by Trisha Telep
Like the forceful wave of heat that washed over them as the helijet exploded.
Two
The ground rushed toward Jessica’s face, stinging her eyes and playing havoc with her intestinal fortitude. Any second, they would land, and the only semblance of safety was the strength in the arms of the stranger holding her. The calm assurance in his voice as he spoke to his partner. The unflinching determination she’d glimpsed in his eyes just before her father had thrown her toward him. It wasn’t enough.
She’d never done anything like this before. She didn’t even go on the kiddie jumps at amusement parks. She worked in a high-rise building, looking down from the balcony outside her office calmly and comfortably, knowing all the safety features that went into it. But there was no safety here. Screams built in her head, in her throat, and the only thing that kept them from coming out was the force of the air choking her whenever she opened her mouth.
Jessica gripped the stranger’s wrist tighter and tighter the closer the ground came. Then it was there, and his longer legs were hopping along to slow them down while she raised her knees as far as she could to her chest. If anything was going to break, let it be him first, please, God. She squeezed her eyes shut, still screaming inside her head with each jarring bounce.
“Mike?” His voice sounded in her ear, irritatingly calm.
Barely loud enough for her to catch came the response, “We’re good, LT.”
“Good. Silence until rendezvous.”
“Yes, sir.”
Silence and dizziness overwhelmed her.
Jessica blinked her eyes open. When had they sat on the ground? Was her father okay? When would the earth quit moving? Oh, God, she wanted to vomit. His calm voice as he spoke to whoever didn’t help in the least. The fact that he held her upright, her back still to his chest, his legs bracing either side of hers and his arms locked tight around her – that did help. Kind of. At least something was still.
She swallowed a few times before she could let any sound out. “Dad?”
“He’s fine, sweetheart. They’ve landed safely and shall be heading north to our rendezvous point. You can see him for yourself once we get there.”
“Doctor.” She wasn’t a “sweetheart”, no matter how gently it was said. She was a fully accredited doctor, with a PhD and everything, damn it. She wasn’t some adrenaline junkie who needed to defy death just to feel alive. And she would damn well set him straight on that as soon as she quit quaking from head to toe and wanting to vomit with every breath.
“Okay, Dr Sweetheart.” Amusement colored his voice this time. “Try this.”
Before she could ask what “this” was, it was at her lips and sliding in. Then she moaned. Chocolate melted over her tongue, instantly settling her stomach and going to work on her shakes. She could chastise him for what he called her after she could speak.
“Just take a deep breath and let the chocolate work its magic.”
It took time, but the ground quit teetering and tottering. The acidic nausea soothed beneath the effects of the chocolate. The slightly calmer adrenaline flowing through her cleared the fog of terror from her brain. And the warmth and strength holding her securely almost made her feel safe. But he was a stranger, and she needed to move. To stand on her own. In just another minute. Or ten.
Facing him would bring them too close, so she remained as she was, only lightening her death-clamp on his forearm. “How far is the rendezvous from here?”
“Six and a half clicks. Or about four miles.”
“I see.” Well, barely. She could see as far as the ground, maybe. “Who blew up our jet? Why do they want to kill my father? How did the military find out? What is at the rendezvous point, another jet or a building? Where are we supposed to go after we reach there? For how long?”
“Hey, Doc. Deep breaths.”
Jessica took a deep breath. Her adrenaline had spiked with each question, and even more as each question led her deeper into problems that would need solutions.
“We don’t have time to hash out everything. We don’t know exactly who they are, but they will be coming for us.”
And she was supposed to relax? Jessica sat straighter, looking around. Somehow, he’d carried her to a small area surrounded by trees and shrubs. Behind them was a hill of rock, and to the sides, impenetrable logs and green growth. There was a small clearing in front of them, easily surveyed from their position.
“So, we need to get up and run four miles?”
“Yes, Dr Sweetheart. The sooner the better.”
Jessica rolled her eyes at his continued endearment/nickname and released his arm completely, then glanced around. “My briefcase?”
“Right here.” He gave it to her.
Jessica leaned forward as he rose to his feet behind her. The waterproof leather briefcase was still locked closed and appeared none the worse for falling through the air with them. It had wide leather straps and a soft leather casing that zipped and locked closed. It resembled a large purse, but kept her work organized and protected. She pulled the strap over her shoulder and jumped to her feet.
Then rapidly buckled and fell, only stopping as the soldier’s hard arm surrounded her. Jessica braced her hands against his chest and looked up into his midnight-blue eyes. “I apologize. I can do this. I promise.”
“Of course you can. You just have to get used to standing again. Don’t worry.”
But even as he spoke to her in his low, calm voice and as he told her not to worry, he was scanning the area with a steady, hard gaze. That’s right. They, whoever “they” were, would be looking for them. Jessica took another deep breath and willed strength to her legs. She pushed away from him, his chest barely moving.
“Okay. So, Airborne 81, what do I call you?”
“Lieutenant Reid Kincaid, Dr Sweetheart.”
Then he smiled, and she could have sworn she was falling again.
Three
The ground tilted and vibrated beneath her feet, and the low hum of a helijet engine hit her from overhead like a forceful weight pressing her down. Then she was actually going down to squat with the lieutenant’s arm guiding her from view. Between the muted dark camo of his uniform and the fronds of trees and bushes taller than them, they shouldn’t be seen.
He eyed the sky, watching for the enemy’s helijet. Before it reached them, it veered away, the force of the wind it stirred causing the leaves around them to flatten and spread so they could watch a clear path form as it left their area. A few seconds after it was gone, the lieutenant looked at her. “We need to get moving.”
Jessica nodded, and he rose, tugging on her hand to help her up. Instead, she pulled him back down. “I can’t go, yet.”
Looking harassed and struggling with patience, he asked, “Why?”
Jessica slipped spiked heels off her feet and opened her briefcase. “I wear these for public appearances, but the shoes I prefer to wear are better for tramping quickly through a forest.”
She felt his gaze lingering along the length of her legs, his features giving a silent thumbs-up to the heels. But when she held up her comfortable, lace-up shoes, his eyes brightened and he actually winked in approval. “Smart thinking, sweetheart.”
She smirked as she slid them on her feet and tied them tight. “Geniuses tend to do that, Lieutenant.”
He chuckled, visibly shrugging off her subtle reminder to address her more respectfully. “Call me Reid,” he said. And then added, “Ready?”
Grabbing one more item before she closed the case, Jessica stood, and slid the long strap of her bag diagonally across her body so it left her arms free. Arms she quickly raised to pull her long auburn hair back into a high, tight ponytail. “Now, I’m ready.”
He nodded, scanning the area around them before leading her away.
She kept her voice low, but faced his back and spoke clearly. “What kind of traps are we looking for, Lieutenant?”
“Reid,” he reminded, adding, “It’s unknown where the men o
r women first touched ground, or how far ahead they’ve spread out, or how many of them we should look for.”
Well, that made their job easy. “Then what do we look for?”
“We scan the trees for dark spots, pausing to make sure it’s just thick leaves and branches. We scan the bushes lower to the ground for the same. Any lines, between our toes and the sky, that seem too straight to be natural, let me know. Otherwise, we just keep moving, listening for the sound of them, and stay clear of a straight view from the sky.”
“Got it.”
For the next hour, that’s just what they did, communicating in simple, silent hand signals. Four miles could be run in an hour, easily, if she was on a straight track with relatively even ground. But between searching each dense tree or bush, and moving in a slow zigzag pattern to avoid anyone, one hour had only moved them a little over half a mile.
Pausing behind a tree, Jessica faced him. “Exactly how long do we have to reach the rendezvous?”
“Three hours from the jet exploding. It should have been plenty of time for two soldiers to get one old man in place.”
“Am I holding you back?”
Reid looked at her, his eyebrows raised. “Actually, no. You seem to be keeping up quite easily. Why is that?”
She looked away. “I’m fit?”
“You are in optimal health.”
Her mouth tightened, betraying her. Reid tugged her arm, returning her gaze to his face so he could search it. “You’ve taken TERA, haven’t you?”
She pursed her lips. “No.”
He scoffed. “Listen, sweetheart. Lies won’t help us get out of here alive, placate your enemies, or help your father uninvent his miracle drug – for whatever insane reason he wants to do that. The force after him is a lot more determined than even we anticipated, and it’s difficult to get past them.”
Her eyes had narrowed at the word “insane” and irritation colored her voice now. “My father isn’t insane. And I haven’t ‘taken’ TERA. My mother had difficulty conceiving, and TERA fixed her fertility issues.”
His eyes widened. “So you’re the first generation born with it inside you.”
It wasn’t a question, but she confirmed anyway. “Yes. And for the record, there may be reasons he’s regretted his invention, but he’s never wanted to uninvent TERA. It has helped far too many people to live better lives.”
“Exactly.” Technologically Enhanced Rehabilitation Alleles were nanotechnology at a microscopic level: they traveled through the blood and repaired bodily damage at a cellular level. Congenital defects, genetic diseases and cancers were cured by delivering the proper rehabilitative information to cells. “Why regret that?”
She rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t. But as with most inventions, there is the positive intention behind creating it, then the negative end of the spectrum. After diseases and many different health issues were cured, there were those who wanted to take it further. Ego, vanity and greed took control, and that wasn’t what he wanted for his miracle cure.”
“Okay, most everything gets misused—”
“Misused? That’s like playing the wedding march at a funeral. Young girls are using TERA to change their hair and eye color – genetically. Being dissatisfied with their bodies and using anything available to reach an ideal appearance has all but eliminated ethnic differences and severely damaged the concept of health and beauty.”
“True, the superficiality of some of its uses sucks, but the effects of aging, environmental influences and accidental traumas are practically reversible. It’s a trade-off.”
“And physical abilities have been optimized. Athletics associations want to treat it like steroid use, but the effects are everlasting and never leave your system, so any athlete who had a childhood illness, or a parent with fertility issues, wouldn’t be able to play.”
“Since that’s practically all of them, there is no unfairness.”
“Except to healthy people who’ve never had to take TERA, and now they are told that healthy isn’t good enough. You must have this drug that optimizes every part of you, if not changes you completely.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“There is a whole universe of psychological and philosophical issues. Super-soldiers, ethnic cleansing, conformist ideologies. Those are the biggest factors. Once laughed at and now all too real. And all that even before we learned of TERA’s changes over time.”
He couldn’t argue with that. There were perfectionistic murmurings everywhere. Not just athletes and entertainment stars. Not just the military. It infiltrated society even at the grade-school level. That there might be unexpected changes was terrifying to contemplate. “What changes?”
“As you said, I am in the first generation born with TERA. I’m not even thirty years old. All of the effects aren’t clear, yet, but how can we be expected to handle them when we don’t even have the mental strength to embrace a world where people have different skin colors?”
Before he could say anything further, she darted away. Reid eyed their surroundings to see if she drew attention, found nothing, and dashed after her.
Four
Reid crouched directly behind her. “What kind of changes?”
She looked around them, her face strangely tight. “Well . . .You haven’t noticed any strange appendages, have you?”
“What?” He paused, then he took in her dancing green eyes. She was probably getting him back for calling her “sweetheart”. Oh, well. He’d have to do it even more now. “That’s not funny, sweetheart. What changes?”
She exhaled an impatient sigh. “Nothing that will affect the next two hours, Lieutenant.”
For what felt like the thousandth time, he snapped, “Reid.”
“Fine, Reid, but we have to make up time. TERA is a very long, difficult debate, and we won’t solve the concerns anytime soon. As for the changes, who knows? Are we headed toward the future from the Terminator movies, or the world of X-Men? All I do know is that the criminals searching for us right now have the same enhancements we do, so it’s not like we have an advantage.”
“Maybe not in that way, but I do have years of training and experience. So here’s what we need to do.” She was right. They needed to make up time, and stopping to debate the merits of a miracle cure was not a beneficial use of their resources.
Knowing she was born with TERA a part of her DNA, he was able to trust her civilian instincts a bit more, triple-check her less. At first, TERA had been created to focus on one illness at a time. Degenerative eye or nerve diseases, but not both. Being born with it in her system meant she had, naturally, a more general formula affecting the make-up of her entire body. Optimizing each organ and muscle and nerve. She truly could hear and see as well as he did, if not better. As long as she stayed in shape, which, eyeing her body, he had no doubt she did, she would be strong and fast. It was time to test his theory.
For the next hour, he pushed her, testing the limits of her speed and sight, no longer worrying about finding places to rest. Judging from the expression on her face, she loved it. How often did she get to push herself like this anywhere outside a gym? The fresh air and exertion had his heart pumping and racing as they climbed and dropped, ran across clearings, and hid from sight at a split-second’s notice.
Their enemies were everywhere, it seemed. There shouldn’t have been so many. His commanding officer said there had been a tip-off that the doctor would be attacked, but this seemed more than that. Was there a reverse tip that had betrayed military involvement in a rescue mission? That would explain the enemies’ numbers, but not why they hadn’t simply blown the jet apart sooner.
“Reid?” Jessica’s voice was barely a breath of sound.
They’d climbed a tree, hoping to get more of an aerial view, only to find they were seconds from an ambush. Reid leaned against her back, pressing her closer to the trunk and hoping his camouflaged sky suit would block her clothes. Navy blue wasn’t too bad, but it was still a clash with the env
ironment and easier to spot. Angling his chin alongside her face, her melon-scented hair caught, tangling with his whiskers. He wanted to wrap his fingers around her ponytail and slide them down until he was free of the silky web, but he couldn’t move. His hands were holding a branch above them and any movement to free himself could get him killed. So, instead, he inhaled and enjoyed the sweet scent.
Keeping his own whisper nearly silent, he replied, “Yes?”
“Why send so many if the explosion was meant to kill him?”
Good question. These men were sent to search. Was it really just to find a body and take a few pictures for proof? They wouldn’t have needed so many for that. But if the military intel had been flawed, then that meant the doctor had been meant to survive to be captured. “Who knew you were flying with him?”
“It was a last-minute decision.”
“Influenced by whom?” She held silent, so it had to be a good question. Letting her consider it, Reid returned his attention to the ground below him. One man was settled against a tree very close and slightly ahead of theirs. Reid could see his head, back and arms clearly. Nothing in his face or on his clothes pointed to an alliance, an ethnicity, or an identity of any kind. Only the taser in his hands hinted about his purpose.
Time crawled by, seconds becoming minutes until the scant amount of time they’d made up dwindled and they were just as far behind as they’d been. At this rate, there would be no rendezvous for them. What about Mike and the doc? Would they make it, at least? Mike had said they’d landed safely. A good pair of zoom lenses would have shown which doc had landed on which side of the river. Were there twice as many over there? Or could it be that Jessica was their true target?
Another man joined the one on the ground, sliding up beside him in well-practiced silence. The first man turned his head and the second man’s hands began to move in a coded form of sign language. Reid’s eyes widened. Army, either current or past.
