Summoning Annika_The Viking Witch Trilogies Page 6

  “That’s it?”

  “Well, he thinks you’re a douche, but yeah, that’s pretty much it.” Michael surprised himself with that comment and he took it a step further, “So how did you and Marci get along?”

  “Well at least he’s a good judge of character,” and Parker laughed heartily. “He has a handshake like a vise grip, at least I have a chance with Marci.”

  “Not gonna happen, Parker. All wildest dreams aside, you got no shot.”

  “It’s still early, I’m going to call Mac and get him over here. We have to get this rolling.”

  Parker just hung his head, “Swell, let the Geek games begin. I’m never going to live this down.”

  “Parker, keep in mind that we all need to keep our heads in the game here. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.

  “I know. I’ll get my game face on when he gets here.”

  The phone conversation with Mac was brief and to the point, “Yeah, bring 2 hi-res cameras, do you have a FLIR? Great, bring that as well. And both laptops.”

  “Mac, if you tell a soul on earth about this, we will hunt you down. Not to be a douche but you understand?”

  Michael hung up the phone. “He’s gonna swing by the lab and pick up more gear. He’s got an infrared camera as well. That may prove useful.” He looked at the table and then around the apartment. “We need to avoid bringing anyone else into this thing in case it gets out of hand, plus, I think it’s important not to tell anyone how we came to have this, to protect Mr. Goodmund.”

  Parker flexed his right hand tightly, “Not sure that your Mr. Goodmund needs protection.”

  Within the hour, a knock at the door signaled Mac’s arrival. Parker answered the door. As he opened it he turned to Michael, “Well, it looks like rule number one just went down the shitter.”

  “Entre vu, my friends,” and he made a grand sweeping gesture to usher the new guests inside.

  Mac came in carrying an armload of equipment, his messy hair giving him a roguish look that tamped down his gangling height. Trailing closely behind him, also loaded with gear, was a very pretty brunette. “This is Allie, she’s my roadie,” he said with a sheepish grin.

  “I’m his girlfriend,” she quickly added in high, squeaky but confident, voice. “I’m just as good as he is with a camera.”

  “Of course you are,” Parker looked at Michael. “She stays.”

  Michael winced at the potential problem. This was already a lot for Parker to deal with, interest in Allie, as he stared at her petite body waltzing by, could skew everything if he didn’t reign it in.

  As they set up the new equipment, the boys explained the situation and what seemed to be happening. With the new camera and infrared as back up, they were able to cover the project from all angles. Each camera could zoom if necessary, but they kept them at a distance from the table in case things got wild.

  When Michael mentioned the lightning strikes, things got interesting. Allie commented, “I saw a local newsfeed on Facebook this morning talking about odd lightning in and around Fargo. It’s attracting attention.”

  “Attention is the last thing we need,” cautioned Michael. “See if you can find the source of the feed, we may learn something.”

  “C’mere, I’ll show you what happened this morning on the original camera.”

  They gathered around Michael’s laptop as he played the original file. “Note the time stamp corresponds exactly with the lightning strike outside our building.”

  Mac and Allie were stunned as they watched the loop play again and again, Mac noted the three separate sections of the light flash.

  “I can run that through a filter and see if there is more to it.” He hooked up a cable to Michael’s laptop and synched it with his. “Send it to me. Got it, let me play with it for a little bit.”

  Parker rose to the occasion, “That’s what she said.”

  The following silence earned him a collective glare from all three of them, “Jeez, sorry, tough room.”

  “Update on the lightning news,” Allie announced. “The weather service is the source of the feed. They talk about several anomalous lightning strikes in the area in the last week. No reason cited, it’s just a fluff piece, I guess. I’ll set up an alert for any more mentions of lightning and tap into the police scanner.”

  Michael and Parker exchanged a glance with eyebrows raised.

  Mac winked at her, “Gentlemen, she is in her element.”

  They finished patching in the laptops and ran a test to make sure all of the cameras responded appropriately. Michael showed Mac and Allie his sketches, “Any ideas? Fresh eyes could help.”

  “When the circle is finished, I think it’s going to be this big,” and he showed the outline of where the outside edge would be.

  “But this morning,” Parker added, “this was a completely new thing,” he pointed to the cross piece that was coming down from the North marker.

  “A big compass maybe? These little marks on the outside edge could be degrees, maybe?”

  “I thought of that too,” said Michael, “but there aren’t enough of them unless a lot more show up soon. There are three on this section and it looks like the start of two more on the section over here.”

  Allie rubbed her finger over the East piece, “I like the hammered texture of the metal.”

  “What?” both Michael and Parker said in unison. “Yeah, my mom has a hammered copper sink that looks just like this.”

  Parker suddenly stepped back from the table, “I don’t want to alarm anyone, but it’s getting late. We should keep clear of the table for now. I’d hate to have something happen to you guys leaving me to try to explain it to the cops.”

  It was the first comment that had mentioned any chance of danger or injury. Mac and Allie drew back slowly as if they might set off a bomb. “Yeah, safety first, I guess.”

  “Mike, I thought about moving this over to my dad’s warehouse. He never uses it anymore and it would look like we are just working on our cars. It would be safer. I’d prefer not to damage the apartment.”

  “That’s a good idea. Let’s see what happens through the morning and then move it, table and all,” Michael looked at Mac, “Do you still drive a van?”

  “Yep” he answered.

  Parker looked up from his laptop, “The Mystery Machine?”

  Mac laughed at that, “Nope, a Dodge and it’s not green.”

  “Good, that might be a little conspicuous under the circumstances.”

  Mac called for them to gather around his screen, “I isolated the three layers of the light flash as the pieces generated,” he pointed at the screen. “Look at this. As the four lights that corresponded to the directions disappeared, a short burst of light flashed in a disc above the metal pieces.” Mac froze the frame. “There are holes in the light plane.”

  Michael leaned in to look, “How many?”

  “I thought nine,” Mac said as he brought his pointer up to the screen. “Let me count ‘em again. Yep, nine. No pattern, looks random to me.”

  “Oh well,” sighed Michael, “it’s more information.” And he yawned and then looked at their guests. “I didn’t realize this might become a slumber party.”

  “Plus, I wasn’t expected,” Allie looked at Mac with chagrin. “It’s still early, I could go get pillows and blankets?”

  “Not a bad idea,” said Parker, “we don’t have much here for guests. I’ll help you.” The tone of his voice had a hint of flirt that Michael called out. “Ahem, maybe Mac wants to go with her, you know, the couple thing?”

  Mac hesitated, “I don’t want to miss anything.” But Allie told him to stay put. “Seriously, its nothing. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes. Order the pizza, extra pepperoni for me,” and out the door she went.

  Michael couldn’t help himself, “I gotta say Mac, she’s pretty cool. You’re very lucky to have found her.

  “I agree,” he said, “She’s been a good influence on me,” he pulled up his t-shirt. “Look matchi
ng belt and shoes. But the truth is, she found me. Walked right up to me at the student union one day and asked me out. You know me, I thought she was just being mean.”

  Parker laughed but had a glimmer of respect, even envy, then quickly shifted to Michael, “So she took the initiative and made the first move? You think Samantha would ever have the nerve to do that, Mike?”

  Michael looked annoyed, “Hey, give me time. Wait until the geek party, maybe then I’ll make my move.”

  Parker sighed, chuckled, ruffled Michael’s hair and looked at Mac, “Yeah, maybe then.”

  The three of them spent the remaining time waiting for Allie to return by rearranging the furniture to make the living room both more comfortable as well as safer by spinning the sofa around to act as a barrier, just in case.

  Allie knocked on the door and Michael answered it. Without thinking, he swung it wide open and stepped out into the hallway, “Hey, welcome back!” Allie just laughed, “is the pizza here yet? I’m starving,” and she went inside. Michael caught a little movement out of the corner of his eye. It was Samantha and Katie just walking into their apartment. It was obvious by the look on Sam’s face that they had heard the exchange. Their apartment door closed a bit louder than usual.

  Michael slunk back into the apartment and closed the door behind him. He looked ill. Allie made it worse, “Boy, I sure got the stink eye from those two down the hall. What was that all about?”

  Parker couldn’t contain himself, “Oh nothing, Michael’s fantasy girlfriend lives down the hall and she just saw a pretty brunette walk in with pillows and blankets asking about pizza. What possibly could be wrong?”

  Allie looked pale, “Oh dear, I could go talk to her, if you want?”

  “Oh, God no,” was the collective response from Parker and Michael. “Bad idea,” Mac continued, “Then you would have to explain why we are here in the first place.”

  “Good point,” she said, “Although, Michael, if she got mad at you for saying that,”

  Allie was interrupted by a knock at the door.

  Michael jumped like a spooked cat, “Ahhh, please be the pizza guy” and he looked through the peephole and then opened the door. “Pizza, excellent.”

  Parker shook his head, “I live with a twelve year-old, There’s no way it would have been Sam, she just as much a scaredy-cat as he is.”

  Allie smirked at Parker, “So you’re sayin’ they’re made for each other?” She looked at Michael, “I can work with that.”

  They blew through the pizza in short order. The boys sat around the living room while Allie sat at one of the laptops, her phone chirped. “Police alert!” she barked as she brought up the screen to watch what posted. She plugged in her headphones.

  “Dispatch, 10-13, on scene 9:46 pm.” Allie checked her log call chart, “Yep, that’s weather related, less than a minute ago. Address is in North Moorhead.”

  Michael looked over at her and sighed, “Wow, she’s cool as a cucumber.”

  Mac was quick to notice, “I know right, but I suddenly wish I had a helmet or something.”

  Parker didn’t seem to care, he casually walked past the dining room table to the window and opened it, “We should have been able to hear something. Duh” as he raised the storm window open and looked outside, “It’s clear as a bell out tonight, go figure.”

  He turned to move toward the computers and commented, “Hey, look at this.” He raised his arm, “the hair on my arm is standing straight up.”

  “Parker, back away from the table.” But as Michael finished his warning, the room went dark and was suddenly cloaked in a bright blue light. The ceiling above the table rippled in a bright flash and it slowly rippled down to the table surface. A white pulse of light drove down through the center and then disappeared with a hiss.

  A sharp cracking sound came from the window, followed by a fading rumble a few blocks away. The light above the table had not made a sound.

  Mac stuck his head up from behind the sofa, “Not gonna lie, that was kind of pretty.”

  Parker wasn’t so upbeat, “Sure, in a Chernobyl sort of way, maybe. I can’t help thinking I’m gonna grow an extra arm or something.” He poked his forearm to reassure himself, he then pointed at his crotch, “There goes my plans for a family some day.”

  Michael thought about what Mr. Goodmund had told him, “I don’t know why, but I think we are safe. I can’t imagine that this is happening at our expense.”

  Mac chirped, “Doesn’t matter now, but maybe a Geiger counter might not be a bad idea going forward. Let’s check the table.”

  Parker only had to lean over to inspect the project, “Oh wow, check this out!”

  The four of them looked at the pieces on the table. With the four directional markers in place, a second and third tab had appeared and were making their way toward the center of the now almost complete circle.

  The three marks on the original pieces were now replicated on some of the other outside pieces. “These are new.”

  It was becoming a checklist, new marks, new pieces, adding to the mystery of what they were witnessing.

  Mac sat down at his computer, “Let’s watch the playback.” They gathered around him and, as before, the light pulse was in three sections. Other than the new parts, it looked the same.

  Allie scrolled back through the scanner. “The lightning hit next to the high rises on campus, nobody hurt. Hang on, let me try something.” She opened another tab on her screen and brought up her Facebook page and typed in a few words. “Let’s see if anyone saw it.”

  Mac played the camera loop again and again, “I might be getting really picky here, but there is a very subtle difference, look. The last one we filmed had three parts and the last of the three had those spots in it, right?

  Michael watched the loop again, “How many spots?” Mac looked up from his screen with a grin, “One more that last time, and the spots are in the same location over this,” he sputtered, “this thing, in both loops.”

  Allie took one of her earbuds out, “Guys, the cops are talking about it. This was the third lightning strike tonight. One was out by West Acres and the other was in South Moorhead. Theme is it nothing serious, they are joking about it.”

  “Some joke,” Michael said as he ran his hand through his hair. He looked tired.

  “Parker, I think you’re right about moving this to your dad’s warehouse. If the cops are talking about it, someone’s going to start looking around.”

  “Facebook post from a friend of mine that lives in the high rises, “Pretty blue light show by the dorms tonite. Kinda Loud Tho, LOL awesome! It’s got a couple of likes already.”

  “I agree,” said Parker, “Let’s move it in the morning, assuming we are done for the night?”

  “Cameras are all set, with motion detection,” Mac volunteered, “this last thing was so quiet, we could sleep through it if it happens again.”

  The rest of the night proved uneventful. Michael was the first one awake and found himself standing in the dining room just staring at the project in the early morning light. He knew it was going to continue. The project would grow and likely present him with a challenge. His heart raced a bit. He was unable to distinguish between fear and excitement.

  “How long have you been up?” Parker padded quietly behind him and headed into the kitchen.

  “I have no idea, I must have looked at my alarm a hundred times, but I don’t feel tired.”

  Allie’s head popped up from the sofa, “Any coffee available?’ she asked.

  “Sorry,” was the response from Parker, “Neither one of us drink coffee, we suck at being hosts.”

  “No worries,” said Mac as he stood up and stretched. “I can run and get some if you like,” and he walked over to the quiet bank of laptops, “Any activity?”

  “Nope, it was quiet. The cameras didn’t pick up anything other than us.”

  Allie scrolled through her phone’s Facebook feed, “Only a couple more comments on the lightning
at the dorms, doesn’t look like anybody got too excited about it,” she ran her hand through her hair. “Mac, I’d like to head home and shower.”

  “Sure, let’s get organized and come back. Parker, where are you moving this to?”

  “My dad has a warehouse downtown that we can relocate to without drawing any attention. Mike and I can tidy up too. Let’s meet here in a couple of hours.”

  Allie bundled up the blankets that she’d brought over and Mac grabbed the pillows and they headed toward the door.

  “I’m going to head over to the A/V center and check out a couple more cameras,” Mac said, “Just shoot me a text when you guys are ready. We’ll head back to help load up.”

  “Sounds good, Mac, thanks for coming over.”

  Mac looked over at the dining table, “I thought you were nuts when you called, this is so…cool. We’ll see you later.”

  Chapter 17

  As they came down the hallway, Katie and Sam came out of their apartment headed for a morning run. Samantha saw Allie first, but then saw Mac walking behind her loaded down with pillows. Her frown turned into a surprised smile as she recognized him, “Hi, Mac! Long time, no see,” and she pointed to the blankets, “Slumber party?”

  Allie interjected, “No, just an impromptu pizza party.”

  Katie pouted, “And we didn’t get invited? No fair.”

  Mac smiled as they walked by the two, “Next time for sure. Good to see you, Sam.” And they made their way to the elevator.

  “That was interesting,” said Allie as the doors closed.

  “I know,” agreed Mac, “Parker and Michael need to get that thing out of here. There are too many people around.”

  Allie teased him, “That’s not quite what I meant, how long have you known Sam?”

  Mac just looked at her, “Seriously? Since middle school. You’re kidding me, right?”

  “Yes,” she said laughing, “you know I’m not the jealous type. She seems nice, I can see why Michael would like her. Pretty too.”

  Mac snickered, “Yep, Michael has had a deep crush on her for years. She is really smart just like he is. They’d make a great couple. He’s a cool guy and I’m pleasantly surprised that Parker was… better. Michael seems to be a good influence on him.” He leaned over and kissed her, “Nice sleeping with you last night, interesting evening.”