A Warrior's Return (17 page)

Only this morning Sparky had reassured me
yet again, “He’s fine! He’s like a big healthy animal. He’s just
soaking up all the attention your giving him like a spoiled
pet.”

I didn’t care what they thought; I wouldn’t
relax, until I saw the crystalline blue of his eyes again. I was
squatting down beside his bed on the floor with my back to him, as
I refolded a shirt of his for what must’ve been the one hundredth
time, when I sensed something different.

I peered back over one shoulder at Talaric
behind me to see that he was awake and very appreciably entranced
by my rear. I pivoted slightly on my feet not wanting to take his
enjoyable view away completely, but wanting to let him know that I
saw that he was awake. He wasn’t his usual guarded and controlled
self, which I took complete advantage of.

“Good morning handsome!”

His eyes flickered up to mine and then back
to my rear before they guiltily settled back on my face, as if it
was taking an act of will to keep them there.

I smiled sensually, soaking in the
complement of his double gaze. I had always been told that my best
asset went by the same name. His face was tinged with red that
wasn’t from the harsh sun burn he had suffered. I swiveled fully
around and slid forward onto my knees before him, as I leaned over
him and down slightly.

He swallowed, as his gaze came to rest on
what was visible of my chest at the top of the blouse I wore.
Perhaps I was overdoing it some, but my single most regret at this
moment was that we weren’t wearing matching rings and that there
wasn’t a door to lock the prying world outside.

My man was back and I longed to show him how
much I had missed him, but not yet, not until it was right to. That
was a promise I had made God and I was going to keep it.

Talaric’s gaze rose up to my eyes and I gave
him a cheeky grin, “Feeling better?”

He gave a firm nod, but his face remained
serious. He started to talk, his voice rusty from un-use and
probably some sand, but his words were clear enough, “I’d gladly
walk through a desert for three days again, if I got to see you at
the end of the journey. It doesn’t matter which, you and water are
both life-sustaining.”

What a nice thing to say!

It was either cry or kiss them. So I kissed
him. One kiss led to another.

“Hmmm it would appear that the use of an
oxygen tank will soon be in order.” Came Sparky’s droll commentary
from somewhere.

As his words registered I reared back from
Talaric, my face beet red over being caught kissing.

“Well your blood pressure and your ability
to pump blood appear to be in perfect condition. I pronounce you
well.” Spark said, his voice tinged with dry humor.

Ducking my head in embarrassment I started
to get up not able to look at either man.

Talaric practically growled at Sparky, “Get
lost Sparky! Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt a man when he’s
drinking?”

A big hand came up and grasped me by the
front of my shirt and yanked me back down, even as both hands then
rose to imprison my head, as his open mouthed kiss emptied my lungs
of all breathable air. I didn’t mind though, because he was alive
and I could keep on dreaming of a future spent with him. I heard
Sparky chuckle and wonder off, leaving us alone.

Later we walked hand-in-hand around the
outside perimeter of the camp. He sighed heavily and I looked up at
his face to see if he was okay.

“What’s wrong?” I asked concerned by the
look of oppressive tension on his face.

He was silent for a moment and then he
spoke, “I don’t want to have to deal with all of what’s going on! I
just want to leave with you and Rafael and enjoy life! I hate this
pressure to perform and somehow save a world at the possible loss
of what else matters to me.”

I really didn’t understand what the bigger
picture was, but I did know that he would never be happy if he left
what he saw was his responsibility to accomplish and I told him as
much. He nodded silently in agreement.

“Well, there’s Sparky, no doubt chomping at
the bit to tell me of some discovery he has made that I hope
doesn’t end up getting us all killed.” Talaric intoned sourly, as
he headed in Sparky’s direction.

“Can I come to?” I asked uncertain if I was
welcome in what was surely to be a somewhat confidential
disclosure.

He looked back at me with a quizzical
expression, “Of course you can come! You’re one of us now!”

I smiled, even as I was warmed from within
to be included in something so important.

Sparky’s normally controlled mask of a face
was completely gone and he looked as ecstatic, as a little boy in a
candy shop. He ushered us inside the plane and I saw that everyone
else was already gathered for Sparky’s exposition.

Several crates had been situated to form a
table and the box that Talaric had brought back from the desert sat
on them, while its contents lay spread out on the surface of the
crates.

Sparky was barely able to contain himself,
“Okay where to start? Ahhh, you ladies will appreciate this!”

He picked up an object that was the size of
a coconut and wrapped in a cloth. He pulled the rag away and all of
us collectively gasped. Sparky held the largest diamond I had ever
seen in the palm of his hand. It sparkled like it was alive.

“I’m almost positive that it is of a carbon
origin, but I believe it’s man-made. Engineered for a purpose so to
speak. Would you mind holding this for me Eva?”

Sparky extended it out to me and I grabbed a
hold of the spectacular treasure gingerly.

“Don’t worry my dear if you drop it. You
would break long before it ever would.”

It was very heavy. It was curiously faceted
as well. It was oblong and extremely narrow in the middle, while
thick around either end kind of like a dumbbell.

Sparky picked up two more objects and
unwrapped them from their covering cloths. They were two perfectly
cylindrical orange crystals the same length as the faceted diamond.
Eleanor reached for one and Sparky gave it to her to hold and she
reacted in surprise almost instantly.

“It’s warm! I mean really warm!”

“Yes, I know curious isn’t it?” Sparky
said.

“What could these gems be for? There too big
for any kind of ornamentation.” I asked marveling over the
complexity of the huge curiously cut diamond in my hands.

“I have a theory, but it’s only that. For
years and years scientists have been experimenting with crystals.
They have unique properties and molecular densities to be of use in
the most sensitive and powerful of technological devices. Far
outdistancing any other elements, in terms of the potential they
represent, for achieving unlimited speed in terms of data
processing and the list goes on and on. I think we’re looking at
that concept in spades before us right now. I think that what we’re
holding here could be the key components of a quantum computer or
engine far beyond anything imaginable by today’s limited
technology.”

Sparky wasn’t done though. “I thought I had
found the jackpot, but I was wrong! The only other items in the box
were these five scrolls. There dry and brittle, but unusually
thick. I can’t make out anything written on them other than it
appears to be complete gibberish. I looked at them a little closer
and I determined that they were much too thick for typical
scrolls.”

Sparky began dismantling the binding of one
of the scrolls and then unbelievably he pulled a white sheet out
that had been sandwiched in between the two layers of parchment. He
repeated the process with the five other scrolls until they were
five white sheets spread out on the table.

“It is not paper. It appears to have
magnetic properties. So I thought I would try a magnet and see what
I could find out. I dropped a magnet accidentally and this is what
happened.”

Sparky took a magnet from his hip pocket and
threw it up into the air over the five white sheets. The sheets
whipped up off the table and up into the air where they formed a
glowing white globe in the shape of a soccer ball around the magnet
that was held in mid air. The globe was rotating slightly as we
watched in amazement.

“This is all I have discovered. I don’t know
for what purpose… ..” Sparky’s voice trailed off, as he watched
Talaric reach out and press a finger against the globe.

The globe gave a spurt of color and began to
darken. It was like watching an artist at work painting a picture,
only the artist wasn’t there and the picture was painting
itself.

Titus rumbled slightly, “Well I’ll be, it’s
a map!”

“Au contraire my friend, it’s a globe of the
world.” Sparky intoned, as he squinted through his glasses at the
vivid detail that was forming before us.

The globe seemed to be completed in its
rendering and it gently spun on an angle before us.

“Where is this place or world?” Eleanor
asked wonderingly.

“Not where Eleanor, here. It’s the Earth
before the land was split apart and the continents shifted.”
Talaric said softly in answer to Eleanor’s question.

Talaric then loudly said, “bar-Seth.” He
spoke, as if he was addressing the spinning globe.

A red dot appeared and sporadically flashed.
What good did that do for us, if the land looked so different now,
I thought to myself.

“Time. Passage of time” Talaric said.

A little box appeared with nothing in it and
it blinked repeatedly. Talaric and Sparky looked at each other as
if comparing mental notes.

“Four thousand eight hundred and fifty
years.” Sparky said aloud, but nothing happened. Talaric said the
same number and the numbers filled into the blank box. The globe
began to spin incredibly fast for several minutes before it began
to slow back down to its former slow rotational speed.

The Earth looked remarkably similar to what
appeared as the surface of the globe today, with some minor
exceptions.

The little red dot was still flashing. It
was in Africa squarely in the middle of the Sahara desert.

“How many miles away do you think Sparky?”
Talaric asked.

“Give me a little while with my computers.
Once I find out what scale this map is using I should be able to
give you an exact location.”

Talaric turned to Eleanor and she glanced up
at him and saluted with her good arm, “Ready for takeoff Sir! Won’t
be the first time that I’ve taken off with shoddy landing gear. I’d
say it won’t be the last time either.”

Talaric nodded, as she headed with the aid
of her crutch and Katie’s supporting arm around her toward the
front of the plane. Talaric looked rather puzzled, as he stared
after Katie’s retreating back.

He glanced then to Titus, who just shook his
head and grinned as he pointed at me.

“What did you do to Cat?” Talaric asked with
genuine puzzlement across his face.

I smiled a little and shrugged, “You mean
Katie. I guess you could say that we’ve reached an understanding of
sorts.”

Titus laughed out loud and then slapped his
knee hard. Poor Talaric looked even more confused and I just smiled
mysteriously and walked on by to find out where Rafael had gotten
himself to.

Talaric turned to Titus, “What
happened?”

Titus reached up and scratched behind one
ear, “What happened, Cat I mean, Miss Katie got herself taken to
the woodshed and then she be washed in the waters of redemption!
Hallelujah! That be what happened. Don’t ask me for the
particular’s Captain because I don’t know them. Miss Katie is
trying to be a new girl and I’ze respect her for it and so should
you.”

Titus laughed again, “Dat girl of yours,
Miss Eva, she got some real spunk to her! I can hardly wait to see
her pound away with that old pump gun and those little brass
chatters!”

Titus started walking away, but Talaric
stopped him with a hand to his arm, “You didn’t!”

Talaric exclaimed hoping that this was just
one more of Titus’s jokes.

Titus laughed harder, “Oh yes I did! I
surely did! You can thank me later when she pulls your butt out of
the fire. Yes Sir, I gonna pull up a chair and bring out the
popcorn when that time comes.”

An hour later they were in the air flying
low over the desert. Several hours later we landed near the spot
that Sparky thought correlated with the spot on the globe.

Talaric thought it would be best to
investigate the place in the morning and preparations were made
accordingly.

Talaric stood in wide-eyed shock across from
me shaking his head over and over, as he continued to look up and
down me. I thought I cut a pretty cool picture myself.

My feet were encased in black leather
military fatigue boots that my tan camo pants were tucked into. The
handle of a long boot knife stuck prominently out of the top of my
right boot. One of the machine pistols was strapped to my left hip,
even as the right side of the belt was packed with extra clips of
ammo.

My camo over shirt hung open revealing the
heavy leather cartridge belt that was slung from my right shoulder
across the front of my black T-shirt to where it rested against my
left side. The belt was studded full of three and a half inch
magnum shotgun shells for the pump shotgun that I held in my left
hand with the barrel of the shotgun resting back against my
shoulder.

My right hand rested on top of the other
machine pistol that was held level to my right side by a sling
overtop my shoulder. A purple and orange silk scarf was around my
neck giving a hint of femininity to the outfit.

My long hair was swept back in a ponytail
that was fed through the back of a camo baseball cap that Katie had
given me. On both cheeks under my eyes was a black streak of paint
to help deflect the brightness of the sun from my eyes.