Down in Whisper (9781311456113)

by Elizabeth, Bonnie

  Meg

  Meg woke in the middle of the night. The night air felt too still for morning to be near which was when she expected someone to wake her for her watch. Nor did anyone stand near her tapping on her shoulder. Meg remained still, listening. Something seemed to move but it was almost like a shadow of a sound. That she could hear it at all suggested Peter was helping listen, augmenting her hearing.

  Peter had let her know, as she was drifting off to sleep, that Marcus had looked around and found little out of the ordinary.

  “It appears,” Peter had whispered in Meg’s mind, “That your area is shrouded in some sort of spotlight, although there is no origin. It could be that Marcus is tired. He’s been working harder than he normally does as we practice. It may be how the air spirits see our connection.”

  “Could it be something dangerous?” Meg asked. She let echoes of Dillon’s questions about the possibility of supernatural creatures enter her consciousness.

  “There is nothing I can think of that would cause such a thing,” Peter said. Meg had let it go at that, letting herself be comforted that Peter was doing what he could do keep them safe.

  Peter had also let her know the pilot was a bush pilot out of Alaska. Meg reported that to the group immediately.

  “That plane wasn’t a bush plane,” Colleen snorted.

  “Stealth moose hunting?” Dillon had joked. That had been hours ago, when there was still a little fire under the lean-to.

  Meg listened more closely to the shadow sound. She felt Peter becoming more agitated. Her mind couldn’t fix on anything that should make the sound. It wasn’t Dillon moving around. It wasn’t the wind.

  Meg casually rolled her body over, closer to Colleen. She moved even closer, as if she were chilled and was working towards getting comfortable. Silently and carefully, Meg prodded the other woman. When Colleen rolled to face her, Meg was thankful for Colleen’s military training. She woke quickly, alert, but didn’t immediately jump to her feet.

  Meg put a finger to her lips. She could see Colleen’s face in the moonlight that peeked through a cloud. Although Colleen appeared outwardly relaxed, Meg could tell that she was listening for something. A frown appeared across her face as she shook her head once, the faintest of movements.

  Colleen didn’t hear it. She didn’t have senses, heightened by Peter’s powers. Then a crack of a branch came from beneath the trees. That made Colleen listen. Peter let Meg know that it wasn’t just animal in the area. Meg gave her head a shake even as she rolled over on her other side, as if turning in her sleep. She noticed that the area had gone silent. She couldn’t see Dillon but in the dark, with the clouds, it was possible he was still nearby. The fire had gone out as Meg had settled into sleep so that offered no light.

  Meg turned her head to see Colleen place her hands down as if she was going to get out of the sleeping bag. Meg did the same, moving the zipper slowly down. Colleen must have been doing that earlier, or else she’d not used the zipper at all, which was a distinct possibly. She was out of the sleeping bag, walking halfway around the camp before Meg had freed herself.

  Both women had slept in their clothing, although Meg stopped to put on her boots before following Colleen. Colleen walked carefully back to her area and put on her own shoes. The two didn’t talk. Colleen made a small hand signal when both were equipped, gesturing for Meg to go to the right while Colleen walked to the left. Meg moved towards the trees and was startled when a hand fell on her shoulder. She turned and managed to stop her kick when she saw Dillon looking at her, rather approvingly she thought.

  He leaned in close to her and breathed more than said, “Four o’clock.”

  Meg moved back behind a tree and positioned herself to look towards what had been her four o’clock. She wouldn’t have noticed the other person if Peter hadn’t been augmenting her senses. Dillon’s powers of observation just went up in her estimate. The person over there either had a large head or a very odd haircut or an oddly shaped hat. They also carried something. From the way they held it, it could have been a gun. Meg wished for her own weapon but she wasn’t a hunter.

  The man disappeared without seeing her. She followed him, using everything she knew about moving through the woods, augmented by Peter’s ability to help her know the best places to put her foot or move her hand. She knew she was moving more silently and swiftly than the other person when she started getting closer.

  Closer, she noted the funny shaped head was a hat. He had dark hair or else his hat had hair-like strings coming from under it. The jacket was also black or dark blue cut long, although not quite long enough to qualify as a coat. It looked heavier than needed for that time of year, with a quilted sort of pattern and the slightest shine. Peter was able to augment that description with his better senses, although he used her eyes and brain. Mentally he was calculating the man’s height at around five foot seven, and skinnier than Meg would have guessed.

  The man turned, starting to pass behind a tree. Meg got a glimpse of a long, narrow profile and a beak-like nose. The narrow head swiveled in her direction and eyes like a hawk’s held hers for an instant. There was something inhuman in the expression. Then, he turned back to his path, moving behind the tree. He never came back into view. Meg was still for a few minutes. She could hear other sounds. She knew that one of those came from Colleen. She didn’t hear Dillon and hoped that it was because he could move more soundlessly. Colleen hovered near where the man had disappeared. Meg came out, a question in her eyes.

  Colleen shook her head, silent, although clearly she had seen the man. They both looked around. Meg wished it were daylight because she’d like to see the boot prints. She could find no trace of the man, no broken branches though she had seen him move through that area. Colleen was crouching down looking at lower leaves that someone might break without noticing but by the way she kept looking around, Meg could tell the other woman was becoming as frustrated as she was.

  Standing, Meg walked back towards the camp. The man had disappeared almost the way Peter did. She wondered about the possibility of another earth spirit, but Peter’s voice thundered through her mind that that was not the answer. Colleen entered the camp, more shadow than human, she glided so easily. Dillon wasn’t there. Again, Meg hoped he wasn’t injured.

  Meg pointed to the shadows the trees near where she first spotted the man. The two moved over that way. Dillon was gone from his vantage point. The two waited, still not daring to speak. Meg wasn’t sure what to do. She couldn’t track as well as Dillon and she was smart enough to know that even with Peter directing her, she wasn’t likely to get anywhere after dark.

  After a wait that seemed to go on for ages, Meg slid down along the trunk of the tree. Her hands brushed the dirt. It was sticky wet. She brought her fingers to her nose, knowing from Peter’s senses that she smelled blood.

  Rain

  I was back in the office earlier than normal. Zari A and I had left the night before after finding out the pilot’s name. I made sure that RaeLynn wasn’t planning on staying too much longer. I wanted her rested, although I was aware that she probably started digging around once she went home too.

  I was surprised to find the office door unlocked when I got there. Kaitlyn was even at the desk. That was so unusual it was quite unheard of.

  “Early morning?” I asked.

  “I guess,” she shrugged. “Meg got on me about being late so I made sure to be on time today.” Her eyes flashed as if daring me to say otherwise. Well good for Meg for saying something. That way she couldn’t get mad at me for not saying anything. Nor could she get mad at me for saying something.

  “I’m not sure it was Meg,” Zari purred, strutting along beside me as we walked to my office.

  “Oh?” I sent back.

  “I think Peter was irritated so he made himself look like Meg. He told Kaitlyn she had better be on time. Kaitlyn has been so unaware of what goes in the office lately that she didn’t even realize that Meg was up the mountain.”r />
  I chuckled a little thinking about that fact. “Is that okay for Peter to do?” I knew he had rules and it seemed like impersonating someone would break them.

  “I guess it’s one of the many things that he can do with the permission Meg granted him,” Zari smirked. “I am sure she is unaware of it.”

  “I’m sure,” I said, settling in at my desk to make sure there was nothing new. This early, I wasn’t surprised to find there wasn’t.

  “Kaitlyn is quite upset about a young man she believes she’s in love with. I am not sure why. He does not seem to treat her very well and that’s why she’s not been very good lately,” Zari observed.

  “You just read her mind?” I asked.

  “A little. It is very confused and very disorienting to try to do so though.”

  “Is RaeLynn here?” I asked the cat, even as I opened my email program and found notes. RaeLynn had indeed been up late but not too late, I was pleased to see.

  “She’s on her way,” Zari assured me, settling into the cat tree to have a nap before she went back to work.

  I opened my laptop to the notes I made the night before. RaeLynn had made a bunch of notations with highlights and comments. Brendan, the bush pilot, had a business that specialized in transporting hunters out to the wilderness in Alaska. The interesting thing about the business is that even when RaeLynn hacked into his accounting system (with a note saying how thankful she was for online accounting programs), the pilot didn’t seem to do any business in Alaska. He’d filed no flight plans either, although she did verify that he had a plane.

  RaeLynn hadn’t been satisfied that he owned a plane. She wanted to know more about it. She found reminders about servicing, which seemed to have gone unnoticed. According to RaeLynn, it looked as if our pilot hadn’t flown anything in well over a year, despite having the credentials.

  I couldn’t very well go to Alaska, but I suspected if I went there, the plane probably wouldn’t look like anything I wanted to fly in. I wondered if I could find someone to go to the address of the hanger he kept it at. Of course, maybe Sheri could call someone to check it out. I suspected that even if there was a hanger there, it was pretty run down.

  “You got my notes,” RaeLynn said, coming in, still in her coat. It was a long raincoat that looked suited to a detective in a noir movie. I struggled not to smile. Beneath that, she had on a romantically styled dress with plenty of embroidery although fewer flounces than she normally wore. Still, the colors were lovely and the material flowed around her body beautifully. Cleary she’d come right to my office, suggesting Zari had told her I was already here.

  “I’m just going through them,” I said looking up. Zari sat up and began to wash her hindquarters.

  “I’m wondering if that’s a front for another business. It seems like we’re running into a lot of things that are meant to look like one thing but aren’t. It makes me wonder about your machine shop.”

  “It’s real enough,” I said. “I went out there, remember? They called me for security, although Mike didn’t remember doing it when I was there. But,” I trailed off thinking.

  “Hmm?” RaeLynn waited.

  “The guy I saw. He was short and had a long narrow face. Mike said that didn’t sound like him but he thought he was in the office all afternoon.”

  “So?”

  “The pilot’s picture. His face also looked long and narrow. And he was short too, right?”

  I could almost see RaeLynn thinking. “Dillon said, but I didn’t look at Brendan’s height. It didn’t seem important. But I mean, what exactly are we thinking?”

  “I have no idea, but it’s a piece, a link or something, even if it doesn’t make sense.”

  “I’ll check,” RaeLynn was clearly still thinking about my idea. It was going to bother her, which meant she’d run it down.

  “Anything else in here that I need to know?” I asked.

  “There’s a credit card charge that suggests Brendan was in Yakima about a month ago. He could have gone to Langea. I also have a charge for him in Virginia, but I don’t know if that has anything to do with this.”

  “Should it?” I hadn’t found anything in Virginia.

  “Well, lots of the military contractors and those paramilitary conglomerates have headquarters in that area. They want to be close to DC where they can network and get contacts. If this little business is a front for something bigger, they might have a parent company out there. Maybe he was visiting. I can only hope if he was, his records lead me to something that I can work with.”

  “If he went out there for something, it must have been important.” I moved the computer to the side so I could see RaeLynn better.

  “Well, they can’t use phones. Those aren’t secure, really. So they’d want to be some place that they knew was secure. Mostly likely that’s their headquarters.”

  “It couldn’t be something innocent like visiting a sister living in the area?”

  “He has a brother but he lives in Anchorage,” RaeLynn reported. She smiled as she said that.

  Okay, so as usual she was a step ahead of me. I sighed. Zari didn’t look at me, focusing instead on something outside. I heard the door open and I smelled the scent of freshly brewed coffee. It must be Kyle.

  He arrived at my office looking like he hadn’t slept at all. He was, however, carrying not one but two coffees. He set one on my desk.

  “What kept you up all night?” I asked, trying to be light but inviting a confidence.

  “Looking at the companies that could have used Darmacci Enterprises as security and maybe stored something interesting. I was cross referencing your machinists.”

  “Did you find anything?” I took a drink of my Carmel Macchiato and savored the sweet-bitter taste on my tongue. I enjoyed the smoothly blended texture as I swallowed.

  “There’s one guy who worked for Darmacci as well as a company called Hent Incorporated. Hent was on my list of places that contracted with your machinists. Hent is out of Virginia so that seemed odd, but perhaps they have a branch here that I missed. I’m planning to do some more checking today.”

  “RaeLynn found that our pilot made a trip out to Virginia,” I said, connecting the dots. “What’s this guy’s name? Maybe he’s a better lead that you know.”

  “Leo Garner,” Kyle supplied. “He currently lives in Fall City, but he’s moved around the area a lot. Before that he also lived in a lot of different areas including Yakima.”

  “Well he could definitely be a lead.” RaeLynn was leaning over my desk to make some notes. Zari got up and jumped off her cat tree.

  Kyle raised an eyebrow.

  “Well, I have a new name and a new company to start with,” RaeLynn explained. “Another name could help me triangulate any other potential players too. And I need to check up on how tall our pilot was.” Hopefully she would find something would let us nail down a few solid leads. It would be nice to have one solid trail rather than all these little ones.

  “Excuse me,” Kaitlyn said from the doorway. Kyle turned and I saw him carefully not react to the very short skirt our receptionist was wearing. I hoped when she turned around we wouldn’t be seeing any under things. Perhaps Peter could have a chat about a dress code, as Meg, of course. Although, what was I thinking? Was there anything more ridiculous than having Peter talk to a girl about being too sexual? He’d probably forget he was supposed to be Meg and start giving her pointers.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Some guy named John called. He seemed to think you’d want to see him and he’s on his way in.”

  “Great,” I said.

  “Oh,” Kaitlyn seemed disappointed.

  “What?”

  “Well, I thought maybe he was some crazy guy or something and I tried to put him off. He’s still coming in but I don’t think I was all that nice.”

  “If he’s not here in half an hour, give him a call and tell him you set an appointment,” I said.

  Kaitlyn brightened at that a
nd left before I could say anything else. The back of her denim skirt covered what it was supposed to, although just barely. Kyle pointedly looked out the window. RaeLynn rolled her eyes when the younger woman’s back was turned.

  Meg

  Meg felt her heart flutter at the scent of blood. She wanted to tell Colleen but they weren’t that close to each other and she didn’t want to make any noise. Who knew what had happened to Dillon. Her heart raced when she heard something moving in the forest behind her. Colleen slid silently closer. Meg heard a sigh and a slight gasp. She was on her feet before it ended. Dillon stood there, holding his arm.

  “What?” Meg asked.

  “Just a scratch. My guy was little but he had a knife I didn’t see. I’m fine. And he seems to have disappeared.”

  “So did ours,” Meg murmured.

  They moved back to camp to attempt to finish their sleep, although Meg knew it would be a long night.

  Meg had the last watch so at first light, when Dillon and Colleen started stirring, she was already walking around near the edge of the small clearing, mentally asking Peter questions about the trees and plants. Peter had already been using her eyes and ears to make sure no one else snuck up on them. Yawning, Meg turned seeing the first signs of life from her companions. She’d slept badly until her turn at watch, so although she was tired, she knew there hadn’t been any way she’d have gotten more rest.

  Meg walked over to camp as Dillon sat up. He checked his arm first before getting out. A few minutes later they all had some granola snacks for breakfast. No one said much, constantly monitoring the area, lest the strangers return. At least it was a clear day. The clouds were still there, slightly threatening, but they were moving north. The wind was chill and the sky behind the clouds looked clear.