Page 12 of Dark Medicine

The older women smiled at one another and excused themselves to the kitchen to finish dinner preparations. Caroline was giggling like a schoolgirl as they chatted casually over the stove, her new-found energy and flexibility making her feel twenty years younger.

“You shouldn’t do that,” said Adam, rubbing her back.

“Adam, I’ve been doing this a long time. Nearly twenty years now. My only regret is that I wasn’t there when my parents died. I may have been able to save them.”

“You can’t save them all,” said Adam.

“Says the super soldier alpha male doctor who went ballistic only a few hours ago,” she grinned at him, color returning to her cheeks. Adam leaned forward and kissed her lips softly. Flip cleared his throat, and the two looked up at the big man, grinning.

“Sorry, Flip,” said Fiona. “You haven’t told me your gift yet or Spook’s.”

“Mine is, well, let me show you,” he said, standing.

Flip opened the back door of the house and stepped into the massive garden. In the center was a huge marble statue of Pan, his flute held to his lips, his heels kicked high in the air, caught mid-motion of his dance. He stared intently at the statue, and Fiona thought she was seeing things. The statue lifted off the ground at least two feet and moved through the air as if it weighed nothing. It gently settled once more on the grass, some thirty feet away.

“Oh my God!” said Fiona. “That’s incredible! That thing must weigh a thousand pounds, and you moved it as if it was nothing!”

“I don’t know,” said Flip, hunching his shoulders. “I never really know how much things weigh. It doesn’t seem to matter. I’ve moved little things and big things.”

Flip winked at Aislinn, and she winked back. Only a few months ago, he moved a garbage truck that headed straight for her as she crossed the street. At the last moment, the truck veered, and Aislinn came away unscathed.

“It is a lovely trick, dear, but please place him back where he was,” said Caroline, patting his back. “Dinner is ready.” Flip laughed at the older woman and easily moved the statue back to its original pedestal. She seemed completely unaffected by what she saw.

Dinner was a delightful assortment of roasted meats, potatoes, glazed carrots, and the most delicious butter rolls any had ever eaten. For dessert, the sisters brought out bread pudding, but only Flip indulged. In fact, he indulged in three helpings.

“Spook? You haven’t told me your gift,” said Fiona.

“Ah, well, mine are a bit odd. I am able tosee data and communication threads and tap into them at will, allowing me to see and hear the data that the threads possess.”

“Sorry? What do you mean?” she asked.

“For instance, I know what your phone number is and that you have only had three calls on your cell phone in the last week.” Fiona blushed a bit, embarrassed that her personal life was so pathetic she had received only three calls.

“But you could have known that by checking with my provider,” said Fiona suspiciously.

“True. But I also know what your childhood home phone was. I know that your brother called you twice the night he died. I know that your boss has your cell phone programmed into his cell phone, and I know that your computer has two viruses, one of which is a tracking device.”

Fiona paled, holding her throat, feeling as though she were choking.

“Tr-tracking device?” asked Fiona.

“Yes,” said Spook. “I’ve been able to send an interference pattern to your laptop that will prevent it going forward until you let me remove it completely. Someone wanted to know where you were at all times, and they wanted to know what you were looking at on your laptop.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “I-I don’t know… I didn’t…”

“It’s okay,” said Spook. “I’ve made sure they can’t do it going forward.”

“M-my phone?”

“Your phone had a tracking device as well. I think it’s how the gypsies knew where you were going to be. I don’t believe it was random.”

“It’s okay, Fiona,” said Adam. “We’re going to figure all this out, and for now, I’d really like you to stay close to all of us.” She nodded but said nothing.

“So, what do you know of this pink dust?” asked Angela.

“We’re not sure,” said Kane. “We know that it was everywhere around the base, and we know that all of us, every one of us here, was at that base at some time during our childhoods.”

“But if that’s the case,” said Caroline, “there must be hundreds, maybe even thousands of children and young adults with special skills.”

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