Bad Nerd Falling (21 page)

Shadows were friendly to his sort.
Most people feared them. Not him.

They had saved his life on more than
one occasion. He was comfortable in them, but he didn’t heed their
enticing call. There were some who whispered about the highly
trained who lived their lives in the darkness because they weren’t
comfortable in the light. Vlad had vowed early on in his career, in
his teens, that he would never join them. Like others of his ilk,
he used the shadows, but refused to join them.

They had a nasty habit of stealing a
man’s humanity. He had other things he wished to do, and those
things all required humanity.

He scanned his surroundings, sending
his senses out into the night, assessing those nearby. One of his
skills, one that he felt he must have been born with, was the
ability to locate even the most still and silent. So far he had a
perfect track record for locating people and animals who lingered
close. No terrorist or drug dealer minion had been able to ambush
them because he always located them first.

Right now, he located one individual.
He sank deeper into the shadows and continued to flare his senses.
With a final, careful sweep, he still detected only one person.
Circling around, he stalked closer to the silently waiting man.
Hiding his own presence with easy skill.

He suspected he knew exactly who
waited for him in the shadows. One had to admire a man who could
wait so silently, without fidgeting, the epitome of patience. If
you had met him recently, you’d never believe this particular man
was capable of this sort of patience.

Vlad hadn’t met him
recently.

Since he had worked with him for
years, he knew this man’s strengths and weaknesses as well as his
own. When he was in position above him, he reassessed their
surroundings, making certain no other creatures stirred, at least
not the ones they needed to be concerned with.

Then he climbed higher than his
silent, waiting companion. Once he hovered over him, Vlad let go,
falling silently in the night, expecting the man to break his
fall.

Derek Shively, who had worked with him
just as long, must have been practicing too. Because with the same
silent skill Vlad utilized, he shifted right so Vlad tumbled to the
ground. Both of them had earned skills at falling, so Vlad doubted
he even bruised when he hit the ground and rolled with easy
grace.

“
You’ve been practicing.”
He rose and brushed himself off.

“
Of course. You think
Morrison allows any of us to grow lazy?”

“
It would be a shame if
you lost what little skill you have.”

Shively ignored his teasing. Instead,
he headed toward the palace. One of this man’s skills was if you
dropped him anywhere in the world, he could find home without
modern technology or equipment of any sort. Didn’t matter where
they were, what they were doing, or who they were with.

When Shively was along, they didn’t
bother with GPS or maps. Even if Tigger didn’t look at a map before
they were dropped, and that was unusual, he could still find his
way out. Show him a map and he could bring that map up at will,
years later. It was an impressive, and helpful, skill.

“
So your little detector
talent says we’re alone here?”

“
Yep.” He sent his senses
out into the night. “Group of five ahead.”

Shively nodded and then transformed
into urban man out on the town. He joined the SEAL. They were just
a couple of guys out and about, enjoying the nightlife.

By the time they hit the next street
they blended in. Most people wouldn’t even remember them from the
rest of the crowd. They moved through the young people like a knife
through perfectly roasted beef. Since both of them were fairly tall
and muscular, it wasn’t hard.

With Shively along, they took streets
and shortcuts he remembered from his youth but probably wouldn’t
have used now due to forgetting all about them. But Derek had the
entire city mapped out and he knew every single street and
alley.

“
You’re a little
scary.”

Shively grunted. “Yeah, and you aren’t
Mr. Ultimate Warrior Man?”

His lips curled up. “So why were you
waiting for me?”

“
Because you called this
meeting and you’re fourteen minutes late, loverboy.”

He nodded. “Did Morrison send
you?”

His companion sent him a speaking look
as they traversed a tiny alleyway only big enough for a pedestrian
or bicycle. This was a shortcut he used often while in grammar
school. It hadn’t changed all that much. Mrs. Brisbane’s pots of
boxwoods and whatever flowers were in season was still a cheerful
reminder of civilization. Mr. Hatchard’s back stoop still exited
directly onto the alley and it contained the same rusty implements
they hadn’t been able to name as youths.

He still couldn’t name any of them.
They weren’t hoes and rakes like most people kept.

“
What are
those?”

“
No clue.” He shook his
head. “Been wondering that since our school days.”

Shively nodded.

They turned out of the tiny alley into
a larger one, and came across Mr. McDaniels’s dog. The dog’s lip
curled to reveal a lot of fang. He stopped and asked, “Chipper?”
and the snarling stopped while the tail wagging began.

“
There is no way this is
the dog you remember.” Derek spoke with complete
conviction.

“
McDaniels always names
his dogs Chipper. My guess is this is a grandson or great grandson
of the dog I remember.” He ran his hands over the dog, determining
this one wasn’t far into adulthood.

“
You still remember all
this stuff?”

He shrugged. “Sure. I’m sure if you
walked the streets you grew up on, you’d also remember
them.”

Derek shook his head. “Not likely. I
didn’t have time to know anyone while I was growing up.”

“
What?” He patted the dog
a final time before they continued on.

“
My dad moved us around a
lot. We never stayed long enough for me to meet people. Besides, if
I met them, it just made it harder when we left.”

His eyebrows rose. “You didn’t have
friends in school?”

“
No, it was easier not to
get to know anyone.” Shively’s voice was laid back.

“
You spent your entire
early years not making friends?” He couldn’t imagine a life like
that. Maybe he had felt isolated, but goodness knew he always had
his brother and cousins. The lonely times came about because he
knew he didn’t fit in with his own family.

“
Not my entire childhood.
I was eleven or twelve when my dad met a woman with a daughter.
They fell in love and got married.”

“
So you ended up with a
stepsister?”

“
I guess she is my
stepsister, but I was so happy to have a bratty little sister, I
just call her my sister. We could be twins, actually.”

“
You look like your
stepsister?”

“
It’s amazing, but
everyone thinks we’re full siblings.” Derek smiled into the night.
“We feel like we are, so that’s all that matters.”

“
I’ve got two sisters if
you’d like more siblings.”

“
I’ve got a perfectly fine
sister now, I don’t need another one.”

“
At least you don’t have
four like Morrison.”

Shively laughed. “Yeah, it is kind of
funny that he grew up with a lot of estrogen.”

“
Have you ever met Janine,
his biological sister?”

“
Oh yeah. Janine is just
like him.”

“
How so?” He’d wondered
about her.

“
Smart, fast, tall, and
lean.”

“
I heard she’s a secret
operative.”

“
Not her, her
husband.”

“
See, I didn’t hear she
was married.”

“
Remember Michael
Lamont?”

He whistled. “Yeah, hard to forget
him.” He remembered the silent, deadly man all too well. Lamont had
pulled them out of a nasty situation with a carefully placed bomb
and excellent timing.

Shively nodded. “He’s a
legend.”

“
Thought I heard Lamont
met his maker.”

“
He did. But his
counterpart lives on.”

“
Of course. How’s he
taking retirement?”

“
He gets to spend it with
Janine, who is hot, amazing, scary as him, and an impressive
surgeon.”

“
Janine patched up Lamont
and then married his alter ego?”

“
Janine patched him up,
killed him off quite expertly, covered his tracks, and dodged bombs
and terrorists with him for a month or so before they got
married.”
[
Shadows and Spice
– Book 5 – The
Morrison Family Series]

“
She sounds just like
Ben.”

“
She is. Impressive,
gorgeous woman.”

He sent Shively a look. “Had the hots
for your commander’s sister?”

Shively sent him one of
his own. “Yeah,” he answered in a
duh
voice.

“
Maybe someday I’ll get to
meet this amazing woman.”

“
If you’re
lucky.”

***

“
You’re not going to cry
now that he’s gone, right?” Beau asked with a lot of suspicion once
she closed the door behind Vlad.

“
No.”

“
Right, let’s play this
piece. Maybe it’ll keep your mind off things.”

She considered braining him with her
guitar, but that would be a waste of an expensive, nearly perfect
instrument. Instead she strapped it on and hoped this would help to
keep her from feeling lonely and sad at Vlad’s leaving.

The man had a job to do. She
understood that. She took her own job seriously. It was then she
realized her work did bear national significance. Without the work
she, Maria, Jorge, and Tia performed, their wells might sicken
again, in turn sickening the people. They had lost too many in the
last infection.

When Tia arrived to fix
their wells, Rurikstan had been in dire straits. Too many sick
people, all their water had to be boiled, a few deaths, a prince in
utter turmoil; it had not been Rurikstan’s finest hour. But
everything worked out perfectly. Tia figured out the problem, fixed
the wells, fell in love with their prince, was engaged to him now,
and would eventually provide their future prince or princess. The
new leader for their nation.
[
Bad Nerd Rising
– Book 7 – The Morrison Family Series]

Beau started playing the piece so she
shifted in order to see the notes in front of him. She entered the
piece, playing each chord, blending with his as the music rose. It
swelled the room, marking it a magical place for the time they sent
the notes out into the night. Each chord she played matched his as
their playing styles blended together perfectly.

She could tell immediately that he
wasn’t in as much pain. His left hand didn’t lag as it did
sometimes. She also knew not to get too optimistic. While his hand
was improving, he had good and bad days. His playing tonight meant
that he was having a good day. Although of late he was having far
more of those.

His right hand had no trouble with the
notes as the music swelled and beat at them with the intensity of a
hurricane. It was exhilarating to be making music with a master
like Beau. Her guitar skill didn’t match his piano skill, but she
managed to mostly stay with him throughout the composition. Her
fingers flew over the strings as they reached the
crescendo.

The notes seemed to shimmer around
them. Beau’s left hand continued through the piece, nearly in sync
with his right. For the first time since he had written this
composition, he managed to play each note perfectly, and the melody
was so beautiful, tears prickled her eyes.

They played the last, perfect notes in
harmony and with the same flair.

When the last of the music died away,
their eyes met in mutual understanding. “That was perfect,” she
gushed as glee washed over her.

“
I finally got it.” Beau
sounded happy.

“
You said you just needed
to practice. And it’s only taken a week to conquer this particular
piece. That’s impressive, Beau.”

“
Yeah, but I’ve been
practicing it far longer than you.”

“
If your left hand worked
like it should, you would have already mastered it. But, you’re
improving daily, and I think you realize that.”

“
I do, but it doesn’t
alter the fact that it takes a lot more work on my part to master
these pieces.” He sounded disgusted.

“
Anything that’s worth
doing takes practice.”

“
Now you sound like my
conductor.”

“
She would know.” His
conductor, an amazing, dynamic woman just turned fifty, had adopted
Beau. They had the sweetest relationship. She wasn’t afraid to yell
at him, and he took her scolds well. She also enjoyed spoiling
him.