Deadly Expectations (41 page)

“Anna?” Ray called me.
 
“I can hear the helicopter.”

I quickly finished my drink and put the glass in the dishwasher.
 
Nobody had run them after lunch so I decided to turn them on after the Colonel left so we didn’t have to listen to the two of them chew on the dishes through his visit.
 
Ray and the others stood up so I didn’t sit down.
 
It still took a few minutes for Paul and the Colonel to arrive.

When they came in the Colonel had his hand on Paul’s shoulder.
 
He let him go and came straight to me and took my hand.
 
I couldn’t tell from Paul’s demeanour what might be going on.

“Mrs. Richards …” he leaned toward me and kissed my cheek.
 
As he did my nose tickled.
 
There was something about him that was familiar.
 
Very familiar, but difficult to place.
 
“I’m glad to see you back.”

“Hello Colonel,” I replied as he stepped back and moved on to greet the others then he stood next to Paul.

“Lieutenant-Commander Richards,” he said taking on an intimidating air or rank.
 
Lef-tennant
.
 
I wondered what he was fishing for.

“Yes Sir,” I replied indifferently.
 
He could tell me what he was after.
 
I wasn’t giving away anything that might get us in any more trouble.

“You left my best Captain in a bad way for two months.”

“Yes Sir,” I said neither agreeing nor disagreeing with what he said even though I agreed.

“I have an ear in the gossip here.
 
I spent a considerable amount of resources tracking you and you appear to have disappeared completely.”

“Yes Sir,” I said neutrally.
 
I was distracted.
 
The Colonel was family … I just couldn’t place whose.
 
When I tried to focus to know for sure it disappeared.
 
It was like looking at something faint in the dark.
 
I could see it off to the side but as soon as I looked right at it, it was gone.

“My contacts in
Canada
have no knowledge of you … and I have very good contacts.”

I was glad Paul was behind him.
 
He looked quite uncomfortable with where the Colonel might be going.
 
I knew he was going nowhere.
 
Maybe he just wanted to see how far I would stick to my story.

“I’m aware of protocol, Sir,” I said.
 
Disinterested again.
 
I kept my face still and looked at Paul for a few seconds.
 
He gently shook his head.
 
He wanted me to come up with something other than the commando gossip.

“You found him after he went AWOL and got him back in here without alerting the front gate.”

I had enough.
 
It was one thing to privately call me a liar or to give me his personal opinion of the damage my trip left in its wake.
 
It was something completely different to hurt Paul for what I’d done to him by going after me in front of the officers.
 
That was none of his business.
 
I also wanted to talk to him alone.

“Can I speak with you privately please Colonel?” I asked.

He held his palm out, arm pointing down the hall to the medical room.
 
I nodded and walked that way as the Colonel followed behind.
 
When we got inside he closed the door behind us then turned and stared at me.
 
I stared back.
 
After a minute neither of us spoke so I started.

“They don’t know, do they?” I asked.

“That you may or may not be Canadian Special Forces?”

“No,” I paused.
 
“They don’t know that you’re family.”

He sighed heavily through his nose and stared at the floor for a minute.

“No … but I’m not really.”

I tilted my head to the side.
 
“I suspect you’re some relation of mine.”

“You shouldn’t be able to tell that.
 
I’m aware of Pilot’s plan for you.
 
He’s been working on it for a long time.
 
Did you get my present?”

I thought about it.
 
I suspected Rice had hidden the knife in Paul’s room.
 
There was something in him similar to the Colonel.
 
Something illusive.
 
I took a guess.

“Yes … Rice has been troublesome to me since I found it.”

“Indeed,” Iverson said, “there has been some interest in him from the officers here in the past couple of days.
 
That’s part of the reason for my visit.
 
Rice will be leaving with me today.”

That was a relief.
 
Not that I disliked him.
 
I just preferred to be able to finish a meal without hiding in my room.

“I will expect that you respect our privacy with the men here,” he said simply.

I zipped my thumb and first finger past my lips.

He nodded.
 
“Can you tell me what troubled you?”

I quickly explained what happened.
 
The Colonel looked concerned about what I said.
 

“I wasn’t looking for it … the first time I was looking for which of the men wasn’t loyal to Paul … the other two times I was trying to block it.
 
It was too strong and Ray had to pull me from the room.
 
I can still smell it in the kitchen curtains.”

“I apologize for him,” Iverson said, “he should know better.
 
But there’s never been anyone here who could pick it up.
 
He’s young.”

I shrugged.
 
So was I.

“Do you know what it means?
 
The things I saw?”

The Colonel shook his head.
 
“It won’t mean anything to him either … he won’t know what he projected; not even that he did it.
 
Even if I told him the images would be meaningless.”

“Are there others like him here?” I asked but he ignored my question.

“Anna, don’t fail in your task.
 
It’s more important than you can possibly understand.”

I knew that but I didn’t really care.
 
My own reasons it was important meant far more to me than anything else: keeping my sister from Damian, keeping him away from me.
 
Making sure that my daughter didn’t spend her long life mated to a man loyal to him.

“Damian Howard is insane, by our standards,” he said as he came closer.
 
“For many lives a past personality has dominated … controlled him.
 
Time usually cures it but in his case it keeps getting stronger.
 
A … permanent solution is all we have.
 
That solution is you.”

He took my face in his hands and kissed me.

“Godspeed Anna,” he whispered as he held his hands on my cheeks and rested his forehead on mine.
  
He stepped back and gave me a weak smile.

“Can you send your husband in please?”

“Yes Sig,” I told him and walked out.

I didn’t have to try hard to look like my meeting with the Colonel went well.
 
I wouldn’t miss Rice’s intrusions into my senses and was strangely reassured by my conversation with Sig.

“He wants to see you,” I told Paul when I got back into the common room.
 
Paul didn’t acknowledge what I said other than by walking back the way I came.

“How much shit did you get in?” Denis whispered to me.

“Who, me?”
 
I batted my eyes at him.
 
Denis laughed.

Paul was only gone a couple of minutes before they came out.

“Rice is leaving with me,” Iverson announced.
 
“No explanation will be offered.”

Then he said goodbye quickly to the others before coming to me.
 
He just shook my hand without commenting.

“Captain, with me.”

With that he disappeared out the front door with Paul.

I turned the dishwashers on and went back upstairs to lie down.
 
Paul came up about half an hour later.

“Can I ask what you said to the Colonel?” he asked.

“I just apologized for any problems I caused, refused to tell him where I had been, and invited him to chew me out privately next time I inconvenience him,” I replied.
 
I wasn’t going to comment on Rice or ask Paul if the Colonel had told him anything.

“He’s not usually like that,” Paul told me.

“No biggie … I was nice about it.
 
I wasn’t going to tell him to piss off in front of all of you any more than I was going to take that from him in front of you.”

“He would appreciate your directness,” Paul said then he got to packing.
 
“Are you going to ask me about Rice?”

“No. If there was anything I should know that you could tell me you would.”

“Yeah.”

It didn’t take long for him to have his bag ready then he made sure I didn’t need anything and went back downstairs.

Ray was in and slept in the chair for a while.
 
He’d been up a lot during the past couple of days with the sick man and Paul sleeping off the jump.
 
While everyone ate downstairs I got my bag packed and made sure that I had everything I told the others they would need.
 
I put Damian’s knife in one of the end pouches of the bag.

Paul brought up my dinner and the paperwork for the Colonel and worked on it while I ate.

“I think we’ll be back in time for Ray to check me in for whatever he’s pretending is wrong with me now and see the Colonel,” I told him.
 
Now that I knew there was a time component to my destination I planned on testing that out.
 
I had eight weeks to make up so I would aim at least that far back.
 
Ray knocked and Paul called him in.

“Can I have the chair Paul?” he yawned and closed his eyes as soon as he sat down.

“What the hell is he doing?” Paul whispered after a minute.

“Checking on me I think,” I whispered back.
 
“I don’t think he’s slept much.”

“This isn’t a flop house,” he grumbled.
 
“Can you send him to his cabin in an hour?
 
I have to get everyone sorted out for while we’re away.”
 
Then he yawned.
 
“I thought I slept it off.”

“You won’t sleep right for a while,” I told him.
 
“Give it a week or so.”

“I have the next watch since we’re leaving, so I’ll be back in a few hours.
 
Radio me if you need anything … I’m monitoring that channel.
 
Okay?”

“Will do.”

He kissed me goodbye and left, closing the door gently behind him.
 
I tried to stay awake for an hour but I wound up falling asleep.
 
Paul was back from watch and sending Ray on his way when I woke up again and the next thing I knew it was time to go.