Home Base (Harbingers Book 14) Read online

  No! Well, I mean…what do you think?

  I dunno. It works like almost all the time. Against our bad guys, I mean.

  Based on my observations, he was right. But that didn’t mean I had to admit it. I dunno, kid. How about we just have her run into the house until the cops get there?

  I could almost imagine Daniel making a wry face. You think she’s got time?

  Not for a minute. How about we get her to whip up some of that ‘righteous indignation’ stuff you guys used?

  I dunno. Okay.

  I looked in on Andi, and it seemed like she was up to something. She had picked up a hefty driftwood log and was brandishing it like a baseball bat. Moms and Pops backpedaled behind her. Andi seemed to be tracking one certain orb amidst the swarm of balls crossing and floating and throwing their shadows over her. The one she tracked seemed to stay back from her more than the others did.

  She’d seen a pattern.

  I shook my head. She was a wonder, that one.

  Sweet Cheeks hefted the log and stepped backward. Their melee had brought them all the way to the back deck of her grandparents’ house. Andi stepped up on it and retreated from the steps. Judging from how her eyes darted to the ground and the orbs, and the calculating look on her face, she was about to do something really brave. Or stupid.

  The spheres moved over the deck too, perhaps anticipating that their prey was planning to go inside. One of them darted forward and struck Grams in the shoulder. She went down like a carpet bag, and Gramps bent to catch her.

  That’s when Andi struck. She sidestepped one orb, leapt forward on the deck, and brought the log crashing right into the face of the sphere she’d been watching.

  A knot in the log cracked the golden carapace. A gust of black smoke lit by orange sparks flew out, and the orb lost altitude like a wounded quail. The other orbs hesitated and rose to a stationary orbit ten feet above the deck as if going into some kind of standby mode.

  Andi chased the cracked orb off the deck, pounding on it like a woodsman going after a rattlesnake. It dodged and rolled and tried to gain altitude, but a well-placed smack on the top and it fell to the sand lifelessly. She beat it and beat it and beat it some more. I could see she was crying.

  Chad, Daniel said, shocking me out of my trance, what’s happening? It feels like she’s doing better.

  I nodded. Yeah, she is. We may not have to use the crutch after all. Can’t say I’m sorry. She went all Jolly Green Giant on the queen orb, and the rest don’t know what to do.

  Andi ascended the steps of the deck like Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer, and checked on Grams. She looked okay.

  Okay, kid, I thought at him, say this with me. ‘Good job, but they won’t be out long. Get everybody inside.’ Ready? Go.

  Good job, but they won’t be out long. Get everybody inside.

  Andi dropped the log and opened the door to the house. She pulled Gramps and Grams toward it just as the orbs lowered ominously. One moved to behind the other ones, and if I could see which one was the new queen, Sweet Cheeks sure could.

  The two front spheres floated “shoulder to shoulder” and fired a beam that splintered the beach house wall, showering them with kindling.

  Andi and her grandparents fell backward into the house and crab-walked away. A third orb joined the line and I could tell they were about to fire again.

  Andi!

  The leftmost orb shattered and fell.

  Black smoke billowed from somewhere, and I registered the blast of a large-barreled weapon. The spheres turned their attention to the newcomer, but two more of them popped like fog balloons. The new queen went down next, its casing caved in.

  I saw the four policemen then. Three fired 9mm handguns, but the fourth—a strapping, young, leading man sort of hero—had a pump-action shotgun the likes of which I’d last seen in a zombie apocalypse movie.

  The other orbs went into standby mode again, which just made it easier for the Terminator to send them all to the shiny sphere afterlife.

  I sighed. With that done, there would be much talkety-talk and the filling out of reports: The detectives-with-notepads sort of scenes you see on every TV police drama. Then the Watchers would send their clean-up crew with their hush money and special “incentives” to make it all go away. The worst of it was that, for the next hour or so at least, my Sweet Cheeks would be all beholden to Police Prince Charming, and I wouldn’t even be on her mind.

  Kid, I need you to say one more thing with me.

  Is Andi okay?

  She’s fine. Better than fine. I thought again of Ashley the bartender. Did she have a pretty friend? I was going to need a double dose after this.

  What do you want me to say with you?

  Say, “You did good, Sweet Cheeks. As soon as you can, get to the airport. There will be a ticket.” Ready?

  Uh, I don’t want to call her “Sweet Cheeks.”

  I smiled in spite of myself. Okay, we’ll call her “Andi.” And…whoa, wait.

  As I watched, Andi jumped from the deck and ran for the beach. The police called after her, but I knew where she was going. The dog.

  Hang on a sec, I thought at Daniel.

  She sprinted and I could see the tears flying down her cheeks. Andi shooed away a gaggle of seagulls and crabs and fell beside the black mass on the sand. The tide was coming in, and at that moment the edge of a wave came nearly to where they lay. She was crying from fear and shock and everything else, I knew, but mainly for the loss of her old friend, one who had died trying to protect her.

  It was an unselfish love that felt so pure as to be out of my reach. A love only saints and St. Bernards were capable of.

  Without permission, a thought of Stephie exploded in my mind. Poor Stephie, my erstwhile assistant in Las Vegas who had helped me master remote viewing. Who had endured my abuse and loved me anyway. Who had taken freaking demons off my soul and onto hers, and had then run into traffic.

  I stared at the black landscape of soul travel and felt…

  Dead.

  I didn’t know how many times Daniel had called my name before I finally heard it. Chad?

  I put away the memories of Stephie. A lot of thoughts I didn’t like had come to me today. I put them all away.

  Yeah, kid?

  Are we going to say that thing to Andi now? I’m afraid I’m going to forget it.

  I felt a smile stretch my cheeks. Sure. Ready…go.

  You did good, Andi, we said together. As soon as you can, get to the airport. There will be a ticket.

  There’s no “camera” in remote viewing. My observing presence is everywhere and nowhere specific at the same time. But when Andi heard our message, I could swear she looked right at me. She raised her head from Abby and gave me a sad smile that I didn’t have to be psychic to understand meant Thank you.

  Chapter Four

  To the Sweet Suite, Tout Suite

  I greeted them standing up.

  Ashley sat in elegant repose on the smart gray couch in the living room portion of my entertaining area, and I stood behind her like a Mexican don with his expensive mistress.

  The four of them schlepped in like wet cats pulled from the sewer. The bellhop let them in and stood aside.

  Brenda looked more dour than usual. She stepped onto the brown parquet floor, looked over my entertainment area from left to right, and dropped her purse with a fake leather splat.

  Tank managed to be taller than I remembered from Vegas, and even hunched from fatigue and the pain from that bandaged wound on the back of his neck, he still looked like he might have to duck through the doorway. His eyes widened at all the white and gray and chrome, and probably at the expanse of windows looking out over the DFW runways. But when the troll’s gaze rested on Ashley, I saw that trademark Christian disapproval, and once again, it didn’t take superpowers to see what he thought was going on between us.

  Sweet Cheeks looked radiant, despite her weariness and the fact that she wore more clothes than I preferred. S
he’d put that glorious red hair into a quick ponytail—how often I’d seen her do it in just three graceful moves. She wore a brown blouse and khaki capris and brown leather sandals that clapped on the parquet. But her eyes were sad, and something in me lurched.

  Daniel was the only one who seemed mostly unchanged. He stepped into the room, spun around to take it all in, then sat next to Ashley on the couch and picked up the TV remote.

  “Hi,” Ashley said to him.

  He gave her a quick smile. “Hi.”

  I spread my arms magnanimously. “Welcome to Fantasy Island.”

  They looked at me without comprehension.

  “Oh, come on,” I said, dropping my arms. “None of you has watched old reruns of that show? Ricardo Montalban? Tattoo? ‘Boss! Da plane! Da plane!’ Nothing? Seriously? Wow, you guys are missing out.”

  Brenda trudged over to the white chair beside the couch and flopped into it. “Only thing I’m missing is a bed. You got one in this place, pretty boy, or imma gonna sleep right here?”

  The others surged in, as well. Tank took a spot beside Daniel on the couch, all but launching Daniel and Ashley in the air when he sat.

  “Please, sit,” I said. “We have a moment before dinner.”

  The troll roused at that. “Dinner?”

  “Of course.”

  Andi rounded the coffee table and came to the matching white chair at the other end of the couch. Before sitting, she met my eyes and gave a fleeting smile. When she sat, she looked forward in the chair and saw something no one else had remarked about. “Ooh, an aquarium!”

  Inset in the wall and beside the doorway they’d all entered through was a blue-tinted aquarium the size of a small walk-in bath. Small and medium-sized fish and crabs and other critters circled around in their eternal aquatic boredom. Still, it was nice to look at. And I didn’t have to maintain it, so it was a win.

  I took a moment to read their thoughts. Mostly they were tired and upset with me for presuming to bring them here—“He ain’t the boss of me!” was how Smartmouth was thinking it—and still shaken from their ordeals.

  It really wasn’t fair, my ability to hear thoughts before, during, and after a discussion with people. Too bad. Fair was for losers.

  And with what was going to happen to them tonight, they ought to be extra glad of my gift. I took a sniff of the ether around me and felt sure I knew what had been sent—or drawn—here because of my prolonged time in RV.

  I remembered the encounter in Chile all too clearly.

  I stifled the ghastly thought and looked down at Ashley. She was gorgeous, dear thing, as all female bartenders should be. Long, dark brown hair now swept across her right shoulder. Beautiful smile and tasty lips. Trim figure, of course, and the palest porcelain skin. She still wore the powder blue button-up shirt and black slacks she’d worn at the bar, and she smelled faintly of wine. But she was an excellent couch decoration and had been—and would continue to be—a delightful companion when other options weren’t presenting themselves.

  I knelt beside her. “Ash, be a doll and go check on our dinner, won’t you, hmm? Our guests are famished.”

  “Of course,” she said. I sensed a bit of upset about being dismissed, but I knew she was into me. She patted my cheek and left the suite.

  “Who’s that?” Brenda asked. “Your new Stephie? Gotta have one on your arm at all times, playa?”

  I ignored her and sat in the spot still warmed by Ashley’s pretty backside. “First,” I said to all of them, “you’re welcome. You know, for saving your lives.”

  Brenda gave me an are you serious? look. “Unbelievable.”

  I smiled. “Any of the rest of you want to deny it?”

  Tank’s hand went up to the back of his neck. “So like, how did you know, you know? How’d you know that was going to happen?”

  I tapped my temple. “But I didn’t have to have the gift to see that one coming. You dolts punch the Gate in the nose and then walk off alone, la-de-da. Might as well wrap yourself in bacon and jump in the lion pen.”

  “Yeah,” Tank said, “but nothing like that’s ever happened before, and we’ve done this a dozen times or more.”

  “I know you have. And you’re just lucky they didn’t try it before I was there to save your sorry butts.” I turned to Andi. “Except yours isn’t sorry, Sweet Cheeks.”

  She stood and slapped my face.

  “Ow!” My cheek stung, but what was worse was that I hadn’t seen it coming.

  She brought a finger into my face. “That’s for being crass.”

  “That’s what I’m talkin’ about,” Brenda said, giving Andi a high five.

  “And there’s another one of those for you every time you’re crass in the future.”

  As the sting faded from my face, my admiration rose. Not only could I not figure her out yet, she could surprise me. That was a big deal for mind readers.

  “But,” Andi said, settling back in her chair, “I do wonder how you knew we were in trouble.”

  I worked my jaw. “Well, somebody has to look out for your sorry…um, selves. As soon as Moose here got on the plane in Vegas, I came here and started making arrangements. This is your new home now. And I looked in on—”

  “Whoa,” Daniel said, looking interested for the first time. “We’re living here? Cool! Can I have a room with an aquarium too?”

  Everyone started talking at once. That, plus all their jumbled thoughts, was a lot to sort through. But by now I knew how to endure it. I brought up mental shields, sent my mind to a happy place—which might or might not have included Andi’s room—and waited it out.

  “No,” Brenda finally said. “Nobody’s movin’ nowhere, no how. Mm-um. I gots bills to pay.”

  I shook my head. “Not anymore, you don’t.”

  That shut them all up.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Sweet Ch— Um, Andi asked.

  “It means,” I said, standing and walking behind the couch, my arms sweeping the suite, “that we five, we merry five, are the permanent and sole residents of this entire end of the top floor of the DFW Grand Hyatt. You each have a suite to yourself. Not as nice as this one. This one’s mine. But a suite almost as large. Belinda and Daniel—”

  “Brenda,” Smartmouth corrected.

  “—have a two-room executive suite right next door. You, Cowboy-Tank, have a presidential suite, and you, Andi, their finest bridal suite.”

  They were ridiculously easy to read. And to placate, apparently.

  “This,” I said, looking around the room where we all were, “will be our headquarters. Except, of course, when I have guests and need my privacy.”

  Brenda harrumphed. “So, basically, we can’t be in here, ever.”

  I let it go. But she wasn’t wrong.

  “Wait,” Andi said, “let’s go back to the part about how this is now our home. That’s not going to work for me. I’ve got to get back to Florida. I’ve got a—”

  “What?” I asked. “You’ve got a what? An apartment in Cambridge near the university where you worked with the Professor. Except wait, the Professor went body surfing in the nether, didn’t he? Which means you’re not working with him, which means you don’t have a job at the university, which means you don’t need to be in Cambridge. Or in Indian Rocks Beach, with your grandparents, as you were about to say next.”

  Andi opened her mouth and quickly closed it.

  I loved being psychic.

  “I’m sorry about your Gram-Gram, but she’ll be all right. As will Grampa Willy, and their house. They’ve now been told that those flying orbs were a NASA experiment gone wrong and that you’ve been offered a prestigious job in a secret facility somewhere and won’t be allowed to come back for long stretches at a time.” Then something came over me and I felt blue. I didn’t like blue. “I am sorry about Abby, though. She was…”

  And suddenly I was close to weeping. Me! I shut it down hard.

  “As for you,” I said to Brenda, “your ‘body ar
t’ business has, as far as anyone knows, been bought out by a local real estate investor and converted into a Buddhist temple.”

  “What?”

  “No, I don’t actually know what they’ll put there. I just wanted to see your reaction.”

  She told me, both verbally and mentally, what she thought of me. Funny girl.

  “Oh,” I said, “it’s also dumb that you’re just sort of the kid’s guardian. I mean, what does that even mean? So I got that noise all fixed. He’s yours now.”

  “What?” they all said.

  “What-what? The adoption. It’s finalized. Well, the papers need your final sig. They’re over there on the desk.” I looked seriously at Daniel. “I know it’s a lot of responsibility, Daniel. So are you really sure you want to adopt this girl? She’s kind of a wild child.”

  He giggled and looked at Brenda.

  She wanted to object, I knew, but why? Instead, she smiled and called Daniel into a huge hug.

  Yeah, that felt pretty good, I guess. And I wasn’t done handing out goodies. Santa had something for one and all.

  Besides, you kinda have to keep the person happy who knows your deepest hurts from the past. A happy holder of secrets is a quiet holder of secrets. Or so I hoped.

  “How are you doing all this, Chad?” Andi asked.

  “Oh, it’s not me.” I pointed upward. “It’s them.”

  Tank leaned forward. “Angels?”

  “No,” I said, chuckling. “Them. The Watchers. But I guess small minds could think of them as angels. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “So, what…” Tank said, and I knew he was smarting from the put-down… “you just send ’em a memo and they say, ‘Yes, sir, Chad, sir!’ Is that how it goes?”

  “Now, now, Cowboy. Maybe he knows a few things we don’t.” She gave Daniel a squeeze, and I knew she had become a semi-ally, at least for now.

  At that moment, there came the sound of a key card in the door to my suite, and the door swung open. Ashley came in and held the door open for a Hispanic waiter pushing a silver cart with silver domes. The dishes clinked and rattled as he drove the wheels over the metal threshold.