Down in Whisper
Bonnie Elizabeth
My Big Fat Orange Cat Publishing
Whisper Washington and its corresponding mountain, called Whisper, is a fictional place. Down in Whisper is a work of fiction. Some places actually exist to add local flavor but all characters and events in the book are the work of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
* * *
Down in Whisper
My Big Fat Orange Cat
Contemporary Fantasy, May 2015
* * *
Copyright © 2015
Bonnie Elizabeth Koenig
All rights Reserved
* * *
Cover Copyright Bonnie Koenig
images copyright “xload”, “SergeyNivens” | Depositphotos
* * *
For more information contact My Big Fat Orange Cat Publishing
MyBigFatOrangeCat.com
Contents
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
Rain
Meg
About the Author
Also by Bonnie Elizabeth
Rain
I’d like to say it’s normal for me to be awakened by handsome men in the middle of the night, but it’s not. And really, it’s not like I was awakened by a handsome man that inhabited my dreams. It was only Peter. Not to say that he doesn’t have a perfect body; he does. And I’m sure that if I were feeling amorous he’d be happy to join in. It’s just that my business partner, Meg, is rather involved with him. To say she’s possessive and jealous is an understatement
It was Zari A, my cat who is not a cat, who actually woke me up, not Peter. I guess I can’t even claim that I was woken up by a handsome man, even one I had no intention of messing around with.
“Wake up,” she demanded. Although ‘demanded’ might not be accurate. Hungry cats without telepathic abilities are demanding. Zari is worse.
From what I understood, as the cat continued dumping information into my sleep fogged brain, she had been having a conversation with Peter. The two had agreed they needed me. I don’t like being awakened in the middle of the night and as a matter of fact, I’m a fairly heavy sleeper, so I was more than a little annoyed. In addition, Zari’s voice had pulled me out of what I can only remember as a rather pleasant dream.
“I know you were just getting comfortable with your dream date but this is important,” she persisted.
I rolled over to see Peter enter the room as if he’d just arrived. I had no idea what the two of them wanted from me. I kept getting bits of Zari’s thoughts that related to an airplane and something about metals from Zari’s world. Neither were areas I had any expertise in.
Yeah, my life is strange. I have a cat who is not a cat. She’s an alien, who happens to be telepathic. She just looks like a cat. I used to think I’d just become a crazy cat lady but then I realized that Zari really was talking to me. I should have known that when I’d wanted to name her Cougar, because as a ruddy Abyssinian, she looked a bit like one, I found myself writing the name Zari A on the first veterinarian’s intake form. I wasn’t even quite sure how to pronounce it until it came out of my mouth. Even then, for months, I kept saying her nickname was Cougar.
At any rate, I’d finally come around to understanding that Zari really was telepathic and I wasn’t crazy. I learned that she was an alien and was part of a group who was studying our planet. Part of studying a planet was becoming any species who might be the dominant species. Zari had bet that species was the cat.
Now, if Zari were the only odd thing in my life, my life might be half normal, but there’s also Peter. He’s not human either. He’s an earth spirit. There aren’t many of them still awake, but Peter is one of the few who are. His sphere of influence is the mountain area called Whisper which sits in the northeastern portion of King County Washington.
“So Peter says that the plane has odd metals, probably from my world,” Zari continued, sitting on the duvet next to me, staring with her wide almond eyes. Oddly, for her, she wasn’t washing or rolling around. She was sitting rather still, watching me carefully. Maybe it was the fact that it was five after three in the morning.
“It looks like an ordinary plane,” Peter added, from where he stood near the window, fingering the blinds. That’s one thing about Peter. He has to touch everything. He once said it’s because he wants to experience the whole of the human sensory activity while he’s in a physical form. I had yet to catch him at licking the blinds or my furniture, but it seemed like something he might do when I wasn’t looking.
“I believe the metal was left over from Blayn G’s cave,” Zari said, picking the thread back up. Blayn G was a criminal from her planet. He’d been on our world and upon sensing others of his kind, he’d tried to leave. He hadn’t wanted to be caught by Zari’s government. According to Zari A that wouldn’t have been any better for humans than for Blayn G. In the end, he’d gotten away, despite the involvement of some very powerful beings.
Oh heck, Gods. Goddesses. Yes, I chat not only with aliens and earth spirits but with gods and goddesses and the occasional were-seal. Oh and let’s not forget that my acupuncturist is dating a guy who changes into a dragon.
Anyway, Blayn G had some sort of metal that wasn’t natural to this world. I don’t really understand what it was, but apparently it could work as shielding powerful enough that the gods and elemental spirits could not invade his space. Humans could, but he had human guards to prevent that. In the little bits that Zari had explained to me, I learned that the metal itself had a sort of rudimentary intelligence so it could be told what to do.
Blayn G had used the material merely to keep the gods out of the hideout he’d created on Mt. Rainier. As an earth spirit, Peter was able to unravel some of it. It hadn’t been easy for him, though. Zari A assisted him in that endeavor. Between the two of them they’d disabled the metal. At that point it was turned over to the gods. Considering the trouble that had been caused by Blayn G’s use of that material, I would have thought that the gods made very certain that it was gone from our world completely. Apparently I was wrong.
“I expect it was one of the scientists working with Blayn,” Zari continued with her explanation. “No doubt he saw the potential value of the technology. Because it’s not native to your world, I think it would be very hard to detect and would probably camouflage a plane with just small amounts woven through the exterior in key places.”
“It’s odd, isn’t it, that it crashed here?” I muttered groggily. I wasn’t sure I followed all of her conversation. After all, it was three in the morning.
“I am concerned about some larger scheme,” Peter said. “Although I can’t tell what it might be.”
“Well,” I said, “It’s not like we aren’t on top of a very big government contractor who also makes planes.”
Zari looked at me, waiting.
“Boeing,” I returned, forgetting sometimes that Peter and Zari were not quite of the world I was in.
; “Marcus is fascinated with planes. This was not made by Boeing,” Peter said, leaning back against the window. I wondered if Meg, Peter’s umm… girlfriend? Significant other? Girl toy? What do earth spirits have when it comes to relationships? At any rate, Meg was a private investigator, so why wasn’t Peter in her bedroom?
“And why are you telling me and not Meg?” I asked.
“Zari felt you needed to be told, immediately,” Peter said. “There was a pilot and he’s already left the vicinity of the plane. In fact, he’s no longer on Whisper proper.”
“And you think I’m getting up to go hiking through the woods in the middle of the night?” I asked, dripping with sarcasm. Let’s face it, I am not a hiker. I am not even outdoorsy. In fact, I am so not outdoor oriented that I don’t really fit in in the Pacific Northwest. I’d rather dance at a nightclub than spend time outdoors. Sometimes, in winter, I’d rather see the dentist for a root canal.
“I thought that you could get someone up there sooner than Meg could,” Peter said. “It’s near the crest of the mountain and the easiest way is to park near my home.” Peter had a nice house up towards the top of the mountain. For the moment, that was off limits to Meg, although he was attempting to keep that information quiet. In other words, he was hoping that I’d have someone other than Meg go out searching for the pilot. If he told Meg, she’d want to go and Peter really didn’t want her in that area.
Just a note to those wondering, a downside to being psychically connected to your partner the way Meg and Peter are, is that secrets are hard to keep.
“If it was a government contractor, especially defense, they’ll have someone looking for the pilot soon.”
“And I don’t want them tramping around on my land, searching for something that’s not from this earth until I understand their motivations. If I can’t wield it, I can’t guard against it. And if I am destroyed, the mountain is destroyed. The scale of such a disaster is nearly unprecedented.”
“Well you can’t hide it,” I started, referring to the plane. Seeing the shadows around his face change, I knew he was frowning. “Or can you?”
“Hiding something in my area isn’t hard,” Peter said, quietly. “Of course, if no one can find the plane, they may not find the pilot. With any luck, he’ll be able to flag down someone to help him now that he’s off my land.”
“Because flagging down searchers, in the mountains surrounded by trees, miles from anywhere with no cell service is so easy,” I said. Three in the morning brings out the sarcasm in me.
“You could help,” Zari pressed. “You could call Dillon.”
If Peter understood the suggestive way my cat said the other man’s name, he didn’t show it. I’d become rather interested in my chief of security recently and it seemed he might have an interest back. Neither of us had really made a move but things were progressing in a direction that offered a number of possibilities. Privy to my most private thoughts, Zari knew all of that. If she’d shared that with Peter, he wasn’t’ saying.
“It’s three in the morning. I can’t just call him up and tell him to go hiking.”
“A few hours can’t hurt,” Peter said. “The pilot was able to leave the site.”
“Was he walking or crawling or what?”
“He was upright but seemed to be struggling a little,” Peter admitted. “It’s not exceedingly cold yet and morning isn’t far. Besides, Gaia is not yet that concerned about what is happening, although I can feel her inquiries.” The calculation of whether or not the man could survive until I called didn’t seem to bother him. Having given me his opinion on what to do, Peter left the room, leaving me with Zari, who was flopping around on her side trying to get comfortable again. It also didn’t give me the chance to ask more about Gaia. When we’d first seen the metal, we’d been working with Pele and Kuan Yin.
“Should I call Dillon?” I asked.
“He is probably asleep,” she said.
“Yeah but the pilot…” I started.
“Appears no more likely to be dead or alive whether Dillon starts now or later in the morning.”
“So he’s not bleeding out?” I asked.
“Peter did not detect large amounts of blood.”
“But there was some.”
“Some but not too much,” Zari assured me. “And the man was upright.”
“But he’ll be in shock and shock kills.”
“He’s probably a test pilot. On my world they would know how to take care of themselves until help arrived, if they still needed it.”
“It’ll take time for Dillon to get there too, you know.”
“Peter can help him there,” Zari reminded me.
I laid back down making all those arguments with myself again. How would I feel if the man turned up dead because I hadn’t acted soon enough? I was indirectly responsible for at least two deaths already. Did I want another one on my conscience? After disturbing Zari with my tossing and turning, I finally sat up and made the call, wishing I were calling about something else.
“And Peter wants me up there now?” Dillon’s voice was surprisingly alert moments after being awakened by a phone call.
“He thought it could wait until morning but I couldn’t let this ride. I mean a man is out there in the middle of the night after a plane crash.”
“It’ll still take me time to get ready for a hike,” Dillon said. “I should get at it now.”
“When you start, start from Peter’s cabin. He’ll fill you in there and probably help get you as far as he can.”
“Why didn’t he just ask Meg?”
“You’ll see when you get there,” I told him. “Take care and thanks for not being mad that I’m waking you in the middle of the night.”
Dillon sighed as if trying to come up with something to say but finally just said, “No problem boss.” I could have wished for something a little more flirtatious, but it was earlier than anyone ought to be up. At least he wasn’t too angry, or at least not any more than I was.
“There,” I said aloud to the cat, who was once again curled up next to me. “I took care of that.”
Zari just gave me a half lidded look before settling back down and falling into her cat sleep. I took much longer to fall back to sleep even having done the only thing I could have done at that hour. Even when I did fall asleep, I was plagued by troubling dreams where I was lost on the mountain looking for a plane ride back to my original home in Michigan. Every time I failed to find the plane where it should be, I sighed with relief but redoubled my efforts to search.
Meg
After snuggling with Peter for her usual morning wake up, Meg dressed, surprised to find him waiting at her kitchen counter, with a chai. Peter didn’t usually bring gifts, which set Meg’s radar on alert. She reached out to find out what was going on. Instead of falling into his mind, as she usually did, Meg felt as if a door slammed in her face. It was unlike Peter to shut her out. He was usually far too inquisitive himself, with no shame and no interest in hiding anything. Lately, he’d been a little bit different. There were places that he didn’t want to let her look at too long.
“So?” she asked.
“What?” Peter was sitting in the chair nearest the wall, leaning back against it. He was watching her, eyes half lidded.
“You don’t usually bring chai. So what’s up? Or rather what did you do?” Meg asked, trying to keep it light, although she knew she wasn’t feeling that way at all. Something was wrong. She was tired of him trying to hide something from her. He knew she was bothered by it, but she could find nothing in him that suggested he was at all concerned for her feelings.
“There was a plane crash on the mountain last night,” Peter said. He didn’t say anything more. Rather he went on to trace a pattern in the counter top before looking up at her.
“And?” Meg asked. There should have been news. If he knew, he really ought to have reported it, unless there was something else going on. “Was anyone hurt?”
“Probably,”
Peter responded, pausing in his tracing, but looking back down as if seeing his invisible pattern. Maybe he did. His dark hair, long in front, fell across his face and into his eyes, softening the chiseled granite planes of his face.
“It didn’t hurt anyone I know did it?” Meg breathed, hoping she wouldn’t have to deal with more bad news. No one she loved had died for nearly a year, when she had lost her best friend Lacey. Since then, Meg worried about everyone she knew. Lacey’s death had been at the hands of another earth spirit, one who was bound against its will. Meg would have died as well, but Peter saved her before that happened. The unexpected loss still ripped at her.
Peter shook his head, moving towards where she stood, wrapping her in a hug. “No one you know. Just the pilot most likely.”
“Then what’s wrong?” Meg asked again, pulling away enough to see his face, the way the edge of his mouth turned down just a little, the green and brown hazel that changed color like the seasons of the year.
“The plane had metal from Zari A’s planet woven through it. I have concerns about where that came from.”
“Have you reported it?” Meg asked.
“To whom?”
“I don’t know, the FAA or something? You could have woken me.”
“Actually,” Peter said, moving back just a little, “I felt like I should let Zari know. She woke Rain. Dillon has been sent up there to check it out.”
Down in Whisper (9781311456113) Page 1