Ellie stared at Mac, her mouth dropping open. In the span of seconds, she ruthlessly scanned his eyes; they looked warm and sincere. His mouth was drawn into a slight, hopeful smile that she would say yes. Stunned by the offer, she scrambled for an answer.
“Major, I don’t really think that’s appropriate under the circumstances.”
With a shrug, Mac said, “I think it is.” For some reason, he was drawn to Ellie. He had surprised himself when the offer spilled from his lips, but after he’d asked her, he was glad. He could see the wariness in her eyes. Could he blame her for that kind of reaction, based on her past experiences with a man who didn’t share her beliefs?
Compressing her lips, Ellie said, “I don’t think so.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re from two very different worlds. I think you see that.” She had made the biggest mistake of her life by marrying a white man who walked in a very different world than the one she had been raised in on the reservation. Ellie wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.
“I was raised to respect other people’s ways of life.”
Ellie shook her head. “I’ll do what I can for you, for the problem you have in Hangar 13, but I think we should keep our relationship strictly professional.” A part of her didn’t want to and laughed at her words. But the past was still too poignant, too painful, for her to risk any other kind of friendship with him.
Mac waited on the front porch, while Ellie went to get her purse. Ruby-colored climbing roses encircled the two dark green trellises that leaned against either side of the porch. Their fragrance was subtle and sweet. The sun had set, and the sky looked as if it was on fire, a combination of red and red-orange, thinning out to a light peach color. For some unknown reason, he was happy. It was a mood he’d felt very little of lately—unless he was flying.
As Ellie quietly reappeared with her shoulder purse and a green shawl across her arm, Mac smiled at her. She was right—they were exact opposites. Ellie was grounded, rooted in the earth. He was an unfettered eagle who loved the air far more than the ground. And yet he couldn’t help feeling some connection with her. He held his hand out.
“Want to ride over with me?”
Ellie looked at his hand. It was long and almost artistic looking. She had to remind herself that Mac Stanford was a throwback to another era. “Sure,” she said, and allowed him to cup her elbow and guide her down the walk. Her skin tingled wildly where Mac gently held her arm.
“You remind me of a bygone time,” Ellie told him, glancing up at his tall, proud form.
“Oh?”
“Military officers carry the weight of tradition on their shoulders. You’re a true gentleman.” Ellie felt him guide her toward a bright red sports car, a Corvette. She smiled to herself and thought the machine matched Mac’s world. He flew hot jets. Why not drive a hot car?
Mac smiled absently and unlocked the passenger-side door for her. “You mean, the fact I’d open a door for you? Escort you?” He gestured for her to seat herself. Amusement danced in Ellie’s eyes again, and he liked discovering how she thought or felt about things.
Ellie moved into the expensive, black leather seat. “I’m not saying you’re the typical Neanderthal male trapped back in the cave.”
With a chuckle, Mac shut the door. “That’s reassuring.” He moved around the rear of his sports car, opened the driver’s door and climbed in. Putting on his seat belt, he glanced over at Ellie. Her lips were still pulled in a soft smile. “I was just curious how you saw me and my world,” he said, easing the car away from the curb.
Ellie leaned back and enjoyed the ride in the sports car. It seemed appropriate that Mac was driving it; the instrument panel had a wraparound design, reminding her of the cockpit of an aircraft. “I think if this thing had wings, you’d fly it, too.”
With a laugh, Mac nodded. “There are no secrets about me, are there?”
“Once an eagle, always an eagle,” Ellie said. “You’re always happier in the air.”
“No argument there,” Mac said. He turned off the boulevard and headed toward the interstate that would take them to Luke Air Force Base. The streetlights broke up the darkening sky, the coverlet of the night now stretching from horizon to horizon.
“What led you into the life of a military pilot?” Ellie asked. She wanted to know more about Mac. The fact he’d already asked her out on a date had startled her out of her normal response to men. Did he live fast? Had he asked her out from mere curiosity about her, or from genuine liking? Those were questions Ellie dared not ask.
Mac kept most of his attention on the nighttime traffic, which was diminishing now. “Since my father was an electrical engineer, I grew up helping him fix things around the house. He had always wanted to be a pilot, but had bad eyes and flat feet.”
“So the military wasn’t an option for him?”
“Right. He couldn’t meet the physical qualifications.”
“But he passed on his love of flying to you?”
“Yes. He took me to the airport at least once a year and I saw the Air Force Thunderbirds fly. I knew when I was ten what I wanted to be.”
“A bird,” Ellie said.
Mac glanced at her and smiled. “Exactly.”
“Birds can fly above a situation and not get involved.”
“That’s an interesting observation,” he murmured.
“We all have our escape routes when things get bad or too painful for us to cope with.” Ellie opened her hands. “Look at me. When I’m unhappy or in pain, I work in my garden for a couple of hours and I come away feeling much better.”
“Oh,” Mac said. “And do you view this escapism as a cop-out?”
“Not necessarily. I see going to the garden as something positive, something life affirming. I’ll bet when things get bad around your office, you take off and go fly. When you come back, you feel better. Right?”
He chuckled. “You’ve got me all figured out, haven’t you? You’re right, of course—flying is more than just a simple pleasure for me. It’s also an escape valve.” His brows dipped. “Right now, with all my work pressures and this trouble at Hangar 13, I’ve been wanting to grab my g-chaps and helmet and fly all the time.”
“Sure, you’d like to leave it behind.”
“Flying helps me think more clearly,” Mac said. He met and held her luminous eyes. “Does gardening do the same thing for you?”
“You bet it does.”
“Maybe we’re not so different after all.”
Ellie chuckled. “I’m a ground person and you’re an air person—we’re not exactly similar.”
“But we derive the same things out of our experience.”
With a nod, Ellie conceded his point.
“Just because people are opposites doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t get along,” Mac added.
“Is that argument for my benefit or yours?”
He laughed. It was a deep, rolling laugh, and he hadn’t laughed like that for a long, long time. “You’re a pleasant surprise to my world, Ms. O’Gentry.”
“Thank you, Major.” Her smile lit up her face.
“Can you say the same about me, I wonder?”
“You’re a surprise,” Ellie said. “Can we leave it at that?”
“For now.” He chastised himself for moving too quickly with Ellie. She was cautious, and he couldn’t blame her. What had gotten into him, anyway? It had been a long time since he’d entertained the thought of having a woman in his life. Since the divorce, Mac had thrown himself into his work—usually twelve-hour days—to forget the pain from the past.
“So you grew up in Portland. You were a city kid. When did you learn to fly?”
“My father paid for my flying lessons and I had a student pilot’s license when I was seventeen.”
Ellie was impressed. “And what made you choose the air force?”
“I enrolled in the Air Force Academy because it was my father’s favorite military service.”
“So your father was pretty much living out his unfulfilled dream through you.”
“That’s right.”
“And you didn’t mind?” Ellie wondered what might have happened to Mac if he hadn’t been so strongly influenced by his father.
“No. It was just sort of a natural progression, I suppose.”
“Is there anything else you wanted to do besides fly?”
Mac slowed down and took the off ramp leading to the air base. The sky was completely black now. Luke sat west of Phoenix, and he could see the thousands of stars quilted into the fabric of the sky. “When I get a chance, I like to hike in the desert.”
“Oh?”
“I like to hunt for rocks.”
“Really?” So there was a streak of earth in him!
“I’m an amateur rock hound of sorts,” Mac said hesitantly as they approached the main entrance of Luke Air Force Base.
“An eagle who likes rocks. Isn’t that a bit of a dichotomy?”
Mac braked the sports car at the main gate. “I don’t know. Is it?”
Smiling, Ellie said nothing. She saw the sentry, dressed in a light blue, short-sleeved shirt, and dark blue slacks, snap to rigid attention and salute Mac as he slowly drove past onto the base. The base seemed quiet and Ellie couldn’t see much in the darkness.
“What do you know about Luke?” Mac asked as he navigated through the streets toward the hangars silhouetted in the distance.
“Not much. You don’t learn a lot about the military when you’re raised on a reservation.”
“I see.” Mac swung the car down another street and drove toward the last hangar silhouetted in the darkness.
“I’m opposed to war,” Ellie told him. “Men have waged too many wars over the centuries and no good ever comes from it. Everybody suffers.”
“No argument from me.” Mac eased into a parking space next to the huge, dark hangar. “I see myself as a deterrent to war.”
“Really?” Ellie eyed him questioningly. “Were you in Desert Storm?”
“Yes.” Mac turned off the engine. Silence settled as he turned and gazed at her shadowed face. “Being in the military doesn’t give us the right to decide who’s right or wrong. We’re in place to protect this country and its people.”
With a sigh, Ellie said, “I’m not a warrior like you, Mac. I have real reservations about the military in general.”
He opened the door; he didn’t want to open that can of worms. “This is Hangar 13. Come on, I’ll take you inside and you can check out where I work.”
With a nod, Ellie got out before Mac could come around and open the door for her. Not to be deterred, Mac cupped her elbow and led her along the sidewalk that curved around to the front of the hangar. Ellie noticed he deliberately shortened his long, lanky stride to match hers.
“Tonight there’s no one working in the hangar,” he said, gesturing toward it.
The place looked like an oversize Quonset hut to Ellie. Lights illuminated the top of it.
“We repair the jets from our squadrons in these hangars,” he explained as he opened the door for her.
Ellie nodded. Once inside the huge, shadowy structure, she said, “Let me just stand here for a moment and accustom myself to the vibrations.” The bay area was nearly dark. Two huge F-15 fighters sat quietly, ready to be worked on come morning. No unusual sounds disturbed the silence.
Mac nodded and dropped his hand from her elbow. “I can turn on more lights if you want.”
“No…this is fine.” Ellie took a deep breath to center herself. With Mac’s presence, it was tougher than usual for her to focus inwardly. She liked him, despite his career calling. And, to be honest, she found him more than a little attractive. Still, a voice in the back of her head told her, there was no room in her personal life for a military officer. They could never hope to find a common meeting ground.
Mac stepped aside and watched Ellie as she closed her eyes. Her lashes lay like thick ebony fans against her high, golden cheekbones. She had placed her shawl around her shoulders and stood with her hands clasped against her breast. She bowed her head slightly, eyes still shut. He wondered what she was doing.
Taking deep breaths through her nose and releasing them through her mouth, Ellie was able to center herself, to switch to her internal guidance, which connected her gut, her heart and her right brain. Everything had a feeling to it, a frequency, and as she opened herself up to all possibilities, she allowed the feelings of the hangar to permeate her consciousness. The silence was almost oppressive to her. Then, suddenly, she felt movement.
Opening her eyes, she turned quickly toward Mac. “Did you move?”
“No. Why?”
Ellie shrugged and tried to pierce the gloomy depths of the hangar. “I felt movement. I thought it was you.”
He looked around, his brow wrinkling. “Where did the movement come from?”
Ellie pointed to the far corner of the hangar. “Over there.”
Mac scowled. “That’s where the tools are always thrown from.”
With a sigh, she nodded. “Good, then my senses are working.”
“What did you see?”
“Nothing. I felt movement. A fast, quick move, that’s all.”
Impressed and curious, Mac said nothing. Ellie was looking around the hangar, her mouth set, her eyes narrowed. She wrapped the shawl a little more tightly around her shoulders.
“I’m not a clairvoyant,” she told him. “I don’t ‘see’ things. I can only sense feeling or movement, that’s all.”
“But when you’re in the journeying state, you can see?”
“I see in symbolic form, usually.” Ellie shrugged. “I need to tell you more of how I perceive things in the fourth dimension, but there’s no use doing that unless you want me for this job.”
Mac nodded. Even though he’d just met her, he knew Ellie was the kind of woman he’d trust with his life in an emergency. She had an incredible sense of grounding and stability he’d rarely seen in anyone, man or woman. “Sure, I want you to help me with this problem if you can.”
“Okay….” Ellie gestured toward the center of the bay. “Just let me walk around, Mac. I want to feel my way around this hangar. You can follow about six feet behind me. If you get too close, I’ll start picking up on your aura vibration and that will confuse what else I’m feeling and sensing.”
He nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll hang back.”
Instinctively, Ellie wanted to head straight for that one particular corner, but she stopped herself from doing that. “You see, every square inch of Mother Earth has vibration, feeling,” she told him, pointing toward the concrete floor of the hangar. “Most people don’t feel it—a lot of animals do, but we don’t.”
“Why?”
“We’re too locked into the third dimension,” Ellie said as she slowly started to walk around the perimeter of the hangar.
Mac hung back as he’d promised. The silence was overwhelming to him. He didn’t like it. Ellie would walk about ten feet, halt, close her eyes and stand there. She would take several deep breaths and wait. For what, he didn’t know. Perhaps that feeling or energy she had talked about. Some kind of subtle impression? Whatever it was, he tried to feel, too, but came up with nothing.
As Ellie moved toward the last corner, she felt a chill, the briefest shift of energy. Then, halfway down the side of the hangar, she felt a powerful movement. Her eyes flew open and she stared into the gloom.
“What is it?”
Mac’s voice held a tinge of urgency, and she felt his instant concern. Turning, she looked up at his shadowed features. “Did you feel that?”
He shook his head. “No, nothing….”
Slowly turning, Ellie said, “I felt movement again, only this time it was very obvious.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered, her hands tightening on the shawl. “I’ll have to go into the corner and try to figure it out.”
“Look,” Mac said, “be careful.”
She smiled over her shoulder. “I thought you didn’t believe in paranormal activity, Major.”
He frowned. Ellie was right. So what was he reacting to? He hadn’t felt any movement, no sense of dread. With a shrug, he muttered, “It’s just my protective nature coming out.”
Her mouth curved slightly. “That’s okay.” And it was. Ellie knew that many people who hadn’t developed the sensing abilities of their right lobe were still sensitive. If Mac flew these huge, powerful planes, he had to have some kind of instinct working for him. Whether he called it a hunch or explained it away with some left-brain rationalization didn’t matter to Ellie. What did matter was that Mac had, somehow, sensed the movement, too.
The energy she was tuning in to suddenly tightened. Ellie stopped again and closed her eyes. Again she felt movement, but this time it was different. She opened her eyes and slowly turned her head toward Mac.
“I think you’d better stay back.”
“Why?”
“Because what I’m sensing isn’t positive.”
“What do you mean?” Mac had to stop himself from walking up to Ellie.
She pointed to the corner, about a hundred feet away from them. “The energy is different here.”
“Explain.”
“It’s tighter.” She opened her hands. “It’s as if there’s a sense of fear, of threat. That’s the best I can do to explain the change, Mac.”
“Why would it be different?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea.” At least, not yet. Ellie walked another twenty feet. This time she didn’t need to close her eyes to feel the energy shift. A swirling, muddied sensation blanketed her briefly, then moved away, deeper into the corner. She held out her hand to Mac.
“Stay back. Don’t follow me.”
Frustrated, Mac halted, his hands jammed into the pockets of his pants. A part of him, the disbeliever, wondered if Ellie was making all of this up. If she was, she was a very good actress. Her voice had grown husky, with an edge of warning in it. Another part of him wondered, though, if something really was going on that he couldn’t see or perceive. Facts warred with fiction in his head. Mac didn’t want to believe that anything paranormal existed. Still, if it didn’t, why would Ellie be going to all this trouble? It wasn’t as if she made a fortune from her shamanistic work. Confused, he watched as she moved forward with new caution.
She halted fifty feet from the corner of the hangar. Her skin prickled in warning, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up as a chill blanketed her. With her eyes, she tried to pierce the gloom. She saw nothing. There was an urgency, a real threat surrounding her. Closing her eyes, she tried to center herself. The energy was antagonistic. Threatening. Danger was near. What kind? What? She tried to remain quiet inwardly, for to lose her center, her balance, would put her in danger if there was something here whose intent was to hurt—or kill.
As she closed her eyes, Ellie switched to the “screen” in the center of her forehead. Unless she was in that altered state, she received no picture or symbols. All she could see was darkness. Her heart began to beat a little harder, and she fought to remain centered. Something was moving. Moving… Turning silently to the right, Ellie followed the feeling of movement. Anger. White-hot anger deluged her. She felt her entire physical body shudder in the wake of it. Hatred. She drew in a deep, steadying breath of air.
“Ellie! Look out!” Mac’s voice caromed throughout the hangar like thunder.
Startled, she jerked her eyes open.
Mac lunged for Ellie. He managed to strike her shoulder, and she let out a little cry as she lost her balance. As he jerked her into his arms, steadying her, something large sailed past them. It struck the concrete with a sharp, pinging sound.
“What?” Ellie whispered unsteadily. She regained her balance, wildly aware of Mac’s strong arms around her.
He stared at the corner, shocked. “Did you see that?”
“What?” Ellie stood on her own and his hands dropped from her shoulders. She stared into the gloom.
“This.” Mac went over and picked up a screwdriver. “Didn’t you see it?”
“N-no.” Ellie took the long, narrow screwdriver from him.
Scratching his head, Mac said in disbelief, “I saw it hanging in thin air. Somehow, I knew it was going to be thrown—at you.” He stared at her startled expression. “This is crazy,” he whispered angrily. “No screwdriver can hang in midair!”
Ellie said, “Let’s move away from this corner. I’m still getting chills. It isn’t safe, Mac. I don’t care whether you believe me or not.”
He wasn’t sure what he believed at this point. Gripping Ellie’s arm, he pulled her back toward the door. At least there was more light there, and he felt safer. The screwdriver was real. Who had thrown it? What had thrown it? There was no one else in the hangar right now, Mac was sure of it. He had no answers and he felt angry. Ellie could have been hurt! If he hadn’t seen the tool dangling in midair above her, who knows what might have happened?
Shaken, Ellie halted at the door beneath the light. The screwdriver felt cold in her hands and she shivered.
“Stay here,” Mac muttered.
“Wait!” She made a grab for his arm. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going back over there,” he said. “Somebody has to have thrown that screwdriver.”
“No! Don’t go over there, Mac! Believe me, there’s a malevolent spirit there. He could attack you if you get too close. Please, don’t go….”
Mac shook his head. “Stay here, Ellie. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Smothering her protest, she waited where she was. Mac moved with frightening swiftness back across the hangar. She lost sight of him as he moved around one of the jets and disappeared into the gloom. Her heart was beating raggedly in her breast. She was worried for Mac, but there was little she could do. He didn’t believe what he’d seen, and now he was looking for a physical culprit to blame it on. Ellie knew he’d find no one.
Ten minutes later, Mac came back, his face set, his eyes narrowed. Ellie stood under the light at the entrance, the shawl tight around her tense shoulders. She looked pale, her huge eyes holding fear. As he approached her, he muttered, “I didn’t find anyone.”
“I know….”
He scowled and reached out for her, his hand resting on her shoulder. He could feel the tension in her. “How are you?”
She smiled a little. “Shaken up, but okay. What happened over there?”
“Nothing.”
“Good.”
He shook his head. “Come on, let me take you home.”
“Thanks….” Once they left the hangar and were outside beneath the starlit sky, she felt better. Mac kept his hand on her elbow, and this time, she was glad for his closeness.
“I don’t know what happened in there,” he said tightly. “I saw it, but I don’t believe what I saw.”
Ellie nodded and allowed him to open the door of the Corvette for her. She waited until he got inside and they were driving away from the hangar before she spoke.
“If you hadn’t yelled, I’d never have seen that screwdriver.”
“Your eyes were closed. I knew you couldn’t see it.”
“Well,” Ellie whispered, feeling very shaky in the aftermath, “I’m glad you saw it.”
His mouth quirked. “Someone had to have thrown it at you. Damn.”
“Mac, the person who threw it wasn’t physical. You’re going to have to accept that sooner or later.” She saw the stubborn set of his jaw. “Whatever is in that hangar is angry, and is carrying a lot of hatred.”
“How do you know?”
“I felt it.”
The sentry at the gate again saluted smartly. Once outside the gate, Mac pressed on the gas and the Corvette speeded down the road. “Did you see anything?”
“No,” Ellie said sadly. “I can see only when I’m in that altered state. What I sensed was like a storm, a big, powerful storm. The closer I got to the corner, the more the energy became agitated, threatening and powerful.”
“This is crazy!”
Ellie said nothing. She could feel Mac wrestling with what had happened. “What do you want to do about it?” she asked him finally once they were on the freeway heading toward her home.
Snorting softly, Mac said, “Forget the whole thing.”
“You can’t do that.”
He glared at her. “Why not?”
“Because your people are being injured by whatever is in that corner. And I’ve got news for you—whatever or whoever it is, is not going to stop hurling tools at your people, Mac. Sooner or later, it could do serious damage. Is that what you want? Do you want your people really hurt? Maybe killed?”
“This is just too much for me to believe, Ellie.”
“I know it is,” she whispered. Her smile was sad. “I was afraid your traditional world would crash into mine, into what I know about this kind of paranormal phenomenon.”
“I respect what you believe,” he told her firmly. “But it’s a whole other thing for me to believe it.”
“Mac, I think I know enough about you to say this—your concern for the people who work for you will override your disbelief of what you saw.”
Rubbing his jaw, he glanced over at Ellie. She looked serene once again; the fear had left her eyes, and her mouth was soft and without tension. “All right,” he rasped, “when we get back to your place, you lay it out for me—give it to me with both barrels. It really doesn’t matter what I believe anymore. I’ve got to keep my people safe.”