“We’ll need you and the lady to press charges,” the cop was saying as Magnus tried—unsuccessfully— to figure out how to save the world as he knew it.
“Start with assault and kidnapping, terroristic threatening. We have some bombs to find and then we can make statements.” Magnus left Chang to look after his cursing, struggling father. A nurse arrived with a needle. That might do the trick.
In the office, Nadine was already frantically talking into a phone and pointing at the map on one of the monitors.
“Conan’s downloading the files,” she told Magnus as he walked in. “I’m talking to Oz. We have to clear out the town, the school, and half Dorrie’s family in San Francisco. Jo-jo knows where they all are.”
Thirty-one
“No one could plant explosives in all those places,” Dick, the IT guy protested as Nadine shoved him aside to take the keyboard. “It’s just a war game. The general is developing new software for the army.”
“That’s the kind of misinformation he fed me,” Nadine told him. “And then he captured an army helicopter with Magnus in it, and we found the scientists he’s hiding in underground labs. Take my word, the general is dangerous. You can’t trust anything he says.”
It hurt to say that. It hurt to realize how badly she’d been betrayed by a man she’d once hoped had cared for her just a little. But the time for castigation wasn’t now. Magnus waited, steadfast as a rock, hoping she could point him in the right direction. She was afraid that after all his valiant efforts, they might be too late.
“Can you find out what’s happening at the school?” she asked Magnus.
He’d brought Jo-jo down without hurting him. He hadn’t barged in like the Hulk and ripped off his enemy’s head but had paid attention to her, even when she was babbling insanity. No man had ever trusted her so implicitly.
And now she could feel him pulling away.
His job here was basically done—he’d caught the general, which is all he’d wanted. She and Vera were safe. She really couldn’t expect more from him.
At her request, Magnus called Conan and didn’t attempt to include her in the conversation.
“Anyone at the school yet?” she heard him say into the phone.
She couldn’t hear Conan’s reply. She could only set aside her own selfish concerns and pray they would get the kids out. For now, she had to figure out just what the general had done.
Using the program Dick had opened for her, Nadine located the target nearest the school and zeroed in. “Give me the phone and I’ll give Conan the coordinates.”
Magnus handed over the phone. “Conan can’t be in three places at once. I need to head back to the school while he deals with whatever’s planted in El Padre.”
“Go with him, kid,” Conan said to Nadine, evidently hearing. “I have the program downloaded and can figure out what’s what and can call you if I need anything. You need to convince Zorro on your end that he needs to cooperate, or he’s likely to go off half-cocked again. I’ll start sending coordinates to the cops in each of these towns.”
“How’s Mikala?” Nadine asked while she tried to decide if she wanted to deal with Magnus in Terminator mode. He filled the tiny office with his presence and his unfocused need to act.
“The kid’s a little spooked and wary, but she’s doing okay for now. You want to come here instead of dealing with bonehead?” Conan asked.
“No, I’ll stay with bonehead,” she said. She had to smile at Conan’s accurate assessment of his brother. If Magnus was just being stubborn . . . She threw a glance over her shoulder and caught the Maximator’s scowl. That cinched it. She was going to do what she wanted to do. Let him suck it up. “Tell Mikala I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Sounds like you’re able to tell her yourself,” Conan said with his perpetual curiosity.
“Not unless I can picture where you and Mikala are. I’ve never been to El Padre. It’s incredibly hard to focus over a distance without grounding the target. Send a drone image to my phone.”
Conan laughed and she hung up and handed the phone back to Magnus, not leaving him room to argue. “I need to talk to Vera. Can we get someone to drop us off at the Hummer or do we need to hike down?”
He looked as if he wanted to say no.
She wasn’t waiting for permission anymore. And she wouldn’t be shoved aside.
Nadine got up and let Dick back into the desk chair. She leaned over his shoulder to point out the school on the screen. “Those are the little kids the general wanted to turn into weapons. I’ve been there. I’ve seen them. Believe me. I’ve been one of them for years. Adams Engineering is going to need you once the dust settles, and right now, Chang and I are the company. I’m relying on you to dismantle any detonating switches in this program. Got it?”
Actually, she was relying on Conan, but it didn’t hurt to have two drivers at the wheel.
Without waiting for Magnus, Nadine strode out of the office and headed toward the lobby. Neither of them were known for their social graces, so they’d have to learn to communicate in other ways. Or she’d have to learn to read his obtuse mind.
The police were taking statements from the sane witnesses, but there was no sign of Jo-jo. Nadine almost sighed in relief. She didn’t think she could take any more emotional meltdowns right now, when there was too much riding on these next hours.
Even Nurse Wretched was gone. There probably wasn’t enough evidence to accuse her of anything, but with any luck, the battleax wouldn’t be put in charge of any more helpless patients.
It had been pure pleasure seeing her tormentor Maced and knowing her life was back in her own hands again.
Now, she had to make that life useful. “We need a ride down to our car,” she told the lobby at large before Magnus could take the upper hand.
The cops looked to Magnus. He crossed his arms and lifted his eyebrow. Nadine didn’t know whether to smack him or hug him.
One of the deputies shrugged. “I can take you down. We still need you to make statements.”
“We need to save a few kids first,” Nadine corrected, hurrying for the door. “It’s hard to make a statement until we know what we’re dealing with.”
The ride down the mountain was faster than their hike up. Nadine used the time to call Vera and let her know that the general had been stopped but that they still had some problems. She ordered Vera to move Jack and all her new paranormal friends to a safe place.
In minutes, they were back at the Hummer. Nadine grabbed the key first and appropriated the driver’s side. She thought she detected a glimmer of appreciation beneath the Maximator’s square-jawed sternness, but he had it under control when he took the passenger seat.
Just the hope that he understood buoyed her spirits to ridiculous proportions. She squashed them. “I don’t have a driver’s license. If we get stopped, do I go to jail?”
“You will. I won’t. How am I supposed to know you had no license?”
She punched his big biceps. “Just for that, I’m going to speed. If I’m going to jail, it will be for a good reason.”
***
Magnus tolerated Nadine’s reckless drive down the mountain until they reached rush hour traffic on the highway. Even though this mountain highway wasn’t the multi-lane I-5, it was fast and busy enough to test Nadine’s skills. Remembering her terror when he’d first taken her out in speeding traffic, he ordered her off at a gas station exit.
He was supposed to be letting her fly free, and he was back in caretaker mode again. He ought to smack himself.
“Coffee,” he ordered, handing her his cash. “Anything resembling breakfast would be good.”
She looked at him as if she wanted to say something, but she chose wisely and took the cash instead. Only as she stalked off, her short curls bouncing and her rear swaying beneath that ridiculous hoodie, did he realize he was ordering her around—as the general had. Last time he’d done that, she’d run away. Would he ever learn?
He was in the driver’s seat, stewing, when she returned with breakfast sandwiches and coffee. Wordlessly, she climbed in the passenger side and began eating. His relief was boundless.
Not knowing where he stood in her estimation, Magnus tore into his food, finished it in a few bites, and drove off.
He didn’t want to ruin her life, he told himself. He was backing off, letting her be herself, doing his damndest not to take over.
But he hated this silence between them. He’d enjoyed the camaraderie they’d shared these past days. Okay, so he’d more than enjoyed the sex.
“Any way you can read the general’s mind if we find out where he’s been taken?” he asked.
“Possibly,” she reluctantly agreed. “Really don’t want to go there again.”
“Fair enough. Just checking in case we needed it. Can’t say I know a lot about what you do, so I have to ask.”
Her shoulders slumped slightly. “I suppose I ought to learn more about my weird talent, but I really just want to have a normal life. Is that too much to ask?”
“Normal isn’t all that interesting,” he said, doing his best to ponder her plaint. “But no, it’s not too much to ask. I’m betting that the reason more people don’t have your abilities is because they’re too freaky to understand, and they let them degenerate. Or they’re called schizoid and they get medicated. Pippa’s theory is that parents need to teach their children how to use their abilities in a safe environment.”
“Yeah, I could see that.” She sounded a little less miserable. “Instead of teaching the kids to be weapons, we should be teaching them how to help people with their gifts. Or just how to survive without looking like freaks. But we have no instruction books.”
“Write them,” he said. “Talk to Francesca. Will you really end up controlling the general’s businesses? That’s gonna suck time and probably not be your idea of normal.”
“I just said that to frighten Dick into behaving. I have no idea how control of a military industry is passed on. Feng Jin is a lazy druggie who just wants any money he can lay his hands on. Chang will end up in charge. He knows more than anyone else. But if Jo-jo is insane, it might be difficult to obtain the paperwork to give him ownership.”
“So, what do you consider normal?” Magnus asked, trying not to place too much hope on her answer.
She sipped her coffee and stared at the road ahead. “I have no idea. A job. A house. A car. Friends. Travel. No more secrets.”
Magnus noticed she didn’t add lover or boyfriend to that list. Maybe she was shy of saying it in front of him, although shy wasn’t a word he’d apply to Nadine. Oz would come right out and ask. Conan would probably tap her computer and send her virtual bouquets. Magnus had no clue if he even had a right to ask her for a date.
Hell, she didn’t even have a home to go to. Of course, neither did he. Did homeless people date?
His phone rang and he handed it to Nadine. He missed his Camaro.
“Conan,” she read from the screen before answering.
She listened attentively, sighed with relief, muttered a Thank, God, and turned to Magnus. “They took the kids at the school to safety last night. The bomb squad found the explosives at the school—in the ‘grave’ that Vera saw. They’re dismantling it now. Another crew is on its way to El Padre. They think Dick and Conan have disarmed the software triggers but even if they haven’t, there’s time. Jo-jo had them set to detonate over several days.”
“In hopes we’d all gather together after each explosion, and he could ultimately get all of us. Charming.”
Feeling as if the weight of the world had fallen off his shoulders, Magnus recalculated his route. “They don’t need us at the school now. Tomorrow’s the wedding. You want to see Mikala and meet the family?”
Nadine sent him a brilliant but weary smile.
***
Frazzled, Nadine fell asleep on the drive to El Padre. She woke when the Hummer hit a sizable pot hole a few feet from the town welcome sign.
“They put that hole there so people will notice the sign?” she asked sleepily.
“Or to wake them up so they won’t fly off the side of the mountain. Sorry I woke you.”
“Sorry I conked out on you.” She ran her hand through her curls, discovered she was still wearing the ear clip, and removed it. “I look a fright. Should we stop somewhere and clean up?”
“That’s what Oz’s place is for. We’ll shower, get some sleep, and be ready for the rehearsal dinner tonight.”
She glared at him. “You can walk in looking all studly military and cool. I’ll go in looking like a scarecrow in a fright wig. Uncool first impression.”
He shot her a look so full of incredulity that even she registered it.
“You just saved a school and no telling how many families, including ours,” he said. “Do you really think anyone will see you as anything but an angel with a halo? Besides, you look gorgeous.”
That was glib foolishness, except Magnus wasn’t prone to flattery. Satisfied that he thought she didn’t look too awful, even though she knew better, Nadine tried to dismiss her anxieties. Hoping for more pleasant thoughts, she opened her mind.
The shock of joy and recognition that she received was worth every bit of exhaustion. “Mikala’s watching for us. Be prepared.”
“That’s all you needed to read her?” he asked. “The town sign?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe the short distance. And Mikala’s open mind. I have a lot to learn.”
He whistled. “I’ll say. The general was an idiot.”
“He is a military strategist, not a scientist. Po-po would probably have figured out our abilities, but Jo-jo was just looking for weapons.”
“Imagination and creativity need to work together with analytics and strategy, got it. Not easily accomplished,” he said with regret. He pulled up to a high arched wrought iron gate that revealed only a shrubbery-lined drive. A stucco wall concealed any view of the house.
“From what I’ve seen, your brothers and their wives have that combination. I don’t know how they make it work though.” Nadine steered her thoughts from the magical marriage blend of creativity and science. They’d only known each other for a week. Magnus wasn’t giving her those kind of signals.
Instead, she gasped in shock at the sprawling mansion exposed as they drove down the drive. “Your brother lives here?”
“Oz and Pippa made their fortunes in La-la Land. The cost is their privacy—hence the mountaintop retreat and high walls.” He eased the Hummer down the drive to the parking area in front of a garage.
Mikala burst through the shrubbery, running as fast as her stout little legs would carry her. Thrilled at the waves of happiness emanating from the child’s mind, Nadine jumped down from the Humvee, crouched down, and opened her arms in welcome. Mikala flew into them.
The little girl felt heartwarmingly solid and real. And wet. “You’ve been in the pool!” Nadine laughed as the child wiggled her towel around her waist.
“I’ve been swimming! And there are other kids and we’re having fun! Come see!”
Overwhelmed with enthusiasm, Nadine slowed her down. “First, you should say hello to Mr. Oswin. He’s been helping us.” Nadine stood to introduce Magnus.
He solemnly held out his hand. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Mikala. Is everyone at the pool?”
“Yes!” the child shouted, offering a confused expression with her damp handshake. Apparently the adults in her life didn’t shake her hand. Undaunted, she continued, “The bomb men were in the trees by the wall, and Miss Pippa said we should stay out of their way. So we’ve been hiking and finding berries and now we’re getting clean.”
Nadine intercepted Magnus’s inquiring look at Pippa’s unusual reaction to a terrifying situation. She translated. “Imagination versus practicality. Why scare the kids? Take them for a hike instead of running away or hiding in fear. Admirable.”
“I will assume Oz’s wall prevented the gen
eral’s henchmen from planting explosives on the grounds,” Magnus murmured as Mikala ran ahead of them. “So they buried them in the grove on the far side of the wall.”
“Didn’t see any holes in the road as we drove in,” she agreed.
“Maybe the general’s first order of business was to remove the barricade for later invasion? Even with trees in the way, I don’t know how he got around Oz’s security.”
“Hacked it,” Nadine said. “That’s where his military intel worked best. It’s really scary what can be accessed with a little time and effort. Can I just not think about it for a while?” She plucked wistfully at a flowering shrub lining the path behind the house.
“I’ll not tell you my next project for now,” he agreed obliquely. “The pool is just around the bend. Are you ready?”
She took his hand and nodded. Magnus bent and gave her a hasty kiss. She wanted more, but she understood this wasn’t the time or place.
She hoped there would be a time or place in the near future.
Mikala had already shouted the news of their arrival to the party gathered at the pool. Wearing a thin yellow cover-up that fell to her feet, Pippa strolled over to greet them.
Dorrie waved from the far side of the pool. The bride-to-be was wearing a short, brightly colored caftan, with her wild black hair loose about her shoulders. Beside her, Conan lifted his sunglasses and lazily saluted them.
Nadine tried to remember the names and faces of the other guests, but there were too many.
“The two of you must be exhausted,” Pippa said sympathetically. “You’ll need to get some rest before tonight’s festivities. If it’s okay with both of you, I’ve set you up in the studio so you won’t be disturbed. There’s food and your wardrobes have been sent down there.”
“You deserve a break today,” Oz said wryly, coming up behind his wife to shake their hands in appreciation. “Hero worship will otherwise ensue. Your timing is excellent. Dorrie’s grandmother has retired for her nap, so you won’t be subject to a genealogical inquisition yet.”
“I can handle that easier than a pool party,” Nadine admitted. “Food and rest would be better. I got a nap in but Max didn’t, and he could probably eat an entire roast pig by now.”
THE RISK OF LOVE AND MAGIC Page 26