Logan was stunned. “If that hits the open market…”
“I know. I was so angry with her, I could spit. But Jack pointed out she didn’t invent the technology, she just showed us how we could use it. And if her friend could think of it, someone else would think of it as well. You can’t stop progress, only manage it. So we’ve snatched up the little inventor and kept her under wraps in a factory that only sells to us. She was very fair in the negotiations. The Corps bean-counters were very pleased with the arrangement, and it went through with lightning speed.”
“What was the girl’s name?” Logan asked.
“Pratt…I think her first name is Betty. She’s such a young, tiny thing it gives me hives just to look at her. How can a kid who looks no more than thirteen be developing technology beyond anything our brain trust can do?”
“Brown hair, big eyes, four foot eight?”
“Sounds right,” Powell stated. “Did you know her?”
“I think I might have met her once,” Logan replied, mentally adding, Only she was a boy named Denny with impressive medic skills.
From the general’s office, Logan made his way down to the gear shed and asked Gunny if he might see the shipment records for the past few months. If Gunny was aware he wasn’t a general anymore, he didn’t say anything. He simply handed over the records and went about his business. There was only one entry at the time and date Logan wanted. He asked Gunny if he could see the video recording of the shipment delivery, but Gunny couldn’t provide it. MAC had pulled the entire day’s files from the computer.
Logan thanked him and flew back to the MAC lab. He asked Riley to locate the video. After a few false starts, Riley located it and played it for him. One run through the tape and Logan knew how Alisha had escaped, and he was pretty certain he knew where she was hiding. Clearly, MAC knew how she’d escaped, and Jack and Betty aka Denny had helped her, and yet the computer had never told a soul. That led him to believe MAC had her safely secured in the fabric manufacturing site. Which, given its importance to national security, would be so well hidden, he’d have a hell of a job finding it.
He asked Riley if he could be left alone with MAC for a minute. Riley hesitated, then left the room.
Logan wrote a message on the computer:
I need to see her.
No reply.
I love her, MAC. I want to marry her BEFORE my child comes into this world.
The only reply was the screen went blank and his words disappeared from the screen.
“Then I’ll do it myself. I’ll find the damn plant if I have to cover half the desert to do it. Here’s what I do know. It’s within a day’s driving range of the fort. With a little bit of effort, I’ll find the station that recharges the truck. When I compare the energy used on the outgoing stop versus the incoming stop, I’ll know exactly how many miles the truck travels before reaching the plant. There aren’t that many roads in the desert, MAC. I will find her.”
He wanted to start his search immediately, but first he had to give Daniel the good news.
***
Any anger Kane had harbored was now gone. To have the certain knowledge that Alisha was safe was sufficient to forgive Logan his trespasses.
“I’m going to go to the site and demand admission. I should tell you now that I’m going to try my damnedest to convince Alisha to marry me. I know you think I’m too old and bleak for her. And I may be. But all the pain and misery I’ve caused us both has been because I kept trying to deny the love that’s between us. That stops now. Whether you approve or not, I do intend to marry Alisha.”
Daniel frowned. “You, of course, realize you’re a hell of a lot bleaker now than when I first objected.”
“Daniel, if Alisha agrees to marry me, I will be the happiest man you’ve ever seen.”
Chapter 31
As he pulled into Charging Station 402, Logan noticed a white car pull in behind him. It could be a customer needing a charge, but something about the two men inside made him suspect they were following him. Damn it! He dared not search for Alisha if doing so would lead the police to her.
He slid his credit card into the station pod slot, and the contacts automatically rose and pressed against the undercarriage of his car to recharge the batteries. He watched as the man in the white car pulled out his card. It was a government-issue blue purchase card. The chances the man was a cop just quadrupled.
Logan sighed in frustration. He’d have to abandon his search today. He’d just drive around a bit, go home, and figure out how to lose the bastards.
He sensed someone was watching him—not the men in the car, who were pointedly ignoring him, but over by the small motel attached to the charge station. A blonde woman was leaning on her car, staring straight at him. She smiled and raised her sunglasses so he could recognize her. What the hell was Marge doing here? When his car was recharged, he drove it to the parking place beside hers and got out.
She wasted no time in walking over to him and putting her arms around his neck.
“You’re being followed,” she said, and kissed him on his lips.
He unclasped her hands from his neck. “I’m aware of that,” he replied. “Are you following me as well?”
“No…I’ve been waiting for you, ever since you told MAC your next steps.” She smiled and held up a room key. “If you come inside, I have a present for you,” she teased.
“Marge, I appreciate the offer…”
“Not that type of present,” she whispered in his ear. “You asked MAC for a present, remember? Come inside and you’ll get it.”
Logan followed her inside. The room was empty, but he thought Alisha might be in the bathroom. All he found in the bathroom was a very large man with a gun.
“Sorry, love, but we can’t let you lead the police to her. I warned them you’d figure it out. And it was actually good you told MAC what you intended to do. It gave us time to work out the logistics.”
Before he could react, Marge plunged a needle deep into his arm, and a second later he felt the world slip out from under him.
Chapter 32
Alisha was lying in her bed, envying Betty’s love life, when Fred knocked on her door and came inside. He sat down on a chair and studied her. “Betty’s disguise for you is amazing.”
Alisha could sense a difference in him today. He wasn’t there about Betty. He was there to give her bad news.
“You’re turning me over to the police, aren’t you?”
“No!” he said, looking horrified at the thought. “Good God, no! If I let one hair on your head come to harm, I’d be skewered alive. You’re staying safely here until your baby is born. However, we do have a problem—retired General Theodore Logan.”
“Logan?” Alisha sat up and looked at Fred.
“He’s looking for you. Half the world is looking for you, but he was damn close to finding you. We couldn’t risk him leading someone else to this site. So we have two choices. We can bring him in so he can talk to you, or we can kill him.”
“Is this a joke?” Alisha asked in outrage.
“No,” he assured her. “I’m completely serious.”
“You can’t kill a person just because they’re looking for me!”
“We can and we will, if we believe they’re a threat to your safety. Alisha, if a policeman walked through this door right now, I would kill him. You have no idea how valuable you’ve become to the Corps. Now, I need your answer on General Logan. Do we bring him in to see you or not?”
“Bring him in,” she said, suddenly horrified by the cherubic young man seated in her chair.
“I can tell you’re upset. You’re probably going to warn Betty away from me, and I’ll understand. I just want you to know I really care for Betty. I mean really care. I’ve requested permission to marry her.”
“You have to ask permission?” How young was he?
“In my line of work…yes.”
“What is your line of work?”
“Well, for the la
st six months, it’s been exceptionally pleasant. I was put in charge of the brightest mind and the cutest face this country has seen since Einstein. And Einstein was only bright…not cute. My job was to keep her safe, happy, and productive. Falling in love was not in my job description, and I need it written in.”
“Are you going to tell her what you really do?”
“If I’m granted permission to marry her, I’ll tell her everything. If they decide against it, then they’ll reassign me and never let me see her again. So you see, I’ve taken a risk asking, but sometimes you have to do that. If you know it’s right, you have to say to hell with all the reasons not to go off a cliff—but just go to the edge and jump.”
If only Logan had done that, Alisha sighed inwardly. “I won’t say anything to Betty.” She smiled. “And I hope your landing is soft.”
Chapter 33
The supervisor glared as he told her she was to report to her room. “If they’re firing you, it’s your own fault. A worker cannot be good part of the time. A worker must work all the time!” he said loudly for the benefit of the others.
Some of the others gave her a sympathetic glance, but most looked pleased that the slacker was getting the boot.
When she entered her room, Logan was lying on her bed and Fred was sitting on a chair in the corner.
“What’s wrong with him?” She hoped to God they didn’t think she’d asked to have him killed and then brought to her.
“We knocked him out to bring him in. He should wake up soon. If he’s still out in thirty minutes, call me and I’ll throw some water on him. I’ll be right outside. If at any time you want him out of here, just knock on the door or call my name. I’ll be right in.”
Alisha failed to see what Fred thought he’d be able to do against a man as strong as Logan. He could pick Fred up with one hand and just dangle him in the air. She nodded to Freddy, and he left the room.
Logan’s unconscious state gave her a chance to study him without betraying how much she still loved him. He looked so tired and worn out. His frown wrinkles had multiplied and the smile wrinkles around his mouth were almost gone. His mouth looked so unhappy. She leaned over and kissed his lips.
Enjoying the memories it brought back, she kissed him again.
On her third kiss, his strong arms wrapped around her and he held her tight as he returned her kiss with a passion that sent shock waves all the way to her toes.
***
Logan floated in a blue haze. He knew he should try to swim up for air, but his body no longer seemed to be in his control. Is this death? he wondered, thinking it not so terrible. Certainly not as painful as his last months had been.
Suddenly he felt warmth and a tingling on his lips. He tried to open his eyes and see what had caused the sensation, but his lids remained closed and the pleasant feelings disappeared.
He relaxed back into his floating stupor. The wave of pleasure occurred again, this time lasting longer. He knew this feeling, if only he could force his mind to think. Just as the tingling disappeared, a scent triggered his memory. Alisha. His body stirred at the thought of her.
The next time the sensation occurred, he was ready. On first contact, his arms wrapped around her and he pulled her tight against him as he returned her kiss with one of passion and love.
When Logan opened his eyes and discovered he was kissing an old woman, he released her at once.
“God, I thought you were someone else.” He wiped his mouth with disgust.
The old woman looked as if he’d slapped her. “No doubt Marge,” she said in a voice that sounded exactly like Alisha’s.
Logan stared at her for a moment. “Alisha? Is that you?”
“Is your memory failing in your old age?” she snapped.
God almighty, it was Alisha. “Maybe, but then given your age, yours could be failing as well.” She looked eighty years old.
He moved closer to her and touched her skin. “What the hell have they done to you?”
“How do you know it wasn’t you, and General Powell, and the whole damn Corps? You’ve all made my life utterly miserable!”
He forced himself to focus on her eyes, which were the only part of her he could recognize. “I know I did, and I’m sorry. I have no excuses to offer. I prioritized everything wrong. I placed the Corps over you. I don’t know how I could have done anything so stupid.”
“And I’m just supposed to forgive you?”
“I don’t know how you can ever forgive me. I’ve betrayed your trust so many times.”
“That’s exactly right. I’d be stupid still to love you after all you’ve done!”
“I know, but I have to try to win you back.”
“Why, because of the baby? Is that it, Logan? You want the baby?”
“No! I mean, yes, I want the baby, but I’m here because of you. I’ve loved you from almost the first moment we met. And I’ve repeatedly screwed things up between us. You were the one who always saw our situation so clearly and simply, but I wouldn’t listen. I was so sure I knew better. I deserved the hell I’ve gone through, but you didn’t deserve the hell I put you through.”
“It wasn’t so bad. Jack was a great comfort to me.” Her eyes hardened. “He wants to marry me.”
Her words were heavy blows to his heart, but he refused to let her pull him into a fit of jealous rage. “He’s a general now,” Logan said. “I retired and he took over the East Coast.”
She looked first stunned and then angry. “If you told me Jack was a general to frighten me into thinking he won’t want to marry me now, you’re wrong. Jack will still marry me. He’s never put his job over me!”
“I wasn’t trying to frighten you and you’re absolutely correct. Even though I love you more than he ever will, he’s risked his career countless times for you. I wish I could find fault in Jack, but I can’t. He’s a good man, and I thank God he’s been there for you. I clearly wasn’t.”
“No, you weren’t. Not when DC tried to kill me, not when General Powell tried to break my spirit by making me a private, not when Colonel Dryer made my life hell, not when I had to prostitute myself to make better fliers, and not when my baby’s life was in danger. You were never there!”
She blinked furiously, trying to stop the tears from gathering in her eyes. “I’ve recently had the chance to see what normal people behave like when they’re in love. They cuddle and kiss and hold hands. We never did any of that. What I have with Jack is closer to love. At least we would cuddle and hold hands.”
“We can have all that now. I’ll kiss and hold you as much as you can bear,” he promised her.
For a moment, he thought he’d gotten through, but then her eyes hardened again. “What about Marge?”
“That’s over,” he assured her.
“Did you kiss and hold her all she wanted?”
“Alisha, if we’re going to discuss Marge, then I need to tell you everything that happened on the East Coast. Only…”
“Only what?”
“You may hate me by the time I finish.”
“I may hate you now.”
“This is going to take a while. Will you allow me to hold you in my arms while I tell you everything?”
“I thought you found me repulsive,” she said. “You know this body isn’t padded. I really am this big.”
Logan leaned back against the headboard and held out his arms for her. He feared she would refuse, but after a long pause, she shuffled her body awkwardly beside his, leaving an inch of space between them. He curled his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close against him as he began the last story he might ever get the chance to tell her.
Chapter 34
Logan hadn’t exaggerated when he’d said it was a horrible story. Alisha had known fragments, such as Daily’s rape. But now she saw it through his eyes, saw how he’d found himself forced into murdering soldiers to regain control of an army gone mad. By the time he got to Marge, she thought her body had been dulled too much to feel more pa
in, but when he told how he’d taken her by force after Marge had answered his email, Alisha had a great desire to run from the room.
She tried to escape, but Logan wouldn’t release her from his arms. She’d promised to hear the whole story. She knew all she had to do was call out to Fred and he’d make Logan let her go, but she didn’t. Logan was right. She needed to hear this. If she was ever going to stop loving him and start a new life with Jack, she needed to hear every horrible detail of Logan’s life.
She started interrupting him with questions, sounding almost like the general in a debriefing. “Why did you think that?” “Why did you do that?” He answered her patiently, then continued his story. He was explaining his decision to leave the Corps when Fred knocked on the door and asked if they wanted some dinner.
Alisha looked at her watch in shock. “How’d it get so late?” She shifted her weight to get off the bed, but Freddy stopped her
“Stay there,” he advised her, then rolled in a cart with two bed trays. “Since guests are strictly forbidden, you’ll need to dine in your room, unless you wish to join us and we can lock Mr. Logan in here to eat.”
“No,” she said. She might be angry with Logan, but not so much as to make him eat dinner by himself in her dismal little room. She settled back onto the bed. Fred tried to place a tray on her lap, but the legs were too short to stand above her massive stomach.
“Just leave it on the cart,” Logan said. “We’ll share a tray.”
“I eat a lot,” she warned him.
He smiled at her. “You always ate a lot. Never figured out where you put it.”
“Well, you sure can see where I’m putting it now,” she complained.
“When we finish sharing this tray, we’ll share the other one,” he promised her.
Fred smiled and closed the door behind him.
“He seems like a nice guy,” Logan said. “What’s his name?”
Scavenger Vanishes (The SkyRyders Book 3) Page 17
