She met his amused golden eyes only briefly, then turned back to the major.
The family relationship was apparent between the two men. Major Connell also had gold eyes and flecks of silver running through his dark hair. He was nice-looking, too. Maybe a little older than Jason. But not nearly as handsome.
More quietly than her earlier pronouncement, she said to him, “Major Connell, you know I’m here representing General Yarrow. He even gave me his card keys to get into this building and the lab area on his behalf. If this is an Alpha Force meeting, I should have been invited.”
“I know your assignment, Lieutenant. You’ll be invited to all meetings necessary to what the general, and you, are here to accomplish. This was a recap of some prior exercises and I didn’t think it appropriate for you to waste your time.”
“I’ll let the general decide what’s appropriate for me.” She kept her expression neutral, though her words weren’t.
“I understand.” The major turned back to the group. “I think we’re through here,” he said. “Everyone is dismissed.”
Especially me, Sara thought. But she didn’t complain. Not yet. Nor did she ask any questions.
She had contacted the general, though, and she was really glad that he would arrive in only a couple of hours.
She would be there waiting for him.
For now, she scanned the group until her eyes lit again on Jason Connell, who was approaching the major.
Did Major Connell know what Sara had seen last night? Had Jason told him what he had done?
Surely the major knew who, or what, his own cousin was...assuming Sara hadn’t imagined it all.
Should she simply ask the major? Maybe, but she wanted to talk to General Yarrow first.
And preferably to Jason even before that, to gauge his position about the incident.
Not now, though. He was engaged in a conversation with the major. Time for Sara to leave, along with the rest of the group.
Outside the door she feigned answering her cell phone but hung up as Jason came through.
“I’d like to talk with you, Sergeant,” she said, inserting her most formal military quality to her voice.
“I’ll bet you would, Lieutenant.” There was humor in his tone and a suggestive smile on his face. “Would you like to go someplace where we could...talk alone?”
She felt her face flush. “No, thank you. But I would like for you to give me an official tour of this facility.”
“I can only do that on the major’s orders, Lieutenant.” This time, he sounded serious.
Which suggested further to Sara that she was being kept outside the Alpha Force loop for now. She was a superior officer, yet he was refusing to obey her while giving a good excuse. That would surely change when the general got here and ordered everyone to cooperate with her as well as him.
“Then come with me, please. There’s something I’d like to show you.” Not really, but she decided to lead him back to the area where he had shown her...a lot.
“Yes, ma’am.” His tone again suggested he was thinking about exactly what she was.
He didn’t comment as they walked up the stairs to the main floor of the building. There, she stopped in the kennel area to look at the dogs she had been told were there.
They were all of moderate size, and most resembled the animals she had seen last night: wolves.
“I like dogs,” she said casually. “Do you, Sergeant?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he responded, smiling. “Especially those guys. My favorite is Shadow.”
He reached inside the chain-link fencing of a nearby kennel and stroked the head of the closest dog inside, whom he introduced as Shadow. Sara couldn’t help thinking that this dog in particular bore a strong resemblance to Jason in wolf form. Could he somehow have pulled a prank on her after all? But how?
“Any kinds of dogs you like better than others?” Jason asked.
He probably wanted her to say something like the kind she’d seen last night—and especially that morning. But that wasn’t something she intended to admit.
“Small ones,” she said. “These guys are cute, but they look difficult to walk and control. I like dogs that I can train and manage.” Oh, Lord. She knew she was stepping into a nasty mess that had nothing to do with dog excrement. He could read a lot into her words if he chose. Maybe that was a good thing, if he really was what she suspected. But there was no way she would ever admit to him that what she had seen had touched her libido, gotten her most intimate parts simmering.
“Sounds like a very interesting way to treat your...dogs,” he said. “I’d be glad to teach you how to work with these guys—or any others.”
She’d had enough. They were outside the building on a walkway that led toward the woods in one direction, or toward the BOQ in the other. “I’ve got someplace I need to go now,” she said. “See you later, Sergeant.” She stood straight, looking at him, until he saluted her. She saluted back.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said so officially that it sounded facetious, then he whirled on his heels and strutted off.
Sara headed back toward her quarters. She would find something productive to do until it was time to go meet the general.
* * *
At around nine-thirty, Sara realized she had actually gotten something accomplished in a short time, although not what she had intended.
For one thing, she had thoroughly searched Google on her laptop to see if she could find any information to suggest that shapeshifters could be real.
Of course there was. The authors could all have been credulous fools who wanted to believe, so they did. Nothing stood out to her as proof.
There were also a lot of websites ridiculing the whole idea.
She logged off the computer and left it on the small table in the kitchenette in her quarters. Then she checked herself in the mirror. Almost time to go wait for the general.
She’d decided to meet him right away, before he had time to talk with anyone else.
Soon she headed down the stairs in the BOQ and out the door. She walked toward the front gate.
And got waylaid by Jason. What was he doing out here?
He soon told her. “Hello, Lieutenant. I’m the general’s unofficial greeter from Alpha Force. Is that why you’re out here? I’m supposed to call Drew—er, Major Connell—and let him know when the general arrives.”
“Won’t the security guys notify the major?” Sara asked.
“Probably. But those were my orders.”
“Okay. We’ll both wait for him, then.” She didn’t want to wait with Jason. He would be a big distraction. He would keep her from asking the general questions right away, too. But she nevertheless walked with Jason toward the base’s front gate.
She saw a few other soldiers walking around and some cars cruising the nearby roads. But she was extremely aware of Jason’s tall, masculine presence beside her.
Especially when he said in a voice tinged with suggestiveness, “How are you enjoying Ft. Lukman so far, Lieutenant?”
“It’s fine, Sergeant. I intend to get a lot accomplished here. Learn a lot, too.”
“About Alpha Force?”
“That’s right,” she said. “I have some ideas already about how it can be improved, and I intend to let the general know.”
She sensed Jason’s hesitation beside her, but she wiped the grin off her face before she turned to him. His expression now was grim, not suggestive of anything but worry.
Good.
She looked again toward the guard gate, just in time to see the general’s old, classic Jeep stopping. His ID was apparently approved right away, since the large gate opened inward and the general drove through.
Continuing to drive slowly, he approached the area where Sara and Jason stood.
And then Sara spotted smoke pouring out of the car’s back end.
Chapter 4
What the hell? Jason didn’t need Sara’s frantic shouts of fear, magnified by his canine senses, to spur him to dash to the burning vehicle that suddenly veered off to the side.
He assessed the situation as he ran toward the front of the car. He kept all assumptions and fears, all emotions, in check. Now was only a time for action.
He had worked on the general’s Jeep a couple of times when the old man had come to Ft. Lukman for meetings since Jason’s recent enlistment. It was an early 1990s model Jeep, not quite old enough to be a classic, but still an admirable aging vehicle.
The gasoline tank was in the back—near where the smoke was pouring from, but down low, beneath the axle. That model’s gas tank was built well, to prevent catching fire from sparks off the road or otherwise. Everything should be fine.
Except that the tires were flammable. So were the seats, the carpeting, the safety belts...
And right now, there was plenty of smoke. What remained of the canvas cover could confine a lot of it inside, enhancing the danger of smoke inhalation by the general.
Plus, depending on the location and intensity of the fire...well, despite the built-in precautions, there were no guarantees that the gas tank wouldn’t explode.
Jason aimed for the driver’s door, shoving his hands in his pockets as he ran to check for anything useful. Despite his dedication to working on cars, he didn’t coincidentally happen to carry tools that people were supposed to keep in their glove compartments to shatter windows in emergencies. All he had were keys. A pocket knife. His cell phone.
Nothing likely to be helpful.
Was the general still conscious? The haphazard way the car now progressed suggested otherwise. Yet if he was, maybe Jason could get him to turn off the engine and take the thing out of gear. Push the button to unlock the driver’s door.
For now, he would assume the commanding officer remained alive. He had no evidence he wasn’t...at least not yet.
The stench of burning rubber and more grew even ranker as he arrived at the vehicle, but Jason ignored it. He also ignored the shouts of other people. All behind him? He saw no one closer to the car than he was.
Unsure what was searing hot and what wasn’t, he yanked off his camo shirt and wrapped it around his right hand.
He reached the door and looked in. Smoke. Lots of it. But in the middle of it all, Jason could see that the general appeared conscious—barely. His eyes were open. His hands? Moving, but not in the right direction to get him out of there.
Jason first tried to yank the door open, to no avail. He pounded on the window to get the general’s attention. “It’s locked!” he shouted as Yarrow’s head jerked toward him. Had he heard? Was he aware enough to understand?
Yarrow, one hand at his mouth as he coughed, turned toward the door. In a moment, Jason heard a click that probably wouldn’t be audible to someone with normal human hearing, but with his acute senses it sounded nice and loud. He again tried the door.
This time it opened.
He coughed, too, as smoke smothered his face and his ability to breathe. But it didn’t completely mask visibility.
“Let me help,” said a familiar female voice from behind him. Sara McLinder. The lieutenant had kept up with him.
“Stay back,” he said as he leaned inside.
But she apparently wasn’t used to obeying orders from lower-ranking soldiers. As Jason leaned in and grasped the now-limp body of the general, he was suddenly glad that was so.
He needed to get the CO out of there fast. In moments, as he thrust his hands under the general’s armpits and heaved him out, he found Sara, despite also coughing, grabbing the legs and swinging Yarrow even farther from the frying car.
Others who’d caught up with them, Lieutenants Seth Ambers and Grace Andreas-Parran, also helped to form a stretcher of human—well, somewhat human—arms.
Grace was a doctor as well as a shifting member of Alpha Force. It was still too soon to have her check the general’s condition, though. Awkwardly but quickly, Jason helped the group maneuver the general’s barely conscious body far from the car and within a parking area near the base’s entry kiosk.
The harsh smell of the fire suddenly multiplied, and so did the background odor of oil as the flames apparently reached the engine. How secure was the gas tank now?
Jason swiftly noticed that he wasn’t the only Alpha Force member helping here whose eyes had widened as their noses lifted.
And then, kaboom! As loudly and completely as any explosion in an action movie, the general’s car detonated.
* * *
“Sir? Are you okay? Greg?” Sara wasn’t certain where the tarp had come from on which they gently laid the general down on the hard parking lot surface. Maybe from one of the vehicles parked nearby. It didn’t matter.
What did matter was how her boss, commanding officer to many of those present at Ft. Lukman, was doing.
Was he still alive?
He hadn’t responded to her queries, which she knew sounded pitifully plaintive. Maybe he couldn’t hear her. She wasn’t right beside him now. Not the way things had worked out as the group of them had laid him down gently.
She therefore maneuvered around on the periphery of the tarp to be nearer to his head, not exactly elbowing others out of her way but coming close to it.
She prayed she didn’t imagine it, but the general’s chest seemed to be moving slowly, indicating he was breathing.
“General Yarrow? Sir?” she said, louder this time and definitely closer to his ears, not caring that her voice broke as she addressed him.
He was her mentor. Her friend.
And he might be dying.
Sure, she was a soldier. She had joined the military prepared to go into combat. To lose comrades in arms, if necessary.
But not here, on U.S. soil.
And not this very kind, very wonderful man.
She moved even closer, only to find her way blocked by Jason. “You probably haven’t met Lieutenant Grace Andreas-Parran yet,” he said to Sara, gesturing to the woman in camo uniform, like all of them, who knelt at the general’s other side. “She’s a medical doctor as well as a member of Alpha Force.”
“Oh.” Sara knew what Jason wasn’t saying. She needed to back off. Let the doctor do what she could for the general.
Grace was slim and attractive, with blond hair so pale that it almost looked silver.
More important, her luminous brown eyes were narrowed as she concentrated on scanning the general’s body. From what Sara could see, his camo uniform was intact. Unsinged. Maybe he hadn’t been burned.
That didn’t mean he would survive. Smoke inhalation could kill people. And so far Sara didn’t know if he’d suffered any other kinds of injuries.
“Was he hurt?” she asked Grace. “I mean, besides being in a burning vehicle.”
“Not sure yet.” The doctor’s long fingers moved rapidly along General Yarrow’s prone body, clearly checking for injuries along with her concentrated gaze. “You’re his aide, aren’t you?”
“That’s right,” Sara said.
“Are you aware of any medical conditions he may have—heart related or otherwise? It’ll help diagnose and treat him if we have all his information.”
“I don’t know of any. He’s not exactly forthcoming with that kind of stuff, but I’ve made him occasional appointments for checkups at Bethesda Medical Center. I can call there.”
“Just get me the contact information. With privacy issues, they’re more likely to let me know matters like that.”
Which peeved Sara. She was almost like family to the general. But Grace was right. She was the doctor. She was the one they’d talk to about anything needed to save Greg Yarrow.
Sara was aware of Jason’s presence right behind her. He must have heard the conversation. He rested his hand firmly on her shoulder. To warn her to back off? But the contact seemed more comforting than cautionary.
Under other circumstances, Sara wouldn’t allow him to touch her at all. She was his superior officer. They were on duty.
But at the moment his touch somehow helped her to survive this horrendous situation.
She heard a lot of voices near them, too, and looked around to see other soldiers she had already met here. Some, like Seth Ambers, Colleen Hodell, Rainey Jessop and Jock Larabey, were members of Alpha Force. Others, including Lieutenants Cal Brown, Manning Breman and Samantha Everly, were members of the Ultra Special Forces Team.
All circled the general’s vulnerable body, staying respectfully back.
“Hey. What the hell happened?” That was Major Drew Connell, who maneuvered his way through the crowd.
“He’s a doctor, too,” said Jason into Sara’s ear. “A damned good one.”
She already knew that Drew, CO of the unit, was also a physician. “Great.” She turned to look toward Jason. His expression was bland, but his gaze, as he looked at her, seemed surprisingly sympathetic and she felt tears rush to her eyes. “Two Alpha Force doctors right here?” she continued, needing to say something else to demonstrate that she wasn’t some emotional wimp. “The general’s in good hands.” Sara prayed that was so.
A siren sounded in the distance. “Good,” stated Drew Connell. “I called 911 immediately.”
“I did, too,” Grace said. “The general needs to be checked out by EMTs with appropriate equipment, then transported immediately to the nearest emergency facility. That’s at the Memorial Hospital in Easton, isn’t it?”
“That’s right,” said Drew.
“What...” The word was soft but interjected into the conversation from below them.
The general!
It was all Sara could do not to push her way through all people, doctors or not, to get closer, to hear what Greg had to say.
Only...was it good for him to expend energy trying to talk?
The wail of the siren grew closer. It would be even more difficult to hear him, anyway.
But his eyes opened. They looked around, cloudy and dazed—not at all the usual strong expression conveyed by the powerful and confident CO.
“What happened?” he said. His voice was loud enough now to be heard. He began moving, as if wanting to sit up.
“We’re not certain yet, sir.” Drew held him gently on the ground. “Please stay still for now till we can check you better for injuries. Your car caught fire and we’re going to get you to the nearest hospital for an examination as soon as possible.”
Which was a good thing. Sara had learned, from the general’s initial description of Ft. Lukman, that it held an infirmary with high-tech equipment. But that couldn’t compare with a genuine medical facility staffed by specialists and nurses. Greg Yarrow was entitled to the best care possible.
“Fire?” The general’s look somehow hardened, despite the overall laxness and pain in his features. “Hell.” That apparently cost him a lot of effort, since he grew silent again.
The siren was extremely loud now. Sara saw the ambulance screech up to the entry kiosk that, only a few minutes earlier, had admitted the general’s now-destroyed car.
The EMTs were allowed in immediately. They quickly gave the general an initial exam, and then loaded him into their vehicle. Lieutenant Grace Andreas-Parran and her husband, Lieutenant Simon Parran, who had just joined the group around the accident site, got into the ambulance with him. Jason also let Sara know who the newly arrived man was—and that he was a doctor, too.
“There are a lot of medical doctors in this unit,” Sara said. Did that have something to do with their apparently woo-woo nature, or did their backgrounds somehow help to mask what Alpha Force was really about?
“Yeah, there are,” Jason responded. “In case you’re wondering, those two are especially appropriate to go with the general. They recently returned here after dealing with an ordeal of their own.” Sara had heard about that from the general. “They’ll take good care of him.”
Major Drew Connell stood beside Sara and Jason, along with some Alpha Force members Sara recognized and other people she didn’t. As the ambulance pulled out of the gate, Drew turned toward them.
“So, cuz,” he said to Jason, then gestured toward the smoldering hulk of the destroyed car. An emergency truck with a Ft. Lukman sign on the side had pulled up and was spraying the wreck with chemicals, presumably to put out the fire. “I doubt there’ll be much left to examine, but when those guys are done I want you to take a lot of pictures. We’ll need to secure the wreck where it is temporarily, but I want you to move it ASAP into a secure part of the main parking structure and cordon it off so no one can reach it till I get a good forensics team here to check it out. I need to know exactly what happened. Vehicles like that don’t just catch fire for no reason. You okay with that?”
“Is that an order, Major?”
“It sure is, Sergeant.”
Jason offered up a halfhearted salute along with his grim smile that looked right at home on his sharp-featured, too-handsome face. “You’ve got it, cuz. Er, sir.”
Sara didn’t smile, even though she recognized the lightness in the exchange between the two cousins as most likely their way of dealing with this terrible event.
At least the general had survived. But now, as Drew had suggested, they had to figure out what had happened.
She wasn’t certain how, but she intended to help.
She would do all that she could to bring to justice anyone involved with endangering her CO.
* * *
One of the first things Jason had done after enlisting in the military, and showing up at Ft. Lukman for a very specialized form of basic training, was to check out the closest auto-repair and maintenance facilities.
Jason understood from even before he enlisted that his primary official assignment would be to take care of Ft. Lukman’s vehicles, which was what he knew best...besides shapeshifting. Oh, and stealing cars—but that would remain in his past. Like it or not, he’d started over here, as a member of Alpha Force.
The base didn’t have much in the way of auto-repair equipment for him to use, though. He’d bought some of the basics. But he had also needed to figure out where he could rent what he’d need only occasionally.
As a result, he had an immediate answer when Drew asked, “Any idea how you’re going to move that thing?”
They both watched the base security guys who’d finished spraying the damaged vehicle with foam to end its smoldering.
“Sure do,” Jason said. “There’s a well-equipped service station in Mary Glen that has a car-carrier tow truck to haul in wrecks or whatever. I’ll see if I can rent it. If not, I’ll get the owner to bring it here and move the carcass for us.”
“Sounds good. Meantime, I’ll keep an eye on that hulk to make sure no one plays with it. We don’t want any further destruction of evidence of what caused the fire, especially if it was somehow deliberately set.”
Jason turned to walk through the substantial group of onlookers still hanging out despite dissipation of the excitement. Sara McLinder remained among them. In fact, the lieutenant hadn’t moved, and he couldn’t read the expression on her beautiful but clearly sad face as she continued to stare in the direction where the general’s ambulance had departed. But it held more than sorrow. Anger? Determination?
Hell, he wanted to find out what she was thinking. He approached her and asked impulsively, “Hey, Lieutenant, you haven’t been here long enough to visit our nearest town, Mary Glen, have you?”
She turned toward him and blinked her amazing blue-green eyes as if she’d just been brought back to awareness from some kind of dream. “No,” she said slowly, as if wondering why he asked, “I haven’t.”
“Okay, then, come with me while I pick up a truck to move that thing. We won’t stay long, but at least you’ll get a sense of the place.” He paused then drew nearer and said in a confidential tone too soft for nearby members of the Ultra Special Forces Team to hear. “Oh, and by the way, some of the townsfolk even believe in shapeshifters. I’ll tell you all about them on the way.”
* * *
Sara was fascinated.
First of all, she liked that, riding beside Jason in his souped-up, old, red Mustang, she could pay much more attention to the road leading away from Ft. Lukman. It was surrounded by gorgeous, thick woodlands composed of trees including mature oaks as well as evergreens.
