Lightning strikes, p.4
Lightning Strikes, page 4
“No problem. I’ll take a look at it tomorrow,” Wil told her, glad to have something tangible to work on.
She stood from the table and went over to the sink to rinse out her tea mug. “I get up pretty early, but don’t be surprised to find your dad out on the porch in the middle of the night. He’s had trouble sleeping lately, and sometimes, a giant wolf trots out of the forest and sits with him. They seem to be friends, but I can’t get close, so don’t freak out if you see it.”
Knowing what Wil now knew about the shifters in the area and his father’s knowledge of their existence, he had a good idea that the wild wolf was really a werewolf who had taken an interest in Wil’s dad. That was comforting. At least the old man had company on those nights when he couldn’t sleep because of the illness eating away at his body.
All that would change, though. Rick had already said he could do something. Senior wasn’t going to die. At least not of this illness, though it had been a close thing. If Mandy hadn’t gotten word to Wil, the outcome would have been very different. And very sad.
She was heading for the door of the cabin when Wil caught up with her. He put out a hand to stop her, and she flinched back from the contact. His eyes narrowed. What had happened to this lovely girl in the past to make her so shy of human contact? He didn’t know, but he was determined to find out. Tomorrow. For now, he had a few words to say that couldn’t be postponed.
“Sorry,” he said, backing off and giving her space. “I just wanted to say thank you. If you hadn’t found a way to contact me, I never would have known. My dad is just stubborn enough to have gone to his grave without ever telling me what was going on. I have you to thank for changing things, and I want you to know how deeply I appreciate it.”
She looked down, clearly uncomfortable with his gratitude, but eventually, she nodded. “I’m glad my message finally got through to you.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Mandy walked the short distance to her trailer in darkness lit only by stars. William had a few lights mounted on the outside of the cabin, but she hadn’t bothered putting any of them on since the last big snow when the new solar panel practically flew off the roof. She’d been conserving energy ever since, in case William needed it during his nocturnal wanderings.
She couldn’t help but think about William’s son. She’d known the son was a soldier, but she hadn’t expected him to be so…so…
She couldn’t come up with a single word to describe the man she had just met. He was ruggedly handsome, which she’d expected based on his photos and his father’s chiseled features. William had been a handsome man in his time, and that strong jaw and high cheekbones persisted, even as illness ravaged his body.
The son was also incredibly fit. He had a warrior’s physique, and by that, she thought of gladiators of old, not the chairborne rangers of today’s more mechanized military. He was intimidating, and yet, something about his steady presence was reassuring. That thought made her pause. It had been a very long time since a man had been able to convey that sort of feeling where she was concerned.
Since her experiences in her last job, men—especially big men like William, Junior—brought fear to her heart, not comfort. Still, the feeling persisted. There was something incredibly calming about Wil’s presence that she hadn’t expected to feel. Maybe she was getting better. Maybe being up here in the middle of nowhere was working to ease some of the fears she had developed after the trauma she’d been through.
She almost snorted. Yeah, and maybe pigs would fly over the mountain tomorrow morning, too. Mandy knew she still had an irrational response to most men. Wil’s friend, Rick, for example, hadn’t left her feeling all warm and fuzzy. He’d spooked her when she’d first seen him, and the old fight-or-flight adrenaline reaction had coursed through her veins.
Dammit! She’d been making progress. Or, at least, she’d thought she had. Being up here with only William and the occasional visitor had been helping her keep the fear reactions down to a minimum. She’d been living an almost-normal life. If living on top of a mountain and seeing more wild animals than people could be considered a normal life.
The fact remained, though, that Wil didn’t evoke that same fear response. Why that should be puzzled her. He was big and brawny. Clearly skilled in combat. By all rights, she should be running, screaming, into the night. Instead, she felt calm and almost…relieved…knowing he wasn’t far away. She felt like she could depend on him to protect her.
She snorted a little at that thought as she mounted the steps into her trailer. She’d prided herself on being able to handle anything, but one terrible situation had shaken her to her very core. She had been forever changed by violence, and she didn’t know who she would be when she finally came to terms with what had happened.
The trauma was long past, now. It had been a year since the events that had changed her life and career path. The physical consequences had been healed within weeks. It was the mental wounds that had continued to haunt her until she’d had to give up the career she’d loved to seek the solace of the mountains.
As she prepared for bed, Mandy went through her safety checks, certain that her weapons were where she habitually kept them while she rested—a handgun under her pillow, another under the bed, and several others stashed around the trailer in places she could reach should she be attacked. The doors and windows were locked, and the trailer was secured for the night. It was a while before she fell asleep, looking out the small window toward the porch of the cabin.
She was a light sleeper, now, and if William came outside, she would probably wake up to spy him on the porch, possibly with the big wolf that came to visit him, sitting nearby. Of course, his son was there, now, and that Rick had gotten William to take some medication for the pain. He might actually sleep tonight, which would be a blessing.
Mandy closed her eyes and tried not to think too hard about the very handsome man who elicited such strange emotions in her. Wil had disturbed her peace, but not in a bad way. He’d made her realize that not every man would make her run in fear. If she wasn’t running scared from him, there might just be hope that she could find other people out there—other men—who wouldn’t generate that untenable response she’d come to dread.
For the first time in a long time, she had hope that, at some point in the distant future, she might be able to be around people again without losing her nerve.
*
Wil heard his father shuffling in the outer room of the cabin sometime around three a.m. Rick blinked at him from across the small room, also awakened by the unfamiliar sound. They’d bedded down in his old room where Wil had taken the mattress off the twin bed and put it along the far wall. Rick had made up a cozy nest for himself on the old box spring while Wil had done the same with the mattress on the floor. They’d both slept on much harder surfaces over the years, so this was no hardship for either of them.
“I’ll go see what’s up,” Wil said.
“He may be feeling a bit more energetic. I did some preliminary work on him after he fell asleep, but it’ll take a lot more before he’s cured,” Rick said quietly.
Wil paused. “Have I said thank you yet?”
“No thanks necessary, my friend,” Rick replied immediately. “You’ve saved my sorry butt any number of times over the years. I’m just glad I can do something to help.”
“Still, this is above and beyond, and I can’t thank you enough,” Wil told his friend. Rick might technically outrank him, but they’d been friends so long, rank didn’t really come into it.
Rick nodded once, and Wil left the room. The main room of the cabin was empty, but Wil knew from what Mandy had told him that his dad liked to sit on the porch in the cold of night. Shrugging into his jacket, Wil followed the old man’s invisible trail to find him sitting in one of the wooden chairs, looking out into the darkness. Senior looked up at him when Wil joined him.
“Mind if I join you?” Wil asked quietly, unwilling to disturb the quiet of the night.
“Sorry I woke you,” Senior replied as Wil sat in the chair next to him.
“How are you feeling?”
Senior eyed his son suspiciously. “Better than I have in a long time, actually,” he replied. “Which makes me wonder what exactly was in that shot your friend gave me.”
“It wasn’t the shot.” Rick’s voice came to them from the doorway.
Wil looked at Rick and sent him a questioning glance. The accompanying hand signal asked if he was sure about this, and Rick nodded once.
“Seriously? You’re going to use hand signals in front of me?” Senior asked, scoffing. “You know I can understand everything, so why bother?”
Wil felt heat in his cheeks and was glad of the darkness that hid his embarrassment somewhat. “Sorry, Pop. Force of habit.”
“So, what’s the big secret?” Senior asked as Rick joined them on the porch, sitting down opposite Wil’s dad in the remaining wooden chair. “And why don’t you want me to know, William?”
There it was, that disapproving dad voice that Wil hadn’t heard in a long time. Ah, the nostalgia that tone brought back. Wil almost grinned, but there were serious matters to discuss. He’d think about the old days later.
“It’s not that I don’t want you to know. I figured you’d find out, sooner or later, though you have to understand, this isn’t just my secret. It affects our entire unit, and it’s so Top Secret that it’s what put us under a new command structure,” Wil explained in a low tone, trying to impress upon his father how important this was. “I thought I’d find a way to explain it to you in a day or two, but apparently, Rick has other ideas.” Wil shot Rick a questioning glance.
“He has a right to know before we go any further,” Rick insisted. “I’ve been thinking about this since we got here, and I think he has to agree to what I propose. It’s his life, you know?”
Wil shook his head. Trust his friend, the doctor, to get all ethical on him. Wil would much rather have had Rick heal Senior first and ask questions later.
“You have something to propose?” Senior asked, looking sharply at Rick. “I admit to being very curious as to what you could want from me. I’m not long for this world, as you know. I doubt there’s anything I can do for you in my state.”
“But what if you’re wrong?” Wil asked his dad quietly. “What if everything you’ve been told was accurate as far as it went, but we’ve got something that will change the equation in your favor?”
Senior’s eyes narrowed. “I’m listening.”
Wil sighed, wondering where to begin. “Let me give you the background first, and then, maybe you’ll understand this better. Bear with me. It’s a very bizarre story.”
“I’m still listening. You know I’ve seen my share of strangeness. I doubt you’ll surprise me by anything you have to say,” Senior boasted, making Wil shake his head and grin slightly.
“We’ll see about that,” Wil replied, then launched into his tale. “Our last real world assignment was to do recon in the area of the ancient city of Babylon. We were doing our thing when we came across something that should not have been there. Structures in a deserted city that became increasingly neater and looked as if they’d just been built. We knew Sadam Hussein had been rebuilding parts of some ancient archaeological sites during his time, but this was different. Then, we came across a large tower in the middle of it all, and we went in. I think we were under some kind of influence already at that point, because we didn’t really question the compulsion to climb that tower’s stairs until we came out at the top where we found a single turbaned man, sitting on a small rug, as if he were waiting for us.”
Will shook his head, remembering. “He was dressed strangely, in rich silks of vibrant colors, and he was friendly, but standoffish at first. He asked us questions, and again, I think we were under a spell or something, because we didn’t think it strange. He asked us about the war and what side we were on and what tactics had been used by both sides. We told him things we probably shouldn’t have and didn’t question it at the time. It was bizarre, like I said. Then, he spoke to each of us in turn and said something different to each in an ancient language I’ve never heard before. One of our guys was a linguist, and he understood it, he claims. The word spoken to me translates to something like tempests, and the word spoken to Rick was healing. Our linguist friend heard the word language. He was good before, but now, he speaks every language they try on him. And Rick went from being a regular, old-fashioned doctor to a guy who can heal bullet wounds just by touching someone. I’ve seen it first-hand.”
Senior looked from Wil to Rick and back again. “You’re making this shit up.”
“I’m not, Dad,” Wil insisted.
Senior seemed nonplussed, looking at Wil in disbelief. “Prove it,” he said quietly, almost as if he was afraid that Wil might do exactly that.
Wil looked out at the night sky. “See those clouds blocking the moon?” Wil asked, pointing. When he was sure his dad was looking, Wil crooked his finger, and the clouds wisped away, at his bidding, allowing the moon’s light to shine down on Senior’s astonished expression.
Senior looked back at Wil, his expression skeptical. “How’d you do that?”
“Since that last mission, I can control weather. I can call storms or send them away. I can direct lightning. I can gather electrical charge from the atmosphere and zap just about anything I want. Rick’s helping me train that particular talent for use in medical applications. He’s got a theory that I could be a human defibrillator, given a bit of practice, but I can already use the power to cauterize wounds.”
“And I can heal your cancer, Colonel,” Rick said softly, speaking directly and matter-of-factly to Wil’s dad. “I can’t do it quickly, but several sessions over several days should do it. Wil might even be able to help zap the tumors. I can redirect your own immune system and bolster it with the power I now have. I can sort of reset you to the time before you became ill and make it so that the cancer never comes back. You’re not really that old. You’d have a good few decades left to you.” Rick paused significantly. “If you want them.”
Senior blinked, looking a bit like a deer caught in headlights for a moment. “Want them? What kind of fool wouldn’t want to live longer? You bet your ass I want those years!”
Wil felt relief race through his body. Thank heaven, Senior wasn’t rejecting the idea.
“But I have to confess to a bit of skepticism. The things you say you can do… It just doesn’t seem possible,” Senior said, his eyes wide.
“Dad, you’re friends with a werewolf. Come on. You know magic is real. This is just a different kind of magic, bestowed on us by one of the ancient djinn in the Tower of Babel.” Wil chuckled. It was really a wild tale, and his father deserved to know the rest of it. “The foreign agents who are hunting the entire team are doing so—as near as we can figure—because they believe the gift of the ancients rightly belongs to them. They want to capture us, and…well…we’re not sure what the plan is after they get us, but I suspect either they have some idea of how to transfer our magic to someone of their choosing or they think there’s some way they can manipulate us into working for them. I’m not sure which, and frankly, I don’t like either option, so we’re going to continue to evade them, and fight them when we can’t evade, for as long as possible. But knowing we’re being hunted means we need to do this treatment now, while we still have a little time here before they realize we left the base or where we went.”
“Where are you assigned?” Senior asked briskly.
“Plum Island. And that’s more than I should have told you, but you’re one of us, and you’re my dad, so I’m bending just about every rule that normally would apply. There are a whole bunch of military shifters on that island, and us. That was an eye-opener, when we learned about them.”
“I bet,” Senior commiserated.
CHAPTER SIX
“How about you let me get started?” Rick prompted, reaching to touch Senior’s arm where it rested on the arm of the chair. “You two talk and don’t mind me.”
“I don’t have to do anything special?” Senior asked Rick, a frown between his eyes.
“No, sir. At this stage, I’m just trickling energy into your body, waking up your immune cells and getting them ready to do their work. I’m also doing a bit of recon,” Rick said, closing his eyes in concentration. “I’m locating all the problem areas and identifying which to tackle in what order. I’m also making mental notes about where Wil might be able to use his unique gifts, because this is a big job, and I won’t lie—it’s going to tire me out. When I’m recovering, Wil can still be working if I give him proper direction, so we can get this done as quickly as possible, and you can start living again.”
“Amazing,” Senior breathed after a moment. Wil could tell his father was deeply moved. “I didn’t think I would have a life much longer. I’d already made my peace with it all and was ready to check out, but now, you’re saying I could live a few more decades?” Senior dropped his chin, and Wil saw the glistening of tears in the moonlight. “You have no idea…” Senior’s voice trailed off as emotion got the better of him.
Wil put his hand on his dad’s shoulder. “I’m just glad we could do this for you,” he said in a low voice. “I wasn’t ready to lose you, Dad. Not yet.”
They were quiet as Rick worked silently, and both of the Owens men dealt with strong emotions. It was some time before Senior spoke again, but when he did, it was clear he was now thinking forward again. It was a positive sign to Wil’s mind, even if there were problems that would have to be dealt with.
“I won’t be able to stay here,” Senior said with a bit of alarm in his tone. “Everybody I know thinks I’m three-quarters dead already. It would raise too many questions if I was suddenly better,” Senior seemed to be thinking aloud.
