Chapter 2

Sometime later, Seth Lightfoot began to hear from his ‘eyes in the sky.’

Marty called in first: ‘Can you hear me? I feel very far away from you.’

Seth: ‘Yes, I hear you fine. You must be very high in the sky.’

M: ‘Not so high. I can still see the ... what did you call it? The truck. There were four of them before the next town on the road. Shall I keep looking?’

Marty was a very smart falcon. He understood words like ‘truck’ and ‘town’ and ‘road’ and used them in his talks with Seth. He understood that words like Seth used made it easier for Seth.

Every bird – every animal, for that matter, including humans – needs to be appreciated, Seth knew. It was not something he faked; he was genuinely appreciative.

Seth got on the radio right away. “Calling for Detective Maxwell. This is Seth Lightfoot.”

In two minutes, Maxwell was online. “Maxwell here. What’s up?”

Seth: “I’ve gotten some leads. Too many perhaps. There are four dually’s on the highway right now, between here and Sylvania. If you get the Sylvania Sheriff on it, they can stop them all.”

Maxwell: “Good, but with a six hour head start, they’ve gotten farther than Sylvania – if they went that way. But I’ll stop ‘em all.”

Seth: “There weren’t any on the side roads.”

Maxwell: “No? Well ... I guess that will help. I better get on it.”

There was a pause on the radio with Maxwell. Seth was getting a message from Skree. She was following only a trail of diesel fumes.

For Skree, time was measured in ‘whiles’ and humans -- or other species for that matter -- lived in ‘nests.’

Seth [on the radio]: “Nothing from the south, except a trail. It’s a possible. Can you manage to set up a road block past Sinnamahoning State Park?”

Maxwell, on the radio: “Sure, we can set up road blocks, wherever. I hit the wires and found these two scumbags escaped from a prison outside Buffalo, last week. One is 6 foot 4, beefy with a full beard. The other one is 5 foot 10. Not exactly small, but smaller than his pal – as you said. They stole a truck in a small town south of Buffalo and have managed to only get 100 miles or so in three days. I guess they’re sticking to back roads, so even with their head start we may catch ‘em. It’s a dark blue Ram -- you were right about the diesel engine. But now they’re armed. Hope your scouts will be careful.”

Seth to Maxwell: “Thanks for the info. I’m going to head up to East Fork Road and have a look around.” He wasn’t worried at all about his scouts being in danger. Who’d shoot at a bird a mile overhead from a pickup truck? Seth started his Jeep and headed north. Artie was the only ‘scout’ that he hadn’t heard from, and that might be due to distance.

The information about color wouldn’t be useful to his ‘scouts.’ They had keen eyesight, even extending into the ultraviolet range, but saw things differently than humans. We see colors, they see very fine grades of grey -- at least that’s what he sensed in all the mental images they ever sent to Seth. Scientists have found that most birds -- and all raptors -- have at least five times as many ‘color’ receptors in their eyes as humans, and seem to have more brain capacity devoted to visual things, even with a much smaller brain size. And movement! Seth was half convinced they could sense -- not see, exactly -- movement that some creature made a few seconds in the past. Well ... anyway, the color of the vehicle wouldn’t be helpful. Confirmation that a diesel was involved was nice, but he knew that from Ellie’s sniffer at the crime scene.

Seth knew that he couldn’t contact any of his animal friends while he was driving; he just couldn’t concentrate enough and still keep the Jeep on the road.

So he just drove. Soon enough he was at the junction of State Route 872 and County Road 3001, or East Fork Road as it was known to the locals. He turned east and followed the macadam two lane road as it wound its way through the Wild Area, roughly following the East Fork of the Sinnemahoning Creek -- which had its name changed to Jordan Run as it passed through Lower Vag Hollow and Black Stump Hollow before returning to its more official name.

Seth clicked his radio to the home frequency. “Meri? Come back, please. Meri? Come back, please.”

Five minutes of silence, then... “Is this my esposo stupido?”

Seth: “Si, mi amor. I’m afraid it is. Am I forgiven yet?”

Meredith: “No, my beloved. Not yet. But if you come home tonight, we will see.”

S: “I will do my best.”

M: “Your best better be damn good. Me want to meet big-chief-in-the-pants -- make new papoose.”

Seth [deeper voice in Injin accent]: “Ug. Big-chief-in-the-pants want to make peace with beautiful squaw.”

M: “Hmmm ... Kola is staying here with me and the pups. Tars is out ... hunting I think.”

S: “If Kola is there, Tars will be back. Prob’ly with food.”

M: “Tonight, big chief. Be there or be square.”

S: “Right. Uh ... You might want to thaw out a leg of venison. Big chief, out.”

The Jeep continued on East Fork Road, stopped in Lower Vag Hollow where there were a pair of bridges over the creeks that fed Jordan Run. He pulled over to the shoulder and began to clear his mind and slow his breathing. He barely had time to relax when he felt the connection with Artie.

Artie: ‘Are you finally there?’

Seth: ‘Yes. I am in range and I am here.’

A: ‘I have found your fancy moving thing. It is not moving now. It is unmoving in front of a dwelling. I saw it stop moving and two people get out. They went into the dwelling. There is another moving thing nearby.’

Artie didn’t deal with words like ‘truck’ or ‘road.’

S: ‘Where is it?’

A: ‘From the place where the big trail goes across the river, near all the dwellings, do not cross the river. Take the smaller trail to the right.’

Seth was looking at his map of the Wild Area, following along.

A: ‘This trail ends where it stops being a black covered trail. You take a sharp right turn onto a smaller trail that is covered only with rocks that are lighter than black. The trail goes into the heavy woods. I could not see the trail of fumes all the time as the trees were thicker in some places than in others. It goes back and forth and around, and back and forth again.’