Page 43 of Emi's Hero

“Whenever you feel like it,” Sachie said, “open your eyes.”

Emi memorized everything about George’s face, from the blue of his eyes to the way his lips turned upward on the corners. When she’d committed it to memory, she slowly opened her eyes.

“How do you feel?” Sachie asked.

Emi thought about it before answering, “Strangely rested and exhausted at the same time.”

Sachie chuckled. “It can be cathartic to relive incidents as if from a spectator’s point of view. At the same time, it can be mentally taxing.”

Emi swung her legs off the couch and sat up. “Did we find anything that will help us locate the bunker?”

Sachie glanced down at her notes. “I don’t know. A couple of things might have merit. If you’re up to it, let’s meet with Hawk and go over what you revealed.”

Sachie offered Emi a hand and helped her to her feet.

Emi retrieved her hat where it had fallen onto the floor and then led the way across the floor. She

pulled the door open and stepped out into the hallway, nearly tripping over George, who was leaning against the wall beside the door.

He straightened, caught her arm and steadied her. “Hey,” he said, staring down into her eyes with a concerned frown creasing his brow. “How’d it go?”

Emi shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

Sachie came out into the hallway carrying her notebook. “I’d like to meet with you and Hawk to go over what we discussed during our session.”

“Hawk is in the war room,” George said.

Sachie cocked an eyebrow. “War room?”

George grimaced. “The Brotherhood Protectors’ office building.”

“What?” Sachie said with a twist of her lips. “You can take the man out of the military, but you can’t take the military out of the man?”

George grinned. “Something like that. It’s what we know.”

“Then what’s the old military saying?” Sachie waved a hand. “Lead, follow or get the hell out of my way.”

Still grinning, George took Emi’s hand and led the way out of the house across the yard to the outbuilding where the Brotherhood Protectors’ office was located.

Once inside, Emi smiled at Sachie’s reaction to the tack room camouflaging the secret door and the corridor leading into the war room.

Hawk pushed away from a computer terminal and stood. “All done with the hypnosis session?”

“We are.” Sachie moved ahead of George and Emi. “If you’d like to gather around, we can go over my notes to see if there’s anything that will help with your search.”

“Let me bring my tech support personnel in on the discussion,” Hawk said.

Sachie nodded and sat in one of the seats at the conference table. “Do it.”

Moments later, Swede and Kyla’s faces appeared on the giant monitor.

“Swede, Kyla,” Hawk said, “this is Sachie Moore, the hypnotist. Sachie, meet Swede and Kyla, the Brotherhood Protectors’ expert data miners.”

“Nothing better than a giant head staring down at you unless it’s two giant heads,” Sachie muttered.

“I heard that.” Swede chuckled. “It takes some getting used to. What have you got?”

Emi sat beside George, her hand warming in his.

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