Melting the Ice

by Loreth Anne White

  Rex tucked Danny’s yellow teddy bear under the covers with him and kissed his son on the forehead. Then he went downstairs to see if he could help Hannah’s mom.

  “Smells good. What is it?”

  Startled, Sheila McGuire turned to face Rex standing in the kitchen doorway. She nervously rubbed her hands on the white bib apron she had found in one of the drawers. “It’s pot roast. That other agent, Scott Armstrong, called to say he’d be stopping by. I thought he might want to stay for dinner. I’ve asked Al, too. But, oh, dear, I think I’ve overdone things again. Maybe Hannah wants some quiet. Maybe I shouldn’t have invited anyone.”

  Rex stepped forward, took her hands in his. They were warm and soft. “Pot roast. My favorite. I haven’t had a good pot roast since before I went to boarding school. My mom used to make a killer roast.”

  The smell of the food on the stove, the potatoes, the steaming pots, assailed him. He wished he could go back in time and hug his own mother. She had worked on her own to raise him. He wished he could go back and say thank you.

  He lifted Sheila McGuire’s hand to his lips. “Thank you.”

  She looked up into his eyes. “He looks so much like you, Rex.”

  “Danny?”

  “Yes.”

  “You know? Hannah told you?”

  “She didn’t have to. He looks just like you. Welcome home, Rex. I hope you’re going to stay.”

  Hannah found them like that. Rex and her mother in the kitchen, surrounded by the scents of hearth and home.

  “Rex…Mom?”

  They turned to face her. He towered over her small mother. She was flushed pink from cooking.

  “How are you feeling, Hannah?” He stepped toward her.

  “Rex, I need to talk to you, to tell you about Daniel. I—”

  “I know. I know about Daniel.”

  She was knocked off balance. She had summoned all her courage to come downstairs and tell him immediately, afraid of how he might react.

  “You know?” She turned to her mother. “Mom?” She hadn’t even told her mother who Daniel’s father was. For all these years she’d kept it locked deep in her heart. Her mother stood there now, in the middle of the kitchen, in her dear old apron, tears streaming down her cheeks.

  “Mommy.” The little voice came from behind her. She whirled around. “Danny. You shouldn’t be up. How are you feeling, my boy?” She scooped him into her arms, squeezing tight. “Why don’t we all go into the living room and sit down. There’s someone I want you to meet, Danny.” Looking at Rex, she said, “We need to have a group talk.”

  Rex saw the wariness as the sharp little blue eyes homed in on him. The likeness between himself and Danny was uncanny. It would take time for Daniel to adjust to the concept of having a father, Rex knew. But he ached to hold him, squeeze him to bits. He wanted to take him fishing, teach him to ski, teach him to fly one of those kites he’d seen…all those things he himself had wanted to do with the colonel. Something melted inside him, and a river of possibility flowed out before him as he watched the small boy, sitting on the sofa beside his mother at the other end of the room.

  But he knew he needed to give that little boy space and time. He would overwhelm him otherwise. Daniel was silent, small hand tight in Hannah’s, eyes fixed on Rex.

  Then he stood up and faced Rex, unclasping Hannah’s hand. In his clear little voice, with a strength Rex recognized as his own, he spoke.

  “So, you’re my dad?” His words were solemn.

  “Yes, Daniel. I am.”

  “I always knew you’d come.” He turned to look at his mother. “See, Mommy? He did come. I just knew he would.”

  Rex did something he didn’t know was still possible—he cried. Tears crept out of the corners of his eyes. He hadn’t felt that salty wetness, that kind of cathartic release, since before he’d joined the army as a young man. He held out his arms wide, welcoming his son.

  Daniel walked slowly over the carpet. He stopped and stood, facing Rex, assessing him. Then he leaped, with force, into the arms of his father. Rex could feel the little arms and hands around his neck. There was no stopping his tears now. Daniel’s breath was warm in his neck. He heard the whisper. “You are going to stay, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, son,” he whispered in return, drinking in the scent of his hair. “I’ll stay. If your mother will let me.”

  He looked over Daniel’s head at Hannah, who came to their side. “I know about the death threat in Ralundi, Rex. Ken Mitchell told me. He knew about it.”

  “Hannah—”

  “Shh.” She put two fingers to his lips. “I understand. I know why you left me. I just don’t know what happens now.”

  “I’ve always loved you, Hannah. More than you’ll ever know. I need you. You, and now Danny, make me whole. I didn’t believe this could be possible in my life. You’ve shown me it is.”

  He could see her eyes glisten.

  “What about Bellona?”

  “I don’t need it anymore—I have you.” He reached out and took a handful of her hair, playing it softly through his fingers.

  He’d done a lot of thinking as he’d watched them sleep upstairs. He believed in the Bellona Channel but he needed to be with his family now. That was more important than anything. If he gave it up, if he quit, he would probably have to forfeit his position with Bio Can Pharmaceutical. But that was all right. He was a doctor, he could find something else. He was prepared to give it all up to hold on to what he had never dreamed possible, what he had never had in his life. Love. A real family of his own.

  He closed his eyes, savoring the presence of them both around him, Daniel snuggled against his chest, Hannah at his side. God, it would have been tragic if history had gone ahead and repeated itself. He’d come so close. Like his dad, Colonel Logan, Rex would have sired a child who’d grown up lonely and rejected by his father. Oh, the irony.

  He understood it all now—why Hannah had left her job and come to White River. She’d wanted to give time to her son, to raise him in these timeless mountains. She had sacrificed her career for Danny. He loved her and he respected her for what she had done.

  He opened his eyes and turned to face her. “Why didn’t you tell me, Hannah? Why didn’t you give me a chance to be there for you and Daniel?”

  “You rejected me, Rex.” She looked down at her hands. “Perhaps I was wrong to make the choices I made. But you wounded me. I didn’t want the possibility of Danny facing that same hurt. I didn’t want you bound to us by some notion of duty. I saw what that did to Mac, to my mom, to me.”

  “Mac?”

  “My father. He died on assignment in the Congo, a man torn by a sense of duty to his family and his need for freedom.”

  “So we’re starting from scratch, huh? You and me both. No shining examples of fatherhood. We’ll just have to forge our own way.” He reached out and took her hand in his. “Marry me, Hannah McGuire.”

  Her breath hitched, catching in her throat as she spoke. “What are you going to do about Bellona?” Her eyes were wide pools of liquid gold.

  “There are more important things in my life now. Things I treasure. I’ll give it up if you’ll have me. I can move out West.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Never been more sure of anything in my life.”

  “Yes, Rex.” She whispered the words. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  Danny jerked upright. “Does that mean you’ll stay?” He had been quiet against his chest. Listening, waiting in anticipation.

  Rex threw back his head and laughed a great loud laugh. It burbled out from his belly, reverberated up through his chest and into the air. He had never felt so good. So fine.

  The sound of his laughter sparked Daniel into a little chuckle. With relief, Hannah laughed and wept, too.

  “What’s with all this merriment?” Scott stood at the top of the stairs leading down into the sunken living room.

  “Ah, Scott, you’re just in time to agree to be my bes
t man.”

  He started down the steps. “Hey, I am your best man.”

  “No, no, I mean for our wedding.”

  Scott stopped in his tracks, a large smile slowly spread across his face, setting his green eyes twinkling. He stepped forward to take Rex’s hand. “Congratulations, buddy. It’s about time you saw the light.”

  He took Hannah’s hand, kissed it. “Congratulations, Mrs. Logan-to-be. And you, young man—”

  “I’m already a Logan.”

  “So I hear.” Scott took a seat on the sofa. “So I hear.”

  Hannah helped her mother serve the roast, and Rex poured the cabernet.

  “Grape juice for you, my man.” He set a glass in front of Danny.

  “Thanks, sir.”

  “If you want, when you’re really good and ready, you can call me dad.”

  “I’m ready…Dad.”

  Everyone laughed. Scott raised his glass in a toast. “To the Logans.” Hannah had never felt so complete as she raised hers in response.

  Al lifted his glass. “To the Logans. And…to my Amy.”

  They raised glasses in a soft chorus of solemn murmurs. “To Amy.”

  Scott set his glass down and started to tuck into his potatoes. “You know, Al, if it hadn’t been for Amy and what she set in motion, the world could have looked like a different place today.”

  “That’s quite a statement.”

  “No,” answered Rex. “Scott’s right. This weekend would have seen evil biological weapons technology pass into the hands of countries who oppose all that the Western world stands for. Amy stopped that. She set in motion a chain of events that ultimately stopped the Plague Doctor from delivering the goods to renegade scientists attending the toxicology conference.”

  Al shook his head. “I can’t believe Gunter turned out to be one of the world’s most wanted men. I thought he was my friend, Hannah’s friend. He deceived us all here in White River.”

  “He was hiding in plain sight, working on his research. Thanks to Amy, he was finally flushed out. And Amy brought me together with my family.”

  He was right, thought Hannah. If it hadn’t been for Amy, she wouldn’t have been forced into Rex’s company. They wouldn’t be here now, together, enjoying a family dinner.

  Al nodded his head slowly. Contemplative. “So what was the Plague Doctor actually working on?”

  Rex caught Scott’s eye. Scott nodded. Rex continued.

  “Well, the Plague Doctor was trying to complete something he first started in his Marumba lab. It’s what we refer to as ethnic bullets. These bullets are biological agents, lethal bugs, that can be genetically engineered to target only certain types of people with common genetic makeup.”

  Sheila joined the discussion. “You mean a virus or bacteria can be genetically altered so that it only attacks a certain ethnic group?”

  “Exactly. The mapping of human genes has made this technology possible. It’s the frightening future of biological weapons.”

  Hannah could hardly believe what she was hearing. The Plague Doctor was doing that in White River. “This is crazy, Rex. It sounds like science fiction, like potential genocide.”

  “It is. What was science fiction is now fact.”

  Rex forked up a couple of baby carrots, popping them into his mouth. “Good carrots. You tried these, Danny?”

  “Uh, not yet…Dad.” He was relishing the word playing it over his tongue.

  Rex sneaked a carrot off Danny’s plate and continued. “After the Plague Doctor escaped the Marumba fire, he was taken by the consortium, Die Waffenbruder, to Odessa, where Vasilev apparently worked his plastic surgery magic on him. He then took on the identity of Dr. Gunter Schmidt. The real Dr. Schmidt rather coincidentally disappeared in Switzerland. It appears his identity was stolen, which is why Gunter’s records checked out.”

  “Yeah.” Scott picked up the conversation. “And, Rex, I haven’t told you yet, it turns out Vasilev was doing all the surgery at the White River Spa himself. The Plague Doctor is brilliant in his evil genius but apparently he is not a plastic surgeon. They needed to bring Vasilev in to help him.”

  “What happens to the doctor now?” It was an uncomfortable juxtaposition, thought Hannah, a doctor, trained to heal yet working to deliver death. But then, everything as she knew it had been turned on its head in the last few days.

  “He will eventually end up being tried at the Hague by an international tribunal.” Rex sneaked the last carrot off Danny’s plate. The boy smiled in gleeful conspiracy as his mother threw them a dark look.

  “And his work, these ethnic bullets?”

  “We have it all now. We have the samples and we have the technology. We can use it now to work on a plan for developing antibodies and treatments. Bio Can Pharmaceutical will do that, under government contract.”

  Hannah sighed. “I still feel for Ken Mitchell. He may have screwed up in Marumba but he devoted every minute of his life trying to put this evil behind bars. It drove him crazy.” She took a sip of her red wine. “He saved me, you know, twice.” She looked at Rex. “He pulled me from the river after Vasilev pushed me in.”

  “So that explains it. He must have tackled Vasilev and earned that gash on his face.”

  “And a bullet in the leg from you.”

  “You have a gun?” Danny’s eyes were wide.

  “Policemen have guns, Danny. Your dad was doing a job like a policeman, chasing the bad guys who tried to hurt me.”

  “Like the bad guy who took me.”

  She leaned over and kissed his head. “Yes. Now eat up, we need to get you into bed.” Hannah made a mental note to call a counselor tomorrow. Danny would surely need someone to talk to after all he’d been through.

  “Who was this Plague Doctor going to sell these magic bullets to?” asked Al.

  “Someone at the conference, we think. It could have been a representative from any number of the countries attending. They would have done it on the side. That’s how these information exchanges often happen, through conferences like these that serve as meeting grounds. If the doctor doesn’t confess and tell us, we may never know. That is why organizations like the Bellona Channel must remain ever vigilant.”

  Scott cleared his throat, commanding attention. He clinked his knife against his glass. “Speaking of Bellona, Rex, I’ve been asked to tell you that Killian has named you to the board.”

  Hannah flinched at Scott’s words. She held her breath waiting for Rex to respond.

  He turned to look at his colleague. “I’m flattered, Scott, but I have other plans.”

  Hannah breathed out a sigh of relief.

  Scott took a sip of his wine. “I understand, Rex, but hear me out. Killian says he wants to keep you running your division of Bio Can, except he wants it relocated out West here in B.C. And, as a Bellona board member, you call the shots, decide on policy. There is no fieldwork. You get a crack at a normal life.”

  Rex set his glass carefully down on the table. Hannah could see him weighing the options. She knew what his work meant to him. She could see it in his eyes when he spoke. Until now it had been his life. Could it be possible that they could have the best of both worlds?

  “Scott, why would Killian want the indigenous medicine division out West?”

  “He doesn’t want to lose you.” Scott tilted his head, catching Hannah’s eye. “None of us do.”

  Danny piped up. “That’s for sure.” His interjection raised a chorus of laughter.

  Rex looked at Hannah, one brow raised in question.

  “It sounds too good to be true, Rex.”

  “Think about it, buddy. You and Hannah talk it over. The way I see it, old Killian is not too much longer for this world and he’s looking ahead.”

  “You can’t be serious?”

  “He needs to groom a replacement for board chair.”

  Danny’s eyes were drooping. Hannah stood up. “Come, Daniel, I think you need to call it a night. Let’s say good-night to everyo
ne.”

  Danny turned to look up at his father. “Will you still be here in the morning?”

  Rex reached out and placed his large hand over the little one. “Yes, Danny. I’ll still be here. I’m not going anywhere. Ever.”

  “Will you come tuck me in?”

  Hannah could see Rex struggling with his emotions. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse and gentle. “Of course.”

  He looked up at Hannah. She could see the sparkle, the shimmer in his light eyes. It was as if a swimmer had broken the surface of those cold blue pools, refracting light in a million directions. It was time, she thought, that a swimmer played in those cool depths.

  “I’ll take him up, Rex. I need to talk to him. We’ll call you when he’s ready to be tucked in.”

  She helped Danny brush his teeth and put on his Winnie the Pooh jammies, relishing the beauty of this simple routine. She tucked him and his yellow teddy bear into his bed and bent to hold him. She held him like that for a long time, smelling the mintiness of his warm toothpaste breath, the clean soapy smell of his skin.

  “Danny?”

  “Yes, Mom?”

  “You’ve been through a lot. I’m going to get someone who is trained in dealing with these things to come and talk to us. To make sure we are all really feeling okay. It’s not good to bury things, you know. We need to talk.”

  She knew it well enough. She had been burying things deep for the past six years. The relief she felt now was beyond description.

  “I’m okay, Mom. My wish came true.”

  She sat up and looked into those eyes, his father’s eyes.

  “What wish?”

  “My wish for a dad.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about that wish, Danny?”

  “’Cause I know it made you sad when I asked about my dad.”

  His words ripped at her heart. She hugged him tight. “You have him now. We have him. Sometimes we have to wait for the good things.”

  “I know. We have to fight and pass all the tests before we get to the treasure.” His clear little voice was imbued with a wise and knowing tone. “It can take many years.”

  “Where did you learn that?”

  “TV.”

  “I see. So it does teach you something.” She leaned forward and kissed him. “You sure you want to sleep in your own bed tonight?”