He could guess what she was going to say: more brutal, less human, maybe even, more like The Other.
“Beneath the ice, last time, we both nearly died.” She turned, and her eyes bored into him. “You stretch luck too far. We don’t want to lose you… and don’t you lose us.”
He reached across to brush strands of dark hair from her forehead. “I do what I do for you and Joshua, and the millions of other you and Joshuas in the world. Some things in this world are dangerous and need to be faced. You know that; you’ve seen them.”
“They do.” She grabbed his hand. “But not always by you.”
“No, not always by me.” He lay back down. “Not always.”
“Oof!” He folded in half as Joshua landed on his belly and knocked the wind out of him. The boy laughed hysterically. Alex grabbed him, pulling him down between them.
“Thanks, buddy. A little warning next time, huh?”
“Wish you didn’t have to go, Dad.” Josh looked at the ball as he spoke, and his small forehead creased.
Alex looked at Aimee. “Did you…?”
Aimee shook her head. “He knows; he always knows.”
Alex sighed and turned back. Yeah, he already knew that — he had felt the boy inside his head many times. The bond of love was strong between them, but he felt Josh could drop in whenever he liked now.
Hammerson had said it was a trickle down effect of the Arcadian treatment Alex had undergone. Josh seemed to have inherited some things from Alex that went well beyond his looks; the mental connection between them being only one of them. He’d need to be more guarded in the future as the link might reveal things that might terrify the boy.
He faced his son. “I wish I could take you,” Alex said to him. “But I need someone here to look after your mom… and the puppy.”
Joshua’s head snapped around. “What? What puppy?”
“Oh, hey, didn’t we tell you?” He looked across to Aimee, whose eyebrows were up. Alex grinned and turned back. “Yeah, sure, I meant to mention that we’re getting you a puppy. But I need you to pick it out, and get it settled in while I’m away. It’s a big responsibility.”
Joshua’s mouth hung open.
“Can you do that for me, buddy?” Alex shrugged. “Because we can leave it for a day or…”
“Yes!” Joshua threw the ball in the air, and kneeled up. He placed both hands on Alex’s chest. “Yes, yes, yes!” His eyes were so wide they looked about to pop. “When!”
“I know Uncle Jack said he could take you out anytime. But it’s really up to your mom.” Alex grinned and turned slowly to Aimee.
Joshua’s eyes homed in on her. “Mom?”
Aimee chuckled. “Ooh, ambush.” She made her face serious. “Well, we do have a few things to do before…”
“Mo-oooom.” Joshua’s brow furrowed with alarm.
“Oh, good grief.” She elbowed Alex who just grinned. “Well, maybe tomorrow.” She leaned up on an elbow. “Go and kick the ball some more. Dad and I are going to have a little talk.”
“Yessss!” Joshua screamed away, picking up the ball in one hand and punting it high, and then sprinting after it.
Alex looked at Aimee’s beautiful but now angry face. He grinned sheepishly. “Surprise.”
Surprise, he smiled as his mind took him back to his family moment. That surprise was going to cost him three dinners out and a week of foot rubs. Worth it.
Alex continued to stare out the window of the Twin Otter turboprop plane, but he was still mentally back on the park’s soft grass. He remembered Aimee’s stern look as the sunlight made her hair shine like a raven’s wing, and her eyes were luminous with sparks of fire. He could still hear Joshua roaring with excitement.
He missed them both already. He closed his eyes as he replayed what she had said to him: this is where you need to be now. She was right. After a life led fighting, always fighting, he finally had something to come home to — an oasis of calm in a turbulent world.
His eyes flicked open as reality intruded. But there were horrors in this world, things that waited in dark caves, or fell from skies, or lurked in impenetrable jungles waiting to attack and bring misery and death to innocent people. Alex fought for them, for Aimee and Joshua. They were who he fought to keep safe.
The plane juddered in the air and his reverie began to dissolve. But maybe, just maybe, it was time someone else did the fighting.
The Twin Otter jerked again. Though the boxy-looking, cobalt-blue airplane seemed ungainly, its combination wheels, floats, and skids meant it could take off and land on water, snow, grass, or gravel on even the shortest of runways. It was uncomfortable, but practical.
As they were entering foreign territory, to avoid suspicion they’d needed to take civilian craft. Not ideal, but speed and secrecy needed to be balanced, for now. Onboard there were the eight HAWCs plus the three NASA science and engineering team members. Though on paper, there was room for more people in the plane, the size and bulk of the HAWCs made it feel enormously overburdened.
Alex knew they were already over the Alaskan airspace, and though inside it was warm, outside it was well below freezing. He turned away from the window — lined up across from him was his second in charge, Sam Reid; then Casey Franks; Max Dunsen; and Andy Garcia.
Next to him were Drake Monroe, Steve Knight, who looked like he thought being here with the seasoned HAWCs was too good to be true, and lastly, the statuesque and formidable Anita Erikson. Most were all sprawled legs and shut eyes. The mission was supposed to be a quick snatch, in and out in a matter of hours. But Alex knew reality wasn’t like that. Shit always happened, and they were the ones who either got dropped in it or had to clean it up.
Alex let his eyes move to the NASA tech crew. Leading them was Russell Burrows. Up front he seemed a likeable guy, but Alex sensed something below the surface, fear maybe. Russ was only concerned about the remote possibility of finding survivors, probably his friends, from the downed Orlando shuttle, and couldn’t care less about the military tech onboard. That was fine by Alex. Next to him was Scott McIntyre, Russ’ senior technician, young and serious, but seemed a little twitchy. And then came Doctor Anne Petersen; she was a scientist and also had a medical background, and for Alex that made her value go up. He also detected something when she asked about the astronauts that made him think she had a personal attachment to someone on the shuttle orbiter. There was a level of concern in her voice that exceeded NASA loyalty or team camaraderie.
All three looked nervous and uncomfortable in their cold-weather gear with breathing apparatus hanging over their backs. They were also as intimidated as hell by the huge HAWCs. Alex didn’t bother trying to break the ice; after all, people tended to do their jobs more efficiently when the adrenaline was pumping or they felt eyes on them. And Alex would be watching every one of them.
The closest runway they could get to the peaks of the Revelation Mountains was Lime village, population twenty-nine, and only eighty miles from their destination. The upside was it had a hard-packed runway they could drop in on. They would then rendezvous with a chopper, which would take them up to the mountaintop basin.
Alex heard the pilot’s laconic drawl in his ear, “Ten minutes out.”