TRIP TO SEATTLE

Hazel, September 2040

When they arrived in Hazel, they looked for a motel and Ramon booked the boys and Joshua into it under false names, which he was able to do without any problems with the help of his police badge.

Now the three of them had enough time to organize themselves further and to get some rest until the next evening.

It was now late at night and since sleep had been very short in the last few days, even though they didn't need much sleep, they were happy about the opportunity to sleep in. It wasn't supposed to continue until next night.

The three of them made themselves comfortable and fell asleep just a few minutes later.

The day had already dawned brightly and Seth, Ben and Josh were still lying half asleep in the motel room. It was already afternoon when there was a knock.

Seth immediately jumped up and armed himself. Ben's job was to open the door and give Seth a signal if he should shoot.

Ben opened the door. "Hi," said a cheeky familiar voice.

"Yara?"

Seth lowered the gun, Ben pulled her in and quickly closed the door again.

"Don't you have them all? Has anyone seen you? Where is your father? How did you get here? Seth blurted out.

"I still have them all, don't think so, my father is at home and is probably looking for me and I hot-wired a car and drove here," she said resolutely.

Joshua couldn't help but let out a short yelp as if he was expecting a huge thunderstorm the next time he met Ramon.

Ben and Seth's mouths almost fell open. What should they do now?

"I have more information here. Stolen. Dad hadn't released it yet and I thought it was important for you."

She pulled a handful of files out of her backpack and waved them in front of the boys.

Ben grabbed the documents and looked at the cover of the top folder in disbelief. Familiars/Manticore was written there in bold print.

He sat down and started leafing through the subcamps. There were recordings of the collaboration between both institutions and then there were photos. Max!

"Mum," he said in shock.

The picture showed her in typical Manticore clothes. White shirt and camouflage pants with sturdy combat boots. She looked great but there was something strange about her eyes, like she was staring into space.

The date on the picture was also strange. At this point she must have already been pregnant with him. Not long but certainly long enough for her to know.

So why did she not look like she was happy, but like she was going off to war with a stare in her eyes?

He sat down at the small motel room table with the documents and began reading to find out all the details.

The documents talked about drug tests that turned transgenics into mindless machines that didn't think for themselves, didn't resist and didn't make their own judgments. There was also talk of generating offspring from the best genetic material. What was that supposed to mean? Max was described there as "the perfect genetic mix without a single mistake".

He continued to work through the notes and quickly realized that they were not complete, but there was enough information to further fuel his already existing doubts.

"Seth, can I talk to you?"

Seth only had eyes for Yara at the moment. She had just told him that after she left, she had rushed upstairs herself and was packing her things the very second her father started the car. Then she sneaked downstairs, stole the files from her father's little secret compartment and then ran away straight away.

As she turned the corner, she had just seen in the corner of her eye that the spies had driven up again.

"Wait, what are you saying? "Did they see you leaving?" Seth asked worriedly.

Ben also paused, as important as his assumption was, whatever he thought he had gleaned from the files, now they were in supposed danger.

Yara looked confused. "Yes, maybe, but hopefully they thought I was just going to see friends."

"Oh little one was careless," groaned Joshua a little arrogantly.

"Are you my father or what?" She looked at Joshua challengingly.

"A nice dog and can smell danger".

Yara laughed, Joshua was spontaneous, you had to give it to him and he was right, and she just realized that.

"What time is it?" Seth looked thoughtfully at his watch.

"Almost 4 o'clock in the afternoon now," Ben replied, "but your watch will show the same as mine or are you just looking at it to ask stupid questions?"

Seth looked at him in surprise. Was Ben at all argumentative? He caught himself and replied: "Pack! Now! The plan is being brought forward!"

Yara, Josh and Ben quickly finished packing everything up and were ready a quarter of an hour later.

Seth had now found out that before the freight train they actually wanted to jump on, another one was coming through Hazel and already had a plan on how to reach it.

"Quick guys, we have to be out of town in 30 minutes to make it".

They opened the window that faced the back and climbed out of the motel. They looked around and the sleepy little town made it easy for them to disappear unseen.

They quickly reached the outskirts of town and could already hear the train.

"Run!"

Seth called out to them and started shooting. The three others followed him and reached the tracks just before the train arrived. Now they all had to jump on the train, which worried him a bit. Wrongfully so, because as soon as the wagons rattled past them with a deafening noise, Ben, Yara and Josh jumped up, clung to the ledges of the loading doors and in a few seconds they had all climbed into a wagon whose door could be opened . Seth started to jump when a sharp pain shot through his leg, he had never felt such pain before. Nevertheless, he jumped to the small plateau of the last carriage just in time and from there began to jump over the train roofs to the carriage where the others were already waiting.

He swung himself from the roof through the sliding door of the car and lay there. Joshua closed the sliding door and Ben and Yara were already there to put Seth up.

"You were lucky, you saw the guys, they were the ones from the car, oh damn…" Ben opened his eyes in shock and pushed Seth's pant leg further up.

"You were shot and you're bleeding badly."

Yara didn't look quite as worried as Ben and had immediately pulled one of her shirts out of her backpack and was already bandaging her leg at the same moment.

"It will almost heal by tomorrow, I think."

She knew that because of their genes they didn't need that long to heal and the boys still had a lot to learn when it came to that, she thought to herself. Ben was a little calmer and quickly helped Seth put his leg up on a few sacks in the corner of the wagon and sat vigilantly next to him. Joshua sat at the door and looked out through a crack and Yara lay down next to Seth and for the first time ever she took his hand. He looked over at her in surprise but with a satisfied grin and then leaned his head back against the wall of the carriage and enjoyed the moment.

Ben refrained from commenting this time, he took the tryptophan out of his backpack, shook a capsule out of the can and remembered what he wanted to say to Seth before they had to leave so hastily. He decided to wait until he was completely sure and then swallowed the capsule and symbolically the information.

"Arlington is coming there," Joshua said.

"We're changing modes of transportation," Seth replied immediately.

Everyone had already grabbed their things and was peering out of the crack in the door together with Joshua. When they were through the town, Joshua opened the sliding door and one by one they jumped out and they rolled side by side into the field at the edge of the track bed. The small group quickly got up and ran to the protective bushes. They explored the situation and quickly identified a parking lot some distance away where several trucks were parked. Loading areas weren't very comfortable but they remained unseen so they started to work their way to the place. They use everything that offered them protection throughout the area. However, they had to cover the last hundred meters unprotected. A car's tires were already screeching behind them. They saw it coming closer and in front of them a truck that was just driving off.

"Quick, do it or they'll catch us."

They lifted the tarp and jumped up. Just in time but not without her pursuers seeing it too. They were sitting there knowing that the two guys were following the truck straight away and if the driver wanted to take a break they would be at their mercy. They drove through the streets of Seattle, it was loud and turbulent but the truck made it through without stopping until it seemed to have reached its destination. He stopped, the engine stopped and the driver jumped out of the driver's cab. At the same moment the four stowaways jumped out. They jumped directly in front of the car of the two observers who had not lost their track since Newhalem. In the light of the chasing car's headlights, they stood as if on a stage for a hundredth of a second.

The two guys in suits, a little overdressed but as expected from such company, jumped out of the car.

"Rossi, we just need the younger one," the one with the square skull whispered to the other one.

Ben was startled, he suspected why they wanted him and grabbed Seth by the arm. Seth turned to him, he too had heard what the man in the suit had said. They started running. As if the devil was after them, they ran, trying to come up with a plan to escape. Yara and Joshua were on their heels, trying to keep up with the wild hooks the two boys were throwing, closely followed by the two menacing guys who they didn't even know what exactly was driving them. They ran through the illuminated streets and through dark alleys. Joshua shouted something from behind, they didn't immediately understand what he said: "Spaceneedle!"

They saw the huge Seattle landmark in front of them and now headed straight for it. Joshua took the lead, he knew exactly where to get in without being stopped and which route to take to get to the top. Seth and Ben knew what he was up to. Use familiar terrain, elevated position, advantages and local knowledge. The trainers had also taught Seth and Ben all of these things for years. Yara stayed behind and one of the two familiars grabbed her ankle on the stairs. She screamed and immediately turned around, kicked as hard as she could and was on her feet again.

They reached the roof of the spaceship-like plateau and immediately split up on the roof. Don't create a single attack surface but create lots of opportunities, Seth thought. They had received their training exactly according to Manticore specifications. Yara didn't know how to act and ran straight to Seth. He knew she felt safe with him and tolerated her standing with him without giving her her own position, which turned out to be one of the best decisions of the evening.

"Kowalski, how do we proceed?"

"Hush Rossi, just grab the younger one and take out the rest."

They were strong, Joshua lunged at the smaller one who called himself Rossi, but they weren't as strong as Joshua. However, there were two of them. The man named Kowalski helped his colleague and pulled Rossi away towards Ben. Ben backed away, he was suddenly incredibly afraid of being kidnapped by these guys.

"What's wrong little brother," Seth recognized the fear on Ben's face but couldn't place what the little brother was suddenly feeling.

He had never seen his otherwise quick-tempered and wild little brother show fear, he had only ever felt the bad mood because Ben preferred to cover up his feelings when they showed weakness.

But as Ben backed away, the two familiars came closer and closer to the edge of the platform. Seth glanced over at Yara. She knew immediately what he wanted.

They both ran and pushed the menacing guys right up to the edge. Ben realized what the two were doing and quickly squatted down, sticking one leg out to the side and causing the two guys to stumble. They were incredibly strong but not very flexible or resourceful. Joshua now came to the rescue and it All it took was one additional push to push them both over the edge. With bloodcurdling screams, the two fell into the depths. They had fallen many meters and hit the asphalt below, they were finished and at that moment it was clear to the four of them that they had now gained a huge lead until a new team from the Familiars could locate them. And they decided not to make it easy for the Familiars. They sat side by side on the roof of the platform high above Seattle, stared silently into the darkness of the night and watched as a crowd gathered down there and the two dead people were transported away. Nobody suspected they were up here, nobody discovered them and for a brief moment they almost felt at home.

"Why do they want you Ben?"

Yara destroyed the brief moment of calm with her question.

"I have to tell you a few things but first we need a place to hide!"