“What should we check before we leave?” Colleen asked.
“Let’s go back to where the guy I was following disappeared. The two of you were in the area where the other person was. It’s easier to confuse two sets of tracks than one,” Dillon said. They gathered their gear, making sure that what was left of last night’s fire was well and truly out.
It wasn’t far to where Dillon had lost the man he followed. He immediately stooped down to look at tracks. Meg stayed behind him, surveying the trees and branches, looking for any breakage. Colleen went behind them and to the right, looking for signs that anyone had passed that way.
“Nothing,” Dillon muttered moving a foot or so ahead, continuing to look down. Meg followed, still looking. Peter indicated that even he noticed no signs of movement there. Meg started when a rabbit burst from the brush near Colleen and raced across their path. At least the animals were around, which suggested whatever was in that area was gone.
“I don’t see anything in the trees,” Meg said, realizing she was whispering as if she worried someone would hear her.
“And the tracks just stop,” he said.
“There’s nothing in that area. I’d have to hack my way through,” Colleen said, coming back from where she entered the parallel path she hoped to take. “If someone went through there, they can change into rabbits. You haven’t had were-rabbits in your experience have you?”
Meg shook her head, expecting Dillon to say something, only belated realizing that he didn’t know about the Seal Folk that inhabited his former town. She’d encountered the secretive people who passed easily as humans on land in the case that brought Dillon to their attention. For all they might laugh about were-creatures, Meg had to wonder if that what was going on.
Peter was pushing Meg’s senses to the near underground. He gave the thought of were-rabbits little credence but it could have been because he was busy examining something else. Meg crouched down on the side of the path and started looking as hard as she could at the ground. She saw dirt, but she could see Peter analyzing the composition just from a viewing. It was like being able to look through a microscope. The process began to make her dizzy so she forced herself to notice only what she could notice as a human and let Peter do his own work.
“Peter doesn’t see anything either,” Meg said. “Other than a little of Dillon’s blood.”
“I think I may have paused here watching,” Dillon said.
Meg nodded. They didn’t say anything else, although she knew her companions had to be wondering how their visitors had so easily disappeared just like she was.
Dillon pulled out GPS unit so he could orient himself before starting the hike out of the area. Meg went next and Colleen followed behind. They made little noise. Now and then Meg could hear the crack of a branch or leaf, coming more from behind her than in front. Birdsong swirled in the air, louder as they left the area where they had camped. A hawk flew over, hunting.
They walked through sunnier areas, which seemed to revive them all, and create a companionable conversation for a few minutes. Then they’d plunge back into the shade with the sun moving behind a cloud, quieting them.
“I hope it doesn’t rain,” Colleen said when it went behind a particularly dark grey cloud.
“It doesn’t smell like it, but it could,” Meg said. “I’d say probably later tonight if it doesn’t move off.”
“Another Whisper power?” Colleen laughed a little.
“You’ve never walked out and known it was going to rain?” Dillon asked surprised.
“Nah,” Colleen said. “Can you?”
“Sure. Where did you live before?”
“I grew up in New Mexico and got stationed in a lot of places. Of course, in the last few tours you can guess it wasn’t very rainy in any of them. I must not have a nose.”
“How’d you get here?” Meg asked, suddenly realizing she knew very little about the other woman besides the fact that she was very fit and did security for Rain.
“Just wanted a change, I guess,” Colleen hedged. Meg knew there was something more to the story but didn’t know what. She wasn’t sure this was a good time to ask.
The land rose sharply about that time and they were forced to work quite a bit harder to make it up a steep incline. At one short area Meg was reduced to actually having to use her hands and feet and allow Dillon to give her a hand making it over the lip. A hair taller than she was, Colleen was barely able to get leverage before Dillon let go of Meg.
“Now that’s climbing,” Colleen laughed.
“You like to climb?” Meg said. How had she never talked to this woman about climbing?
“I do, but I haven’t done much here,” Colleen admitted.
“I love it. I can show you some good places, although it’s late to go this year.”
“I remember you took a couple of days off to go down to Oregon some place,” Colleen said.
Meg remembered that trip taken with some friends. It’d been harder to leave Whisper since her connection to Peter but he’d encouraged her to go. That was just about the time that he’d become secretive. Meg wondered if that was some sort of payback for her leaving.
“There’s a little place just down from where I used to have an office. It’s more a practice run than anything. And there’s the Little Si area in North Bend. The one here will be good for another month at least. That’s where I go to just work the kinks out after winter.”
“You don’t do winter climbing?” Colleen asked as they moved up the hill. The incline was still steep but didn’t require any actual climbing.
“Not much,” Meg admitted. “I don’t really know anyone who knows what they’re doing or had the interest to hire a guide.”
“I did that once,” Dillon inserted. “I’d much rather do some winter hiking and ski down. Of course, climbing isn’t really my thing. I’d rather fish and maybe hunt.”
“My dad was a hunter,” Colleen said.
Meg murmured an assent. Her father was a hiker and a camper but not much for hunting. If he’d ever done climbing he’d given it up before imparting his love of the outdoors to his daughter.
Over all, they made good time back to Whisper proper. Peter waited at the edge for them. It was late morning. A snack seemed in order.
“Anything here?” Meg asked.
“The plane appears different,” Peter said. “I am not sure how, but it is. John is safe though. I led him out of the area last night so he camped a bit away from the plane. He’s already back at home.”
Meg got a mental image of several bears moving around the area by the plane looking for food. She mentally saw John starting to camp but hearing a cougar and wisely deciding upon another place to stop. She tried not to smile, thinking of the old man trying to settle down and do his work with Peter drawing every animal close to his camping place. He’d been stubborn though, she could sense that. Peter’d had to do more. Meg was curious but more so, she was hungry and tired so focused on her food.
Meg replaced her snack wrapper and took a drink of water. Colleen was re-packing her own garbage. Dillon was already looking towards the trail. The four of them continued, with Meg and Peter bringing up the rear of the procession. They made better time than the three of them expected. They were soon at the plane. Meg had a hunch Peter had been helping them.
“Why not?” The stray thought drifted across Meg’s mind and she knew it was Peter. She couldn’t think of a good reason, simply that it was a surprise, which she tried to convey.
At home on the mountain, Peter could move things easily. Slopes could change or paths could appear. Even plants changed their places. Meg was fairly certain he could do that with houses too, but his prohibition against interfering in human lives kept him from doing just that.
They got to the airplane and the differences Peter mentioned were immediately noticeable to Meg.
“It looks like someone came up here and partially destroyed it,” Dillon said, walked around it. Meg could see piece
s had been hacked or sawn off from areas they’d been most interested in. There were pieces lying on the ground that she hadn’t noticed before. The seats were overturned as if someone was looking for something that might have been on the seat.
“Did you see who did this?” Meg asked.
“I had a sense of people moving around briefly. In fact, I had the sense that I might know them but then they were just gone. It’s almost like what humans describe as a dream, except for the short part when I knew they were here,” Peter explained.
Meg’s mind followed his description trying to get a sense of what he was saying. She was plunging head first down into a deep pool, the memories and thoughts washing over her but altogether too suddenly the bottom was there and Meg had no way to stop her plunge. Everything went black.
The next thing she knew, she was lying on the ground, looking up into Peter’s eyes. She felt his hand at the back of her head. Colleen’s face hovered over her as well. Dillon walked into her view, kneeling down, holding out a bottle of water.
“What happened?” Meg croaked, trying to get her voice to work. Her head ached a little, but even that was fading.
“I believe that you tried to look at something too foreign for your mind to take in,” Peter said. “While you can see everything in my mind, your own mind disregards anything too strange. This time you tried to look right at something of that sort and I believe you fainted or something close to that.”
“Wow,” Meg said, sitting up. She took the water Dillon offered gratefully. “How long was I out?”
“About a minute and a half,” Colleen said, standing back up. “Do you feel okay?”
Meg nodded. She felt a little unsteady from the experience but it was more that she’d expected to be standing up and now she was lying on the ground.
“Do you suppose that strangeness is part of what’s going on here?” Meg asked. She let Peter help her to her feet. Once there she felt more like herself. She handed the water back to Dillon.
“Probably,” Peter said.
“Could John have something to do with this?” Colleen asked. “He was the last one here.”
“I am not sure how,” Peter said.
“You were watching him the whole night?” Colleen asked.
“I was aware that he was in his tent and there was nothing inconsistent with what he did,” Peter said. “I was not actively putting a watch on him. I was making sure something didn’t bother him.”
“So if it could be possible for him to do something?” Colleen pressed.
“It could be possible a lot of people did something,” Peter said. “I’m just not sure how. I can tell you that a bear came through here. That’s the one I led here. But another came an hour later, probably still picking up my interference with the first bear. I can see the tracks of small creatures and I can tell you exactly which ones they are and where they are now. I cannot tell you about the people who were here for a few moments. In addition, I am not at all certain they were here long enough to do this kind of damage.”
“So they were here and they weren’t?” Meg asked.
“That is my sense.”
“What about ghosts or spirits?” Dillon asked. “Could they hide from you?”
“I’m a spirit,” Peter reminded the other man. “The energy you call a ghost is not hidden from me. In many cases, spirits are actually more visible than humans when I haven’t taken a physical form.”
“A projection?” Dillon suggested.
“How?” Peter seemed interested.
“And how would a projection move something?” Meg asked.
“I’m thinking about those people who move things with their minds. You know the kids who have poltergeists following them but it’s really their own mind doing the moving,” Dillon explained. “Could someone train someone like that and do distance moving? Or have some sort of machine that enhances that type of ability?”
“Nothing that I ever encountered suggested we have that kind of capability,” Colleen said. “Of course, that wasn’t my area and I couldn’t talk about it if it was.”
Meg nodded, looking at Peter.
“In spirit form I can see someone working with their mind to change things. There are those on Whisper who have had the ability to change things with their mind, but nothing to this degree. I know when that sort of thing is done. Air spirits would also be drawn to that sort of activity, like a beacon. They are aware of what they call a doorway, but they are not exactly certain what it is. My curiosity and Marcus’s involvement has brought several of them. And, of course, they too are concerned that Gaia is monitoring this closely. None of us really desires her interference.”
“Marcus would see that beacon wouldn’t he?” Meg clarified.
“If he were there at the time it was flashing, I expect he would,” Peter said.
“I wonder if we should talk to Amy about taking him up here for an overnight and see what he sees when he looks through the eyes of an air spirit?” Meg said.
“It could be dangerous to him,” Peter said quietly. “I’m not sure it’s an idea I like, unless there are no other options.”
“What if it is John or he’s part of it?” Colleen said coming back to her theory. “He was the closest of everyone. He might know something even if he’s not totally involved. Is Rain safe with him?”
“I’ll keep an eye on her to be sure she’s safe,” Peter said. “And I suggest you leave this area as well.”
With that he walked off behind some trees. Meg knew he had disappeared and would probably now be in the office, making sure Rain was safe. She felt her jaw tense just thinking about it.
Rain
I was perusing a bit more information about Darmacci Enterprises when Kaitlyn sent John back to my office. I was there by myself. Zari was helping RaeLynn with more searches in the other office.
“So what can you tell me?” I asked.
“Meg’s still gone?” John said countering my question with a question.
“She is. I think they’ll be back today.” I sat up a little straighter hoping that maybe then I’d look a bit more professional. It wasn’t like I was poorly dressed. I had on a sleek burgundy pullover tunic top and a khaki colored pencil skirt that hugged my hips but didn’t bag at the waist, not that you’d see that with the tunic. My earrings were small, gold braded hoops with little cats on them, but most men would never notice that. They matched the necklace I wore and the barrette that pulled my hair back.
John nodded. “It was the strangest thing up there. I spent a ton of time measuring and checking for anything out of the ordinary. I even had my old Geiger counter. I’ve taken a piece of that metal that got Peter all excited home with me to do some more testing.”
I nodded at him, making a few notes on the legal pad in front of me. That seemed to ease his mind, as if by the fact that I was listening to him, it made me more appropriate to chat with.
“There’s nothing obviously wrong with the plane. In fact, measurements are on the small side, but it could fit the people it was built for. I can’t see why it wouldn’t fly. It’s just such a strangely configured plane.” He leaned back against the chair, looking over to the window. I saw him start a bit as his eyes took in Zari A’s very fancy cat tree. It was beige color but quite sturdy. I think he had glanced over and thought it was a bookcase and only now it was registering as a cat tree.
“That metal you all are so worried about has higher radiation output than most common metals. I’m not finding a match in anything I’ve looked up. I’d like to have someone who has more expertise look into that radiation though. It makes me uncomfortable and I’m regretting taking it from the plane.”
“What about Peter?” I asked, as if he had the expertise that John wanted. Certainly he was an expert on things like that, although not in the way John expected.
“I suppose,” he said slowly, looking back over at the cat tree. “He seems to turn up at the strangest places. Are you sure about him?”
I
wanted to laugh. “What do you mean?”
“I was camped out last night and he came up to the area. He just told me I should camp somewhere else because he was worried about the site. Not a minute later—I hadn’t even finished protesting-- this bear shows up on the edge of the clearing. Peter tells me I should get my stuff, as if there’s all the time in the world. I did, and that bear just sat there. Peter walked with me a little farther on and then just said he was going to hike home. He didn’t talk to me about the plane at all. I thought he was more of a glorified forest ranger wanna-be with a lot of money.”
I smiled at the description.
“I think that I can vouch for Peter being an expert,” I told him.
John acknowledged that, still looking thoughtful. His gaze returned to the cat tree. “Do you have a cat?”
“I do. She’s down annoying one of the other employees now though.”
“I like cats,” John said apropos of nothing in particular. Perhaps he was uncomfortable having talked about Peter as he did.
“Zari is definitely one of a kind,” I replied.
“Zari? That’s her name.”
“It is.”
“Different.”
I smiled a little not sure what to say.
“I checked over the guns from the plane and they seem ordinary enough, although I think the ordinance may have been made of the metal. I get those same readings from the Geiger counter. Still, it’s not a weapon I’d be upset about although it is very modern. I’m not sure what that strange metal is supposed to do. It could detect radar or deflect radar maybe but why would it be on the weapon systems?” John looked at me as if expecting an answer. When I didn’t have one, he continued.
“The cabling inside was the most unusual part. The materials weren’t standard issue. If they’re building for the military that’s got to change. I can’t imagine that they’d want something so outside the normal specs. They have to have mechanics that can quickly assess a problem and this was set up in such a way that no one was doing anything to that plane quickly.”
I could tell John was warming to his topic. He talked about the electrical systems of planes for some time. I hoped my eyes didn’t glaze over. I did manage to make a note that he thought he found a tracking device, but it no longer seemed functional.
Down in Whisper Page 14
