by Arlene Webb
***
“Hey…you down there. Police. Put your hands in the air.”
And from far far away, an imaginary voice barks an order.
“Can you move? Hands out where I can see them!”
Right. Like I’d open my arms because a hallucination yells at me. “Oh God, ninety-three is…Np and ninety-four…is…plutonium.” Did I tell you, sweetheart, that Np is neptunium? “I must have. Ray, listen. This is important. You have to remember that plutonium is ninety-four. Please! If I messed up the order, it means you’re—”
“Lady, is he dead?”
A body splashed down in front of her. The man seized her, pulling her out from under the dock, and she kicked at him, holding on to Ray as hard as her numbed fingers could.
“It’s okay. Let go of him.”
Never. Don’t make me. Grief crushing her chest, she feared even if she wanted to speak she’d have little to say, except for an endless scream.
Another man jumped in. “You’re in shock. Let me have him.” Strong hands forced her arms to empty. “Fuck. Is he cuffed to the pole as well?”
“Norris, help Jasper,” the man holding Cassi bellowed. “Man’s leg is stuck. He’s wearing an FBI vest.” He swung her up onto the dock and heaved himself out. He scooped her back into his arms and hurried away from the lake. “Medics are almost here. What happened?”
She answered by chattering teeth and a churning stomach filled with self-hatred. What happened was that she’d screwed up. Forgotten ninety-five, americium, or had she lost it at plutonium?
Ray’s dead. My fault.
“Lady? Stay with me. Hang in there, okay?”
No reason to. It’d never be okay. Above the man’s shoulder, the bright moon faded black.
***
The harsh bright white shone too strong, some sort of beam crushing down on Ray’s eyelids—the type of lighting torturers used worldwide.
Impossible. Maybe he was being tortured somewhere not of this world?
I’m dead. And I got Cassi killed as well.
He must be in hell. He hurt. Everywhere. Hair to toenails.
“Come on, you lazy lump,” a feminine voice grumbled. A soft slap to his cheek pissed him off enough to crack his eyes open. Lisbon. He crashed them closed again. His boss hovering was good and bad. Didn’t seem right she’d be in hell as well.
Fingers tapped along one side of his face, then the other. “Wake up. Docs say you should come ’round by now.”
“Cassi….” He tumbled back down into the flames.
***
“Jesus, Ray, when are you going to wake?” Some worried, but sexy, voice nagged at him. “Try. I need answers. Is CPR possible through a police vest? Can you feel a pulse under water? Can you bleed out under water? Does a gun work under water?”
Water, water, water. On and on the questions went. He didn’t want to open his eyes. It felt like demons had been grilling him for ninety-four years. A random number, but somehow important.
His chest was on fire, and his right leg ached like a hellhound had chewed a fat hole in his thigh and chomped all the way down to his foot. His limbs were heavy, his brain sluggish, and this much burning hurt and confusion could only mean he’d been given crappy drugs, not the good narcotics, because he deserved to be punished. Pinned flat on a hard surface, flames spreading outward from his chest, and a soothing voice kept at him to answer for his ninety-four sins.
“What happens if point and shoot doesn’t work? You do some sort of cocking thing?”
Cock? The low, seductive voice asked about the only part of him that didn’t hurt?
Could he possibly be in heaven? His dick twitched to life as if scenting the air and drawing down so hard on the blood, his head became lighter and lighter as wonder sank in. Insecure, hesitant, the lovely voice hammering at him was familiar.
Cassi. Was she dead as well? He groaned.
Ouch. There went the demon on the other side of him, slapping at his arm. “Wake up. That’s an order.” Sounded like Lisbon, and just like his boss to pester a poor, dead guy.
“Bite me,” he croaked. “Told you ninety-four times. Dead. Go way.”
“Does he always come around grumpy?” the sexy voice asked.
“How would I know? He does when I ring or text to see if he’s alive. Hm, that’s an idea. Let’s crank up the heat.”
Gulp. He braced for white flame, the hottest form of combustion, to incinerate him.
A moment later, a cell phone vibrated with incoming text message. So close to his ear, it penetrated the haze from being shot ninety-four times and thrown into the deepest lake in the world—Lake Baikal. How’d I get to Siberia?
Ray fluttered his eyes open and blinked.
Two women stared down at him. Beautiful women.
“Threesome?” he croaked and his eyelids slammed closed. “Give me five.”
A snort from one side and a nervous sigh from the other?
Seriously! He opened his eyes and shifted his throbbing skull. “Cassi…it’s really you? You’re alive?” Shout with joy or groan with agony, what should he do first? “Oh God, I’m sorry. Stay with me. Please.” He clunked his head to the other side. “Glad you’re not dead, boss. Go away before I wake and she disappears, right? I drowned. Sorry.”
“Not coherent, but it’s a start,” Lisbon told Cassi. She leaned over him. “Stop being a baby. Couple broken ribs, a bullet cut out of your upper leg, you’re fine. I’m lowering the narcotics. You’re too loopy.”
He barely listened. Too busy fluttering his hand for Cassi’s. As soon as her fingers clasped his, trembling but solid as in really there, the fire in his chest eased into a humming current. Please let this be real. “Are you alive?”
“Yes,” Cassi whispered.
“How’d…you…?” He grunted, swallowing against his dry throat.
“Are you thirsty?” Cassi asked.
Lisbon shoved a straw between his lips.
He took a deep pull of cool, fresh water that tasted as pure as if it’d come from Cassi’s Thermos. “Am I alive?”
“You are.” Lisbon took the cup away.
He groaned. “That water…Cassi? Yours?”
“Yes. Is something wrong with it?”
“It’s wonderful. How? Where?”
Cassi squeezed his hand. “About eight hours ago, a helicopter took us here. Cheyenne Medical Center. Jenny and Maxton drove from Evans Point and brought my distiller with them.”
“Jenny?”
“That’d be me, Detective Harris,” Lisbon muttered. “But stick with calling me Lisbon. Speaking of water, I had a look at that Thermos of Cassi’s. Did you know there’s a little cup screwed on the top you can use, so you don’t have to drink directly from the thermos?”
“Don’t care.” Ray cracked a grin. Hopefully. Hard to tell when his face felt like rubber. He could very well look like a deranged clown. He made a pathetic attempt to lift his hand linked with Cassi’s. “I like this one’s saliva.”
Lisbon rolled her eyes. “Yeah. A competent detective would have found the tracking device John Weston, also known as Pete Deming, placed in there. He followed you, and Calvin Smith’s hit men followed the cell phone Smith had given Weston.”
“Damn. Bastard’s dead?”
“Not yet. Hopefully soon. His condition isn’t as stable as the docs would like, but for security reasons he was moved a few hours ago to the Federal Correctional Institution in Florence, Colorado.”
“Ahh. You knew once I woke, I’d strangle him if he was within reach.”
Lisbon chuckled. “Right. It is better you go for a throttling, instead of the Glock. Your crappy shot got him in the shoulder. Cassi managed right above the heart.”
“Wow. With a frying pan?” he asked Cassi.
She giggled. “No. I suck. I tried for his skull, got him in the injured shoulder, and it made him even angrier. While he was screaming his plans for me, I ran for your gun.” She stared at him, her eyes all misty. “I ke
ep thinking I’m dreaming. That you’d drowned.”
He swallowed hard. “I thought…still think I did. You went in the lake? Saved me?”
“She did,” Lisbon said. “Held you above water for over an hour. Things went down badly at the ranch in Evans Point. It took me awhile to drag Turner out of the crossfire and stall some serious bleeding until the medics showed.”
“Turner?”
“Maxton’s partner. He didn’t make it. Smith and three men are dead, one being his twenty-year-old son. Idiots wouldn’t surrender, and I got distracted. I didn’t think to check e-mail to see if you’d sent your location after I’d texted you the warning until medics had Turner. Have to give the locals credit. Once I finally called them, they got to the lake in ten. How you feeling?”
“My chest hurts.”
“Three rounds will do that to you. Bruised and cracked ribs. You’ll heal.”
“Boss…there’s something wrong. Plutonium and the number ninety-four are on my mind. Any idea why?”
“Ah, no. Cassi?”
Cassi’s jaw dropped. She looked so beautiful, her eyes wide with shock, which couldn’t be good.
He winced, drew a breath, and plunged. “Did you order something else online, sweetheart? Got parts for a nuclear weapon instead?”
Cassi closed her mouth, parted her lips, closed them, and he squeezed her fingers as he said, “It’s just me being goofy, right?”
She held so tightly to his hand, it actually felt good to shift the ache from his thigh to his fingers. “No, I’m the goofy one,” she said. “I told you a story in the lake and, amazing, but you must have been listening.”
He scowled. “Amazing? I told you I pay attention. Not sleep, death, even a ton of water can stop me. A story?”
That sweet blush filled her cheeks. “Not really, but I pleaded with the universe for you not to be dead. I thought you were.”
“Ahh. You saved me. You okay with that?”
She stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“Save a life, it’s on you. You have to take care of me now and forever.”
“Oh. No problem. I’ll do my best.” She smiled, and he felt his heartbeat stutter. He’d come so close to losing her.
Damn her, anyway. “I won’t be easy, sweetheart. I’m furious. I told you to run. You almost got yourself killed.” Ray turned to Lisbon. “You want something from Cassi? Tell her the exact opposite.”
“Good to know.” Lisbon was busy punching at her cell phone. “Cassi, prove him wrong. I order you to tell him your plans while I finish this report for the sheriff at Evans Point.”
He looked to Cassi. Any plans damn well better involve him.
“I decided to help Anne,” Cassi said. “And I’m worried.”
“She was friends with a gun collector and dope peddler?”
Cassi gasped. “Oh no. Jenny let me use her cell phone, and Anne and I spoke. She was shocked. Barely knew Calvin Smith, or Pete.”
He arched his brows. “That’s good then, isn’t it?”
“Yes. But going to Evans Point will be hard because I’m not prepared. I know nothing about cows, ranchers, guns. I only own a pair of sneakers. Never worn boots or rode a horse or seen a rattlesnake or rustic cabins that get snow up to their roofs. What if I need to shoot a bear, and I miss its heart like I did Pete’s?”
Lisbon cleared her throat. “I told you to stop fussing. Maxton is headed back there as well. He’ll work with the local sheriff, guy named Jake North, to clean up loose ends of Smith’s drug empire. He offered to take you shopping and teach you to shoot.”
Cassi’s eyes went wide. “He did?”
Ray growled at his boss. “You can’t be serious.”
Lisbon didn’t bother looking up from her cell phone. “So, tell Cassi the opposite and, as for you, mention the competition. Feeling like you’re ready to get out of bed now?”
He slumped. “No. I screwed up, boss. Almost got her killed.”
Cassi patted his arm. “Why is it that cops on power trips think that just because they have a badge, taking care of those who haven’t gone through training at some academy is on them?”
“Hey, I did hit the mark while you tried beating your prince to death with a frying pan.”
“I know. It wasn’t smart. If I’m prepared, I can take care of myself.”
His heart sank. “You don’t want me to take care of you?”
“Didn’t you just tell me what it means to save a life? I own you now. And I’m asking you to come with me. You do know that Jenny’s teasing you?”
Lisbon jerked her gaze up to nod. “Be better if you worked with Sheriff North. There’s a serial killer in Portland calling to Maxton. The Feds would interfere with some interesting people in Evans Point. On the other hand, I think you’ll fit right in. That is, as soon as you get your lazy ass up and moving. And Harris, I want your house keys.”
Ray laughed. A short burst that hurt his aching gut. Lisbon had been after him for the past year to let her buy the home he’d shared with Beth. She said it’d be good for him to let go of the memories, and it had nothing to do with her rent going up where she currently lived.
He turned from his boss and tumbled into the wonderful, hopeful smile filling Cassi’s face. I am so in love.
“They’ll take us by chopper,” Cassi said, “and we could stay at Anne’s ranch until you make a full recovery. That is, after a doctor discharges you from here. Until then, I’m not leaving your side. Not for anything.”
Lisbon arched her brows. “Really? You’re almost out of water. This hospital sells spring water from a factory near a chemical plant.”
“Liar.” Cassi beamed at Lisbon. “I don’t think there’s chemical plants in Cheyenne, and I can distill as often as I like and…I was in a lake, and I’m not even sick! Do you believe it?”
“Oh yeah.” Broken ribs be damned, happiness swelled Ray’s chest. “With a person as lovely as you, Cassi, anything’s possible.”
Clean Water
On the list of things needed for survival, clean water is at the top.
In a stable world, the best solution for those in areas with decent tap water seems to be carrying a reusable water container. Tap water cost for drinking averages about a dollar per year.
For the multitude of areas where tap water is suspect, both spring water sold in plastic containers and distilled water made at home have pros and cons.
2.7 billion tons of bottled water are produced per year globally. An estimated 30 billion water containers are thrown away in the USA, involving 900,000 tons of plastic, and 1.5 million barrels of oil to make that plastic, while one twenty-ounce bottle of water requires sixty ounces of water to produce, taking its toll on water resources. Cost for the consumer for bottled water is around $1,400 per year.
An example of one option for a home water distiller system costs around $200, and has many reviews averaging 4.5 stars, with claims of problem-free use for eight years and counting. Estimated electric cost is $65 per year. Stripping minerals from the water can contribute to mineral deficiencies with long-term use. The solution to that seems to be compensating by increasing calcium and magnesium in the diet.
~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~
Sci-fi, paranormal, suspense, indefinable, Arlene Webb is an author who adds sweet and spicy layers of romance. She was born in upstate New York, land of cows, snow, drizzle and sometimes a ray of sun. Second oldest with four siblings, she spent childhood reading everything she could get her hands on. Adolescence found her questioning the validity of everything she read, along with acquiring the usual scars of high school.
Early twenties, she headed for the Pacific. A stop off to visit a friend turned into years in Tucson, Arizona. Arlene worked as a waitress, bartender, greenhouse worker, greyhound trainer, while swapping a pysch major for one in plant sciences at the University of Arizona. Fired for skipping employee meetings at restaurants, employee gambling at the dogtrack, refusing to use live rabbits as bait, it fell to planting c
acti and bartending to pay her way through college.
Arlene’s late twenties found her running family owned greenhouses and florist shops in New York. When the reality of retail life became too mundane to handle, she began an obsessive love of creating more interesting worlds.
You can visit Arlene at:
http://www.arlenewebb.com
Taking Down Mistletoe
Parties everywhere, but Alek—security and all-around handy guy—is stuck at work in the department store taking down the holiday decorations. Just when he thinks he’ll escape in time for a little celebrating, fate takes a deadly turn. A thirsty leech doesn’t mind going down, as long as Alek joins him.
Tired of sucking on candy canes, Loki is sick of the tall security guard ignoring him. He’s determined, one way or another, that Alek will find himself lying flat. Unfortunately, a man dressed in black enters the scene and interrupts him.
When the parasite-exterminator, in the form of a dark, handsome hunk, arrives and latches onto Alex, things go from weird to downright bizarre. Did Alek really find love under the mistletoe, or has something beyond sinister taken hold of him?
Arrow to the Heart
Dr. Cu has no doubt that love at first sight happens only in fairytales. He knows intimately that it takes a unique blend of chemicals to force two hearts to beat as one. A world-renowned player, he’s accepted his fate. As a God of Love, he’s doomed to remain lonely. But when he opens his eyes and his gaze takes in a woman in need of assistance, he’s shocked to find himself falling, exactly like his many victims.
Naturally, when an arrogant legend is smitten, happiness comes at a price. Cu must fight the powerful Goddess of Love, his controlling mother, in order to protect the mortal who’s captured his fancy.