Contents
Title Page
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
End
Jaguar Transit
Dedication
Laure Edwards Reminick
P.O. Box 1793
Fairfield, IA 52556
Email: [email protected]
81,000 words
Seeking Sirius
Book One of the Ceres Crystal Series
by Laure Edwards Reminick
Copyright © 2014 Laure Edwards Reminick
All rights reserved.
Cover Design - Deborah E Gordon
Backover Graphic (Alexa) - Judith Hans-Price
Author Photo - Reny Parker
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photo-copy, recording, or any other—except brief quotation in reviews, without the prior permission of the author or publisher.
Prologue
Cold from the hard cement seeped up through her trousers. “Hello?” Only stuffy dimness echoed back. It could be kind of scary, except for how happy she felt—in a relieved kind of way. As she rolled her head and then uncrossed one leg to stretch out a cramp, an acrid odor penetrated the haze. “Huh, motor oil.” With that, she studied the space more closely. “Okay, the hangar.”
Time to go. She was leveraging herself up when a small aircraft approached the open door, filling the air with a rumble-roar as it powered by. The sound was unmistakable. Adrenaline prickling, she grabbed the white plastic bag beside her and sprinted, barely avoiding a wooden crate before she pushed out into the sun.
But too late, because at that very moment the silver and red airplane lifted off the runway. She chased after the craft a short way, crying out, “No!” Then, as it banked toward the ocean she stopped, her shoulders slumped. “Why did Alexa leave?” A dread welled up. Could it be the incident she’d hoped her friend would never find out about? Could Mac have told? No way. Baffled, she stared at the plane droning in the distance.
Scorching blacktop brought her back, and Rachel yelped, “Where are my boots?” While jumping from foot to foot, her gaze rose from painted toenails to the faded cargo pants she wore. Not mine. And somebody else’s yellow T-shirt—with a smiley face?
The plastic bag contained a newspaper so she dropped it to the ground and stepped on, then studied the environment around her. Everything appropriate: air hot, puffball clouds played in the sky, cicadas shrilled their music. Yet it felt as if the whole world had changed.
During that time, a man had ambled over from the terminal, his ancient Jedi Master T-shirt stained with engine oil. He grumbled, “Rachel, what are you doing here? I thought you were flying with Alexa.”
Turning to him, she said, “Hey, Morty,” and threw out her arms. “I don’t know.” A memory of laughter with Alexa brought it all back. “Oh yeah. I went to the hangar to get the newspaper you sold me.” She turned to watch the plane disappear into the clouds, “And well, it looks like Alexa left without me.”
Morty shook his head. “Why did you want that old thing anyway? You already know what happened.”
“It’s so weird,” she said, rubbing her face. “I can remember being with Alexa in the plane.” Rachel almost fell off the bag when a gust of wind kicked up. “But maybe the memory is from when I flew with her before.”
Morty waved at her, muttering something about people being nuts, and turned to leave. She picked up the bag to follow and unfolded the thick bundle to peek at the newspaper. “Hey, you sold me one with writing on it.” Not believing her, he grimaced and reached over. At that moment, though, Rachel recognized the scribbles as her own. Hard to miss the all-cap style she cultured while dating an engineer.
Bright purple ink screamed at the top:
ONLY FOR THE EYES OF MAC OR RACHEL
RACHEL, IMMEDIATELY CONTACT MAC
She pulled the newspaper to her chest and said in a small voice, “Never mind. It’s fine.”
Morty headed back to the office, as Rachel shifted from heel to heel, rereading the note. Even a third and fourth pass made no sense. More odd, her writing also flowed around the margins, mentioning places and people she’d never heard of.
After tiptoeing to the nearest shade at the hangar, she located her mobile phone in a pocket, then punched the autodial. Instead of Alexa, however, it was their friend Becky who answered. “Rachel? You calling about Alexa’s phone? She left it here at—”
“I need to find Mac.”
Chapter 1
At the far end of the airport, Alexa Jane Alden radioed the tower and announced, “This is November5337Victor, departing on runway 1-8.” Seconds later, the Cessna 195 reached takeoff speed and Alexa pulled back on the yoke, grinning as the plane lifted into the sky. That almost human leap always gave her a rush. It was one of the experiences that kept her flying.
Nevertheless, this particular takeoff took a strange turn when an odd twisty sense began coursing through her brain—a conviction that something just turned very wrong. She glanced around the cockpit: Motor sounded normal. Vibrations were minimal, and no smell of burning engine oil or anything else could be detected. It couldn’t be her pre-flight jitters, because they always disappeared by this time. Alexa frowned and wrangled her hair back into a barrette. The emotion was astonishingly strong. Almost despair. She hadn’t felt something like that in years.
Maybe she should have listened to her instinct fifteen minutes earlier, a clear intuition to leave Donny Dixon behind. He had arrived more than twenty minutes late and then delayed them another ten minutes to go to the airport office. And I woke up before dawn to get in my meditation before leaving early.
At that moment, Donny sat in the backseat of the plane, crinkling paper and tossing things from his duffel bag. He gave a grunt of satisfaction before sticking a faded Cubs baseball hat over dishwater hair, and then the headset.
By the time the plane approached cruising altitude, the sadness had begun to disappear. Still might be a good idea to scan the airport, though. Tucking a curl behind her ear, Alexa twisted to peer out the window. Two figures, barely discernible, stood on the airport’s empty tarmac.
Her friend, Rachel Mulligan, also turned around from looking at the field. Sitting there, it even appeared she shivered a bit.
“Wonder who’s down there,” Alexa said into the headset. “Think there’s a problem?”
While rubbing her face, Rachel said, “I don’t know.” Then she checked her mobile phone and
considered for a moment. “Nah. They’d call, or radio you if anything was wrong.”
Not satisfied, Alexa decided to review her standard to-do list: Handled that detail. That’s done. Okay. Yes. Oh, oops. She picked up her purse from the floor between the front seats and felt around inside. Then she investigated each pocket on her cargo pants. “You know what, I forgot my cell phone.”
Rachel flipped her hand, and said, “They know my number.” With that, Rachel took up her puzzle book and filled in another blank. The purple ink from that funny pen could about blind a person.
Alexa switched her attention back to the plane when it began pitching. Even her bag bounced around. After some time working to keep wings level, she realized the strange sensation was almost gone. Brushing a red-gold whisp from her face, she glanced at Rachel, whose outfit practically glowed neon. Alexa said, “See you’re wearing your man-killer uniform.”
Rachel had been refining this look since high school. “I think that cute gallery owner in Nassau likes kids,” she replied, while ducking her head. “Want him to really notice me this time.” The same tiny pink shirt with a deep V-neck, supercharged by a push-up bra, had once attracted the attention of every guy in a bar. Alexa smiled, remembering how the men almost fell over each other.
Alexa never felt the need for such efforts. Though she wouldn’t mind being a bit less petite, attracting male attention had never been a problem.
Rachel stopped biting a cuticle to say, “I thought Mac was supposed to fly you to the Bahamas.”
“Called away on business, as usual,” said Alexa, without taking her eyes off the plane instruments.
“Do you really think he’ll take time off to go with you to the Himalayas?”
With a resigned nod, Alexa acknowledged the skepticism. Her parents had trekked in that region before they were married and she wanted to replicate their route. Her mother’s stories about esoteric destinations had tugged at her since she was a child. After the trip, with them honored, perhaps she could settle into her own life. “I hope so.” After a shrug, she said, “There’s still a lot to do. Thank goodness, we still have almost a week before the wedding.”
Armstrong MacPhearson, her lovable workaholic fiancé, had called two days ago about a quick flight to close a business deal, saying, “I know, I’m supposed to come get you. I received a message from Brahmaji. Still, Fahlsteder suggested the deal. And for him to fund the new lab, I must bring back a signed contract. I told you new investors require a lot of strokes. I’ll be back to help with the wedding details as soon as I can, I promise.”
Alexa didn’t bother to protest, since airport sounds were obvious in the background.
However, if Mac thought a signed contract would finalize his investor, what a shock when last night Sterling Fahlsteder telephoned Alexa to say he intended to leave the Bahamas, perhaps forever. Such a shame, because Mac had been so excited about his interest. Before the man hung up, he asked, “Do you still intend to sell your airplane?”
When she said yes, he seemed to relent a bit. “If you get it here tomorrow, I may decide to stick around.” His tone implied that, otherwise, he’d leave. When she didn’t quickly agree, he offered encouragement with, “I could make it worth your while.”
She tried to contact Mac, but her messages on his cell phone refused to produce a response. Ultimately, however, the thought of losing an opportunity to sell the aircraft helped her over any reluctance about piloting.
In the plane, Alexa verified their bearings. They were on course to Nassau.
Rachel said, “I’m amazed you were willing to do the flying this trip.”
“Everyone at Becky’s house last night had an opinion,” said Alexa, and grimaced. “Someone would say, ‘you can do it.’ Then they’d all go quiet. It was obvious they were thinking about my grandfather’s death.” Then she confessed, “To tell you the truth, it came down to selling the plane. If this man buys it, we’ll have the down payment for the cottage I told you about.”
Rachel nodded. “As nice as your family home up north?”
“Nice enough,” said Alexa, waggling her hand. Again, she silently reviewed her decision. Flying to Nassau makes sense. Let it go.
She jerked to the present when the aircraft leaped two feet to the right, dropped a foot and drifted to back on course, leaving her insides somewhere behind. “What is this?” she muttered. “The weather forecast was perfect earlier.” Alexa looked over at Rachel. “You’re unfazed by this turbulence, aren’t you.”
Her friend threw out her hands, as if to say “sorry.” Funny how different they were. Through the years they might bicker or rant at each other, and once disastrously competed for a man. Yet that didn’t ultimately matter.
Maybe to distract her, Rachel began effusing about the contents of the white plastic bag on her lap. “I am so glad I went to the hangar for this. See, I scored a Sunday Times!” She hefted the newspaper up and down. “The paper was in a corner of the airport store and it’s a week old. But that’s okay. I loved reading it in New York.” On the front page she pointed out a photo of her favorite Yankee, and slid the paper into its bag.
Donny stuck his head forward between them. “You gals want some coffee? It’s the best the airport can offer.” Evidently, he’d decided to offer an apology of sorts.
When the plane’s nose dipped and lurched, he steadied a paper cup with steam coming through the hole in the plastic top, before Rachel accepted it. Alexa declined. “Thanks. I have tea in a thermos.”
Donny said, “Also have some bagels and cream cheese,” and Rachel stretched her hand to receive a bagel encased in cellophane. At the sight of a hunk of cream cheese smashed into the wrapping, Alexa wrinkled her nose. Donny shrugged.
At least he brought food. He’d been mooching off her friend Becky for days, even considering nobody in town had ever laid eyes on the guy before he showed up for the first time about a week ago. Alexa included him today only because of a request from Becky, who always was a sucker for a cute dimple.
After a sip, Donny leaned forward again and said, “My grandmother has raved about the Bahamas ever since she visited there five years ago on a cruise.” As the plane bounded twice, he held onto Alexa’s seat. “I also found this map with the latitudes and longitudes of old shipwrecks.”
“A treasure hunter, eh,” joked Alexa.
Donny looked away out the window and said, “I guess,”
At the same time, Rachel said, “Yeah?” and turned to take the map. She unfolded the paper and turned it around a couple of times, almost hitting Alexa in the eye. At last, she lined it up with the horizon and pointed at a dot on the map with her pen. “This is Bimini.”
The pen had to be from her eight-year-old son, Sammy. He was crazy about a space man from a recent movie, and that cartoon character bobbled around on a spring on top of the white plastic. Using it, Rachel then pointed toward a smudge on the water, to the right of them. “And there is Bimini on the ocean. I’ve heard of several wrecks near there.”
“Cool,” said Donny. “Besides Atlantis ruins around here, they’re also supposed to be on the Yucatan and maybe some near Portugal. I read that storms uncover new stuff all the time.” He lowered his voice into the scary register. “And there were a couple of good ones here recently.” Rachel chuckled.
The whole Atlantis thing made Alexa cringe. She said, “If you believe in that, and the fairies, I have a parcel of land for you with only a few alligators.” Donny sat back and got quiet. Did I offend him? Doubtful, nothing sticks to him.
At last, the plane stopped bounding through the skies and Alexa began to relax.
“Dolphin pod below.” Donny had the excited tone of anyone from the middle of the country. He’d mentioned his hometown was Des Moines.
A few moments later, Alexa was happy to announce, “All right, I think we found an altitude with smoother air currents.”
With the plane in good order, she reached to reposition her leather purse, during which she also v
erified the bulk of the multiple wrappings around the “very important package” given to her last week by her family’s meditation teacher. She’d put it in the wall safe at the house of another of her high school buddies when she arrived ten days ago, and picked it up this morning. It would be a relief when she could deliver the package to Mac, per Brahmaji’s instructions.
With that thought, Brahmaji’s words when he gave it to her appeared in her mind. “Please hand this to Mac when he comes to you.” Huh. Didn’t exactly wait for Mac to come to me. An old twinge of concern pricked inside her. But then her intellect kicked in. Shouldn’t be a problem.
Everything was quiet for few minutes, as they all settled in, giving Alexa the opportunity to realize her nose was tickling. She tried scrunching her nose to get rid of it, but that didn’t work. Just as she took a hand off the yoke to rub, a flare of light nearly blinded her. A quick scan of the plane’s instruments showed normal, so the flash didn’t come from inside.
Next she glanced out, to find an odd luminosity coursing around them. “What is that?” Then she realized: Ozone, the smell was ozone.
Between one moment and another, mountain-size clouds manifested around them. Some parts dazzling white, others scary dark. Pretty, when viewed from the ground, but up here, they make me nervous. She scanned for the best way around the thunderheads.
A glimpse of the ocean below showed waves churning at crazy angles, producing huge whitecaps visible even from their altitude. Sure wouldn’t want to be struggling on that choppy surface.
Soon after, the plane began to jerk like on the end of a cat toy. Alexa glanced at Rachel, whose face reflected her own shock.
Everyone’s attention was yanked back outside the plane, to a fiery column scintillating in front of them. Donny pushed between them and called out, “Oooooh, ET.” Blinding brilliance began at the water and zapped up straight out of sight.
On top of everything, a downdraft caught the plane, and Alexa almost felt grateful for something on which to focus. “Jeez, strong!” Another, and the nose dropped further. No way to avoid it. “Too close. Going through!”
Seeking Sirius Page 1
