“People like us don’t have friends, Leon.”
“Oh, I don’t know. You have Nataly.”
Eric swallowed hard. The remark had hurt, and he wasn’t sure why. “I have no illusions about that. When the job is finished, I’ll be out of here. Nataly needs a responsible person in her life. She deserves it.”
“She deserves love, Eric. We all do.”
“Well, I haven’t had much luck with that,” said Eric, and heard the bitterness in his own voice.
“Sorry,” said Leon. “Look, why don’t I keep an eye on Coulter for a while. I can get help with it. You just deliver your reports, and keep them honest, at least with anything Davis might know. And when Gil orders you to trust me, you do that, too. No more charades.”
“We’ll see,” said Eric, and nodded as if he agreed. It seemed like a positive way to end the conversation. But when he got home that evening, he found an encrypted e-mail from Gil saying that due to a recent understanding between NSA and some office in the Pentagon he should keep Leon informed of all recent breakthroughs made on Sparrow, and the identities of any new players he came in contact with, including the mysterious foreign operative known as Mister Brown.
This surprised Eric, because he had not yet told Gil about his meeting with Brown, or the sudden breakthroughs with Sparrow.
So how had Gil found out about these events?
He was still thinking about it when he went to sleep that night. And shortly after that, Eric Price had still another conversation with the Golden Man.
* * * * * * *
Nataly knew that continued apprehension could make her sick, but all meditative techniques had failed her so she resorted to a non-prescribed sleeping-aid that made her groggy in the morning. She’d slept deeply over the night, but then the call came at six and upset her again, and she couldn’t get back to sleep. She arose, drank strong coffee and reread the local newspaper for the third time, checked her e-mail and found a sweet, two-word message from Eric there. ‘Miss you’, he said.
I miss you, too, the real you. I’m not in love with the killer. Oh, Eric, how I wish things were different for us.
Nataly sipped coffee and walked the floors of her house, checked doors and windows for any sign of incursion. There had been no cloaked entries since the IR sensors had gone in, but outside the residence the devices were so sensitive even a rabbit could set them off and The Council had sent out a tactical team several times to investigate strong disturbances. She could not resent them. It was the same team that had saved Eric’s life.
She checked the recorders in a downstairs closet. There had been two signals last night, quite small, both down by the pool. Rabbits were attracted to that area, and she’d put shields over the plants there to protect them from nibbling. The signals were not the reason for Vasyl’s call. “Things are heating up. We need to talk,” he’d said, and hung up on her.
Things were always heating up for Vasyl, but like it or not, Nataly felt connected to the man and his cause, if only to honor the memory of her father and his origins.
The sun was peeking over the summits of distant buttes when she had a breakfast of dry toast and a banana. She showered quickly, toweled herself dry, and examined herself in a mirror. The curves of a twenty-year-old were there, but the woman was forty-five. What would Eric think if he knew that? she wondered.
The forecast was for a sunny day, but the morning at six-thousand feet would be cool. Nataly dressed in jeans and a wool shirt, added a Gore-Tex shell when she went outside. She wore cowboy boots instead of her clumsy hiking shoes, good enough for a short walk and certainly more stylish to any tourist who might happen to come by.
She left the Mercedes in the garage and took the truck, her white and battered four-runner with nearly a hundred thousand faithful miles on red-rock scree. Traffic was light going into town, and nonexistent up the Schnably Hill Road to the outlook parking area. She parked there, waited in the truck a few minutes, then got out and strolled up the winding trail to the ridge overlooking town and buttes beyond. Someone had recently placed red rocks there in the pattern of a medicine wheel, and she sat down next to it. The air was crisp, and Nataly breathed deeply, feeling the energy of the place, the energy that had brought her father to it so many years ago.
A few minutes later there was a crunch of a step falls behind her. She turned and saw Vasyl’s smile. He was dressed in jeans and flannel shirt and wore a wide-brimmed straw hat to shield him from even the morning sun.
“Good morning, Natasha,” he said, and sat down beside her, put an arm around her, gave her shoulder a squeeze. There was an expression of deep caring in his light brown eyes. “I hope you’re sleeping better these days.”
“The pills help, but they’re not natural. I feel drugged half the day, and then worry the other half. When will this be over, Vasyl?”
“I wish I knew. Doctor Price has made the progress we hoped for, thanks to you. The Americans could have what they want within a month, if Dario Watt can’t find a way to stop it. The man has hidden himself away. We suspect he’s still here, along with agents under his control. We’re certain he’ll make a move before a flight test is made. We have teams watching Price and Davis, and we’re putting one on you.”
“Me? Why me?”
“You’re associated with Price. I’m sure Watt knows it. You could be used to intimidate Price if you were taken hostage. Even now you could be watched by someone who works under cloaking.”
“There have been no incidents at the house since the IR sensors were installed.”
“You can be followed anywhere, Natasha. We only want to protect you.”
“And Eric too.”
Vasyl put an arm around her again. “Yes. I hear softness in your voice when you say his name. We certainly didn’t plan for that.”
“I know. I suppose you think I’m foolish.”
“He’s a dangerous man, Natasha.”
“A part of him is worse than that, and frightens me. But when I look inside and see who he really is, the way he was before the wars, the training, the personal losses in his life, I cry for him. I cry for his heritage. Not out of pity, but sorrow over such a gentle, loving soul who has been dragged through circumstance into a terrible existence. The person inside, the real person, cries out for serenity and love.”
“I’ve never envied empaths, or any exceptionals like your father was. You have his soul, Natasha. I can’t feel what you feel, but I see you giving your heart to a man who is paid to kill, a man who has neglected important people in his life. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“The man I love will never hurt me, but he must be allowed to show himself. He is not who you see.”
“Oh, Natasha,” said Vasyl, and pulled his arm away from her. “You can be so frustrating.”
“It will be easier for you if you don’t try to run my life,” she said, and smiled.
“Very well, but we’re still going to watch you. It’ll be best if you see less of Price until the flight test is made. He needs to focus on that task. I want you to report anything that looks out of the ordinary, anything that makes you feel you’re being watched, even if it turns out to be our own people.”
“There is something,” said Nataly. “I’ve seen a man in my shop’s parking area several times, now. He never comes into the shop, just sits in his car a while and then drives away. Could be he’s been shopping next door, but then Eric was in my shop one day and stopped to talk to him on the way out. I’d nearly forgotten that.”
“What does he look like?”
“Broad shoulders, and his head goes nearly to the ceiling of his car. Dark hair and eyes, square face, basically a nice looking man.”
Vasyl’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll check on it. Don’t go anywhere with him if he ever approaches you.”
“Vasyl, I—”
“Please, Natasha, do as I say.”
Nataly sighed. “All right, but I will see Eric, and you can’t force me not to. I’ll make excuses a
bout being busy until his flight test is over. I’ll do that for Eric’s sake. I’ve done a lot for you and the Council, Vasyl. You owe me.”
Vasyl smiled, and took her hand in his. “Yes, I do, and I owe your father even more. He was the first.”
Nataly squeezed his hand. “The first in this town, you mean. I think he would have liked to see people reach the stars. At first, it was only political with him. I’d better go. Maria can’t make change before she’s had two cups of coffee.”
They walked back down the trail to the parking area. Vasyl hugged her, pulled away in his black van, turned uphill and drove away from town in a cloud of red dust.
Nataly got into her truck, turned on the ignition, and thought, I just told my best friend that I love Eric Price.
And I do.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
WARNINGS
Dario Watt held a strategy meeting with his deputies. Four men arrived with him at the conference room overlooking a portal bay bright with lights reflecting off titanium-strutted plas-steel walls. It was early, the bay just beginning to gear up for the day’s travel schedule, and only a few people walked the floor. As a minister, it had been ordinary for him to arrange a meeting before departure, and his deputies were familiar faces among portal staff. They were the last four men he could trust. All others had abandoned him, including his president, men who claimed to be visionaries but were willing to sacrifice the security of their world just to make a show of it.
The door was closed, and a deputy made an electronic sweep while the rest waited patiently. “It’s clean,” the man finally said, and sat down with the others.
Watt sat at the head of the table, and folded his hands together in front of him. “Thank you all for arriving promptly. I’ll keep this short, and we’ll continue our usual meeting schedule on the other side. Things are speeding up there. I wish I could bring you good news, but the facts are otherwise. The opposition has somehow become aware of all our plans, or is able to anticipate them. I’ve not been able to locate White since his arrest. He might have told them something, but plans we’ve made since then have also been uncovered.”
“Do you think we have a security breach on this side?” asked a deputy.
“No. I trust all of you completely. Our adversaries are skilled, and numerous. Our moves must be pre-planned and quick. It’s clear to me we must abandon any plan to return the star craft safely. It will have to be sacrificed. The fault is my own. I overestimated American greed for money, and forgot about pride. Every government operative I’ve tried to buy, even Davis, is now working against us. The fools can barely conceal lies from each other. The council is controlling Price, trying to use him to gain access to us, and feeding him information about the star craft. Price will have it flying in space within weeks unless we eliminate him. That will be difficult. We tried it once, and you all know what happened.”
“They were cloaked, and we didn’t expect them,” said another deputy. “Now they’ll be watching him all the time.”
“True, but we’ll have to try. My plan involves multiple diversions. The Council has a limited number of armed personnel, but in the event of failure we should be prepared to move to the next stage. If the star craft flies, it can be destroyed in space, but that is complex. It is better to destroy it on the ground. One of your people must go through and see to that. A simple explosive keyed to the startup sequence can do the job.”
“And if that fails?” asked another deputy. His voice dripped sarcasm, and Watt frowned at him.
“If you have better ideas, we’d like to hear them now.”
“It’s not that, Minister. We’re too few in number. We need a force behind us.”
“Ah, but I have such a force. That’s the one thing White managed to do before his arrest. He found a sympathetic ear among the Blues, and put me in touch with a mercenary force more than happy to take our money.”
“Kashmires?”
“A few. They’re a mix of several nations, well armed, around a hundred of them and battle hardened. I can call them up on a day’s notice, but only for a major operation that will be our final option if everything else fails.”
“We’ll destroy everything,” said a deputy.
“Star craft, base and portal, all of it will be obliterated by the explosion. The required ordinance will be massive. We’ll bring it through the portal in a shipping crate, preset to detonate. The mercenaries will provide cover for the operation.”
“What about the Council? Do we just leave them there to die? It could be politically offensive to our neighbors.”
“I personally don’t care. Let them rot, or get home the best way they can. And there will be no future contact with the Americans. The explosion will kill all of them in the base, and even the nearby town is likely to sink out of sight into the ground. I have faith that our constituency will understand the need for this, as well as the need for new leadership.”
“If you’re wrong, we’ll all be dead men,” said a deputy.
“Better that than to allow these people to spread their corruption to the stars,” said Dario Watt.
* * * * * * *
Leon intended to follow John Coulter when he could, but two weeks passed by and he was unable to locate the man. Each day, before and after his office duties, he searched the town for Coulter’s black Mercedes, and never found it. Coulter didn’t call him, and hadn’t called Eric.
“I don’t like it,” Leon said to Eric. “The guy has dropped out of sight right after giving you a pile of money. Something has spooked him. Has that guy Brown contacted you again?”
“Nope. Not a word. I thought he might. We’re flight-testing this week. Ground rehearsal is tomorrow. Dillon still thinks I’m nuts. Hell, I think I’m nuts. These images come to me, and it’s always the right thing to do. I’m beginning to think I can actually fly that bird.”
“You probably can. Brown hinted at it. I think you’re being programmed for it, all the information you need is being fed to you through hypnosis or some other weird process we don’t understand. Your dreams have something to do with that. I bet they were doing it with Johnson, too. Otherwise, I don’t see why they’d pick on you.”
“Maybe that’s why he was killed. Brown didn’t say anything about him. Maybe they were getting Johnson ready to fly Sparrow and our resident saboteur had to kill him. He nearly killed me on the same day. That would have really set us back.”
“Are you still carrying?”
“Waist and boot, when I’m in town. Davis won’t let me bring anything into the base, but I’ve somehow acquired a Beretta 92F there.”
“Hang on to it,” said Leon. “What do you say we close the office early. I want to widen my search area for Coulter, and you have a big day tomorrow.”
“Fine with me,” said Eric, and locked his desk.
They left together, turning in opposite directions on 89A. Leon headed uptown and cruised the tourist area, went back to the Y and east to Oak Creek Village and the parking areas near Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte. Traffic was growing heavier as he returned to Sedona, and went back south on 89A to the high school. He spent the better part of an hour doing the Red Rock Loop, slowing at every side street and dirt road. If Coulter had changed cars, Leon was wasting time.
Frustrated again, he sped back to Dry Creek Road and turned towards home. In his haste, and in heavy traffic, he failed to notice the black Mercedes sitting in the parking area in front of Nataly’s shop.
* * * * * * *
When the UPS truck arrived, Nataly asked the driver to pull around to the back of the store so he wouldn’t risk hitting one of her closely-spaced displays with his loaded hand-truck. He complied, and unloaded several heavy cartons at the back of the store. Nataly left Marie in charge of the register and went back to open and inspect each carton for damage as it was brought in. Everything had arrived safely. She signed for everything, and the driver went away.
There was a carton of colorful crystal specimens from Me
xico, and two boxes of Brazilian quartz. She opened them up and lovingly unwrapped each piece. A scepter of yellow quartz with rutile inclusions sang to her, and several others near her resonance were warm in her hand. Time stood still as she sensed the vibrations of each piece, but as she opened another carton the curtain between the back room and her shop was suddenly pulled aside and Marie was standing there, rolling her eyes and being dramatic again.
“Oh, God, you are here. I told him you’d gone out. He’s been waiting up front for half an hour.”
“Who?”
“Some man. He said Eric sent him over to pick you up.”
Nataly blinked. “That’s not right. Eric would call first. We didn’t have anything scheduled for now.”
Marie sighed grandly. “I’m only telling you what he said.”
“Okay, tell him I’ll be there in a minute.”
Marie returned to the front of the store, and Nataly resumed her unpacking of the box she’d been working on.
“The last thing Eric would do would be to send someone to pick me up for any reason. He’d come himself. What do I do now?” she said out loud. But before she could answer herself, the curtain was pulled aside again and a man was standing there. He was tall, and wore an expensive looking gray suit with a power tie. His face was square, quite handsome, and his eyes were deep brown. He smiled.
“I’m sorry, Miss Hegel. Didn’t Eric call you? We’re supposed to meet him at Toucan’s in fifteen minutes, and if we leave now we might make it on time.” The man looked around the room as he spoke, but remained standing by the curtain.
“Eric didn’t call me about anything. Who are you?” Nataly felt hairs moving on the back of her neck, and her entire body was suddenly tense.
The man took a card case from his vest pocket and handed her a business card. “John Coulter, Miss Hegel. My business is mostly import and export of art, artifacts, and antiquities. Eric and I go back a couple of years. I’ve had some luck selling art for him, and he suggested your store as another source of artistic treasures. We were supposed to meet today to discuss it, and now I find out he didn’t tell you about it. This is very embarrassing. I’ll call Eric from Toucan’s and have him pick you up, as he should have. The meeting will only take an hour. I see you’re quite busy here. That yellow crystal is exceptional, by the way. Such beautiful things in your store, just what I’m looking for. Can you spare the time?”
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