Chapter 5 #2
Silas leaned away and cut Merlin a quick, warning glare. “Behave. I used to take a sketchpad with me wherever I went when I was a kid,” he said, shrugging. “It kept me out of trouble and people left me alone so I could think.”
“You’re a lot like our Nelson,” Merlin observed with a warm smile. “A quiet, solitary fellow and a thinker. I don’t know that he has any artistic abilities but he’s an excellent singer,” he informed Silas.
“Huh,” he grunted as he worked.
For some reason, that surprised Silas, but he took the rest as a compliment.
Nelson was a highly competent investigator who was selflessly devoted to Nox, and Merlin to a degree.
They looked up to Nelson and revered his quick thinking and instincts.
It was easy to envy their small family unit and the team Nox had built with the twins and a recently retired medical examiner, named Dr. Fletcher Bixby.
“You know, you and Nelson seem to get along well and we can always use an extra set of eyes and a sharp mind,” Merlin said absently, as if he hadn’t just read Silas’s mind.
“We’ll see… I’ve thought about retiring but living in the Beltway…
” he shook his head, not wanting to get anyone’s hopes up.
“My post at Shenandoah is a dream job for an ISB agent and I’ve loved it.
But I’ve been there long enough and it’s time for me to move on.
I’m just not sure what I want to do next. ”
“Something will come to you soon,” Merlin predicted and looked toward the front door when it opened and Nox and Nelson came in.
“How was your day?” Nox asked them after hanging up his coat and unbuttoning his collar.
Merlin sighed at the book in front of him, shaking his head. “I haven’t found much, I’m afraid. Shelby’s drawn a remarkable portrait of our friend from the vision,” he said with a wave in Silas’s direction.
“A portrait?” Nox echoed as he went around the sofa to have a look, then snorted. “For a moment, I thought you finally remembered a face from your dreams but that’s really good. Look at this, Nelson.”
Nelson joined them and did a double take when Silas handed him the pad. “This is good…” he held it away from him and stared at it. “How much like the skull from the vision would you say this is?” he asked them, earning another snort from Nox.
“It looks exactly like it, if you ask me. It’s almost eerie how good it is.”
“Well…” Silas could feel that he was blushing. “I’ve spent a lot of time studying it.”
“And it’s paid off,” Nox said as he rested his arm on Nelson’s shoulder and chuckled at the drawing. “That’s the next best thing to bringing it back with us. We can copy this and put it on his board.”
“We might be able to do more than that,” Nelson said, smiling at the sketchpad.
It was the first time Silas had ever seen Agent Nelson smile.
“I’ve seen the FBI’s facial reconstruction wizards do a lot with only portions of badly damaged skulls.
We might be able to make a 3D model with this sketch, then reconstruct his face from that. ”
“He’ll have pale blue eyes,” Nox said and looked pleased as he crossed his arms over his chest and nodded at the drawing.
“They’ll want to know if we have any suggestions for hair and eyes and we know for certain that they’re light blue.
Got any guesses about his hair?” Nox asked Silas.
“It’s probably dark like mine or he’s fair with blond or ginger hair. ”
“He’s fair,” Silas answered immediately.
Their guy didn’t have darker body hair in Silas’s dreams but it was another thing that he instinctively knew about the man from the vision.
“That reminds me,” he said as he turned to Nelson.
“This man is an experienced outdoorsman, possibly a survivalist. We didn’t see a lot of gear or a weapon in the vision so he could have been hiking or tracking.
That part of Mount Rogers is off the main trail and hard to get to.
He’ll be used to navigating steep terrain. ”
For a moment, Silas was a child again, small and lost in the forest. Frasers and red spruce towered over him, making Silas dizzy as he tried to remember which way was north and where they were headed on the trail before he had to pee.
He heard a snap! and saw something move to his left and started to run, only to realize it was a hare or a toad.
Scared, Silas remembered that the best thing to do when lost was to get to the closest landmark or major feature and wait.
He spotted a stream in the woods, a good distance below him and headed for it.
Silas trekked down a steep embankment, sliding and snagging his shirt and pants on branches.
There were large boulders near the shore and he stumbled on the loose rocks and sand as he ran to the stream.
If no one found him, Silas could follow it downhill and hopefully find a station or the welcome center.
Nelson whistled in approval as he nodded, snapping Silas back to the present. “That gives us a lot more to work with. I’ll get this to our forensics artists first thing tomorrow, then see if there are any known survivalists or outdoorsmen on the FBI’s radar who could fit.”
“That area’s too rough for recreational hikers and campers,” Silas said weakly.
“Even if there isn’t an exact fit, we might find someone who’s met our guy and we might have a face soon,” Nox said helpfully and grinned at Silas like a Cheshire cat. “I had a feeling you’d find something useful and it looks like you just cracked the case. All you needed was a change of scenery.”
“Maybe…” Silas narrowed his eyes at Nox. “Let’s not count our chickens before they hatch,” he said and wondered if he’d just fallen for a soft intervention. They had new leads to follow and Silas could finally move on from the vision.
Putting his obsession to paper had freed it from Silas’s psyche and he had something truly tangible to hold and look at. But now, Silas was anxiously waiting to see what the FBI’s forensic artists would make with the sketch and if they were closer to finding a name.
They were one step closer but they weren’t moving fast enough for Silas.
He couldn’t rest until they found him and Silas knew he was safe.
If anyone had told Silas a few weeks earlier that he’d be chasing visions and ready to fistfight a warlock, he would have scoffed.
Now, Silas would do anything to save the unnamed man in the stream and put a stop to Dùbhghlas’s evil schemes.
Although, Silas had no idea how he’d fight a warlock, if he managed to track him down. He had no idea how much of this was actually real and if he even had a chance, being a simple human with no magickal training.
Have faith in Nox and keep looking.
That was all Silas could do but it would have to be enough until they found him.