A/N:… I thought I had something to say, guess not now that I think about it.

Legacy: chapter 17

"I think they knew our every move," Mary announced from her thinking position in front of her favorite bay window on the third floor, "I think they used our attempts at keeping tabs on them against us."

Bryan and another soldier glanced up from the city map they were studying. Mary paced back and forth before the window, her head held low in a state of deep thought. With a shrug, Bryan returned his attention to the map.

"This has to be bad. Why would they just tear out of here like that?" Mary stopped and stared at the two men. Several moments passed before the silence drew Bryan's attention.

He looked up to Mary with a lost expression on his face and shrugged, "I think your right, but we can't know until we find them."

"How could a 'special forces' team fail to keep tabs on some lowly government agents?"

"We're doing the best we can here Ms. Crawford"

"Its not good enough!" Mary blurted out. "I wish we could talk to Allie, she would know what to do."

"She's just a kid," Bryan said, "a very special kid, but I think she's just as lost as we are."

"I… I trust her judgment…" Mary turned back toward the window but kept her eyes on Bryan's reflection in the glass.

Bryan studied Mary from her silhouette. Trusting someone's judgment is one thing; Mary's tone conveyed a much deeper meaning then her words. Bryan spoke: "you care about her, don't you?"

Mary was silent for a long time before turning back to the two men. "I'm worried about her." she said, "I'm worried that we came this far and now it's all falling apart. I'm failing."

"No, this is just a minor setback…"

"Stop being so optimistic!" Mary yelled, "I misjudged Keith, I thought he was to stupid to get anything past me. I was wrong. He played me, even while I knew he was doing it he played me!"

"You act like something's already happened…"

Mary moved toward the table with such speed that it made both Bryan and the other man flinch. She slammed her hands on the edge and bent in to eye level with them, "how do we know? You can't even keep track of them!"

"This is all new to us, Mary… we're learning as we go." Bryan said.

"Oh yeah. I forgot… Keith brought in an inferior team." Mary stood and paced around the table. "Your men are just out of basic, the perfect stooges for Keith to play as an accompaniment to me."

Bryan had had enough. He bolted up, sending the chair to the ground behind him. "Listen here, Ms. Crawford! You can say what ever you want about me, but leave my men out of this. We are the best of the best. The Air Force does not let naïve children into its black ops corps!"

Mary took a step back in her mind. This bickering wasn't going to solve anything. The only way they were going to find out what was going on was to get out there and find Keith and his cronies. She took a calming breath, exhaled. "You're right, I'm sorry." Without another word, Mary turned and took her coat from its position draped over one of the chairs.

"Where are you going?" Bryan demanded

Mary swept the long coat over her back and slid her arm in the opposite sleeve, "to Allie, she will know what to do."

"Is that a good idea?" Bryan asked.

"Not really… do you have anything better?"

Bryan concentrated for a moment but came up dry, said: "I'll go with you, in case something is happening."

Several minutes later as the black car containing Mary, Bryan and their soldier companion exited the ground level garage; a brilliant flash punctuated the dark, dreary interior of the third floor room. Allie looked around, disappointed to find it was empty. Jamie stood, awestruck and dazed with his hand clamped so tightly to Allie's that she had to use the other to pry him off.

"That's odd…" Allie spoke aloud as she moved off to inspect the room, leaving Jamie in his position. "I… they should be here."

"Wha…" Jamie's eyes began narrowing from their dilated position. His searching stare found Allie. "What…"

"Are you okay?" she asked, took a step toward him. Jamie stepped back to keep the distance even.

"What are you?" the boy asked, his voice wavering between fascination and terror.

What… Allie thought, I guess that's a fare assessment. 'What am I?' Opposed to: 'who am I?'

"What I am is very complicated," Allie took another step toward him; Jamie again matched her by taking a step back. Fear filled his eyes. "I wont hurt you…" Allie said calmingly.

"You're some kind of mutant freak! Aren't you?" Jamie continued backing away.

"No… no… I'm not…"

"Go away! Don't hurt me!" Jamie ran toward an open door. Allie reached out with her mind and shut the door before he could reach it.

"No!" Jamie screamed in a confused mix of pure fear and anger, "please don't kill me…" he turned pleading eyes toward Allie as he backed along the wall toward a corner.

"Calm down…" Allie said taking a miniscule step toward him. Jamie backed into the corner and crouched low. "I don't want to hurt you, Jamie."

"Stay away…"

Allie took another tiny step in his direction, "just listen, okay?"

Jamie eyed her suspiciously for a moment, then nodded. Allie took his fear as a signal, she stopped where she stood and sat on the floor facing him.

"I don't know how to explain this…" Allie started, "especially to you," she paused and took a breath. Jamie showed no signs of relaxing and Allie had a feeling that this was going to take way too long to explain. Tyler was with those men and they needed to find him fast. Without Mary, Jamie was Tyler's only hope.

"I… am not totally like you," Allie said, "well, most of me is human, just my brain is more advanced…"

"You're going to hurt me…"

"No I'm not, I don't want to hurt anybody. Neither do my friends."

That had the effect Allie wanted. Mentioning "friends" sparked curiosity in the terrified boy, he studied her cautiously before speaking: "who are your friends?"

"They are a race of beings that live in a galaxy far, far away from here." Allie paused. Leave it to the inquisitive mind of a ten year old to introduce curiosity in place of fear.

"A--aliens?" he ventured. Allie nodded.

"Are you… one of them?"

Allie shrugged, "yes and no… my body is just like yours but my mind is more like there's. That's how I brought us here."

Jamie sat up straight now, eyes intently focused on Allie, "You can move things?" he asked.

"Yes, and much more…" Allie extended a hand toward him, "I can show you, if you want…"

Jamie stared at her hand but didn't move, Allie withdrew it, "I guess not…"

"Have… you been in space?"

Allie nodded, "I told your brother I lived in Canada for 5 years… I was a bit farther North then that," she said pointing upward.

Jamie looked down at the dirty wood floor, "my brother…" he said, then back up to Allie, "you said you were going to help him…"

"I am," Allie said.

"Then why are we here?" Jamie asked.

Allie stood up, causing Jamie to involuntarily flinch and press his back further into the corner. He relaxed presently.

"Some of my friends were supposed to be here." Allie said.

"More aliens?" Jamie asked.

"No, they're human…" Allie walked to a table near the center of the room with a large city map spread out covering the whole surface. She ran her hand along a line marked in red that seemed to be pointing to Jessica's house, and another that was pointing to Seth's house… and a last one was drawn right up her own street, to Tyler's house. Allie now had a full understanding of what was happening.

It's not just Tyler, it's everyone. They're using my friends to get to me…

Allie spun back toward Jamie, causing the boy to jump. "This is bad."

"What?" Jamie stood up but made no move toward or away from Allie, he was still unsure what to think of her.

"Everyone is in danger… because of me…" Allie looked away from him and back to the map. It was all there in red. This was the map Bryan used to track the Agent's movements. But why did all the tracking lines run out? And where were Mary and Bryan? Once more, the familiar sensation of far to many questions and no answers came over Allie. This time, however, Allie knew the answer: she had to fix this alone.

"Jamie, I need you to help me… can you do that?" Allie took several steps toward the boy. This time Jamie watched her cautiously but did not retreat.

"What can I do?"

"You're Tyler's brother, you can help me find him."

"How?"

Allie grabbed a chair and spun it around toward Jamie, took one for herself. "I'll show you."

"We had to come this way!" Mary threw her hands up in frustration at the roadblock in front of them. They were only three blocks from Allie's house and there was a police barricade stopping traffic around a crime scene.

Mary swung her door open, "I'm going to go see what the hold up is."

"Can you just be patient? We can get through in a minute." Bryan tried to stop her but she had already walked away from the car. Bryan pulled out of the lane of waiting cars and parked along the side of the road.

"She is such a bitch…" Bryan got out of the car and gave chase.

Mary made it to the police tape and was about to step under when an officer stopped her.

"I'm sorry ma'am, crime scene investigation. You can't come in here."

"Can you tell me what happened here officer…" Mary focused on the mans badge, "Sergeant Brady?"

"I'm sorry, you're going to have to leave."

Mary smiled nicely at the man and pulled out her NSA I.D. "federal agent, now tell me what happened here."

"I'm sorry agent… Crawford, but this is a police investigation, no one called in the NSA… the NSA doesn't even investigate crimes."

"We do when national security is at stake." Mary tucked the badge away, "now tell me what happened here before I have you arrested for obstruction…"

The officer eyed Mary suspiciously for a moment, "Yes ma'am…" he sighed and raised the tape for Mary to pass under.

"Mary!" Bryan ran up behind them, the officer motioned for him to stop but Mary waved him off.

"Officer Brady, this is Major Bryan Pierce with the United States Air Force, he's with me."

The officer hesitated slightly then raised the tape for Bryan. But the .45 side arm Bryan was carrying caught the officer's attention; he stopped Bryan by the arm as he passed.

"The gun, sir. You can't carry that here."

Bryan leveled a stern glare at the man, "you let me decide where to carry my weapon, sergeant…"

Brady swallowed hard, "yes sir," he turned and motioned for them to follow.

"What happened here?" Mary repeated herself for the third time, she was beginning to get upset.

"Looks like a kidnapping, strangest one I've ever seen though."

Mary looked ahead at the scattered remains of a metal garage door. "It does look unusual."

"Can you tell me what interest the National Security Agency has in a kidnapping?" Brady glanced back over his shoulder as he spoke.

Mary looked to Bryan before answering, "that's classified."

Brady nodded and turned toward a woman standing next to a photographer. "Detective?" he addressed her.

"Yes?" she turned and studied the two interlopers on her crime scene, "what's this?" she asked, turning to Brady.

Mary extended her hand, "Agent Mary Crawford, NSA. This is Major Bryan Pierce with the Air Force."

The woman took Mary's hand lightly. "Detective Robbins… may I ask what the NSA and the Air Force are doing in my crime scene?"

"I'm afraid that's classified, detective." Mary looked inside the open door of the house at the activity inside, "can you tell me exactly what happened here?"

"Well, it looks like a highly organized kidnapping. There was a large vehicle parked in the garage and the perps apparently waited for the kid to get home." Robbins pointed to the door wreckage, "As you can see, they didn't bother opening the door."

"Yeah…" Mary thought for a minute, "what was the kids name?" she asked.

Detective Robbins opened her clipboard and pulled out a picture, "Tyler Rivera, fourteen year old boy."

Tyler…the name immediately took on some form of significance to Mary, but she wasn't sure why.

"Any idea why he was taken?" Mary asked.

"No clue, not yet at least."

Bryan pulled Mary aside; the detective turned back to the photographer.

"What are we doing here Mary?" he asked.

"We were killing time… but now I think this might be important." Mary said. The sound of an unusual voice caught Mary's attention, she turned to see an old woman talking to an officer, she was probably a witness.

Detective Robbins walked up, "this wouldn't have anything to do with the other two, would it?"

"What?" Mary asked.

"The other two kidnappings, is that why the NSA and the Air Force are involved?"

"There are others?" Bryan asked.

"Yes, two more just like this, happened within an hour of each other."

Mary wasn't listening to the detective any longer; her full attention was fixed on the woman speaking with the officer. "I'm sorry," Mary turned back to Detective Robbins, "we can't give out that information at this time… excuse me." Mary said dismissively and started moving toward the old woman.

"There was a girl…" the old woman was now close enough for Mary to hear, "she ran into the house right after it happened…"

Mary interrupted. "Wait… sorry… can you say that again?"

The old gray haired woman focused on Mary for a moment before starting again. "I said that I came out to see what all the racket was about and I saw a white van go speeding off that way." the woman raised a bony finger to point down the street in the direction Mary and Bryan had just come from. "I saw it leave this big mess, "the old woman continued, "but then this girl came running from down there," she pointed in the direction of Allie's house, "she ran right up and went in there."

Mary nodded, "Can you describe this girl?"

"My eyes aren't what they used to be, but I know she had blond hair. That's about all I could tell."

"Thank you ma'am." Mary turned and started to leave when the old woman stopped her.

"Wait, that's not all I saw. Once that girl went in the house I waited for a while. Then a bright flash came from inside somewhere. It was the most strange thing I ever saw."

"Thank you ma'am, you have been so incredibly helpful." Mary again tried to leave but the woman was not done.

"You know, the police say there is no one in that house… I didn't take my eyes off it for one minute and that girl never came out of there… what do you think happened?"

"I'm sure these fine officers will find out in no time and tell you." Mary turned and moved away from the talkative woman, grabbing Bryan by the arm as she passed.

"Allie was here, this is the Tyler she was talking about…"

"How do you know?" Bryan asked.

"I know," Mary said flatly. She glanced down the street at the Key's house. "Allie told me not to call unless it was an emergency…" Mary started digging in her coat for her cell phone, which was no where to be found, "damn, I must have left it."

"I don't have one on me" Bryan shrugged.

Mary looked around until she spotted the detective, "Go get Robbins to loan you a squad car. I'm going back to HQ."

"Me? Why?"

"Incase Allie went there… I need you to get to her parents and make sure they're safe. Now go!"