Winter's Legacy: Future Days (Winter's Saga Book 6) (18 page)

36  Kid-Speak Doesn’t Come Naturally to Everybody

“Alik, how do sandstorms happen?”  Danny had been watching the still dusty air as they drove through the early morning to meet Jacobi and Trainer at the airport.  Their flight had just received clearance from the tower.  The family was up and mobile thirty minutes after Creed woke the house with the news of Meg. 

Theo had put Alik and Farrow in charge of Danny, positioning them together in the back seat with Maze.  Before they’d loaded up, Margo had donned gloves and carefully covered the seats with several layers of cloth, worried residual oils from Alik’s pepper spray would find their way to cause more harm. 

The drive had started with everyone talking at once, reinvigorated by Danny’s gift and the five hours of sleep they’d managed to get the night before.  Danny’s question came as everybody was quieting down, lost in their thoughts.

“Well, in desert regions, during certain times of the year, strong winds are created when the lower atmosphere heats, causing it to become unstable.  The heated air mixes with the upper atmosphere in the troposphere where it’s pushed downward.  Even stronger winds are produced, kicking up the sand until there is zero percent visibility and a massive amount of destruction to both nature and structure,” Alik quoted lines of a text he’d read years ago.

Danny stared wide-eyed at his brother before blinking once—confusion clear on his face.

Having listened to the exchange, Farrow slugged Alik slightly in the ribs.

“What Alik’s trying to say is that sometimes it gets very windy in deserts and the wind makes the sand fly into the air.” Farrow looked pointedly at Alik.  “Isn’t that right Sergeant Search Engine?”  She was fighting hard to hold back her laughter.

“Well—sure.  You could say it like that, I guess,” he said sheepishly.

Danny smiled at Farrow’s version before continuing his inquisition. 

“Why does Maze snore?” he asked, reaching out to stroke the soft, silver fur between the
coydog’s ears. 

Maze, who had been quietly panting, huffed resentfully once before letting the little boy continue. 

Alik grinned at his sister’s best friend before reaching down to pat him affectionately on his side.  “Well, Danny.  Canines depend on their respiratory—”

“He means Maze has been around a lot of dirty air that bothers his breathing. Remember the bad pepper spray all over Alik—and the sandstorm—?”

“Right,” Alik blushed and cleared his throat self-consciously.  “He’ll stop snoring once we’re back home in the clean Texas air.”

The brakes squeaked loudly as Theo pulled into a parking spot at the moderately busy airport.

“Okay, everybody.  You know the drill,” Margo said lifting Danny onto her hip.  “Move fast, stay together and keep an eye out for any bad guys.”

“Or girls,” Farrow added under her breath.

“Especially those.” Margo winked.

The family moved like a well-oiled unit toward the building.  Waiting for them just inside the sliding doors were their pilots—heads together, deep in conversation. 

Jacobi caught sight of the family first and stared slack-jawed at Margo. 

“What?” Trainer frowned as he turned to see what caught his captain’s attention. 

Both men stood abruptly. 

“Dr. Winter,” Jacobi stared at the woman who had been wheelchair-bound last he saw her.

“Captain, Trainer,” Margo shook hands with both men who continued to openly stare.

“You’re walking!” Jacobi announced.

“I am,” Margo smiled but offered no further explanation.

An empty pause hung in the air—the pilots expecting to hear what happened and Margo unwilling to go into any details right then.

“Right, so,” Jacobi broke through the juncture with humor.  He motioned to their traditional Egyptian clothing and grinned.  “So I see you had time to go shopping.  Did you get us T-shirts?  Coffee mugs?  Hats?”

“Don’t mind him.  He slept in his tie,” Trainer rolled his eyes, while inwardly thankful for his friend’s mastery of discretion.  Trainer redirected the conversation.  “We have both flight and security clearance.  Your friends from Homeland Security sure can make things happen.”

Evan and Sloan exchanged meaningful glances, remembering the interrogations clearly.

“Our gate is over here.  We’re ready when you are.”  Jacobi pointed to an exit leading outside to the tarmac.

Creed had been scanning the room warily.  Margo hesitated long enough to lock eyes with him.  From the start, Creed had acted as the family’s sentinel.  His guard never let up.  In Meg’s absence, he had stepped up as the closest thing they could get to safeguarding the family.  She trusted his opinion completely.

Creed nodded once.  The room was clear.

“We’ll follow you, Captain,” she motioned toward the door.

Once outside, Danny shifted his weight in Margo’s arms to reach for Alik.  Margo smiled as she passed the little guy to his brother.  They had just reached the ramp stairs that led up to the doorway of the plane.  “Hold onto the railing, son,” she mothered.

Alik exchanged looks with Danny.  “Was she talking to you or me?”

Danny just grinned and hugged his brother as they ascended the stairway.  Maze maneuvered the steps easily, carefully passing Margo, and reached the top in seconds. 

“Why does mom worry so much?”  Danny asked in Alik’s ear.

“That’s a really smart question, kid,” Alik smiled as he held Danny in one arm and the rail with his other hand.  “I asked her the same thing when I was about your age.”

Alik had reached the top of the stairs and looked back to see Creed and Evan walking around the underbelly of the plane, checking for anything amiss.  Farrow grinned up at him from the stairs.  Cole, Sloan, Kylie and Theo were close behind. 

He ducked into the jet and put Danny down so he could manage the low ceiling.  The little boy darted down the center aisle to find Maze.  Alik followed, deep in thought.

“Well?” Danny prodded.  Alik was fastening his little brother’s seat belt and getting licked in the face by Maze.

He gently pushed the coydog away.  “What’s gotten into you, buddy?” Alik teased the devoted canine.

Danny flopped his legs impatiently against the too big seat.  “Well?  What did she say?”

“Oh,” Alik smiled.  “She said she worried about us because a piece of her heart was in each of us and she hurt when we hurt.”

Danny’s large blue eyes blinked in wonder.  “A piece of her heart is in me?”  His little mouth hung open.  “Doesn’t she need her heart?”

“Of course she does.  That’s why she worries over us.”

Danny slowly shook his head before looking around.  “Where’s Farrow?  She makes more sense than you.”

3
7  Welcome Home

The familiar gravel road crunched under her shoes as she walked the last hundred yards to  her family’s Texas ranch. 

After saying goodbye to the old man in the Cadillac back in Oklahoma, she had finished her journey to Texas traveling with a young, single mother whose moving trailer rattled behind her almost as noisily as her twin sons in the back seat. 

During their time together, Meg gently worked on easing the self-doubt and pain from the woman’s recent divorce while calming the children’s worries.  The evidence of Meg’s efforts was obvious by the time the woman pulled to a stop at the end of the Winter family’s driveway. 

Meg smiled to herself as the minivan pulled away.  The formerly troubled family was grinning and waving as the children’s Veggie Tales music poured from the open windows.

With a happy sigh, she had turned her attention back to the abandoned house and tuned into the psychic vibrations, checking for an ambush. 

She sensed no one, but she was still cautious.  Either Williams or Arkdone would have thought ahead to the possibility of the family returning.   Either or both would have left surveillance to monitor the grounds. 

The first thing Meg did was to head to the back of the house where Evan had located the control box for the solar panels he installed on the roof.  He had designed and built the off-grid, renewable resource system himself during the first week they’d lived in their custom-made home.  Meg smiled and shook her head at the memory of him going on and on about all the mechanics of the intricate system he’d created—conductors, batteries, charge controllers and converters—in painful detail.

“All I need to know, Ev is how to turn the blasted thing off and on.  That’s it!”
She remembered blurting then regretting her impatience after seeing the disappointment in her little brother’s face.  He had pointed to the yellow knob her hand now touched. 

Fine.  Just remember: Righty, tight-y; Lefty, loose-y,
he said. 
Right is on.  Left is off.
  He’d shoved his hands in his pockets and started to walk away from her.

Hey Ev!
she heard the echo of her voice in her memory. 
You know I think you’re the smartest, coolest kid ever, right?  Just ‘cause I can’t understand a single word you just said doesn’t mean I’m not impressed.
 

Evan had looked up and smiled adorably. 
I know ‘watt’ you mean,
he winked.  Laughing at his own stupid pun, he turned to saunter back into the house. 

To his back Meg had yelled,
Evan Winter!  That was awful!
But laughed despite herself when he jumped up and kicked his heels in response.

Wow, I miss that kid,
she mused as she turned the knob right and listened to the system awaken with a hum.

Soon.  You’ll see everyone very soon,
she reassured herself under her breath. 

Back inside the house, Meg started a slow, meticulous sweep for any signs of audio or visual surveillance.  She searched each room for anything that looked out of place.  She checked every light fixture, under every table and shelf
and then looked for any wires that seemed to go nowhere.

Nothing.

Having just checked under the living room sofas, Meg sat sprawled on the dusty hardwood floor and looked around the room. 

I’m missing it.  Dang, I wish Evan and Alik were here to help me,
she thought as she chewed on her bottom lip. 

She took a slow deep breath and rolled her head trying to loosen the tension in her shoulders. 

What am I missing?
She pushed herself. 
I can’t sense anyone observing me, but that could just mean the surveillance is automated and not actively monitored.

She kept an internal dialogue going as she went, careful not to speak her thoughts out loud just in case there were ears listening or recording. 

Maybe I should just hunker down and wait for them.
 

She closed her eyes and searched for Creed’s signature.  Once found, she gathered images of his location.  He was walking down the aisle of an airplane cabin.  Ever the sentry, he had been checking everybody, including the pilots.  Through his eyes, Meg saw the smiling faces of her family as they looked up to talk with him as he passed each row.   She saw him hurry to his seat so he could concentrate on their connection.  She sent him images of the room in which she sat to show him she had made it home.  Satisfied her family was safe and on their way, Meg sighed happily.   

Before releasing the connection, she lingered on a private memory sending sparks across the miles right to Creed’s heart.  She felt his signature burst with love and pulse like a heartbeat in response.  Reluctantly, she let go of the connection, reassured they would see each other soon. 

Meg’s stomach growled angrily as though it had been trying to get her attention for hours.  Thinking back, it had been.

She stood, dusted off her jeans and made her way into the kitchen.  The fridge would have to be cleaned out, though now that the power was back on, it sat humming—obliviously cooling the spoiled food.  Knowing she had a long evening of chores ahead, she walked directly to the pantry and found her dinner in a can of tuna and another of peaches. 

She forced the tuna down, sans mayo or bread or even a fresh sleeve of crackers just because she knew she needed the protein.  The peaches she savored straight from the can.  She
reminded herself to slow down and live in the moment as the sweet syrup dripped from the peach half dangling over her opened mouth and plopped on her tongue.

As she chewed deliberately
, she looked out the window above the kitchen sink, admiring the yellows and oranges of the sun hanging low in the sky. 

Beautiful,
she thought. 

She moved to pull up the wooden blinds so her view would be unobstructed.  A smattering of dust particles flew into the air, glistening and dancing in the light.  She waved her hand in front of her face, shooing the allergens away, and moved to lean back against the countertop.  Another sweet, fleshy
peach half made it to her mouth and she let her dark eyes absently follow the beam of light as it spilled into the room.  It had slipped across the kitchen table and onto the wall behind it where her mother had hung a simple wood-framed, beveled glass mirror.

She stopped chewing.

Something wasn’t right.  

Slowly she set the half-eaten can on the counter and approached the mirror at an angle to not block the beam of light

The shadow of a surveillance camera peered back at her.

Oh, shit.
Her internal reaction at finally locating what she’d been looking for was terror, but she held her body relaxed and feigned primping her curls in the mirror before slowly walking out of its view.  She flattened herself against the wall and peeked around the kitchen doorway into the living room and looked around.   She’d never noticed how many mirrors adorned the walls of her home until that moment.  She was torn between making a run for it to escape the cold mechanical eyes or racing to the garage to get a baseball bat and smash the hell out of every reflective surface.  She inhaled a shaky breath and forced herself to think. 

Get it together, Meg.  What did you expect?  You knew there would be surveillance planted in the house.  Why freak about it now?

Because he’s watching you, Megglet,
a small voice sneered in her ear. 
And it doesn’t really matter which ‘he’ we’re talking about, does it?  Pick your poison, Pretty.  Tthe insane blood-lusting scientist slash DNA donor, Dr. Daddy Williams or the Scotch drinking psychopath slash senator slash would-be world leader Master Monarch!
 

Meg winced as though physically struck.  She slinked down against the wall hosting the camera and pulled her long legs up
trying to make herself as small as possible.  Her heart thrashed violently against her ribs.  Even over the sound of it in her ears she could now hear a soft humming from the equipment in the wall at her back. 

What do I do? Did I juice the cameras when I turned on the solar panels?  How could I be so stupid?  Oh God, why didn’t I stay away until the others were here?  I was so sure I was powerful enough to control what happened next.  What a fool.  And now, he’s coming for me!  I can’t do this alone anymore.  Damn it, what do I do?

She bit back a sob and inhaled a shaky breath as she tried desperately to control her self-talk. 

Nothing was working. 

She was spinning. 

Her thoughts a frantic carousel with violent images—a screaming calliope of all her fears, self-doubts and insecurities breaking her will until a single thought rose above the others.

I’ll tell you why you’re in a meltdown, you sniveling, overconfident, freak:
Because for the first time since this whole battle began, you self-righteously believed you’d have a happy ending.  The whole family fighting side by side and standing triumphantly over the fallen antagonists—wind blowing through your hair, fists raised in victory.  You and your pretty little make-believe, girl warrior turned fairy princess world,
the voice sneered.
  Your happily ever after is going to look a lot different.  Your enemies are far more likely to find you alone tonight and rip you limb from limb—the prize in a demon dog fight. 

Brace yourself baby.  Your end is nigh.