Cougar's Roar

by Jim Mohr

  ***

  The worst part about being grabbed by telekinesis is that you feel all of your opponent’s power. If they are of sufficient strength, regardless if they are less powerful than you are, they can crush you. If their telekinesis is more powerful than your healing and your defensive power, you are dead. I have studied our powers, I know who has the varying degrees of power. The strongest telekinetic is Tiger. If both Wolves are working together, however, they are stronger combined. The strongest healer is Saint Bernard, empathy is Dove. The strongest telepath is Eagle. As for defensive power, it is the only power we can increase. At birth, Lion was the strongest defender, followed closely by German Shepherd. Now, however, Mountain Lion may be greater.

  The air is forced from my lungs as Lion grabs me. “Incompetence! Sheer incompetence! Our enemies gain strength, and you get bested by Owl?! If memory serves, Falcon, you told me the order of power in the birds are Eagle, Falcon, Hawk, Osprey, Owl.” Lion’s golden eyes flash as his head shakes slightly making his hair appear as if it were a mane.

  I struggle to breathe as my head is being forced backward. My ribs cannot expand outward. Behind me, I can hear Hyena’s cackling laughter. He is shirtless, only wearing his ugly black shorts.

  “How is it that you are bested by a bird that is so much weaker than you?” His power shakes me as if I were dreaming and he is trying to awaken me. Behind me, I sense two powerful Psychokinetics. Eagle is not one of them, they are dogs.

  I am released and I fall to the floor and gasp. The cool air rushes into my lungs, I cough trying to recover my breath. Lion stands from his white marble throne. I can see he is angry and afraid.

  “Who are you to enter my throne room without an invitation!?” I can sense these two visitors are not someone that would submit to Lion.

  I turn to see them. A man and a woman walking toward Lion, toward his throne. The man has a rough look, with black hair and gray eyes. The woman is also rough looking. Her hair is a solid steel gray, pulled up in a bun. Her brown eyes look almost canine.

  The man speaks. “We are the Wolves. We are here for one purpose. You have been searching for us, to ask us to pay homage, loyalty, or some other foolish thing. I will tell you this once, and once only. We do not bow to you, we do not serve you, you are not our king. We held power before you were even in puberty, cat. We are the originals, the experiment. Us, Tiger, Taipan, and others. Cease your searching for us, or we will kill you, your minions, and your pride. Your Pigeons will all die and you will be left to deal with Eagle on your own.”

  Lion stares at the couple, he is speechless, even Hyena is silent. The Wolves stand silently, their power combined is immense. Lion looks at me and then at the Wolves as he speaks. “If you are not servants of the King, who answers for the dog family?” His voice sounds weak and deflated.

  “Understand something, Lion. You are only the king because you put yourself there. You may not always be the most powerful Psychokinetic. If we hear of any trouble from you against the dogs, we reserve our right to claim your throne. We will crush you. You have been forewarned.”

  Hyena laughs, his cackle echoes through the throne room. The female Wolf looks at Hyena. “Be quiet you annoying fool.” She raises her hand. Hyenas body contorts as her telekinesis grabs him. “One more laugh from you, Hyena, and I will snap you in two.” He whimpers as blood drips from his chest. The force of her telekinetic grab has split his skin, the white of ribs shows through the flesh.

  The male Wolf smiles. “Release him, Marla.” Hyena falls to the ground. “We’re finished here. Leave us in peace.” The Wolves turn to leave the muraled throne room.

  “You do not walk into my home uninvited, injure my minion and leave!” Lion yells as I scramble to escape the middle of these three.

  The male Wolf stares at Lion, his gaze in unnerving. “Very well, bastard son of a failed experiment. If you desire death now, we will accommodate you.”

  “NO!” Screams Lion. “That isn’t what I meant.” I can see tears of fear forming in Lion’s eyes. “What I mean is that I need you to remain neutral in my affairs. Owl and Dove are in Wisconsin, they are meeting with Mountain Lion. There is a rebellion rising. I want you to stay clear of it. Do not interfere.”

  The male Wolf laughs. “You are a foolish child, Lion. We have more knowledge about Mountain Lion and the other hunters than you could ever hope for. He is not concerned with you.” The male Wolf becomes steely-eyed as the air hums with his power. “He is concerned with the snake. You would be wise to stay clear of Mountain Lion… He has become the bane of life. If you harm his friends, you will die. Leave the peaceful alone, or you will create the harbinger of death. She will bring you to your knees, your pride will kill you.”

  ***

  A knock at my door startles me from the corner of my room where I am hiding. The door opens, it is Osprey.

  “Falcon, are you here?” she asks.

  “Yes,” I stand. “Is he still raging?”

  “No, he cleared the throne room. Everyone but Hyena was told to leave. Falcon, I am scared.”

  “I am too Osprey. If anything happens, find Eagle. He will protect you.”

  Osprey enters my room and closes the door behind her. “I think Lion wants to reassert his authority. I think he wants to summon all Psychokinetics here. All except the Wolves I mean.”

  “Why? Leave the others be. Didn’t he hear the prophecy of the Wolf?” I plead. My calls are to the wrong person, Osprey has no authority.

  “It’s more than the Wolves. Lion said that he sensed Owl and Dove were also with Cheetah. They are all visiting Mountain Lion. He fears that they are joining forces to overthrow him. He does not care about the Wolves warning. Falcon, he doesn’t understand their prophecy.”

  I think to myself, “He is delusional and paranoid, he is a fool.” I would never say that out loud. I look at Osprey and answer her the best way I know how. “Maybe they are conspiring, maybe death is heading this way.”

  Part III

  Chapter 42

  Cougar—Wisconsin Illinois Base

  August

  I clear my Kalashnikov as the scoreboard displays my thirty-first consecutive 100. Behind me, I sense a human approaching, a male, it is the Admiral. As he enters my firing room, I snap to attention and salute. “Hello, sir!”

  Admiral Cummings smiles and returns my salute. “Hello, Lieutenant Reed. I know you graduate tomorrow from BOT, I just wanted to be the first to call you Lieutenant.”

  “Thank you, sir. I need a break though, six months’ worth of training completed in eleven weeks. My brain is mush.”

  “Wait until you command troops, it gets worse. Lieutenant, I want to have an informal conversation with you. Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear, I want honest responses. Can you do that?”

  “Yes, sir,” I begin to get nervous.

  “Good, first off, I need someone to put together a Special Operations action team. Quick response, lethal, and no more than thirty troops. The team will work under the Special Ops department, but the team lead will answer directly to Colonel Zahn. So, the chain of command will go me, Colonel Zahn, the team leader. What do you think?”

  “Sir, you’re thinking of me for this aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I am. How does it sound?”

  “Sounds like I would need access to all of the Alliance personnel files, authority to reroute transports for training, a promotion, and a shitload of time.”

  Admiral Cummings smiles. “That’s what I thought too. All except for the time. Is it doable?”

  My mind works on the logistics, the training. “How effective do you expect it to be? Thirty troops aren’t much.”

  “Lieutenant, it’s not only the troops. We have a fleet of weaponized drones. I know it’s out of the ordinary, but they offer air support. Your team, coordinated with airstrikes, would be a hell of a weapon.”


  As my tactics training chews on the idea, the plan forms for the team. “Sir, the whole thing will have to rely on stealth, lethal range, and hasty disengagement. Snipers, dedicated Air Force for extraction, access to all means of travel to enter Resistance countries.”

  “Very nice, Lieutenant. You know how to bargain.” His smile grows. “Done. I’ll promote you to First Lieutenant the day after tomorrow. It’ll be a battlefield promotion for your actions in May, you know, the assassination thwarting thing.”

  “Yes sir, I remember it.”

  “You pick your team. O3 will help you with personnel. When your team is assembled, I’ll promote you to Captain. You’ll be a battlefield commander, that’s a Captain at the minimum.”

  “Yes, sir.” Holy shit, this is going faster than I expected.

  “Now, a personal matter,” he says.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “You and Sergeant Montclair have been spending time together.”

  “Yes sir, she’s my mentor.”

  His left eyebrow raises as his face shows his knowledge of the truth. “Right, since you graduate tomorrow you don’t need a mentor. Correct?” He smiles again.

  “Point taken, sir.” He must know how Carrie and I feel about each other. “Sir, our dating has only been on base. We can’t get a pass to leave. Me being former Resistance has stopped that.”

  “Hmmm….” he mumbles as he rubs his chin. “Platonic relationship, huh? You’ve got some wild oats or some such thing to sow?”

  I can feel myself blushing. “Yes, sir. I mean, yes on the platonic relationship. My oats aren’t the issue. I mean, they are, but not like that.”

  “Calm down, Lieutenant. Damn, like you’re the first man to ever get flustered by a woman. I tell you what, Lieutenant, I have a twenty-four-hour pass for you both. I have set up a date for you two. I got the idea from your Special Ops file. There is a zoo in Milwaukee that you need to see. There’s a pair of mountain lions there that you need to go visit.”

  My heart jumps. “Thank you, sir!”

  “Prior to your pass tho,” he hands me a card. “That is for you. When you get back from your pass, we can talk again. I have your first trooper identified already.”

  “Thank you, sir, thank you very much.”

  “One more thing, Reed. What happened with your engineering project? Your final project in Aeronautical Engineering?”

  I shake my head. “I have no idea, sir. It was sent to Moscow and I never heard anything else. Why do you ask sir?”

  “Because our Special Intel has been seeing traffic concerning a new weapon, a jet. Was your jet the answer to the Death’s Head?”

  A wave of warmth washes over me. “Yes, it was, sir.”

  The Admiral shakes his head. “That was what I was afraid of.”

  ***

  I have no idea how the Admiral got a hold of this card. The writing on it is Carrie’s:

  French Restaurant, Fourth Floor

  6:00 p.m. Sharp!

  I head back to my residence to get cleaned up for what looks to be a formal dinner date, I reflect on the past few months. My time with Carrie and our new, young love. I have never been as happy as I am right now. The pains of my youth seem to be a distant memory.

  I’ve been blessed to be free of any intrusions into my life. My time in the Resistance has not reared its ugly head. I haven’t had to relive my past with reminders of Nada, Gabrielle, or Funnel Web. I have been left on my own. Peace has finally come into my life.

  My only regret is that I am caught completely unawares by Carrie. I refuse to read her mind and my payment has been a constant flurry of surprises from the gorgeous human woman. If surprise dinner invitations being delivered by the Admiral are now the norm, I may have to reconsider my ‘telepathy versus privacy’ debate.

  ***

  The entertainment sections of Alliance bases were designed originally to offer a safe zone for troops to unwind. The decision to sacrifice housing or more storage in place of nightclubs, restaurants, playhouses, and hologram suites, was an easy call to make. 500,000 ft.² of the base are set aside for the recreation section. My destination is the French restaurant on the fourth floor. Easily one of the three fanciest dining places, the French restaurant requires reservations and a high standard of dress. During the holidays, volunteers play the baby grand piano which brings an added class to an already exquisite dining experience.

  As I enter the restaurant, I see several senior officers. Colonel Derik Hansdorf, the Assistant O2 officer, and his wife are waiting for their table. “Lieutenant Reed, nice seeing you here,” Colonel Hansdorf says as his wife gives me a lustful look.

  “Sir, pleasure to see you as well. Mrs. Hansdorf…” I bow slightly to the woman.

  “Hello,” she says as she bats her eyes at me.

  I approach the maître d’, “Hello, my name is Cougar Reed. I believe I have reservations for two.”

  “Ah, yes sir.” The skinny civilian replies. “Your table is this way, sir.” He guides me through the dining area as the aromas of sautéed meats, rich pastries, and wine, fill my nose. God, I miss Prague. He stops at a table directly in front of the piano. “Here you are, sir. A message awaits you. Enjoy your evening, sir.”

  I see a red card at one of the place settings. I sit and open the card. Again, the handwriting on the card is Carrie’s: “I have been waiting for weeks for this opportunity. Now that I have your attention, I intend on taking advantage of it. I’ve wanted so badly to tell you this, in a way that is succinct and true. Cougar, I have fallen in love with you.”

  A combination of embarrassment, joy, unworthiness, happiness, love, and fear take a hold of me. To be a man and have this given to you, how do we respond? My senses tingle as a spattering of applause fills the room.

  I wipe my eyes and look up. Walking toward the piano is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life—Carrie, her hair is braided on top and into a ponytail. She is wearing a long, red dress which covers her exquisite body. My breath is taken away by her beauty. I know now why she didn’t accompany me to the range—she was getting done up for this.

  A nervous smile is on her lips as she gracefully pulls the bench out from the piano. Her blue eyes close and she takes a deep breath, sits, and moves the bench forward. I can see her mouth moving; either in prayer or reciting something. I yearn to enter her mind, to see what she will play.

  Her eyes open, she looks at me quickly, then turns to the piano. Her beauty is a knife, cutting into my soul. Her eyes are two small windows into heaven. She is nervous, I can sense it. Her hands slowly move above the keys.

  Chapter 43

  Cougar—Wisconsin Illinois Base

  As the first notes leave the piano my emotional strength fails. C sharp minor, G sharp, C sharp, E. I know the work with the first notes; Beethoven’s piano Sonata number 14—Moonlight Sonata. My head drops as the music travels from Carrie’s soul, to her fingers, to the keys, to the hammers, to the strings, to my ears.

  Images of Nada and her parents at the Beethoven concert at the Lucerna Great Hall in Prague. Gabrielle, my mother, Carrie… The music fills the air as Carrie plays it perfectly. Too many pianists race through the piece, playing it like it’s Fur Elise. Moonlight Sonata is slow, the notes are in threes, measured and hauntingly dark.

  I cannot look up at Carrie as she plays my favorite classical piece. If I did, my emotions would break me, I would weep. A teardrop lands on the tablecloth as she continues the perfect performance. I scratch the wetness hoping I can somehow hide the evidence, shelter myself from this pain.

  As Carrie finishes the song, several patrons applaud. I look up at Carrie. She is looking at me. Her hands are covering her mouth. Her face is red, she is crying. I mouth the words “I love you” to her. Her hands drop as she smiles through the tears. She mouths back “I love you too.” I have never be
en as happy as I am at this moment.

  ***

  “Cougar, I wasn’t meaning to hurt you or bring up anything in your past.” Carrie’s soft hands radiate warmth into mine. I am struggling to look at her eye to eye, I fear her beauty.

  “Carrie, I know. That was absolutely beautiful. You are absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t have asked for a better gift than what you’ve just given to me.” She squeezes my hand. I can feel her joy.

  “Then why won’t you look at me?”

  I swallow nervously as I raise my head. Before me sits a woman, who even by today’s standards, is strong. The collapse of society has made it nearly impossible for women to be feminine. They’ve had to fight, kill, and survive, like everyone else. Carrie has put away her strength and became someone else this evening—she became a beautiful, caring, woman in front of my eyes… A woman far stronger and lovelier than I first believed.

  Our eyes meet as her chin lowers slightly. I can see her love, her beautiful soul. “There, isn’t that better.” She rubs my forearm, comforting me.

  “Carrie, do you know about the zoo? About the Admiral giving us passes?”

  “Yes. Whose idea do you think it was?”

  “You devious little wench. He said he got the idea from Major Yarrow’s report.” I say in playful teasing. “How is it that you’ve got the Admiral’s ear?”

  “Cougar, I’ve been reporting to him. I thought you knew. Haven’t you been reading my mind?”

  “No.” I shake my head. “Minds are private. I have never read yours.”

  “When I was first assigned to you, the Admiral wanted updates on how you were doing. Grades and stuff, how you were adapting. Besides the fact that he is appreciative of you saving his life, he sees something in you. Cougar, the Alliance needs a warrior. We have some good people, some good leaders, but he thinks we are soft. He thinks that you’d make a damn fine officer. Your brashness, your bravado, your courage, things that the Alliance can’t teach.”