Hidden Nature

by S. M. Savoy

  The president said, “Major Harris informs me Midshipman Hayes is disrupting the student body.”

  The commandant’s lips tightened. “Not exactly disrupting. In fact, the average GPA has risen. But school spirit is at an all-time low. Athletics are at an all-time low. The entire school is depressed and unhappy. I’m not saying its Cadet Hayes’s fault. The midshipmen feel the loss of the doctors keenly and blame themselves—”

  The president held up a hand. “Mr. Hayes has done nothing to merit expulsion. For reasons I’m not at liberty to say it’s imperative he attend this school, that he considers this school his home. I’m sorry this situation is disrupting the school but for one more year you’ll have them here. During that time, do everything in your power to bond them to this institution.”

  The commandant leaned back in his chair and folded his hands on his chest. “You don’t believe the doctors will be found?”

  Liz winced and glanced away as tears filled her eyes.

  “Ahh.” The commandant cleared his throat. “You believe they’ve been killed.”

  The president rested a hand on Liz’s shoulder as she stifled a sob. “Irrelevant. We will keep searching. Found dead or alive, we’ll bring the perpetrators to justice. Taking them was an act so foul— the loss for the world is so great— the possible consequences so grim…” The president trailed off.

  A moment later he cleared his throat and resumed. “Because we can’t know what their captors learned from them, we must prepare for the worst. Our only hope to survive as a nation resides in the three we have left. Anastasia, Sebastian, and Charles. This incident could push them from us, make them hostile to the United States. And we can’t afford that. If we’re attacked by weapons that Sara and Oz designed, we’ll need them to counter the effects. Those three are the only ones who could hope to understand whatever Sara and Oz’s genius has thought up.”

  “I see.” The commandant gazed at Liz with his lips pursed. “My intention was to ask him to withdraw for the good of the school. To ask all three to withdraw and have the Valor building reassigned before the start of next term. This situation puzzles me. I mean the depth of the student body’s feelings over this matter. Cadets have died before, both heroically and tragically and it’s never produced this sort of all-encompassing funk. A year of that might be enough to permanently harm the school.”

  The president nodded. “And yet, without them the United States is doomed.”

  “The weapons Doctor Simmons and Mitchel developed are that strong then?”

  The president sighed and spread his hands on his knees. He spoke without looking up. “Doctors Simmons and Mitchel are world changing.”

  “Then I’ll do my best to make the midshipmen happy here.”

  “Loyal, we want them loyal. Think team building. Nothing you do will make them happy, but you can work on esprit de corps.”

  - 16 -

  Stuck on Base

  Charlie’s fellow students left him alone. Moody and irate, he swung from rage to bleak acceptance to desperate hope, calm only when forcing himself to study, sublimating his fear and anger by concentrating intensely on schoolwork.

  He cursed softly as he crumbled his orders. He’d been assigned to the Truman again for the summer.

  His anger surged hard enough to cause his magic to manifest as he packed up Sara’s supplies and schematics. What was the point? Why order him to bring her things as if she were going to appear and be able to install them? A month with not even a flicker of contact. His wife was dead.

  The anger faded replaced by sorrow so intense he thought he might smother on it. Time hung heavy on his hands. Stasia and Joy spied. Brenda traveled, casting her Call-for-Help everywhere she went. Hawk and Agent Lewis searched. He did nothing except reign in his magic.

  Without his conscious control his magic burst from him and swirled away in eddies in every direction as if it sought her but didn’t know where to go. He’d tried following it, but it circled endlessly. He went to the mountaintop every few days to beg it for help. Thunder always sounded and lightning crashed but he’d never gotten a response he could understand.

  * * *

  Hawk was waiting in his office.

  His magic left him a rush that left him breathless. Hope swelled and crashed, leaving him feeling sick.

  “Liz asked me to come.” Hawk set Lucky on her feet and gave Charlie a hard hug.

  “You should be out searching.” Charlie winced and pulled him back for another hug. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m glad to see you.”

  I’ll never stop looking,” Hawk said.

  Charlie didn’t need the magic to feel his sincerity. It shone from his eyes.

  “I know. They’ll know too.” His voice caught on a sob and he turned away to rub his face.

  Rhea whuffled softly, her hopefully gaze darting between him and Hawk as if she expected them to take her to Sara.

  “The damned dog is killing me,” Charlie said, consumed with fury over the dog’s pain as its head drooped and it flopped to the floor.

  Lucky meowed plaintively and brushed against his legs.

  Hawk stooped to pick up the cat. “They miss her.”

  Lucky began to purr, and Charlie strode to the window, consumed with fresh rage. Just seconds ago he’d been angry his pets were unhappy and now he was furious to hear his cat purr.

  “I’m going crazy. I hate that damned purring! What the fuck is wrong with me?”

  “I’ll take them with me.”

  Charlie spun to see the animals meekly leave the room, guided by Hawk’s magic.

  “You—”

  “Abby will watch them. Don’t worry about them.” Hawk hesitated them grasped his shoulder. “You need to get control of it though.” His eyes narrowed and his grip tightened. “It won’t work.”

  Charlie huffed a short angry laugh. “Her magic takes her to me.”

  Hawk shook his head and released him to perch on the edge of the desk. “It takes her. But she knew both times right where you were. Letting yourself grow this angry won’t make it more powerful.”

  “We don’t know that, and it doesn’t matter anyway. I am this angry.”

  Hawk batted at the blue wisps that still swirled around him. “It’s already desperate. If it could take you to her, it would.”

  “And it makes me so goddamned mad! Why won’t it!”

  Hawk’s lips compressed and he said nothing, but Charlie felt his despair.

  “They can’t be dead, Hawk. They just can’t be.”

  * * *

  School ended for the year and Charlie went to the Rheal Lucky for the first time since her disappearance. He stared at his ship, her home, tempted to leave and never come back— or sink it— but she’d loved it.

  Lucky cried from the cat carrier in his hand. He glanced down at the cat, then at Rhea who followed him. In a week, they’d go back to Abby and he’d report to his ship. He didn’t want them around really, but Abby had brought them, trying to comfort him. When he returned them, he’d give them to her. They offered no comfort, only reminders. Charlie straightened his shoulders and marched onto his boat.

  Sara had left drawings for the game on the chart table with notes in the margins. One-by-one he picked them up and examined them. The notes in the margin made him smile despite himself. ‘Charlie loves this NPC. Amy thinks this one needs bigger claws. This looks too much like Paul’s. My father thinks this looks like Anchorage.’ Charlie paused. He hadn’t been aware her father had been there. He’d examined her father’s records obsessively and couldn’t recall that as a stop. He called Stasia. “Can you find out when Sara’s father was in Alaska?”

  “April first,” she said instantly. “Why do you ask?”

  “Why do you know the date so quickly?” he countered.

  “It was an odd stop; he was there three days, and it was right before he came here and on none of his calendars.”

  “What was
he doing there?”

  “Business, what else? I’ll text you the company he was hunting.”

  She texted him the name. More for something to do then he thought he’d find anything, he opened Sara’s wristcomp, entered the name and hit search. It was owned by another company. He searched again; in an hour he was five companies in when he hit a dead-end, owner unknown. Once again, he wished Oz where there, he could track this easily. He spent two days of his vacation tracking down company owners trying to keep himself busy so the crushing misery of her absence wouldn’t destroy him. He frowned at the final owner— Liniar Corp. He was going to Alaska.

  Most of the raid accompanied him on the company jet. They landed in Anchorage. Sara’s father was right; it did look like the drawings, he thought as he gazed around at the stunted trees. He was walking across the tarmac to the car when Stasia screamed. He turned to her and felt himself sway as a roiling cloud of magic engulfed him. He fell to his knees and screamed as her magic engulfed him. Unable to deny the truth to himself any longer misery overcame him. Sara was dead, they both were. They’d been killed here. The magic was in pain, afraid and lonely. He screamed in fury. The magic recoiled from his pain and loss.

  “It needs someone,” Rick said in a heartbroken voice as he knelt beside his brother.

  Charlie was beyond caring. He could feel Sara in the magic and he wanted it for himself.

  Joy laid a gentle hand on his arm. Her face was as bleak as he felt.

  “She’s dead.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “I should’ve felt it— why didn’t I feel it?”

  “I don’t know,” Joy said softly and turned to Brenda. “Can you place it in one of them?”

  Charlie tightened his grip on Joy’s arm.

  “I can try.” Brenda bit her lip, turning her white face to the raid. “I’ll need two volunteers.”

  They all stepped forward. “Lee, Todd, the rest of you, step back,” Brenda said.

  Charlie knew why she’d picked them. Lee was a mage, Todd a ranger. They’d find who did this. He placed his hand in Brenda’s. He’d find them and kill them. They had a lead now. Her father had been involved. It was too much of a coincidence that he’d been here days before her death.

  Together they called the lightning and this time it worked.

  Charlie staggered to his feet, grinning in triumph as the lightning lingered on Lee and Todd. He was so furious that he shook. His anger felt thick like tar that would trap him, not the smoothness of honey.

  Sirens sounded in the distance and men spoke heatedly behind him. The lightning had been harder to control than he’d imagined. It came so easily to Sara. It had taken all of them chanting give us a mage before it had shifted from him to Brenda. It still lingered on Lee and Todd.

  “Two more minutes,” Liz said from his HUD.

  “I got this,” Manny said and slapped his shoulder as he strode past him to the approaching siren.

  Charlie squatted beside Stasia who knelt on the tarmac crying. He had no room for tears. Anger filled him with purpose. “When we first spoke, you said this stop wasn’t on his books. How did you know about it?”

  She sniffled and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. “From the pilot.”

  “I came here to search the office,” Joy said.

  “When?”

  “As soon as we heard. Forty-three hours after they were taken. It seemed suspicions. But there was nothing. Just a stupid parts manufacturer.”

  “It’s too much of a coincidence. Did you cast Call-for-Help?”

  “We’d already tried twice here.” Joy looked stricken. “I should have. God, maybe—”

  Charlie cut her off, slashing his hand through the air as he stood.

  “It isn’t your fault. I believed that lying sack of shit too. Joy, you come with me. Stasia, Hawk, you guys search here.”

  The lightning flickered and faded, and Marcus began CPR on Lee as Harrison felt for Todd’s pulse.

  “He’s breathing,” Harrison said.

  “Where are you going?” Nelson asked in the raid channel.

  Charlie glanced at his HUD, checking vitals. “Home to beat some truth from him.” He flicked the icon to end the call and turned to Mike. “Get them to Liz. You and Brenda stay with them until they’re completely recovered. Brenda will be fine,” he said in a softer voice and crouched beside Mike to take Brenda’s hand. “The lightning hurts, but she’ll recover and be on her feet again in an hour.”

  He glanced over his shoulder as the voices behind him escalated. Manny was arguing with a man in a golf cart and two security guards. “Get them back on the plane. Joy, talk them into leaving and smooth things over here.” He crouched beside Stasia again. “You need to pull it together. We can cry after we find their bodies.”

  “It won’t work,” she said sadly.

  “We don’t know that!” He took a deep breath to calm his wildly beating heart. “We don’t know that,” he said again in a calmer tone. “We don’t know what happened or when. Maybe they kept her sedated and she died hours ago. If we can find them, we might be able resurrect them! If she was dead all this time, why didn’t the lightning come when we called at home?”

  “Charlie—”

  Charlie glared at his brother. “We don’t know, Rick, and I won’t give up!”

  Stasia pushed away from Rick and stood. “You’re right. We’ll search.”

  Charlie glanced around for Hawk then checked his HUD. Hawk was already a mile away and moving fast. He hadn’t even seen him leave. He hesitated, his hand hovering over his spell-bracelet, then tapped the icon to connect them.

  “Hawk?”

  “The magic came from this direction. If we have enemies, I’ll see them.”

  “I don’t like you running off alone.”

  “I’m not alone, Tank is with me, and no one will see me. This is a wilderness. I have an army at my beck and call.”

  “Call me if you find anything.”

  “And me,” Stasia said.

  Charlie was happy to see the hard glitter of magic had replaced her tears.

  “Let’s get them on the plane and get them home to Liz.”

  “I’ll oversee this,” Glenn said.

  Charlie turned to examine the police and ambulance who’d arrived. They faced away from them, speaking with Joy. Drew and Manny were being ignored. A good sign, Charlie thought and dismissed them from his mind. He picked Todd up and headed back to the plane.

  “We need faster transport. It’s going to take hours to get home.”

  “He doesn’t know we’re coming,” Toric said.

  “Can you fly the plane?”

  “Yes…”

  “Good. Let’s get going.”

  Toric glanced back, “Shouldn’t we wait for Joy?”

  “She’ll catch up.”

  Toric said nothing else. He hurried ahead and opened the door for Charlie, leaving it open as he ran to the cockpit and the engines sprang on before Mike boarded with Brenda. Charlie waited impatiently for Marcus to bring Lee.

  “Everyone’s on board,” Charlie said as he yanked the door closed. Marcus glanced at him but turned back to Lee.

  The plane began to roll as he knelt beside Marcus to feel Lee’s pulse for himself. He had a mage now, but Sara was dead. He’d traded one for another, he thought bitterly as he helped Marcus make Lee as comfortable as they could in a reclined airline seat.

  “The world is a big place,” Mike said without glancing up from Brenda.

  “I’ll make him talk.

  “If you kill him, you kill our chances.”

  “I can handle it.” And that was true,” Charlie thought bitterly. His magic had stopped pressing him, either tired of fighting him or having nothing to fight for. He released his control and let it go. It oozed from his skin and slide along the floor as if drawn to Lee despite itself.

  “It’s afraid,” Marcus said.

  “Me
too,” Charlie said tiredly and closed his eyes.

  - 17 -

  Confronting Tomas

  “You can’t go in there,” a secretary said as she ran for the elevator.

  Charlie smiled. Security had already tried to stop him and his aura had made them run from him.

  “Stop this right now!” Nelson snarled and grabbed his arm.

  Charlie shook him off.

  The major had been waiting when he’d arrived.

  “The police are going to come and you’re going to cause a riot!”

  Charlie ignored him and burst into Tomas’s office. His magic rushed Tomas and hated with a passion that lit Charlie’s eyes.

  “Where is she?”

  “I’m ordering you to return to base!” Nelson said angrily.

  Tomas rose to his feet, glaring at Charlie.

  “I have no idea…” His expression became pinched, and he opened and closed his mouth as if he’d changed his mind on what to say. Charlie stalked forward and braced his hands on the desk to loom over him. To his shock, Tomas appeared unaffected by his aura. His gaze stayed on the magic as it darted about him and he almost appeared smug.

  Goosebumps rose on Charlie’s arms.

  Tomas said, “I can make allowances. I know you’re upset over her death, but I had nothing to do with it. For god’s sake, she’s my daughter!” he said it indignantly, but Charlie knew better. Tomas had never cared about Sara.

  He grabbed Tomas, and Nelson shot him. He threw Tomas from him and reached for the major but fell to the floor before he could grab him.

  “If he comes here again, I’ll have him arrested.” Tomas’s words faded to blackness as Charlie struggled to open his eyes. He knew Tomas knew where she was, and when he woke, he’d beat it out of him, even if he had to kill the major to do it.

  He woke manacled to the stasis chamber and snarled at the major as he yanked on the chain.

  “Cut it out. I sent Stasia to question him, but you saw him. He’s either disconnected from reality— crazy as a loon— or your magic knows he’s not involved, or it’s confused and thinks he’s her or something. But it doesn’t matter. Stasia will get better results—”