Out of Nowhere (The Immortal Vagabond Healer Book 1) (28 page)

He fixed me with a penetrating look. ‘I’m guessing you have, too.’

I thought about that. I’d heard rumors of government experiments; that was as old as governments. But I hadn’t taken any of it seriously. Outside of the shaving mirror, I’d never seen anyone who could do anything that couldn’t be explained.

Maybe that was a bit shortsighted of me.

‘Let’s say maybe I have.’

‘I had a feeling.’ He looked away again. Everywhere but my eyes. ‘So I reached out to a friend in the intelligence community. He said he’d do some checking. An hour later, he called back. Said he had some info. He’d have someone deliver it, meet me at a restaurant tonight. Instead, these thugs cornered me outside. They weren’t very professional, I saw they were up to something, had my Ruger out and pointed at the first one before he could say a word.’ He stopped, looked directly at me for the first time since I’d fixed his eye. ‘Then he vanished. And then he was behind me, with a knife under my chin. How the fuck did he do that?’

I took a deep breath before answering. ‘Like you said, I’ve seen some strange things. I figure your buddy has worked with these guys before, tipped ‘em off. Figured you could tell them where to find me.’

‘I didn’t tell ‘em shit.’

‘I believe you. But you probably didn’t have to. They got your address, came to check it out.’

‘What happened?’

‘I had to leave some dead bodies up at your place. And I borrowed a couple of your guns.’ I handed him the .22. ‘You might want to get rid of this one. The guy who was guarding you is in the next room with a slug from this in his head.’

He took the gun, checked the chamber and pocketed it. ‘Thanks.’ He looked at me for a moment. ‘You killed four men who came to my house?’

‘They drew first.’

‘Then you planned a rescue and killed another one here, all with a bad wrist and a bad ankle?’

‘And the ribs,’ I said.

‘Maybe you were a jarhead,’ he said. ‘You’re crazy enough.’

‘Hey, I had backup. They never expected a college professor. Seriously, you said it yourself, these guys aren’t exactly Green Berets. And I knew what they could do. I was ready for it.’

‘Never seen anything like that,’ he said. ‘Or anyone do what you just did. You can’t fix you own injuries?’

‘Nope.’

‘Why not?’

‘I really don’t know. Why can’t you tickle yourself? There’s probably a reason, but I didn’t want to sign up for more medical exams.’

He nodded. ‘I can see why the government would want a guy who could do what they can. Or what you can. They let you walk?’

I shook my head. ‘Not many people know what I can do. I never exactly put it on my resumé. Most of the time, people don’t even know I’ve done it. They just think they got lucky.’

‘Maybe you aren’t the young idealist I thought you were.’

‘You said something when I mentioned the drug dealing?’

He nodded. ‘There’s a lot of black ops guys in Afghanistan right now. CIA, special forces, private contractors. You know, Afghanistan, where they grow the poppies? I’ll bet there’s a nice little pile of money to be made. This guy who’s pissed at you already has a relationship with the military thanks to this superpower thing. Let’s say he gets the chance to extend that relationship, with someone operating out of Afghanistan. What with superpowers and uniforms, it wouldn’t be too hard to get the drugs past customs and into the US.’

‘Well, shit,’ I said.

‘You’re still ahead on dead bodies,’ said Sarah.

‘Yeah, I guess that’s something.’

‘The Spartans were ahead on dead bodies at Thermopylae,’ said Bob. ‘They still all got killed.’

I conceded the point. ‘We should get out of here. Sooner or later housekeeping is going to find our friend or some boss is going to check in on the hit team.’

‘I put the Do Not Disturb sign on the other room,’ said Sarah. ‘That should keep the maid out until checkout time, anyway.’

‘You’re getting good at this,’ I said.

She smiled weakly and looked away. I realized that I might have been a bit insensitive. Being under fire like this put me back in warrior mode, and the fact that Sarah had been holding up so well made me forget she was a civilian. I had to be more careful about that.

‘What you need is something on these people,’ said Bob as he got to his feet. ‘I have a few names and interesting facts that some people might not want to see the light of day, especially if I can connect them to heroin. I’ll get them to you.’

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘You sure you want to get involved in this?’

He gave me a grim smile. ‘You couldn’t keep me out now. They leaned on the wrong guy.’

‘I appreciate it,’ I said. ‘But I’ve already gotten you in enough trouble. And you’ve lost enough.’

‘It’s not my aiming eye. And you came for me when the sane thing would be to run. Even hurt, even when it looked like I might have sold you out.’

‘Didn’t seem like you’d do that,’ I replied. ‘And I was sure you wouldn’t put Sarah in danger.’

He looked at me for a long moment and nodded.

‘Be careful, please.’ Sarah gave him a hug.

‘Girl, you been laughing at my backups for my backups for a long time,’ he said, grinning, ‘but now I’ll be so far off the radar it’ll make my off-grid house look like downtown. I have hideouts and stashes that nobody knows but me. I’ll track down some info and send it to your email. Then you’ll have a bargaining chip.’

‘Thanks again,’ I said. ‘I still have your Browning, by the way.’

‘Keep it. I’ve got plenty of guns and that one can’t be traced back to me. Just in case you need to drop it at a crime scene.’

‘If you go back home, there are a few MP5s,’ I said. ‘I noticed you don’t have any submachine guns.’

‘Never know when you might need one,’ he replied. ‘You keep each other safe, hear me?’

‘Loud and clear.’

Chapter 30

WE DROVE ON FOR SOME TIME in silence. A light snow began to fall. Not enough to make the driving bad, just a few flakes swirling in the glare of the headlights. I studied Sarah’s face as she drove, facing resolutely forward. I couldn’t read anything in her expression.

‘You gonna be alright?’ I asked.

‘Probably not,’ she said. ‘Right now I’m just numb. And we need to think, to plan. I don’t have time for a breakdown.’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t know if I’m just putting it off, or for how long.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ I said. ‘You’re coping like a trooper. I’ve seen men break under a lot less.’

She gave a tight smile. ‘Thanks. It helps that you’re here. I feel safe with you. It sounds crazy, even to me. But I wouldn’t have believed anybody could fight like you do. If I hadn’t seen you beat these guys, I’d be a terrified wreck.’

‘I’m glad you feel that way.’

‘You know,’ she continued, ‘until I met you, I’d never seen a dead body outside of a funeral home. Now I’ve seen you kill eight people. I’m not sure if it bothers me. I know you had to, but you did it without a second’s hesitation. I also know you can be gentle and charming. You just don’t fit my idea of a cold-blooded killer.’

I didn’t know what to say to that.

‘Have you killed a lot of people? Have you always had a good reason?’

‘Yes,’ I sighed. ‘And yes. I was a soldier for a long time. I killed men in combat. Most of them were strangers, and probably men I might have liked if I’d met them in other circumstances. Calling a battle a fair fight would be a stretch, but any man who shows up armed on the battlefield has to understand that he’s accepting certain conditions and risks. I’ve never killed without a good reason. Before this week, I hadn’t fired a shot in anger since Korea.’

‘Is following orders a good reason?’

‘Not by itself,’ I replied. ‘And for a guy who’s spent so much time in uniform, I’m not very good at following orders. I’ve ignored stupid orders, pretended I didn’t hear a few others. Just kinda shook my head at the squad when some lieutenant said something unacceptable and worked around it. I’ve never killed civilians or prisoners.’ Not real prisoners anyway. That German machinegunner at Belleau Wood who took out half the squad and thought we’d forgive and forget just because he put his hands up when we got within grenade range—well, he didn’t count. No point in bringing that up.

‘Have you ever killed anyone to protect your secret?’

‘No. I’ve left town in a hurry a few times, but I’ve never killed anyone just to keep them quiet.’

She drove for a while in silence. ‘I guess I’ll see how I feel about that when things settle down.’

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing. I hoped she’d still want to be with me after this, but it wouldn’t exactly be a surprise if she didn’t.

I didn’t think much about my reaction to killing. I’d gotten past the point where it bothered me. If it ever had. It wasn’t that I didn’t have a conscience, or that I was incapable of feeling guilt. I just understood that, sometimes, it was me or him, and, well, it was gonna be him.

I knew not everyone could be that way. I’d known soldiers who would shoot high, or just hide in their holes and not fire. I’d known men who fell apart afterwards because they’d killed people in combat. Maybe that’s evolution. Maybe thousands of years of socialization has made resorting to violence more of a liability than an asset. I guess an oily, backstabbing speech from Marty is a more likely threat than a leopard dropping on you from the branches, or a longship full of axe-wielding Danes descending on your village. What used to be an essential survival trait is now a good way to get you jailed or, at the very least, fired.

I felt less guilty about shooting one of Doors’ gang of thugs than swatting a mosquito. They weren’t just men trying to kill me because we wore different uniforms. They crossed a line. After what they did to Tiffany and Sarah and Bob, I wanted an excuse to shoot more of them.

Sarah suddenly pulled off onto the shoulder, one of those areas on the side of the highway cleared so people could ooh and ah at the mountains without bouncing off a guardrail. She put the car in park and turned in her seat to face me.

‘What would you do to me if I said I couldn’t take this anymore?’

‘To you? Nothing. I’d try to talk you out of it, probably beg and grovel and embarrass myself, but I wouldn’t do anything to you. What makes you ask that?’

‘If I said I was going to talk to the police or the papers, give a full statement in return for protection and immunity. You’d let me walk?’

‘I’d be devastated,’ I said, ‘but I wouldn’t try to hurt you or kidnap you. I understand this is a lot for you to take in. I’d just ask you to drop me at the nearest bus station. I know this is tough. I desperately want you to stay with me. More than anything. But if you want out, I swear I won’t try to stop you.’

‘What if said I was going to drive us to the State Police barracks right now and turn you in for a half-dozen murders? I’m a woman. Alone. Out in the woods. You have a gun, you’re stronger, you know how to fight. You wouldn’t do anything?’

‘I’d use the full force of my charm, eloquence and smouldering male sexuality to convince you not to, but I’d never deliberately harm you in any way.’ I put out a hand to touch her. ‘I’d like to say you have nothing to fear from me, but that’s kinda misleading, considering the danger I’ve put you in. But I’d never hurt you. I’d face jail or the FBI or Doors and his goons before I’d raise a hand to you.’

She looked at me for a long moment, her green eyes fixed on mine. I noticed that she was looking through her glasses rather than over them. My heart hammered worse than when there were guys shooting at me.

‘I’m pretty sure I believe you,’ she said at length. ‘You’re either very sincere, or the best liar I’ve ever met.’

‘Can’t a man be both?’ I asked.

That brought out the ghost of a smile. ‘Let’s go,’ she said. ‘We’ll get out of this mess. Then we’ll have a talk about things.’

We drove for some time in silence, until we arrived in Twin Mountain. Ski season in full swing, we had to look around for a bit to find a vacancy. We finally found a small motel with a room for rent. It stood back off the main drag, across the street from a convenience store, and wasn’t exactly four stars, but was clean and cheap enough to survive on the overflow tourist trade from the big places.

Chapter 31

WE DRAGGED OUR BAGS INTO THE ROOM and I crashed on the bed. I’d been getting better, but the fight in the woods and rescuing Bob had set me back.

‘I was thinking,’ she began.

‘Yes?’

‘You and these teleporter guys inherited your talents from your parents—they’ve been passed down through the family. What happens if someone with a talent has a baby with someone who doesn’t?’

‘I’m not sure,’ I said. ‘Maybe it’s recessive and the kid could carry it and never know, or maybe it could manifest in a small way. The guy who got me out of Doors Imports said something about not being pureblood so he could only go so far. Maybe that’s why Bob can dowse, or why some people claim to have ESP. Maybe they have a tiny bit of the ability from some distant ancestor who could do really impressive stuff.’

‘I always thought those guys were con artists.’