Silver Storm: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 2 (18 page)

“The wrong people?”

“Someone passed the audio up the line. I had to warn a couple of my team about a trap. I couldn’t let them die. I knew I was being watched. The CO had already warned me and the rest of the guys to tone it down and try to cover my ass, but it was either speak up or let them die.”

Sarah brought his hand to her lips this time, and tried to soothe him with a kiss. “So, that’s why you think they’re the ones who took you?”

They reached the edge of the water and Tim slung the pack off his shoulder and pulled out a blanket. After whipping it into place along the beach he sat with his legs out and made room for her to sit between them. “One of the guys on my team got a call. No names. Top level secret hocus-pocus crap. They were asking a lot of questions about past missions, reviewing audio. I knew if they had access to me it would only be a matter of time.”

Sarah settled between his legs and leaned back into the heat of his chest. “So, what did you do? You can’t just quit, can you?”

“No. You can’t.” He pulled another blanket from the bag and spread it over her legs. His voice sank, full of bitter pain, and she immediately thought of his scar.

“Your injury wasn’t an accident, was it?”

“No.” Tim didn’t try to deny it. “I had three months left after that phone call. I kept my head down and my mouth shut and didn’t re-up. After that, I was offered a job on the civilian side. At least, that’s what I thought. Really it was just a front company for the feds. My intuition and mathematical background worked beautifully together. I was in heaven. Improving weapons. Designing new ones. But I kept being reassigned to new projects. Higher level. Dangerous, experimental stuff. I already had the clearance, and they were watching me, following me. The work was great, until I actually figured it all out.”

“Figured what out?” Anger rose within her on his behalf and raced along her flesh in an assault not unlike static electricity arcing from her hands into the ground. They’d obviously used and abused her man, and she didn’t like it one bit. Neither did her new super-power.

“I figured out how to build what they wanted me to build. After that, I had to take out the lab, destroy all of my notes and equipment, and make it look like an accident. The burn was severe. The concussion was worse. But I survived.”

Sarah considered for a minute in silence as the waves crashed to shore in a constant steady rumble. “And what better way to prove you weren’t able to predict the future than to get hurt?”

“Something like that.” Tim wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her snugly against him, her back to his front. Her Mark hummed in blissful warmth at its proximity to his just a few inches behind her.

On impulse, she tilted her head back on her neck and twisted around to kiss him on the cheek.

Tim turned and kissed her full on the mouth until she melted into a puddle of want right there on the beach. Took about ten seconds, by her generous estimation. Probably closer to five seconds, but who was counting anyway?

Tim saved her from embarrassing herself by breaking the kiss and resting his forehead against hers. Their breaths mingled in the wind and strands of her hair whipped around to tickle them both in the face.

“You ready to do this?”

“Yes.” She wasn’t ready. She wanted to sit on this beach with Tim and pretend they were a normal couple in love, cuddling and watching the city lights to the south flicker on and reflect off the water. Romance, ambiance, simplicity. But that wasn’t true and never could be, so why delay? She had Tim’s arms around her. That would have to be enough.

Closing her eyes, she relaxed in his arms and let her mind go quiet, waiting for the buzz of information to start as she tapped into the energies around her.

All she could feel was Tim, his strong arm wrapped around her waist and the heat of his chest at her back. Even the flow of air molecules as he breathed in and out beside her. Fascination held her still as she watched cold particles flow into his body and heated, dancing molecules flow out. The world around her took on a new dimension, a hypnotic beauty that she’d never before seen with her naked eyes. She was different now, her sense of the world expanded beyond anything she could have imagined before. The waves crashed, ribbons of wind whipped and spun around one another in a million never-ending duels, and the fading light of the sun skittered around like sparkling golden pixie dust blessing everything it touched with renewed energy and life. She felt like she’d left Earth completely and entered a magical, glittering wonderland.

Sarah settled back against Tim again and let her mind, her spirit, float up out of her body. She noticed a strange light hugged her body where it remained on the sand. The soft amber glow stretched between her body and Tim’s, cocooned them and connected them in a way she couldn’t comprehend.

Before her heart could jump to conclusions or her body could call her back with all out lust, she turned her attention away from the beach and floated up into the wind currents like she’d done before, riding them like a falcon, using them to hunt.

She soared upward until she hovered about a mile above the northern edge of the city and waited, filtering energies as they passed through her, hoping to get another odd ping in her consciousness that would alert her to the enemy ship or to the child’s bright soul. But all she felt was the frantic activity of humanity and their machines bustling around like busy bees, humming in a strange artificial rhythm at odds with the synchronicity and harmonies of nature’s energies.

No wonder the world was mad.

Sarah rejoiced in her newfound power and control. Making love to Tim had changed her somehow, made her stronger, more focused and aware.

Another presence bumped against that thought, a consciousness other than her own pulsed and flowed around her.

A woman. Not as controlled as Sarah, not as big in the world. Sarah could feel the stranger’s mind struggle to maintain her place in the currents of existence that continuously ebbed and flowed in a great ocean of energy around them.

Sarah could squash her like a bug, rip the stranger’s energy pattern into unrecognizable shreds to be absorbed by the rest of the world’s frantic systems.

Who are you?
The soft, curious question fluttered to her, like a thought with butterfly wings alighting on her shoulder.

Sarah froze, debating. The Archiver hadn’t told her about anyone else like her. It could be the enemy, could be a trap.

Or it could be a very unique young lady wondering who she was, thrilled that she was no longer alone in the skies.

Hello? Are you there? Can you hear me?
The woman’s voice was a bit stronger this time, perhaps closer. Sarah debated for a heartbeat more then answered.

I am Sarah. Who are you?

I am Katherine. I want to meet you. Where are you?

Sarah laughed in her mind, the wind currents rippled and spun around her like dancing fairies.
I am here, just like you.

Here. Present. Touching the world with her mind and watching it swirl in a kaleidoscope of motion and life. Sarah was confused. Why would the woman ask or care where she was when they were both so omnipresent at the moment over both the city and the lake? Over hundreds of miles of airspace?

And no alien spaceship in sight. Damn it anyway. Had she really thought it would be that easy? The Triscani must have found a way to tangle their energies with the world’s as well. She’d never be able to find them this way if that were the case.

Where are you, Sarah? I’m in Chicago…

The trailing question brought Sarah up short. This woman was in Chicago? The city to be destroyed in just over twenty-four hours’ time? Oh, and by the way, she just happened to have skills similar to Sarah’s, to a Timewalker’s? Something didn’t add up. Katherine might be what she said she was, a woman out riding the wind, but the coincidence would have to be astronomical. The statistical likelihood of that was basically zero. So, that left the other option.

Anger fueled her as she brought the vastness of her being back from the edges, pulled it in from miles in every direction and trapped the woman inside like water in a balloon.

Katherine panicked and Sarah wished she could grin, wished she found humor in the ugly task she’d set herself.

Katherine’s reach was small, much smaller than her own, and Sarah felt like she was disciplining a small child once she felt the full weight of the other woman’s mind and abilities.

Katherine fled back down the only unbroken energy path Sarah had left her, a thread through which to escape back to her own body.

Sarah followed the woman back to the passenger seat of a large van and waited, her energy subtle and small, flitting around the air molecules inside the vehicle, as she watched the woman regain consciousness and catch her breath.

Katherine had a gun strapped to her side and five men with her, coiled to strike.

“Bloody hell, she’s strong.” Katherine’s voice filled the small space and the men tensed around her. “She’s here. Close. Head north, she’s on the shore. We can be there in a few minutes.”

The man beside her started the van’s engine. “You can track her?”

“I think so.”

“Dangerous?”

The woman rolled her eyes. “Of course. But I don’t think she’s been trained. She felt…” There was a pregnant pause as Katherine struggled to come up with the right word. “She felt normal. I don’t think she’s foreign or military trained.”

“All right. We’ll talk first and shoot second. Let’s go get her.”

Sarah meant to follow them, to listen and find out who they were and what they wanted, but a soft touch of discord reached her senses and she knew the enemy searched for her. Perhaps she could find them first in the complex web of energies flowing above the city. They were hiding, as she was. It was the ultimate game of cat and mouse. And she had to win.

The strange woman and her van full of human soldiers would have to wait.

<><><>

Tim held Sarah steady with one arm around her waist and pulled his pack closer with the other. He unzipped it and made sure his gun, knife, and cell phone were all within easy reach as he scanned the beach, the sky, and the ground around them continuously.

Sarah’s body was like a live wire in his arms, buzzing against his senses with a constant flow of energy. Good news was his back and arms weren’t tired, the energy seemed to feed straight into his body so he wouldn’t tire, no matter how long he sat there. The bad news was he couldn’t let go of Sarah to move around. They were sitting ducks and his instincts were screaming at him to get the hell out of there.

Hell of a time for his dormant alarm system to kick back on.

“Sarah.” He spoke against her ear, hoping she would hear him, but knew it was futile. She was after something. He’d felt her attention shift, narrow, and focus on it a couple minutes ago. He wished like hell he was telepathic or something so he’d know what was going on with her. But no, all he got was this vague sense of dread and tightening in his gut.

“Sarah, come back to me. We need to get out of here.”

The hair on the back of his neck rose and goose flesh broke out on his arms. Final warning. He could sense a van moving toward them from the south. Someone was coming for her.

As quickly as he could he scooted out from behind her and settled her on her back on the blanket. He took one of her hands and did his best to wrap her fingers around his ankle as he crouched beside her. He scanned the shoreline for a place to hide but knew it was futile. Whoever was coming at them was tracking Sarah by energy, not by sight. Hiding behind a bush would be like hiding a steak from a dog and counting on him not to smell it.

Nowhere to hide. Maybe he could carry her to the truck and outrun them.

What he needed was for little miss lightning bolt to wake up and zap their van into next week.

“Sarah, come on. I need you back here.” Tim shook her shoulder and felt a faint stirring in his mind, but she quickly left him with the sense that she was doing something important and couldn’t come back right now.

It was like getting a psychic answering machine…
Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you when I can…

No matter. He didn’t want to have to fire his weapon on the unknown people coming their way, but he would if he had to. Blow a couple tires and he could outrun them, at least for now.

That thought in mind, he swung his pack over his shoulder and, gun in hand, scooped Sarah up off the ground to run for the truck.

Too late.

A chopper approached from the southeast, heading straight for them.

“Sarah!”

Again all he got from her was a “not now” vibe. “Shit.”

The loud roar of the helicopter got closer and the wind from the blades tugged at his clothing, sent Sarah’s hair into a soft sway where it dangled from her unconscious form. He couldn’t outrun or out-drive a chopper, and he wasn’t willing to kill a fellow soldier without cause.

So, good news was the chopper was U.S. Military. Bad news was, when he looked down he saw the horrible light of a laser sight hovering on her chest.