Designed to Love (25 page)

"Ronan, maybe it was a dream, or some sort
of auditory hallucination? I mean as far as we know, the telepathic
thing is a Designer trait only. Why would Cat have this ability?"
Alisha asks, not trying in the least to be optimistic.

"I believe she has found a way to access the
same part of her brain that we do," I respond curtly.

Claire says, "Maybe she has a white color
screening now," and Alisha gives her a stern look. It's as if the
very idea of a Non-Designer acquiring our special gifts seems to
threaten her. If it were anyone other than Cat, I might feel the
same way, but I've always considered her my equal regardless. For
me, her ability to communicate with me telepathically was just one
more expression of how well we fit together.

"Alisha, please try one more time to
remotely view the area. If I could just get a few more clues, I
might be able to find it," I beg.

"I will later tonight. I have to get some
things done in town today. We need a break anyway Ronan," Alisha
says as she grabs her handbag and coat. The others follow suit, not
making eye contact with me as they file one by one out the
door.

***

The quiet solitude of the Freeman estate is
shattered when the bustling team of window installers, arrive with
several pieces of heavy equipment, including a crane. Every window
on the west side of the house has been removed to make room for the
replacement bulletproof glass. The house is barely forty-five
degrees, even with the heater running full blast, and this gives
Alisha and Liz the perfect excuse to escape with Claire into town
to do some shopping. Jason joins them at the last minute leaving
Brandon and me to supervise the window project. Neither of us pays
much attention to the comings and goings of the workers but when
there is a change in the noise level from the loud roar of twenty
men, to hushed whispers, I am immediately on guard. Brandon must
have picked up on the change too, because he intersects me at the
top of the stairs, and we descend in three long strides, landing at
the bottom with barely a sound. I recognize the red head standing
in the living room almost immediately from our search for other
Designers a few months back. Natalie Nesbeth looks at us
uncertainly; I suppose trying to decide if we are part of the work
crew. Brandon is the first to recover from his shock and smoothly
introduces himself like a refined gentleman. It's enough to put her
at ease, in a house swarming with men who are now gawking at her
unabashedly.

"Sorry, I rang the bell," she says
apologetically, shaking a thick mane of auburn hair and flashing a
flawless smile at the two of us. I step forward to introduce myself
and am stunned when she says, "You must be Ronan."

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I saw you on the national news and Alisha
told me I might be needed to replace you."

"Oh, she did, did she?" I ask, folding my
arms across my chest, to keep her from seeing me tighten my fists.
"I'll have words with you later, Miss
Salisbury,"
I think, already preparing my speech.
Brandon chuckles and slaps me on the back. "Miss Nesbeth, welcome
to Designer Estates, let me show you around," he says as he reaches
for her suitcases, apologizing for the chaos in the house.

"You have your choice of one room in here,
available on the second floor and one in the guest house out back.
As you can see, there is quite a bit of construction going on right
now, you may be more comfortable in the guest cottage," he slips in
casually, then turns around, and with a wide crooked grin, winks at
me.

***

The window project is finished by the time
Alisha and the others return from their shopping trip. All of them
enter the house carrying an armful of shopping bags, packages and
mail from the post office, along with carry out dinner. I can tell
from the cheerful chatter that the outing has a positive effect on
them psychologically. I must admit, just having the plywood removed
from the sliding glass door and windows, is enough to lift my
spirits and for the first time since Christmas morning, I plug in
the lights to the Christmas tree. Claire jumps on my back when she
sees me, hooking one arm around my neck while she runs her other
hand through my hair that is almost long enough to put in a pony
tail.

"Ronan, Cat really likes your hair better
when it's short. You should think about getting it cut before we
find her," she says matter-of-factly. Such an innocent comment and
yet the power that it has on me is profound.

I promise I'll go tomorrow," I reply
laughing out loud. "Hot potato, calling Ali...!" I yell suddenly,
and Claire instantly slips her foot in the palm of my hand. She is
ready when I launch her toward Alisha who is already in position to
catch her.

"I call Jason," she says, repeating the same
maneuver, eliciting squeals of delight from Claire. She lands on
Jason's back and he calls out Brandon's name just as he and Natalie
enter the room. There is a momentary look of horror on Natalie's
face when she sees Claire, flying across the room, wild eyed and
screeching. In a flash, she reacts, diving in front of Brandon to
catch her. It's obvious by the manner in which her body moves that
she has some feline and maybe even chimpanzee DNA in her. The
impact from catching Claire almost knocks her off balance but
Claire quickly squirms out of her arms and Natalie gracefully
recovers.

Natalie looks around the room at the rest of
us, like we've lost our minds.

"Do you have any idea of the kind of
injuries a child can sustain if you were to drop her?" she says,
placing one hand on her hip, like an annoyed parent scolding a
bunch of careless teens.

Now this ought to be
good,
I think, watching Alisha stiffen in response. I
can tell by the smirk on Brandon's face that he's thinking the same
thing.

"You must be Natalie; I'm Alisha," she says
coolly, extending her hand out to her, and surprising us with her
level of self control. "This is Claire, Jason and Elizabeth," she
announces, gesturing to the three of them.

Claire steps forward and mimics Alisha by
extending her hand. She has been studying Natalie's energy field
and reacts accordingly, smiling hugely. "Hi, Natalie. I am very
pleased to meet you. You don't need to worry about me; I always
land on me feet. Watch I'll show you."

Before Natalie has a chance to respond,
Claire takes off running, full speed toward me, springing herself
in the air, with her arms extended straight in front of her like
Superman. I catch her by the waist, flinging her up ten feet in the
air, watching Natalie's jaw drop when Claire does a triple
somersault and lands on her feet in the middle of the room.

"Oh my, you are like a little monkey," she
says, putting two fingers to her lips and giggling. "I apologize
for my over reaction. I hope I didn't offend anyone," she says
looking directly at Alisha.

Alisha relaxes her shoulders and smiles in
response. "Actually, we all feel very protective over Claire, so
the fact that you were willing to offend us to protect her is a
good thing." We all nod in agreement.

Elizabeth and Jason come forward and welcome
Natalie to the group, and Brandon motions everyone to the kitchen
to eat carry-out Chinese food.

***

Natalie Nesbeth is even more beautiful in
person than in her online photos. Her custom green eye shade would
be classified as emerald, but unlike Burke's, hers have more of a
blue tint versus yellow and the result is a stunning "traffic
light" green color. They showcase brilliantly against her creamy
white skin and auburn hair. Her personality is enthusiastic and
lively, and she has the full attention of the six of us, as she
openly tells us about her background, using exaggerated arm
movements and facial expressions to support certain aspects of her
stories. Claire already gave her a "thumbs up" color screening of
white and seems particularly enthralled with her, along with
Brandon who hasn't taken his eyes off of her since she arrived.

Like Alisha, she graduated early from an Ivy
League College. She was at the top of her class at Harvard Law, and
didn't seem at all concerned about leaving a successful law
practice to join our group. She said she had a life changing moment
the day Elizabeth contacted her telepathically.

"I have always been scared of my superhuman
achievements and used to wonder if I was some sort of alien because
I was so different. The only thing that kept me somewhat sane was
the fact that my little brother Austin was equally gifted. Had my
parents just been honest with me about my DNA engineering, it would
have made things so much easier," she says reflectively.

Alisha clears her throat and pulls a tablet
from her briefcase, signaling that dinner is over, and it was time
to get to work. It is close to midnight when we finish telling
Natalie about how we met, the Designer virus, our life on the run,
and our contract with the federal government. From a lawyers
perspective she isn't too happy about us signing contracts without
legal representation and immediately requests copies of the
contract to review. I'm not thrilled at having to tell a complete
stranger my personal story about Cat and narrow it down to just the
vital details: she's being held hostage somewhere, and we need to
find her. Much to her credit, Natalie doesn't ask ridiculous
questions that I don't have answers to.

"Why the bulletproof glass," she says
glancing around the great room. It's a hard story for even Alisha
to retell, and we both briefly step away when Jason quietly
launches in to the story of the shooting and Burke's death. He
tells her straight up that joining the group could mean exposing
herself and family to dangerous situations. I can't be completely
sure, but her eyes seem to dance with excitement at the threat.

***

Natalie watches in fascination as Alisha
spreads a ream of paper out on the kitchen table. Her drawings are
of buildings and houses that to anyone else wouldn't make a lick of
sense, but I recognize the layout immediately as the place to where
I've remotely traveled. It has a little more detail then her last
drawings but still doesn't look like anything we haven't seen
before, so I'm a little perplexed by Alisha's level of excitement
coming out of her remote viewing exercise.

"It's right here," she says pointing a
finger at something on the right hand corner of the paper, near a
row of what appears to be airport hangars. She's written the
letters AFB across the side of one of the buildings, and Brandon
recognizes the lettering right away.

"It's an Air Force Base," he says,
excitedly.

"It's an abandoned Air Force Base with
underground bunkers," I add.

"And there's a good chance that it's here in
the United States," Elizabeth says, contributing to the
enthusiasm.

"Brandon, do you think you could..."

"Already on it, buddy," he says, slapping me
on the back and exiting the room.

"Ali, you're a genius!" I say, picking her
up in a bear hug that she automatically protests. Claire gives me a
thumbs up and wide grin, as Elizabeth carries her off to bed.

***

Sleep comes easier to me than it has in a
long time, and I don't wake up until after five in the morning,
which is considered sleeping in for me lately. I lie in bed
listening for any signs of movement downstairs hearing nothing
except for the clock ticking over the fireplace mantel. I wasn't
sure about Natalie, but aside from me, Alisha was the only other
person likely to be up at this time of the day. Natalie had
declined Alisha's suggestion to take one of the guest rooms inside
the main house, instead choosing to room with Brandon in the guest
house. He was ecstatic, but Alisha looked less than pleased by the
arrangement. In the short time that we've known Natalie, she has
made it quite apparent that she was used to calling her own shots
and being in charge. It would be interesting to see if, and how,
she and Alisha might share the alpha female role within the pack.
It certainly wouldn't work in nature.

***

Taking just enough time to brush my teeth, I
throw on a pair of swim trunks and head for the pool room for a
morning swim. The heavier bulletproof windows obscure the
picturesque landscape now, but I can still see the sun just
starting to peek over the horizon.

Swimming has become a morning routine for me
now. It's my meditative time that not only allows me to work my
muscles, but also clear my brain. I feel selfish not telling
Claire. She loves to swim and argued with Alisha and Jason when
they made a rule that she could not be in the pool without
supervision. Secretly, I sided with Claire. She is after all part
fish and the risk of her drowning seems ludicrous to me.

I am three miles into my swim, my body on
autopilot as I skim the top of the water, and my mind is completely
void of thoughts, when I hear her.

"Ronan, Bernie was right.
They know about the Designers and your abilities."

Her voice is full of anguish and fear. Her
sobs can be heard in my mind as clearly as her words.

"They have our family and
he says they'll begin with torture and progress towards killing if
you don't cooperate. I don't know if you can hear me, but I want
you to know that I'll die loving you."

Her ominous words trigger a remote travel
event without my conscious effort, and I instantly find myself
hovering over the familiar deserted Air Force Base. I didn't plan
on recklessly abandoning my body in the pool, but when I spot her
sitting on a bench in the backyard of one of the vacated houses,
everything about me, ceases to exist. I've found her, and that's
all that matters. She has her knees drawn up to her chest with her
arms tightly wrapped around them as she sits motionless next to a
girl who outwardly seems harmless. I drift closer and see a large
tear roll down her cheek.