Page 10 of The Night Vision
“Alright,” Silas dropped into the seat behind the desk and scrubbed his face with his hands, frustrated.
His plan to go back to the vision with Nox had been blown and he was feeling useless. They were probably right about him being fixated on the skull but it wouldn’t leave him alone! It wasbegging Silas to come back and to find him. And Silas couldn’t shake the feeling that he missed the man it belonged to, that he was lost and had nothing without him.
Which was crazy and impossible for Silas to explain without sounding like he was obsessed. His instincts told him that whoever the man was, he had nothing to do with vicious water-horses. Somehow, Silas knew everything about this man, despite knowing nothing at all. He had nothing but what he felt, yet Silas felt a powerful, natural connection with him.
Natural.
“Their guy,” as Nox had called him, was one with nature. His spirit was wild but it was generous and gentle, not dangerous. They were a similar breed, but unlike Silas, their guy was off the grid. Far, far off the grid.
Was that part of the reason why the warlock wanted him? Who would notice if someone like that went missing and how long would it take before law enforcement felt compelled to get involved.Ifthey got involved. Silas knew from experience that many survivalists and extreme outdoorsmen were anti-government and occasionally hostile towards the authorities. Depending on who their guy was, it might be more convenient to assume he had just moved on.
Silas would share his thoughts with Nelson when he returned. The FBI would know about the more dangerous survivalists and anti-government outdoorsmen in the area around Mount Rogers. But how much further out should they look? The entire East Coast?
Once again frustrated, Silas returned to the skull. It haunted himandit calmed him when he wanted to climb the walls.
“Is there a sketchpad that I can use?” he asked, peeking beneath the folders, open books, and loose paper on the desk.
“I’m sure you’ll find something in one of the drawers. Help yourself,” Merlin said distractedly.
“I used to be pretty decent at drawing,” Silas said under his breath as he pulled open the top drawer on his right and began hunting.
The drawers were much neater than the desktop and Silas was able to find a rather nice pad of sketching paper and some charcoal pencils. He took them out onto the terrace steps, feeling more inspired and closer to his subject in the sun and the crisp breeze. The leaves were starting to turn and fall and it smelled like autumn to Silas. Whereverhewas, Silas knew he was surrounded by nature.
At first, Silas’s hand moved on its own as he imagined being in the vision, by the stream and holding the skull. Once it began to take shape on the paper, Silas’s focus shifted and he began to nitpick over individual details. He shaded and smudged until he could see the contours of the bone and the depths of the shadows in the sockets and around the teeth.
The day grew chillier and it started to sprinkle so Silas moved inside to the sofa, reclining with the sketchpad. Merlin arrived with their lunch on a cart but Silas barely stopped working, fine-tuning details between bites of mushroom and steak pie.
“Lovely work, lad!” Merlin declared when he looked over Silas’s shoulder. He gave it an affectionate knead and his hand lingered before the hair along Silas’s nape was stroked.
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 athinker. 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’sreallygood. Look at this, Nelson.”
Nelson joined them and did a double take when Silas handed him the pad. “Thisisgood…” 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 looksexactlylike 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.”
