Chapter 4

 

THE CIG BASE was at an undisclosed location. You would think that being one of them, the dimwits would let me see where I was going but no, as soon as we’d boarded the plane, they’d put a blindfold over my eyes.

What was evident was that it was some place warm. Warm enough just to wear a jacket in the middle of April. They undid my blindfold, and snow was high above me and the area way down in the distance looked like a scruffy desert. We were in the center of the big mountain. There was a lot of asphalt covering the rocky expanse or at least it looked like it. Nope, the CIG headquarters was not luxurious in any sense. Concrete slabs for buildings nestled along the drag, a bar on one side, aptly named Dusty’s. There was a grocery store next to it and a large building, which I remembered was the place where they handed out uniforms the other side. Then there were large expanses of offices all with flat-topped roofs and white-painted brick.

The plane taxied us into a hangar at the far end of the runway and a jeep took us into “town.” To me it looked like something from a really old film, the residential blocks at one end like a prison and the officers’ quarters, near the main office quadrant, didn’t look a whole lot better, all with a huge perimeter wall or maybe it was just the edging of the mountains around. Either way, you didn’t get in without knowing how to.

In a weird sense, I could imagine somebody shooting a movie up here. That’s if they wanted to depict some alien landscape where nothing grew and the ground was a weird color. Coming from the green of Oppidum, it felt pretty hostile.

“Renee will take you to see the doctor.” Frei looked as cool as ever. Considering she had milky white skin, heat or cold didn’t seem to affect her . . . okay, nothing seemed to affect her. “Then when you’re done, she’ll take you to your quarters.”

“Do I have to live in the dorms again?” I knew I sounded like a whiny kid but after spending most of my life locked in a prison, I didn’t want to recreate that here.

“Actually, you’re next door to me.” Renee shot a warm smile my way. She’d thawed since the hospital. I wasn’t sure how long for but I’ll take it.

“You got to live in dorms?”

She laughed as Frei shot a glare my way and strode off muttering. “No, we get our own places.”

That felt strange. I had a place, a pretty awesome cabin at the side of a river that Nan had left me. A place I wanted nothing more than to retreat back to. I missed the river. I missed the quiet. I missed Mrs. Squirrel. I would even go as far as saying I missed my dad.

Go figure.

Renee led me into another nondescript hunk of stone. Inside it was tiled but pretty much resembled a sugar cube. It was stuffy warm, like when the heating had been on too long. There was a lady sitting under a rotating ceiling fan, her glasses way too big for her petit face.

She glanced up and spotted Renee, a grin breaking out. “Well, Commander Black, you’re looking mighty fine today.”

Her southern twang made me smile. It was nice to hear her bubbly personality oozing through it. I decided I liked her.

“Thanks, Sally, is Doctor Andrews in?” Renee looked a bit flustered by the woman’s greeting, which made me chuckle.

“Why, of course. He is always happy to see you. I’ll just buzz him—”

“It’s for Aeron.” Renee’s blush got more pronounced, which made me chuckle again. She poked me. “Quit it.”

“You not feeling so good, sweet thing?” Her deep eyes were almost royal blue behind the lenses. She looked like the kind of woman I’d seen pinned up on the wall of Oppidum’s garage. Her blonde hair bounced, her make-up perfect.

“Had a funny turn,” I mumbled. I hoped that somebody would tell me what had happened at some point.

Sally, the receptionist, scooted from behind her desk and strutted up to me. “What symptoms did you have?”

“Pain in my chest and arms. I couldn’t breathe.” I still felt like it was harder than it should be to suck in air. “Then my heart went crazy, pounding away and I blacked out.” I rubbed my forehead. “I’m pretty sure that I hit my head.”

Sally’s eyebrows furrowed. She grabbed a wheelchair and motioned for me to sit.

“What are you doing walking around?” She stared at Renee as if expecting an explanation.

“She’s Lilia’s daughter. They couldn’t find anything wrong.”

Sally cocked her head, then relaxed her shoulders, making her sizable chest bounce. “Explains. No problem. Well, Aeron, let’s get you checked out.”

I glanced back at Renee. “Can she come . . . I mean . . . Can she?” So, I sounded like a twelve year old. Renee was a familiar face even if she was harder to predict than the weather.

Sally looked Renee up and down before turning back to me. “You sure, hon? He might need to go into details.”

“There’s nothing Renee doesn’t know.” I didn’t get why that made her grin at me. I also didn’t get why Renee now looked like her cheeks were on fire.

“She means because I was her protection officer,” Renee mumbled, tucking her hair behind her ears.

“Uh huh.” Sally sounded like she was suspicious about something.

“I was,” Renee protested.

Unsure of what I was missing, I just looked back and forth.

“She’s pretty awesome at it too,” I said. Maybe Sally didn’t think she was.

“I’ll bet.” Sally shot a glance Renee’s way as she wheeled me down the corridor. Renee trundled alongside, looking like a naughty teenager. “Least Lilia put you in safe hands, darlin’.”

“It had nothing to do with her,” I muttered.

All my mother had ever done was abandon me. Okay, so she’d come to St. Jude’s to help me with Renee. It earned her brownie points but she had a way to go before I felt anything but conflicted about her.

“Doctor,” Sally said, pushing me through the office door. “I got Lilia’s girl here to see you. She’s had a suspected heart attack but the hospital couldn’t find anything wrong with her.”

It sounded like I’d made it up. Then cold sweat dribbled down my back. “A heart attack?”

Sally smiled down at me as the doctor turned around. He was easily over six foot, his dark hair shaved into a military cut but he had designer stubble on his square chin.

“Hi, I’m Doctor Andrews but you can call me Smudge,” he said with a winning smile. He reminded me of Sam. He was too much like Sam. I tensed. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m qualified, I promise.”

I knew it was stupid. This guy wasn’t Sam. He didn’t even have the same hair color but it was that easy charm. I shot a “don’t leave me” look at Renee.

She held my gaze, concern in her gray eyes.

“Aeron’s father had heart problems,” Renee said, taking my hand. “Maybe it would be a good idea to check there?”

The doctor nodded and tapped something into his computer. Sally squeezed my shoulder and closed the door. I clung to Renee like she could stop me acting so dumb. He wasn’t Sam. Why was it freaking me out? Sam was behind bars someplace.

“Eli Lorelei, yes?”

I nodded. Renee pushed me to the desk and took a seat beside me, her hand on my knee. He spent a few minutes reading the screen as I tried to calm my breathing. Where had the freak out come from?

“Permission to engage the enemy?” he said, a gentle smile on his face. “Helps if I can give you a check over.”

Fear rippled through me. Renee rubbed my knee. “It’s okay, I’m here.”

I nodded again. I didn’t know how to explain my sudden terror. The whole thing with Sam had been last summer. I’d seen lots of people since then. Why was I scared now?

Doctor Andrews got up and dropped to his haunches in front of the chair. “I’m going to check your pulse, blood pressure, have a listen to your heart. Then, I might hook you up to this machine here for a minute or two.”

I looked at it. I’d been attached to one in the hospital.

“She hit her head,” Renee said as the doctor’s eyes drifted to my temple.

“You feeling woozy?” he asked.

I nodded again.

He glanced at Renee whose eyes hardened with some thought. “Sam,” she muttered. “You look like Sam.”

“Excuse me?” Doctor Andrews must have thought Renee had bumped her head not me.

“Maybe it’s better I run the check,” she said, holding out her hand. “He was the Unsub in Oppidum.”

Doctor Andrews let out an “ah,” and he nodded. “You know what you’re looking for?”

“Three years undercover in a hospital, I should do okay.” She smiled down at me and I relaxed. I could cope with that.

Doctor Andrews sat back behind his desk and watched as Renee strapped the blood pressure band around my arm. Well, attempted to, then laughed when it wouldn’t stretch. “I don’t suppose you have extra, extra large?”

He took in the size of my biceps and his eyebrows rose. “Just the thing.” He reached inside his top drawer and handed a band over to Renee who switched them. “Normally only need it for the big boys.”

“I doubt even they could match her pound for pound,” Renee said, managing to get the band to fit—just.

As the machine inflated the band, Renee held the stethoscope to my wrist. I didn’t know what she was doing but she seemed to know. “Fifty seven beats per minute and a hundred and seven over seventy.”

He smiled. “Do you run a lot?”

I shook my head. My tongue seemed to have gone on strike.

“But she cycles and she uses the cross-trainer . . . a lot,” Renee said, patting my arm and lifting my top to put the cold stethoscope on my chest.

“According to your records from Serenity Hills, your fitness has improved.”

Again, I nodded. I didn’t know what else to do. They hadn’t had a cross trainer or a bicycle in Serenity Hills and I had never been a runner. Besides, all my weight crunching down on my knees didn’t seem like a great idea.

“Heart sounds good to me, do you want to listen?” Renee squeezed my shoulder. “It’s important he checks, okay?”

The doctor came around and listened as I braced myself with the chair. Images of Sam laughing at me with a gun in his hand pulsed through my mind.

“I’m happy with that.” He retreated to his desk once more and Renee returned to sit beside me. “Your heart is fit and healthy. The ECG from the hospital has come through and shows how fit and strong you are.” He read over his screen before looking at me. “Aeron, have you touched anyone or come into contact with anyone who has heart problems?”

“We were in the police station today,” Renee said. “Maybe one of the detectives?”

The doctor shook his head. “No, this person would be conspicuous, rubbing their chest, gray in the face.” He met my eyes. “They would have been starting cardiac arrest.”

There’d been no one I’d seen or at least paid attention to. Renee shook her head too. “The victims were all strangled, so that won’t account for it.”

“What about the Unsub?” I asked her. “The one with the scar?”

Renee walked over to the doctor’s side. “Can I?”

He nodded.

I sat there, watching her. It would at least explain something if someone had suffered an attack while I was there. Panic thudded through me and I met Renee’s eyes. “What if it’s my dad? Can you check? What if he’s in trouble?”

Renee pulled out her cell, one hand still tapping the keyboard. “The Unsub has no heart issues. Ex-marine.” She tapped the phone and held it to her ear. “Lilia, are you with Eli?”

I bit my lip. If I could touch a cell phone without it blowing up in my face, I would call him more often. Technology and me were not compatible.

“Is he doing okay, any pain?” Renee tucked her blonde hair behind her ears. I didn’t know what brought out the blonde but it added a “funky touch” as Yasmin, one of my friends from Serenity, used to say. I missed her. I wondered how her sparkly shoes were doing. 

“No, Aeron just had some symptoms. She wanted to check he was doing alright.” She met my eyes. “No . . . no . . . she’s fine.”

A slight white lie but I didn’t want nobody worrying.

“Lilia wants to know if you’ve asked Nan?” Renee shot a smile at the doctor. “Did she say anything?”

“Nan’s been silent since St. Jude’s. Guess she’s winning her card game.” I wasn’t sure how to explain to the dear doctor that my Nan often wandered over from ether space and said hi, nagged me, or offered me words of wisdom.

“Lilia hasn’t felt anything new. She’s asking if you’re meditating.”

I folded my arms. It was a statement that showed how little my mother knew me. “Do what?”

“She doesn’t meditate,” Renee said into the cell. She met my eyes a few seconds later. “She says you need to.”

“What does she know about it?” I knew that Renee didn’t want to be in the middle of a ping-pong spat so I shook my head. “So I’m all clear, doc?”

He nodded.

I got up from the wheelchair, happy that I wasn’t too wobbly. “I’m fine. I don’t need her help.”

Renee thanked my mother, hung up, and narrowed her eyes. I knew she wanted to impart some wisdom that I should be delighted. The doctor, eyeing us both, seemed to be the only thing stopping her.

“Have you seen Doctor Montgomery?” He asked.

As I didn’t know the name, I assumed no. “Why? He good with freaky stuff?” It was nice to feel angry enough to overcome my fear of the doctor’s resemblance to Sam.

“Not quite.” He flashed a charming smile my way. “She is our psychia—”

“No chance.”

The doctor frowned but I turned on my heel. It wasn’t his fault. I sighed and stopped at the door. “I’ve had enough folks thinking I’m crazy. I don’t need a shrink.”

“Aeron,” Renee said, her voice far too calm for my liking. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“I’m fine.” I smiled at her, hoping she wouldn’t take my mood as a reason to get all icy on me again. “I’ll ask Nan. She’ll know.”

Renee sighed but walked over to me and nodded to the doctor. “Thank you for your time, Smudge.”

“Why the weird nickname?” I asked, thinking I should shoot for polite. No wonder the guy thought I was crazy. I’d gone from terrified to angry to flashing smiles at Renee.

“Military,” he and Renee said in unison.

“We all have nicknames,” he added.

“Why Smudge?” It made no sense to me. The only nicknames I’d ever had weren’t pleasant. That’s if you didn’t count Al, which is what Sam used to call me . . . Cue more cold sweat.

“My hair.” He shrugged when I stared at him. “There were two Andrews in my unit. The other was blonde.”

“Right.” Well, that was my attempt at manners. I turned, shot a goodbye over my shoulder, and headed out into the corridor.

“What was all that about?” Renee asked as she caught up. I slowed my strides, knowing that she was a shortstop.

“I didn’t want him to feel bad ’cause of me.”

Renee bumped my hip. “I meant with your mother. I understood the sweet ladylike manners.”

Ladylike? I pulled a face and Renee laughed.

“You were in a better place with her back in St. Jude’s.”

“No, I was desperate. I wanted to fix you and she could help me.” That had lasted until she gave me a full-frontal lecture in the bathroom about healing people when they hadn’t asked. Coming from the woman who meddled in people’s lives out of choice, it was rich.

“Have I thanked you for that by the way?” She spotted Sally at her desk and I didn’t miss the space she put between me and her.

“Yes, but the whole ignoring me thing kinda contradicted it.” I shoved my hands in my pockets. “You don’t want to be seen with me or something?”

Renee stopped, frowned, and then sighed. “You know the whole I have issues with sharing thing?”

“About being attracted to muscles?”

Renee shook her head and poked me for good measure. “You aren’t going to let that one drop, are you?”

“Nope. So what’s the issue?”

She pulled me to walk toward the desk, closing the gap some but still acting like I smelled funny. “Sally likes to gossip. People . . . well . . . if they know about me . . .”

“Assume you’ve lost your marbles?” I tugged her arm to make her walk closer.

“They might think that . . . well . . . that we . . .” She rubbed the back of her neck.

“You think I care what anyone thinks?” Had she been paying attention at all?

“No, but I’m in a position of responsibility and you’re Lilia’s daughter to them . . . and . . . well . . .”

“Renee.” I stopped and gripped her shoulders. “Anyone would be lucky to have you. It ain’t an insult but I can’t see how nobody would think you’d stoop so low.”

Renee opened her mouth, then closed it.

“What would you want an oaf like me for anyhow?” It was crazy talk. I got that gossips kinda did that to folks. They had an ability to make anybody feel like they were harboring a guilty conscience.

“Don’t say things like that about yourself.” She frowned, her hands on her hips. “You’re a beautiful, strong, heroic woman who is the sweetest person I’ve ever—”

“Ladies?”

Renee leapt back like somebody had shot at her and I turned to smile at Sally. She had the kind of look on her face that I knew from the folks in Oppidum. Well, I had one answer for people like her. I pulled Renee over to me, stuck my arm around her shoulder, and shot a “thanks for the help” at Sally.

Renee tensed until I bumped her hip. Then a grin broke out and she started to snigger. “Do you have any idea what she’ll tell people now?”

“Would it be worse than I’m a serial killer who is hunting the town’s children and somehow caused tornados just because I got released?”

Renee squeezed me, her arm around my waist. “Good point.”

“Thought so. Now show me where my quarters are, neighbor.” My stomach growled.

Renee smiled up at me. “We’ll stop at the store on the way. Better feed that stomach of yours.”

We stepped out into the bright daylight and I squinted up at the deep blue sky above. I shivered then felt woozy. “I don’t think I can walk all that far.”

Renee whistled to a passing jeep. The guy stopped, got out, and snapped to salute in front of her. “You can walk the rest of the way.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He ran off down the street.

I stared at Renee.

“Perks of rank, Lorelei,” she said, climbing in.

“That was nearly as cool as Ursula,” I mumbled, clambering in beside her. It was an open top jeep so the breeze gushed over my face, reviving me.

“Nearly?” She shot me a frown, pulled her sunglasses out, and slid them on. “You want her to cook you dinner?”

I held up my hands as Renee drove us down the street. “So much cooler than her. Ursula has nothing on you. Nope.”

Renee patted my knee. “Better, but for that you can wash up.”

I gave her a cheeky salute, thankful that she seemed back to the Renee I knew and loved . . . at least for now. “Yes, ma’am.”