Fort Morgan (5 page)

Yvonne was in danger. He knew that Tanesha
must be trying to save her. And once again he was stuck, unable to
help them.

A wave of despair came over him. The feeling
was so intense that he slumped forward with the weight of it.

Then Rodney laughed. Despair didn’t get him
when he was in prison and it wasn’t going to get him tonight.
Someone thought he should be stuck out of the way. They also got
rid of Delphie, Jacob, and that little kid Keenan.

Rodney smiled to himself. Whoever was
pretending to be Ne Ne had made a big mistake by sending him here.
He might not be able to save Yvonne. He couldn’t help Tanesha. But
he sure as hell could find Jacob, Delphie, and Keenan. He could
save them.

Humming “Hello Brother” by Louis Armstrong,
Rodney set off into the Sea of Amber to find the others.

~~~~~~~~

In her tiny fairy corps form, Tanesha flew
just next to her mother’s ear. She found flying to be exhilarating
and exhausting at the same time. Her mother was walking fast. The
creature Dionne had called “Gino” walked ahead of them as if he
were leading the way.

“
You okay?” Dionne
asked.

“
Okay?” Yvonne
asked.

“
You know, with that guy
and all,” Dionne said.

“
Oh.” Yvonne fell silent
for a moment. “No, no, I’m not really okay.”

Yvonne nodded to Dionne.

“
In fact, I feel
very. . . “ Yvonne nodded to herself, “. . .
violated.”

“
I bet,” Dionne
said.

“
What’s Rodney going to
say?” Yvonne asked.

“
Did you make it out
alive?” Dionne asked.

“
You don’t think he’ll be
mad at me?” Yvonne asked.

“
Not at you,” Dionne said.
“No, I don’t.”

“
What would Bumpy say, you
know, if it was you?” Yvonne asked.

“
He’d be mad, sure,”
Dionne said. “But not at me. He’d figure a way to get his revenge
on the guy who hurt me, violated me.”

“
Oh,” Yvonne said. “I
guess that makes sense.”

“
Rodney is your husband,
not your owner,” Dionne said.

“
Why, that’s right!”
Yvonne said with a smile. “We should call him.”

“
No phone calls,” Gino
said. “Not until we’re out of the building. Sorry.”

“
Why?” Dionne
asked.

“
There’s just some stuff
going on,” Gino said. “Some fed thing. They’re going to try to get
Jeff to show them where all of his assets are hidden. If they can
get him to reveal everything, he’ll get a better deal. My bets on
them not bein’ able to do it.”

“
You know Jeff well?”
Yvonne asked. Her voice was mild but Tanesha could tell she was
angry with this Gino.

“
Yes,” Gino said. “We went
to high school together. He wanted to be made when we were growing
up, but my dad didn’t trust him. When he was in college he realized
he could get everything he wanted bankrolling this
filth.”

Gino gestured to his right and turned down
the hallway. Alex Hargreaves and the accountant-looking guy from
her team stood in the middle of the hallway. They were deep in
conversation. Alex’s brow was furrowed. Tanesha thought she looked
worried.

“
Look,” Yvonne said with a
bright smile. “It’s Alex and Matthew.”

Yvonne waved and Matthew
smiled. Alex gave a slight shake of her head toward the empty space
next to her. Tanesha gasped. There was the ghost of a military
soldier floating next to Alex. Tanesha was so stunned that she
stopped flying.
That’s a ghost. A real
live ghost.
Matthew glanced at the spirit
before starting toward them. Alex scowled at something down the
hallway behind them. She shook her head.

“
No!” Alex said. “Not this
way. You need to go the other way.”

Yvonne turned to look so quickly that
Tanesha ran right into her mother’s head. Yvonne flicked her hand
at the pain, and Tanesha tumbled end over end until she landed in
Alex Hargreaves’s spiked up hair. The ghost seemed to laugh. He
said something to Alex. Her hand was moving toward her head.
Tanesha tried desperately to get out of the hair before Alex’s hand
hit her. Her movements caused her to get stuck in Alex’s stiff hair
gel. Her fairy protectors tried to pull Tanesha out but she was
really stuck. The ghost moved in what looked like a belly
laugh.

Tanesha was about to say something sassy to
the ghost when the ghost became very still. Alex’s attention turned
to something down the hallway.

“
Serpents!” Abi yelled.
“Fairy corps!”

Alex Hargreaves gave a low whistle and, as
if by magic, ten men appeared in the hallway. Alex’s eyes were
locked on something at the end of the hallway.

“
Gino,” Alex
said.

“
Sir?”

“
Drop,” Alex
said.

Gino threw himself at Yvonne and Dionne.
They tumbled to the ground.

“
Fairy corps!” Abi
yelled.

Alex started pointing and moving.

“
Sir,” a young man said.
“I don’t see it.”

Alex pointed to her nose. He took an
exaggerated sniff and nodded. Tanesha suddenly remembered that Alex
and her team had been there right after they’d killed the serpent.
She wondered if the serpents planned to take them to the Sea of
Amber as well.

“
Fairy corps!” Abi
yelled.

“
Hang on, Tanesha,” Alex
said under her breath. “It’s going to get interesting.”

Alex pulled a handgun from a holster near
her belt, and started running down the hallway. Tanesha grabbed a
tuft of hair and held on for dear life.

“
Ow,” Alex said under her
breath. “Maybe not that tight.”

Alex had just passed the hallway they’d come
down when Tanesha saw it. It was a serpent in the shape of a man.
Without hesitation, Alex raised her handgun and shot him in the
forehead.

“
You need fire,” Tanesha
yelled. “That’s the only thing that kills them.”

Alex clapped her hands and two men appeared
with actual flame throwers. The serpent-man was on fire when Jeff
entered the hallway.

“
You’re next,” the
undercover bodyguard said to Jeff, who started screeching with
fear.

“
He’s still going to
blow!” Tanesha yelled loud enough for Alex to hear.

“
He’s going to blow!” Alex
repeated.

She turned in place and started running down
the hallway. Her team helped pick up Yvonne, Dionne, and Gino.
They’d just made it to the doorway when the man started to
swell.

“
Fairy corps!” Abi yelled.
“You know what to do!”

The fairies circled the man with their wands
out. They created a clear barrier made of energy around the man.
The man exploded in a massive fireball held in place by the
fairy-made container. Tanesha watched in fascination as the man
exploded in yellow fire and burned with dark smoke, all held inside
the fairy magic. When the man was gone, the remaining immature
serpents burned in yellow and orange flames. The fairy energy
barrier held in all of the fire and smoke.

When all that was left was smoke, Abi flew
in front of Alex’s face.

“
Anything else, sir?” Abi
asked.

“
Thank you for your help,”
Alex said.

“
Any time,” Abi said.
“We’ll keep an eye out in case they sent someone else.”

Alex gave her a curt nod to dismiss her.

“
Yvonne?” Alex led Yvonne
and Dionne away from Gino. “Sorry about all the drama.”

“
What was that?” Yvonne
asked.

“
Nothing now,” Alex said.
“Let’s get you cleaned up.”

“
What
about. . .” Yvonne pointed to where Jeff was sitting. “He
said he was already starting another site.”

“
Wasn’t that nice of him?”
Alex asked.

“
Nice?” Dionne
asked.

“
If he hadn’t, we wouldn’t
have been able to track down every single person he works
with.”

“
And all his money?”
Yvonne asked.

“
And all of his money,”
Alex said with a nod. “There’s an interagency argument about who
gets him first. Of course, we transferred every penny out of his
accounts about an hour ago. I’d be surprised if he survives the
day. Of course, we’ll do our best.”

With a smile, Alex took Dionne and Yvonne by
the arms and led them away from the people and the mess. Just as
they were turning, Tanesha saw another serpent coming out of the
ether to attack them. The fairy corps and Alex’s team responded.
Alex watched for a moment before leading the women out of the
hallway.

“
Let’s get you cleaned
up,” Alex said. “We have to get Gino back to prison.”

“
Prison?” Dionne
asked.

“
He’s only out to help
us,” Alex said. She nodded to the man. “On his deathbed, Gino’s
father realized the mistakes he’d made. He made Gino promise that
he would clean up the family business and make sure his sons were
never in it. Today, he’s accomplished a pretty big goal, and helped
us out at the same time.”

She smiled at Yvonne.

“
I’d bet you want to call
home,” Alex said.

Yvonne smiled and Dionne nodded. Grinning,
Alex led them into a locker room where they could shower and
change. Alex, with Tanesha stuck in her hair, stayed with Dionne
and Yvonne until a Phoenix police officer came to get their
statements. Alex left with a wave and a smile.

“
Did you hear what they
said?” Yvonne asked.

“
They say we can fly home
tonight,” Yvonne said to Dionne.

“
In the morning,” Dionne
said.

“
Morning, night, who
cares?” Yvonne smiled. “It’s over.”

“
I sure hope so!” Dionne
said. “I sure hope so.”

~~~~~~~~

Heather was sound asleep when the phone
rang. Her heart jumped for fear that something had happened to
Blane. She tried to roll over but her round, pregnant belly
wouldn’t allow such ease of movement. She scooted on her rear until
she could sit on the side of the bed.

“
Hello?” Heather
asked.

“
Heather?” a woman’s voice
said on the phone. “It’s Amber. You remember, I’m Blane’s night
nurse at St. Joe’s.”

“
Blane,” Heather said in a
whispered exhale.

“
He’s unconscious again,”
Amber said. “He seems to be fine. Healing, gaining white cells, I
mean. Everything’s on track.”

“
You don’t know why he’s
unconscious,” Heather said.

“
That’s what’s weird,”
Amber said. “He was asleep. He woke up when you called. After
talking to you, he ate a snack, and went to bed again. He was
upright, reading a book when he fell unconscious.”

“
You tried to wake him?”
Heather couldn’t keep herself from asking the obvious.

“
Of course,” Amber
said.

“
And?”

“
He’s in a coma,” Amber
said. “The doctor said not to call it a coma because we don’t know
why it’s happening.”

“
But it’s a coma?” Heather
asked.

“
Yes, yes, I think so,”
Amber said. “Unofficially, of course.”

“
But he’s
alive?”

“
He’s definitely alive,”
Amber said. “Healing well, too, so don’t be
disheartened.”

“
Um. . .”
Heather said.

“
Yeah, easier said than
done,” Amber said.

Heather looked at Mack, who was sleeping in
his crib in her room, and Tink, who was sleeping on the futon near
the door.

“
What can I do?” Heather
asked.

“
We just have to wait it
out,” Amber said.

“
You don’t know if he’ll
come out of this,” Heather said.

“
He did last time,” Amber
said.

“
And this
time?”

“
There’s no way to know,”
Amber said.

Heather nodded and then realized Amber
couldn’t see her nod.

“
Thanks for letting me
know,” Heather said.

“
We’ll call in the morning
and give you an update,” Amber said.

“
Thanks.”

“
Oh, and Heather?” Amber
asked.

“
Yes,” Heather
said.

“
I’m really sorry,” Amber
said.

“
Me too,” Heather replied,
but Amber was gone.

Heather looked at the handset for a moment
before setting the phone down in the cradle. She stared at the wall
for a moment trying to decide what to do.

“
God damn serpents,”
Heather said under her breath. “Hera?”

A transparent apparition of the Queen of
Olympians appeared.

“
I’m ready,” Heather
said.

“
It’s about time,” Hera
said. “What about. . .?”

She gestured to the children sleeping in the
room. Heather went to Tink and shook her shoulder.

“
Tink?” Heather
asked.

Tink opened her eyes.

“
I have to take care of
some things,” Heather said. “I’ll be back.”

“
You’re sure?” Tink asked.
She looked in the direction of Hera, but couldn’t see her with her
human eyes.