“I think they’re the reason Peter is gone,” Meg said. Dillon had taken both their strange guns, gingerly and put them in his pack. He mentioned they were cold. Meg had stayed with Colleen near their captives, who had watched him carefully, tensing at one point when he examined part of it.
Now the three of them marched the two men down the mountain. Colleen pushed the older man in front of her. Meg held the arm of the younger one. Meg led while Dillon brought up the rear this time.
“I didn’t think the mountain can survive without Peter,” Dillon said.
“I didn’t think so either,” Meg replied. She stepped over a branch and pulled roughly at her charge when he stumbled. If she pulled one of his shoulders out of alignment, then so be it. “But he’s gone.”
Dillon opened his cell phone again, trying to get a signal.
Meg listened as he put it away without saying anything. They were still out of range.
There was still some light left on the mountain, though not much penetrated the forest. Fortunately, Meg had a flashlight with her. She wasn’t worried about using it. She could feel that she was close to the populated areas of the mountain. Her feet walked along a path that was almost familiar. She knew, although how she knew, she couldn’t say, that she was heading slightly north, on the way to Peter’s.
Dillon wasn’t arguing with her this time. She wondered if he had any idea where they were going or if he’d forgotten why she wasn’t supposed to go to Peter’s. Maybe it no longer mattered.
Meg heard someone stumble and Colleen swore slightly. A soft chuckle from the older man meant it had probably been Colleen who had missed that step. With Dillon bring up the rear, Meg wasn’t too worried about the old man getting away.
Meg started moving a little more slowly. Whatever link she had had to Peter had clearly given her a surefootedness in the forest but that talent wasn’t something everyone had. She slowed her pace a little, not for her captives but for her friends.
“You ought to tell us who you are,” Meg said breaking the silence. She could hear the scurrying of small creatures around her and smell the sweet smell of pitch from the forest. Her underarms felt slightly damp from her exertions. Her butt hurt from where she’d fallen but she knew her body could keep moving for a very long time.
“Why?” the old man responded. The younger one said nothing at all.
“So we know who to turn you over to.”
The older man snorted. “Stupid women,” the younger one muttered with a half laugh.
“Stupid women are walking you through the forest all tied up,” Colleen responded, although her voice held no particular malice. Meg wondered if Colleen had heard that in the places she’d worked when she was in the military. She certainly wasn’t bristling like Meg.
“In my home, women do what they’re told,” the young man said. He didn’t speak with an accent. Still, there was something off about the cadence of his words.
“And where is home?” Dillon asked from the back.
Neither man answered. It wasn’t Whisper, Meg knew. The lightness of their weight and the birdlike resemblance made her wonder about other planets, other lifeforms, even though her gut sense said that wasn’t quite right. They were from earth but it wasn’t an earth she knew. Meg’s mind ran in confusing circles around that thought, almost understanding but not quite.
They walked in silence. Meg’s light bobbed around in the front. Colleen’s headlamp was a little more steady. Dillon carried no light, trusting the light from ahead and his own eyes. Meg thought he wanted to have an element of surprise if the men got away.
The sun continued to drop in the sky while they walked north. Meg paused by a tree, looking around. There wasn’t exactly a path there but she thought if she angled down, that should bring them to a fork in what really was a path and then perhaps a half mile down to Peter’s home. It was a little steep in this area. That meant it was the spot that concerned Peter when he spoke of instability. Meg stepped carefully. Her foot slid for a second, but the hand on her prisoner allowed her to maintain her balance. He was too slow to react to her momentary loss of footing or else he was too worried about his own balance to take advantage.
“Watch that,” Meg called back. She moved on ahead, pushing her prisoner. She heard Colleen swear and another chuckle from the older man.
Ahead, Meg could see a light, but it was the bouncing light of a person walking and not a light from a building. She slowed.
“Meg?” she heard her name. It sounded like Kyle.
“Kyle?” Meg called back. She missed Peter telling her who it was. Missed the knowing she always had and that concern and connection between the two of them. For all the moments she was embarrassed at the way he’d touch her or kiss in front of her mother and everyone, a full on tongue in the back of her mouth, let’s-get-a-room kind of kiss, she missed that now. Even the embarrassment of making out in front of her mom and almost liking it.
More importantly, she missed the usefulness of knowing things because Peter knew them. She missed feeling safe because for the first time on Whisper proper she hadn’t been certain that the light coming towards her was a sign of safety or something else.
She could hear Kyle moving through the trees faster. She walked towards him.
Kyle paused, looking at Meg holding on to a stranger.
“There was another one of those bird men in our office,” he said without preamble.
“And is everyone okay?” Meg asked. Kyle looked over her shoulder at Colleen and the older man.
“Yeah. He had some trouble.”
The old man snorted.
“And he was taken care of. It was pretty wild,” Kyle said.
“Peter’s gone,” Meg told him in a small voice. She sounded like a little girl when she said that. She squared her shoulders, hoping the other man hadn’t noticed how upset she was.
“I know,” Kyle said. “A woman helped us. She told us she was Gaia. She also said Peter would be gone for a few days. She wanted you to know that. She named you specifically.” Kyle’s voice took on an urgency, trying to convey something Meg wasn’t getting.
“Gaia?” Meg repeated. The name brought up images of the earth for her but she wasn’t sure what it meant. She should know the name.
“Like the earth goddess?” Kyle replied.
It was Meg’s turn to snort. Another goddess. Peter hadn’t trusted the gods last time and now they were around again? “How many goddesses are there? And why is Peter gone?”
“Zari said that Gaia is the earth so she uses the elemental spirits. And that’s why Peter is gone.”
Meg shook her head, frustrated. Too much was happening. “And what about them?”
She loosened her hand on the other man’s arm. She felt him pull away, as if planning to run. She tightened her grip.
“The one in our office just disappeared,” Kyle said. “Gaia said she was setting things to rights.”
“I don’t get it,” Meg was feeling very dense about this but her mind was a fog or maybe she felt she only had half a mind now that Peter wasn’t there. She had no idea how much she’d come to rely on his nudges and suggestions subtly leading her to places she might not think to go. And now she was alone because Gaia had taken him from her, for a few days but who knew what a day was to a goddess.
The sun brightened, except it was evening and the sun shouldn’t have been in the sky. Meg held an arm up to her face. Her charge melted her from her hand. She turned, but there was nothing there. The brightness was gone. She had an image of a meadow in spring. She was hiking with her father and he’d noticed a deer with twin fawns. They’d watched from the cover of the woods for some time while the mother deer led her fawns around finding the choicest bits of branches.
Meg shook her head, expecting to find herself in a spring meadow, but she was back on the mountain. Colleen was looking at her hands. Dillon was also shaking his head. Kyle wiped a hand across his eyes before looking at her. Their prisoners were gone.
“Gaia,” Kyle said. “We saw her in the office. This felt like her though. I got the same memory I had when she took the man who was going to shoot up the office.”
“I still don’t understand.” Why was everything so hard? Dillon was kneeling on the ground to dig through his pack.
“Zari said it was cleaning up. These people weren’t from our world. They were from a parallel universe. That’s what the plane did. It opened a door to this universe but because they left things behind that didn’t belong here, it kept a door open and that’s why we were seeing them in odd places, like Rain did at the machine shop. Zari said it’s dangerous.”
“They’re gone,” Dillon said standing up.
“We noticed,” Meg responded drily.
Colleen smiled a little at that.
“No, the guns,” Dillon clarified. “They had these weird ray gun like things. And they’re gone. No one even touched my pack.”
“I expect a goddess wouldn’t need to,” Colleen commented. “Of course, I’m not sure why she didn’t step in sooner.”
Kyle shrugged. “The gods weren’t in any hurry to step in when we had to find Pele’s dog either. Not until things were almost all found.”
“Peter says we should always distrust the gods. They have their own agendas.” Meg felt like the words were just a recitation of something she’d learned long ago. The world didn’t even feel exactly real. Was she even in her world or was this another one where Peter never existed?
“I guess it was getting messier. If you really want answers, Zari seems to understand the most,” Kyle said. “I just got that these guys were from a parallel world. Maybe they worked for the plane maker and needed to retrieve the plane and go.”
“The plane’s still there,” Dillon said. “Or it was.”
“They took anything with blood on it and a few other things, like things that were close to their bodies.”
“Things that were obviously not from this universe,” Meg said. “Things that couldn’t be from here that might have anchored the door open, right? Things that didn’t belong.”
“That’s kind of what Zari said.” Kyle seemed puzzled but willing to let it go. He led them down the trail.
Meg’s flashlight flickered a few times as they got closer to Peter’s. The trail flattened out before descending to a short steep slope. There behind his house, Meg saw construction bins. The roof had been raised which was obvious even from behind. She walked around the side, wondering. Gone was the old wood cabin siding, painted a dull brown. Now there was newer, modern siding in what looked like a brighter color, yellow if her dying flashlight portrayed the color correctly. There were holes where the old windows were and new windows setting around the edges.
Meg could make out that the porch had been widened. Around the other side she could see a small wall had been built and an assortment of plants tumbled over. They moved lightly in the breeze and she walked around to look. Meg saw a tiny garden beyond which she could see where a massive luxury bathroom was framed out, with the bath and shower areas mapped and the window still waiting to be put in along with tile.
Peter didn’t need a shower. He disappeared when he slept which meant all of this, with its construction details stamped with Barringer Construction, was something he’d worked on with her father. And that meant it was for her. The secrets were all about this surprise. Meg sat down, holding onto the low wall, her arm reaching up even as she faced it. The flashlight rolled out of her hand.
Crying, Meg buried her face in her hands, worried that she wasn’t going to get the opportunity to thank him. What if Kyle was wrong and he wasn’t able to come back?
Rain
John and I rode down in the elevator so I could make sure Marcus was alright. If we needed to let him rest in the building, we could always use my guest room.
John looked like he was in shock. He was a little pale and didn’t seem that alert.
“You’re okay to drive home?” I asked him
“Hmm?” the older man said.
“Maybe you should stay here and have a cup of coffee. That was kind of a shock upstairs,” I suggested.
John looked at me and nodded. I wondered if he would listen.
When the elevator doors opened, I saw RaeLynn on the floor, sitting by Marcus. She was talking to someone on her cell phone.
“Amy?” I mouthed at her and she nodded.
John walked over to the Cuppa stand, clearly still not quite himself and started to order.
“She said not to call 911?” the girl at the stand called out to me.
“That’s right. We can help him. Don’t worry about it.”
“He just slumped over like he was going to fall. I put him in a chair but he started slumping further. I was lucky he could help me lay him down or he would have fallen,” the girl said. She looked about eighteen and I was surprised she seemed to be in charge. Usually there was someone who looked at least college age there.
“Are you closing today?” I asked.
The girl nodded.
“I’ll let your manager know that you did what you were supposed to do okay?” I handed her my card. Most of the workers there knew me but in case this young woman didn’t, she’d now have a contact for her manager.
“Thanks,” she said. She went back to assist John with his order.
RaeLynn hung up the phone. “Amy was just closing up the office so she’ll be here soon.”
“Great.”
“I managed to fend off a nurse by telling her I was a doctor and this was my patient,” RaeLynn grinned. “I’m not sure she believed me, but she was definitely careful about asking questions. I think it helped that I started to call someone.”
I shrugged. There were medical offices in the building so it wasn’t impossible that RaeLynn was a doctor. The fact that they were ob-gyn offices made it less likely that Marcus would actually be a patient though. Even if the nurse had figured it out, hopefully she was familiar enough with Whisper to not ask too many questions. Marcus moaned softly.
Kneeling on the ground, I wished I had gotten full carpeting rather than area rugs for the lobby. Of course, here by the Cuppa it was all tile. It had to be cold.
“This has to be uncomfortable,” I said.
“Well, you didn’t build this area for people to sleep here,” RaeLynn said.
“Maybe I should have,” I said.
John came over, carrying a tall paper cup. He still seemed confused but he took a sip which perked him up enough to offer assistance.
“Can I help you get him someplace more comfortable?” he asked.
“We can take him up to my apartment,” I said.
RaeLynn nodded. “If you two can move him, I can direct Amy up there. Is Zari still in the office?”
“Yeah. She’s locked in there. I’ll grab her when we get Marcus settled. She’s probably pretty pissed at being left behind.”
“Well, you didn’t exactly need to do it,” Zari said, clearly listening in on my conversation.
“I can carry the coffee up after you too,” RaeLynn offered, picking up the cup John had set down.
John helped me get Marcus to a seated position. His head lolled but he seemed to have enough control to help us. As we braced ourselves under his arms and lifted him up, he managed to move his feet enough to be of help.
Slowly we made our way across the room. Marcus was doing his best to keep his feet moving but I think John and I carried most of his weight. Fortunately, although Marcus was fairly tall, he was also quite thin.
Once in the elevator, John and I were able to lean back against the wall for a minute which helped take some of Marcus’ weight off of us or at least I tried to convince myself of that.
We did the slow walk out the door to the small alcove before my apartment. I unlocked that door and we went in.
“The guest room
is immediately to the right,” I said, moving that way. John and I had to angle ourselves so that we could get Marcus down the hall. Surprisingly enough I had not made the hallway wide enough for three people to walk abreast. I made a mental note that if I ever built another apartment, I should consider that. Or else have the door to the guest room closer to the main door. You never knew when you might be carrying a body up.
“You are getting rather punchy,” Zari said.
“Ya think?” I thought back.
“I am waiting for you to come get me,” she announced. “It is not very interesting here.”
“I’ll be down when I can. Or I’ll send John.”
“I do like him. He can hear me, although he doesn’t want to notice it. He does like it when I tell him where to scritch. He thinks we are just on the same wavelength. He likes cats but doesn’t have one now. He had a big orange Tom named Pert but he died about a year ago. He keeps hoping another cat will show up.”
“Perhaps you can guide one there?” I suggested.
“There’s a rather nice looking sleek black cat that is in the area. He was dropped off along the mountain about a month ago and is not doing well. He’s a fine cat. Next time I sense his presence I shall send him that way.”
“Should I tell John to be on the lookout?” I asked.
“I think that might just scare him. I expect he’ll do fine with that black cat. He had a black cat once that he was quite fond of, so I expect this guy will have a good home in no time at all.”
John helped me get Marcus onto the bed. I took off his shoes. Amy came into the apartment with RaeLynn as I was doing that.
“John, would you mind getting Zari A?” I asked. “I usually just carry her down there so you don’t need to bring anything else up.” I held out my office key.
He nodded, willing to be of assistance and looking a little relieved to be able to help with something that made sense to him.
Amy waited until he was out the door to say anything, although she was already touching Marcus, feeling for any injuries.
Down in Whisper Page 18