"Uh..." He made a choking sound. "You actually look better."
Dennis took a tentative step toward her. She took a step toward him.
"There's something you should know," said Jamie. "My body might feel harder, but it's just as sensitive as it ever was. Maybe even more so."
"Good to know," he said, swallowing.
JAMIE AWAKENED to sunlight streaming into her eyes from the bedroom window and the clanging of pans coming from the kitchen. The other side of queen bed was empty, the sheets drawn neatly back into place.
The smell of bacon, eggs, and pancakes tweaked her nostrils. Dennis, and maybe Kylee, busy at work on a "breakfast deluxe." A term he'd coined in the old days in her world. It didn't make her stomach rumble – she missed the near-erotic urgency of hunger – but it triggered a heady wave of nostalgia that was almost as enticing. It seemed an eternity since she'd eaten breakfast with her family. And the food would still taste delicious – as long as Dennis remembered to turn down the burners. He'd always had a thing for hellish stovetop temperatures. She smiled.
Jamie slipped out of bed, memories of last night still tingling on her skin. It had been awkward. It had been frustrating. It had also been beautiful. Dennis working so hard to please her, while she worked so hard not to kill him. A match made in heaven. Jamie had to giggle at the absurdity.
Breakfast was everything the delectable odors and banging pots promised: Kylee had even thrown some French toast into the mix. They laughed and ate and drank copious amounts of coffee.
"Sorry to eat and run," said Dennis, wiping maple syrup from his face, "but I have a new shipment of cars coming in today. Maybe you and Kylee could come in and meet me for lunch? I should be able to get away for a while then."
"Sure," said Jamie. "Kylee and I will find something to do." She exchanged a grin with her daughter, who was wriggling her eyebrows provocatively.
"I'll bet."
Dennis held out his arms and Kylee hopped into them. He kissed the top of her head and released her. He gave Jamie an awkward smile, lingering by the table. Jamie levitated out of her chair and into his arms. He kissed her gently on the lips. Kylee made a "woo-woo" sound which drew a mock-stern scowl from her father.
"Later, you two," he said. "I'll give you some heads-up when my schedule clears."
"Sounds, good." Jamie hesitated. "Bye, honey."
Jamie saw those words light up his eyes. "Bye...uh, babe."
She watched Dennis drive off in his new rust-colored pickup. Kylee reached over and grabbed her wrist.
"What are we going to do?" she asked in the tones of someone plotting a bank robbery.
Jamie smiled. The first day of the rest of their lives. "I don't know. What do you feel like doing?"
"Could we go to Hawaii? I'd like to swim in the ocean!"
"Ah..." Jamie chuckled out a sigh. "I don't think flying in daylight would be a good idea. And your dad would need to sign off on that. How about Icelandic State Park? Have you been there?"
"Yeah," said Kylee in grudging tones. "It's a pretty cool place."
Jamie thought for a moment. "Of course, I don't have any means to pay the park fees."
"Oh, that's okay. I have almost five hundred dollars in my savings account. I think they only charge five dollars to get in."
Jamie felt a sharp frustration edging into her newfound familial bliss. Without a Personal Location and Enabling Device, she not only had no legal means to purchase anything – people had no legal means of paying her anything, either, even if they were begging to give her money. That would have to change if she was to move forward in her life here, but how without signing a deal with the devil?
"Okay." Jamie decided she didn't have to figure that out right now. "Let's get ready – maybe pack some lunch in a cooler – and head out."
Twenty minutes later, they were cruising up Highway 29. Jamie wasn't sure of their speed – the speedometer didn't work with the non-starting engine off – and there wasn't much traffic to guide her. She guessed she was exceeding the speed limit when a highway patrol car parked on the southbound freeway lit up its lights and roared across the median after them. Jamie blew out one of its tires with a tiny, jabbing thought. The cruiser rolled over to the shoulder, lights still flashing.
"Did you do that?" Kylee asked, looking over her shoulder.
"Do what?"
"Stop that police car."
"Oh. Huh. Looks like he has a flat tire."
Kylee giggled. "I guess we don't have to worry about getting speeding tickets. Like, ever."
"I wouldn't mind paying a speeding ticket. The penalty for being unchipped is a little more intimidating."
"They could never put you in jail, Mom."
Jamie held onto that word – Mom – and her anxiety faded along with the highway patrol car in her rearview mirror. Money worries didn't amount to much compared to having her daughter alive and sitting next to her.
"But they could do things to you and your dad. Or my dad." Jamie regretted the worried expression those words had placed on her daughter's face, but they had to be said. "I'm not trying to worry you, baby, but it's important to keep in mind that I'm not some all-powerful being who can do anything she wants. Everything I do can affect everyone I care about. I can't be an outlaw and have a good life with you. I can't always protect you."
Kylee chewed on her lower lip in thought. An empty stretch of highway ahead beckoned, and Jamie accelerated the van, lifting a few inches off the road. The fields and an overpass whizzed by. Might as well get there fast, if cops are going to pull me over.
They arrived at the state park less than fifteen minutes later without incident. Kylee got out to let them scan her PLED, but the woman at the window informed them that everyone entering the park needed to be scanned "pursuant of federal law." Jamie obediently thrust out her arm, but when the woman aimed her scanner nothing happened.
"Huh," she said, turning the blow dryer-shaped scanner in her hand, frowning. "We might've lost electrical power or something. Just a moment."
She retreated into the building. Murmurs of conversation carried out to them. She returned and tried the scanner again, shaking her head.
"That's the problem with our brave new world," she muttered. "When one of its gizmos stop working, nothing works. All right. Show me some hard IDs and you can be on your way."
"I'm sorry," said Jamie. "I forgot to bring mine."
The woman's frazzled expression shaded into slight suspicion as she eyed her. "You know that keeping secondary ID on your person is the law, ma'am."
"I know. I'm sorry. I just assumed there wouldn't be a problem with anyone's scanner."
"I'm sorry, too, but no one can enter a public facility without being properly identified. That's the law."
Jamie didn't speak for a moment while she reined in her irritation. Then she nodded. "Okay. I just wanted to take my daughter to the park, but if the brave new world doesn't approve..."
She backed up the van hard enough to propel Kylee forward in her seat. Cool it, she commanded herself. The car slowed. She angled it around and headed back out toward the highway.
"That sucks," Kylee muttered. "I understand about terrorists, but why do they have to be so mindless about it?"
"You really can't blame her." Jamie forced a smile. "You do kind of look like a domestic terrorist."
"I do?"
"It's your eyes. They look kind of beady and intense."
Kylee stretched up on one knee until she reached the rearview mirror. She released a little shriek. "Oh my God! You're right! Those eyes are totally scary!"
They both broke down in laughter. Jamie made herself concentrate on the road.
"Now what?" Kylee asked.
Jamie stared straight ahead, the muscles along her jaw tightening. "We'll park somewhere and find our own way to the beach."
She parked the van in a small turnout a short distance from the ranger station and were soon gliding through the woods toward the lake with the cool
er in tow, Kylee laughing along the way.
"It's like we're wood fairies or something!" she giggled.
They emerged from the woods, each holding an end of the cooler, and walked to the beach fifty meters away with a casual mom and daughter swagger. They laid out their towels and stripped off their clothes (swimsuits underneath) and waded out into the water. Jamie could tell it was cool even without Kylee's dramatic "Brrrr, it's freezing!" – the lakes in North Dakota, particularly that far north, didn't really get warm until July – but for her it was a mental calculation more than a direct experience. She knew it was rather cold but there was no discomfort.
Kylee climbed onto Jamie's back and they zoomed around in the water with Kylee astride her like a human Jet Ski – Jamie keeping her speed under what she judged would look freakish to an observer. Fortunately, being a weekday and not prime swimming weather, their section of beach was deserted. A couple of powerboats plowed through the lake a half-mile away, their motors distant thunder.
They stretched out on their towels on the sand, the sun leisurely drying their skin.
"You should put on sunscreen," Jamie said.
"I will. In a minute." Kylee cracked one eyelid, looking at her. "Can I ask you a question, Mom?"
"Sure."
"How powerful are you? Seriously? What can you do? What are your limitations?"
"Plan to use them against me?"
"Only if you leave me no choice. Muuuaahhh!
Jamie laughed with her. "I honestly can't say exactly. But in general, I do know that my telekinetics lose power over distance. I can hit something harder close-up than far away. I don't have a mathematical formula for that, though I'm sure there is one."
Kylee pointed up at the pale quarter-moon hanging in the blue sky. "Could you pull that down?"
"The moon?" Jamie grated out a chuckle. "No."
"How would you know? Have you ever tried?"
"It's too far away, and it's too big."
But Jamie couldn't help staring at the ghostly moon and wondering: What if? A scary thought. She had moved a fairly massive ball of alien debris in space. Why not a small asteroid? Was it so unthinkable that she could move a small moon? She couldn't chance trying, even on the remotest possibility that she alter its orbit. A small orbital change could wreak havoc on Earth.
"I had enough trouble breaking out of the alien ship," she muttered.
"Do you think you might take a job with the government?" Kylee shrugged her slim shoulders in response to Jamie's glance. "I heard you and Dad talking about it."
Jamie tried to remember when Kylee might've heard them talking. Maybe in the bedroom? "What did you hear?"
"Just that they want you to be their own personal superhero. Which of course they would. Take out the terrorists and other bad guys that are threatening the United States?"
"Yeah," said Jamie. "Something like that."
"Is there any way someone could hurt you? Do you, like, have your Kryptonite or something?"
"I can be hurt, Kylee. I'm not invulnerable. When I was in space, a powerful explosion kind of knocked me for a loop."
"What powerful explosion?"
"Before they knew who I was, a U.S. starship fired a missile at me. It had about the force of a low-yield nuke."
"They shot a nuclear bomb at you!?" Kylee's voice rose in panic.
"No, it's what they call a Super High Explosive or 'SHE'."
"But you were okay?"
"A little woozy for a few seconds." Jamie was growing less and less comfortable with this exchange. She didn't especially want to share the nitty-gritty details with her daughter. "I'm not saying that I would be easy to hurt or kill, Kylee. In fact, I think it would be pretty damn hard. But I can't tell you it would be impossible."
"I think you should just get a regular job. You know, like teaching or something." Kylee turned her head and grinned at her. "Or maybe be a movie star. You could play a new Wonder Woman or something. You wouldn't even need special effects!"
Jamie laughed. "Yeah, maybe."
"I bet you could make a lot of money with your superpowers."
"But getting paid and using it is a problem."
"After saving the Earth I would think they'd take care of that for you. You know President Tomlinson personally. You could ask her for help, couldn't you?"
Jamie stared up at the moon. She magnified it until the Mare Imbrium swelled to the size of wall poster before her.
"If I ask her for help, then I owe her," she said. "That's something I'd rather avoid. I guess the way I see it, I either accept her offer to work for her administration, or I find a way to make things work on my own."
"How do you think she'd react if you turned her down?"
Jamie turned from the moon to see her daughter's small face twisted in thought. Kylee's level of insight surprised her. At the moment, it was like talking to an intelligent adult.
"You know, you're pretty perceptive for a nine year old."
"Well, I am almost ten."
Kylee grinned. Jamie laughed.
"Oh. I guess that explains it." Jamie's glow of appreciation for her daughter dimmed a little as she contemplated President Tomlinson. "I've been wondering about that, too – how the President would react if I said no."
"I'll be she'd be mad. But what could she do? She'd be crazy to try something against you, wouldn't she?"
"The only thing I'm sure of is that she wouldn't be happy." Jamie added silently, assuming she's willing to take no for an answer.
Chapter 14
WHILE KYLEE HUNG OUT with Terry Mayes and Kevin Clarkson, Jamie took the opportunity to fly out to Duluth for lunch with her dad, and later, to Tildie in Portland for wine coolers. Cal urged her not to "make a deal with the devil – or she-demon in this case," while Tildie advised that Jamie should consider President Tomlinson's offer but with conditions such as no persecution of anti-chippers or dissenters and no helping the surveillance state.
"Not that I have to worry about anyone spying on me," she lamented. "It's not like I have anything to hide with my PG-13 life. Except maybe the pouches under my eyes in the morning."
Jamie was back in time for dinner – Dennis was bringing home Chinese takeout. She and Kylee were setting the table when a sleek blue Mustang rolled in and a tanned young raven-haired woman in a form-fitting pant suit stepped out. She strode toward them with the authority of someone who knew exactly where she was going and what she wanted.
"What the hell," Dennis murmured.
"You don't know her?" Jamie asked.
"Sure don't."
"She looks like a real estate agent," Kylee offered.
"I'll talk to her," said Dennis, wiping off his hands. "See what she wants."
He stepped through the front door as she mounted the porch steps. Jamie heard them speak briefly. Dennis returned inside.
"She wants to talk with you," he said to Jamie. "Says she's a 'special envoy of the President of the United States.' Wanda something or other."
"Okay." Jamie had been expecting this. Three days of peace was about all she'd hoped for. "I'll talk to her."
The young woman gave Jamie a cool smile as Jamie joined her on the front porch. Her short jet-black hair traveled in waves across her forehead creating a striking contrast with her tanned skin and cerulean blue eyes.
"Hello," she said. "I'm Wanda Stiles. I work for President Tomlinson."
"Hi."
The woman extended her hand as almost an after-thought. Jamie grasped it limply.
"We'd like for you to speak with Brian Loving. We need to determine how the aliens are responding to the destruction of their ship, and we believe Brian Loving may still be in contact with the aliens. He has refused to answer our questions, saying he will only talk to you."
"Oh." Jamie stared at her. She found the woman's patterns of speech – and the woman herself – strangely off-putting.
"I am prepared to offer you immediate transport to his holding cell."
"He's sti
ll a prisoner?"
"Yes."
A bit disquieting, but not surprising. Jamie worked through her emotions – her visceral response to this woman, the implications of an innocent man being imprisoned, the possibility of making contact with the "Elementals" – and reached a tentative conclusion.
"Okay," she said. "I'll go with you to talk to him. After dinner."
"Good. I'll just wait out here."
Jamie stared at her for an extra moment, her hackles rising. Interesting how she didn't feel the need to ask for permission to wait on their property. Also interesting that they hadn't sent someone more charming to persuade her and that her request that Nate Andrews be her liaison had been ignored.
Back inside, she told her family what had happened.
"You're supposed to just drop everything and leave on a moment's notice?" Dennis asked.
"I think that was the idea. But I told her I was going to eat dinner first." Jamie smiled. "And I plan to eat very slowly."
JAMIE WAS chauffeured to Grand Forks Air Force Base an hour later and flown in a cargo plane from there to Nellis Air Force Base in the company of her oddly tightlipped companion. Jamie's impression of her black-haired escort did not improve after the fifteen minute drive and three-hour flight together. Wanda Stiles seemed not so much lost in her own space as simply indifferent to Jamie's presence. After a couple of lukewarm tries, Jamie gave up trying to communicate with her.
Wanda stayed with her on a descent several levels down in the company of two soldiers and Base Commander Colonel Marcus Bingham.
"How have you been treating him?" Jamie asked.
"Basically, with kid gloves," replied the base commander. "We haven't used any form of persuasion other than some minor sleep-deprivation and solitary confinement along with polite questioning. Our instructions are to treat him in a way that does not convey to anyone who might be watching that we are anything less than civilized."
"You mean, if he still has a connection with the Elementals, you wouldn't want to make them think the worst of us."
"That's it, exactly." They stepped out of the elevator. "The President hopes you feel the same way."
"I'm not going to force him to do anything." Jamie scowled at him. "I assume it occurred to you that imprisoning him unlawfully might bias the Elementals against us."
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