna leaned away from him, reading what he had not said. "You know him."

Jeff shrugged. "Vaguely. I might have seen him once. He knew my father."

"Your real father?"

He nodded. "I don't think he likes me though. He kept glaring at me."

Jeff walked toward the door, picking up the other helmet and handing it to Zormna.

She laughed, running her fingers through her wet hair to urge the drying process. "He kept glaring at you. Well, Jafarr, you can't rate people liking you by how much they glare at you. He has to keep his cover. He can't grin at you and pat you on the back in public, you know."

He just kept shaking his head. "I know that. But this was different, kind of like how the Kevin glared at me when he saw me get caught the first time. He just glared at me like he disapproved of my existence - you know everything I have done. That I was a disappointment to my name."

"The Kevin glared at you like that?" Zormna paused near the outside door. "When?"

Jeff smirked and shook his head. "You wouldn't remember. It was the first time you and I, uh...interacted, and I think you were a little too distracted by Alea Arden's wonderful praise to notice how the Kevin was looking at me - or how Alea Arden was looking at me."

Zormna blinked. It was true. That first capture had gotten her promoted, and all she remembered of that moment was Jeff's stricken face and the praise in her ears. Both of them had been a lot younger.

"Alea Arden?" Zormna stared at him more. "Jafarr...how well did you know Alea - ?"

He put his hand over her mouth, shooting her a terse look. "Later. I'll tell you the story later."

He removed his hand

Zormna nodded. Her face felt hot.

Jeff opened the door. Zormna followed him out to the motorcycle once he had locked the door. Throwing his leg astride the seat, he pulled on his helmet.

Yet Zormna hung back, almost with pain. "Don't you think I'd better drive?"

He peered back at her, adjusting the strap to his helmet.

"I mean, you only had a couple hours sleep last night...." she said.

"And you didn't eat your cobbler. I already had breakfast. You don't have any energy to steer," he retorted.

She scowled at him, throwing her leg over the seat behind him. Zormna jerked on her helmet and adjusted the strap. "If you crash, don't forget I asked to drive."

Jeff only laughed, knowing her too well. "You just wanted to steer the bike. Besides, you don't have a driver's license."

He revved up the engine and rolled into the street before she could argue that she was the better driver - but then he had another rebuttal for that if it ever came up. After all, he had heard that she was an insane pilot back home and neither of them needed to get a ticket.

 

They arrived at the Paradise Inn just before the Agent Simms stepped into his car with Agent Keane. Agent Sicamore was walking out of the restaurant of the hotel, adjusting the buttons on his coat, followed by Agent Hayworth. All four looked up at the sound of the motorbike. Agent Simms winced as he glared in their direction. It was not whom they were expecting.

"Hi!" Jeff called out as he pulled up, letting the engine rumble underneath him rather than turning off the engine. "We thought we'd - "

But another rumble, a deeper one of a Harley, pulled into the parking lot with Steele astride.

"Nice bike," Jeff remarked, peering over at the larger motorcycle. Zormna also seemed to approve. In fact she gazed longingly at the large seat and wide handlebars.

"You can't be here!" Agent Simms slammed his car door shut. He marched over to the two teenagers.

"It's a free country," Jeff replied with an almost mocking smile.

Zormna leaned nearer to his back as she held her tongue. Honestly, the presence of the FBI was giving her a headache - especially Agent Sicamore's presence as he had been part of an earlier operation where the FBI had kidnapped her, interrogated her, then wiped her memory...or at least had tried to wipe her memory. Seeing him brought back some of the missing pieces along with pain within her skull, much like a knife stabbing it. She watched Agent Simms gape at them both as if they were an insult to the world, which bothered her more as he had been one of the agents who regularly harassed her at the McLenna's house, pretending that they hadn't kidnapped her. She nudged Jeff to speak so she would not have to.

Understanding the nudge, Jeff said, "We're coming with you."

"Oh, no you're not!" Agent Simms bellowed.

Agent Sicamore stood back in exasperation. Agent Hayworth walked past him to stand next to his partner, as Simms continued to protest the 'Martian' presence. But Agent Keane just glanced at Sicamore and shrugged. After all, help was help, and Jeff didn't seem to be along just to tease them. Zormna certainly wasn't.

"Where do you think we're going?" Agent Sicamore asked more pensively, sharing that look with Agent Keane.

Jeff looked to Zormna. She returned with look with a shrug. It was his plan. Her plan was finished.

Speaking, Jeff said, "Well, I would guess you were going to investigate the site of the attack, or the vehicle, or the corpses, depending on how an investigation best works. You already visited NASA. And I would suppose you interviewed whomever to find out all those that handled the object - but the results of all that will take time to study." Glancing back at Zormna, Jeff decided to lay it out openly. "The point is, I want to find the box. You want to find the box. We both want to find out who took it. Why don't we just help each other? Sort of an unholy alliance?"

Agent Simms gaped. However, Agent Keane exchanged looks with Agent Sicamore. Obviously the thought had crossed their minds as well. They shot a momentary look at Steele.

"The kid has a point," Steele said.

Jeff rolled his eyes, yet nodded. "Yes, the kid has a point."

Zormna stifled a chuckle. Jeff elbowed her, or tried to. She leaned away and slid off the bike before he could do any damage. Jeff didn't hold back when annoyed.

"All we're asking is to come along," she said as she made distance from any other elbow jabs. "We might see things you would miss."

Agent Sicamore peered narrowly at her. "How do we know - ?"

"That we won't double-cross you? You don't, except it really wouldn't be any use to us to do so. We need to see that transport truck or whatever, and you need us to see it. We can help."

Skeptically, Agent Keane pulled back from her. "How can you help?"

"I have a hunch," Jeff said, breaking in, motioning for Zormna to get back on the bike.

She shook her head. Her legs were achy.

"What kind of hunch?" Agent Sicamore asked, stepping closer to them.

Jeff shrugged. "I won't be certain until I see all the evidence." He still gestured tot Zormna, but she stepped over towards Steele's bike, admiring it more closely. "But I can say that I have an idea who might have taken the box. But I don't want to go off half-cocked."

Zormna looked back to him and nodded.

"Shall we go?" Jeff at last asked her.

Nodding again, Zormna walked back to him and climbed back onto the back of his bike, grabbing onto his jacket to get her balance. Agent Sicamore still seemed to be thinking.

Keane walked over to Sicamore and whispered into his ear.

Sicamore nodded.

Then Keane said something else for Agent Simms and Hayworth to hear. They also nodded, though neither man was smiling.

Agent Sicamore said to them, "Alright." Then turning to Steele, he said, "Are you willing?"

The bounty hunter nodded.

The FBI agent looked back to Jeff and Zormna. "Ok, you can come with us, but only on the conditions that you don't touch anything."

Zormna rolled her eyes. "How are we supposed to - ?"

"That's fine," Jeff said over her concerns. "Just lead on."

Nodding to himself, Agent Sicamore walked back to his car, joined by Agent Hayworth. Jeff and Zormna rode their motorcycle out of the way so the two could back up the car. The other two agents drove their car out of the parking lot, likewise following Sicamore's vehicle, along with Steele's Harley. They rumbled into the street and away from Orlando.

 

The ride took quite a while. They ended up nearer to Georgia. When they came to a small town and pulled off the highway, the caravan stopped. It was in the middle of nowhere, an empty stretch of road.

The agents stepped out of their sedans, and Steele climbed off his bike. Jeff and Zormna shrugged and looked around. He parked the bike. Zormna climbed off, lifting off her sweaty helmet. She shook out her hair, which was still damp from the shower, and attempted to shake off the dust that accumulated on her neck and jacket.

"There," Agent Sicamore pointed. "That is where the truck got stopped."

Zormna looked around. All she could see was a bare road, trees, and mosquitoes. A random shack stood down the road. It might have been a gas station at one time but that did not make the barrenness look any less barren. And worse, inspecting flourishing nature was not her forte. She was more geared for space, canyons, and underground tunnels. She walked over to where Agent Sicamore pointed and peered at the tire tracks that marked the road.

"They must have shot the driver before they stopped," Jeff remarked, pushing his sweaty mop of hair out of his eyes.

"That's what we had assessed," Agent Hayworth said, walking back to his car.

"And those other tracks?" Zormna asked, pointing.

Agent Sicamore nodded. "Those were probably made by the other car."

Jeff looked up at him. "You took photos of these, right?"

The FBI agent nodded.

Jeff looked around at the scene. Running his fingers in his hair, he glanced at Zormna. "Do you see anything, you know, out of place?"

She shook her head. "They picked a desolate spot. No witnesses."

Jeff nodded. "That's what I thought."

"Are we done yet, children?" Agent Simms asked, still glaring at Jeff.

Jeff returned the glare for spite.

"Where is the vehicle?" Zormna asked, turning toward Agent Sicamore as he was clearly in charge.

A slow grin crossed his face. He nodded. "Back in Orlando. We had it towed."

"And the bodies?" she asked.

"The same," he replied.

"Then why drag us out here if all the real evidence is in Orlando?" Zormna asked with a wave to the mosquito infested scenery.

Jeff stepped protectively close to Zormna, glancing back to his bike, just in case they needed to make a quick escape.

Agent Sicamore sort of smiled. "I wanted to see what lengths you would go to get the box."

Zormna scowled at him. "You're a louse."

Jeff chuckled