Marine 3: Island of Dreams (Agent of Time)

by Tanya Allan

  “My name is Doctor Ryan. For the next few months, I am one-step down from God as far as you are concerned! Some of you may learn to hate me, but you will learn to respect me. Above all, you will learn from me! Because what I teach you now will make a difference between life and a meaningless existence. Do you hear me?” I said.

  “Yes ma’am.” One or two muttered, with “Whatever”, “Yeah” and “if you say so.”

  “I did not hear you!” I said, loudly.

  This brought a slightly more unified response, but lacking real enthusiasm.

  I stood, motionless and silent for several awkward seconds.

  “I did not hear you!” I repeated, quietly.

  “Yes Ma’am!” they shouted.

  “That’s better,” I said, smiling as the latest batch of students received the Ryan treatment.

  That had been weeks ago, and I was now well established in my role in the classroom. I had never taught kids of high school age before, having spent all my time at university level. Once the boys found that I had a brain somewhere above my breasts, they all responded well to my practical and down to earth approach to their own language. The girls responded better, particularly when I showed them that not all blondes were dumb.

  Unfortunately, the boys had an immediate disadvantage as the small brain they used most, the one between their legs, tended to drain the vital oxygen carrying blood supply from the other brain located between their ears. Their constant tendency to dribble and drool during my lessons was annoying at best, and downright distracting at worst.

  However, once they had seen Ed on campus, in full Marine greens, I found their attitude was less aggressively sexual, and I began to make some headway. I was happy in my work, and Ed was more than content with his new job.

  He had gone for his annual check up with the naval doctor who had replaced his knee, which caused some consternation amongst the medical fraternity there. They discovered that not only was his knee completely restored, but also various other ailments, such as the arthritis in his left shoulder, had also completely vanished. He was healthier now than he had been ten years previously. They even offered to place him back on the active list, but smiling, he had declined. The surgeon could not believe that this was the same Ed Ryan he had seen a few short months before.

  I got up, had a shower, and ate breakfast as I read the newspaper. I had never been a great TV fan, and the American TV was even less attractive than the UK variety. It was Friday, and I arrived at work and, as always, the morning flew past. I had no classes in the afternoon so had made a doctor’s appointment. I hadn’t told Ed, but I suspected that we were going to hear the pitter-patter of tiny feet in about nine months or so. I wasn’t feeling sick or anything, I just felt pregnant, and I had missed my last period.

  I was making dinner when Ed returned. We had our usual kiss and cuddle and then he came to nibble at whatever I was cooking.

  “Honey, I’m going to have to sell the Harley,” I said, as I slapped his hand out of the sauce.

  “Why?”

  “Because I can’t get a baby seat on the back. Could you pass the pepper mill, please?” I said.

  Like a fool, he was half way passing the pepper when the penny dropped, so he stared at me.

  “You aren’t?”

  I smiled and nodded.

  “When did you find out?”

  “This afternoon. I had an appointment with Dr Phillips. I’m about six weeks pregnant. But that is not all.”

  “What else could there be?”

  “Have you a history of twins in your family?”

  Ed just stared at me, then sat down on the breakfast bar stool, pepper mill still clutched forgotten in his hand.

  “No, but then I thought twins followed the female side.”

  “Probably, anyway, she said that I was rather too large for just one, so I may be expecting twins. She is setting up a scan for next week, as the scanner was unavailable today.”

  Ed sat there with a soppy grin on his face, so now I knew how to reduce a big tough US Marine Sergeant Major into a blubbering jelly in 30 seconds. He pulled me to him, and laid one of his large hands gently on my belly.

  “You kept that to yourself.”

  “I did, didn’t I?” I said, smiling. It had been a real challenge to keep it from him.

  “Oh, honey, I am so pleased, but how about you?” he said.

  “It is what I want, above everything else,” I said, so he kissed me, but then he frowned.

  “What, twins?”

  “No, not necessarily, but hey, it saves on two pregnancies.”

  “Let’s go out for dinner to celebrate?” he suggested.

  “No way, not after I have spent the last hour preparing dinner.”

  “Does your mother know?”

  I nodded. “Yes, I called her as soon as I got back from the surgery. She is thrilled. You know she will be here when he, she or they arrive?”

  “Of course. I’d expect nothing else.”

  “Now, the pepper please.”

  He grinned and passed the pepper, so I used it for what I had intended several minutes previously.

  “So, when are you due?”

  “She said I probably conceived in the middle of September, so probably early to mid July.”

  “I still can’t believe it.”

  “Believe it, buster. You are going to be a dad again. At least, I should be able to see the year out with the high school, and maybe even go back in September for the next semester.”

  I then noticed that he had tears in his eyes, so I sensed that he was crying for his other two children that he never got to know. I held him close, but said nothing, either out loud, or mentally. There just was no need.

  I served up dinner, so we sat close together to eat. Afterwards, as was our custom, we simply sat cuddled together on the sofa, either reading or watching the TV. Ed liked the football, ice hockey, basketball and baseball games. I understood none of them, but enjoyed his attempts to explain what was going on. I deliberately pretended to misunderstand, and it drove him mad. He always bit, so I usually ended up being tickled. This usually led to sex, so the game was forgotten.

  This evening, however, he was so damn tender, I felt like screaming. Eventually, he acknowledged that I was still relatively safe to move around without being wrapped in cotton wool!

  When we went to bed that night, we had one of the best ever sex sessions. I was lying close to him, as he just caressed me to a point whereby I was a quivering mess. He then swung on top of me, and as he penetrated me, I had the most amazing orgasm! I almost screamed the place down, so he stopped, thinking I was in pain. But my finger nails on his butt got him going, and we were away.

  I have heard many things about sex from all sorts of experts, but with us, the fact that our mental awareness was so in tune with the other, we managed to share each other’s experiences. This brought us to a height of climax that I don’t believe anyone else could achieve, and us so close as to be as one.

  The next morning, Saturday, we had a little lie in, until seven thirty. We went for our usual jog together, but I did take it easy on the exercises. Then we went off to the mall to do some shopping.

  Ed wasn’t keen on shopping, and it was a new experience for me. In my previous life, I had been a bare essentials shopper, but now, I actually enjoyed wandering almost aimlessly around the huge Wal-Mart store.

  Ed used to get bored, often disappearing to look in the sports or gun shop, so today was no exception. I had most of the groceries on my list in the cart, and was just looking at the variety of baby stuff on sale when he went walk-about. I just smiled and kept going.

  I first became aware that something was wrong, when I saw one of the security guards on the ground, and I assumed the pool of liquid he was lying in was his blood.

  I hadn’t heard anything, but there was so much background noise, that did not surprise me. I quickly backed up the aisle, and sent a mental alert to Ed.

  ‘Ed! Some
thing’s wrong. A man been shot or stabbed. I think the place is being robbed. Call the cops!’

  ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yes, call cops.’

  I saw movement from behind the semi mirrored glass in the office, which I assumed was the cash office, from which a large scruffy man came out. He had a black handgun in his right hand and a holdall in his left. I dodged behind a pile of detergent, and peeped round.

  Another man, this time black, followed him out. He had a revolver type handgun and a black rucksack.

  ‘Two men. One white, 6’2’ heavy build, dirty blue jeans, brown work boots, grey sweater and dark jacket. Long brown hair, needs a wash, unshaven. I would say mid to late 30s. The other black, late 20s, 5’8’, slim, short cropped hair, black clothes. Both with handguns, white man has automatic, black has revolver. I can see one security man on floor, not moving, bleeding.’

  ‘I’m with the cops now, honey, what are they doing?’

  ‘They are trying to decide which way to go. Both are carrying bags.’

  The men looked around them when an alarm sounded. I followed them as they ran towards the main doors. As they got there, a police car pulled up, so they stopped and ducked out of sight.

  ‘They are to the left of the front door, hiding behind the fruit counters.’

  ‘Get out of sight, honey, the cops are here.’

  ‘They are on the move again. They’ve split up, the white man is heading for the far fire exit, it comes out by the carpet store. The other man is looking for someone. I think he plans to take a hostage.’

  ‘Don’t let it be you.’

  ‘I’m well hidden. He’s found a woman with a little girl. He is shouting at them.’

  he black man picked up the little girl, holding her in front of him. He then made the woman walk behind him. He placed the gun against the little girl’s head. Both she and her mother were screaming.

  Two officers ran into the store, guns out in front of them.

  “You come any closer, I’ll waste the girl!” the man shouted.

  “You don’t want to do anything stupid. Drop your weapon!” shouted one of the cops.

  “You drop your fucking weapons, or I will kill her!” the man screamed.

  There were a series of three shots from the other exit, and then two more. The black man looked very nervous.

  ‘They just got the other guy. If you hadn’t told me where it came out, he would have got away. Well done! What’s happening now?’

  I told him what was going on, feeling completely helpless.

  ‘Ed, can we try something?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘If we both try to get into this guy’s head, we might be able to freeze him long enough for the cops to do something.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Tell the cops to expect something strange and just join with me.’

  I felt his mind join with mine, so I closed my eyes and concentrated. I sought out the life forces of everyone else around me, by seeking their thought patterns. I found the little girl. She was hysterical, as was her mother. Then I found the man. He was confused and barely rational. I discerned the presence of some form of intoxicant, his brain was very odd. But I was in. I sought the motor control, so we just hit it with a mental bolt of energy with a command,

  “FALL DOWN!”

  The man’s eyes bulged for a moment, but then he fell like a stone stare, dropping the little girl and the gun. The mother grabbed the girl, and they ran away as quickly as they could. The two officers were on the man, restraining him before he recovered control.

  Ed came running over to me as I came out of my hiding place. I suddenly felt very weak, and not for the first time in my life, I fainted.

  Chapter Ten

  Special Agent Howard Miller FBI.

  The file landed on my desk. Some wag had scribbled ‘X FILE’ on the front. As I was recovering from a back operation, I was temporarily assigned to light duties. I only took on non-confrontational and miscellaneous enquiries.

  This file pertained to the inexplicable and remarkable healing of a severely injured US Marine Sergeant Major, and his subsequent involvement in the foiling of an armed robbery, in which he and his wife seemed to invoke some form of mental telepathy to communicate with each other and used mental powers to disable the perpetrator!

  Each event on its own would not have drawn comment, but because the computer identified the name RYAN as being involved in two unconnected incidents involving the unexplained, it landed on my desk.

  Now, I had a problem. Ryan, Edward J. was a US Marine, and as soon as I instigated any form of investigation, the Department of Defense would be on my tail as soon as I could blink. So I had two options, be as sneaky as possible and hope they never found out or bring them in at the outset.

  Neither Ryan, nor his attractive wife, was suspected of any crimes, yet the events were sufficiently abnormal to warrant closer examination. The crux being, if the paranormal was involved, and either or both parties were in some way gifted, you can bet that Uncle Sam would want to utilise those gifts without anyone knowing about it.

  I made a few preliminary enquiries, which entailed a few phone calls, some to the U.K., which gave me a broad history of the couple’s recent activities. It was enough.

  I immediately called my buddy, Steve Bailey, at the Dept. of Defense. I explained my problem, so he told me he would do some checking and would get back on to me.

  So, it was with some surprise that, less than an hour later, I received a visit from Steve and his boss Walter Benson - Colonel Walter Benson.

  They came into my tiny office in the FBI building, and made themselves at home.

  “Tell me what you already know?” Walter asked.

  I showed him the thin file, containing the notes by the surgeon Captain, with a photograph of the removed artificial knee joint. There was a brief note of the explanation given by Ryan, and a few comments by the surgeon as to the inexplicably healed knee.

  I showed them a copy of the police report into the foiled armed robbery of the store in South Carolina.

  “It was alleged that Ryan was outside the store when he was alerted by his pregnant wife that there was an armed robbery. He alerted the police, while she maintained a running commentary of the activity inside the store. This included a full description of the perpetrators and blow by blow account of their movements.

  “One man was shot and killed by police as he attempted to shoot his way past them. The other took a mother and child hostage. Threatening to kill the little girl, the man attempted to get past the two officers. Then, Ryan told the officers to prepare for something strange. Suddenly, the man fell to the ground, releasing the girl and dropping his gun. The officers arrested him and no one else was hurt. The security guard had been seriously hurt, but recovered after a long hospital stay.

  “When one considered that at no time were Ryan and his wife in either visual or audible range of each other, one has to ask how the hell they managed it. No cell phones, no walkie-talkies, nothing! The only logical and reasonable answer has to be that they are telepathic and one or both can control the minds of others.

  “Now, I have done some back-ground checks. It seems the couple met on a British University organised expedition to some small island in the Atlantic. Ryan’s wife, then Dr Gillian MacLeish, is an internationally renowned linguistics specialist in West African dialects, amongst other things. She was a member of the scientific team that was looking into the origins of a small group of African peoples who were the descendents of shipwrecked slaves.

  “The group chartered a converted trawler owned and run by an Ex-U.S. Marine called Mickey Flynn. Ryan, recovering from a knee operation, was granted extended leave by his colonel, went along as security and tactical advisor. It seems that Ryan and the good doctor became lovers relatively quickly, and their relationship flourished on the island. The expedition was a great success, and all the scientific participants, including Dr MacLeish, produced papers for various ac
ademic institutions reporting their findings.

  “However, during their stay on the island, it seems that Hurricane Mable hit them, causing widespread devastation. During the storm a child was found to be missing, so Ryan and one of the islanders went searching for him. In the process, the islander was swept away in a flood, but was rescued by the resourceful Marine, who went on to locate and save the child. However, his already weak and partially artificial knee was severely injured.

  “There followed a ceremony by the local witch doctor, during which the expedition’s own doctor was present, but could not recall anything of value. Sufficient to say, that Ryan walked from the hut, with a perfectly healed knee, as the wrecked artificial joint had been removed without breaking the skin. Dr MacLeish had been literally bound hand to hand with Ryan during this ceremony. Their relationship deepened, and they were married shortly after their return to civilisation.”

  Walter looked at me for some time without speaking.

  “Would you object to handing this one over to us?” he said, at last.

  “Not in the least, but I have to confess to being curious, so I would like to stay involved. Could we not look into this one jointly?” I asked.

  The colonel looked briefly at Steve, who shrugged and nodded.

  “I don’t see why not, seeing as you have already covered most of the background. I have to tell you that this is now under strict military classification, so no one, I mean no one, is informed about it!”

  “I understand. As we are not dealing with allegations of criminal activity, how exactly should we approach this?” I asked.

  “We have found when dealing with the military, that the open and straight forward method works most effectively,” Steve said, to which the Colonel nodded his agreement.

  * * *

  Gillian.

  About two weeks after the robbery attempt, I was just arriving home after work when I noticed a plain, pale blue sedan parked outside the house. I instantly got a bad feeling about it, so mentally called Ed.