LOGAN (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 5)

LOGAN

Innerworld Affairs Series

Book Five

by

Marilyn Campbell

USA Today Bestselling Author

Previously Titled:
Worlds Apart

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www.epublishingworks.com

ISBN: 978-1-61417-656-5

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Chapter 1

Earth, 2058 A.D.

Ex-Sergeant Logan McKay used the toe of his right combat boot to lift the weight of the iron shackle off his left ankle. A few minutes later he reversed the procedure. It was tedious, but effectively kept the blood circulating through his icy feet. Knowing that once the aircraft reached its assigned flying altitude the cabin temperature would be more comfortably regulated also helped. He only had to be patient, but after months of being half-frozen on the Manchurian border, the anticipation of warmth seeping into his bones was more enticing than a good meal.

Warmth was definitely the first thing he could appreciate about his current state. A sound sleep would come second—the kind of sleep that can't be had in a war zone where bombs interrupted any moment of silence and the enemy could be ten feet away, just waiting for you to doze off so he can slit your throat.

After he was warm and rested, he might even give some thought to the shackles on his ankles, the handcuffs on his wrists and the sentence he'd been given of life imprisonment at Leavenworth. But at least for the next nine hours, while he was in the air over the Pacific Ocean, his dismal future was on hold.

Logan's eyes drifted shut in spite of his numb fingers and toes, but before he could enjoy the peace, a voice came over the loudspeaker.

"Good morning. This is your pilot, Lieutenant Nathan Boswell. We've been cleared for take-off. Make sure all seatbelts are fastened and loose items stowed away. There's an ugly storm hovering out there, so we're going to be taking the scenic route today. If there are any tourists on board who want to follow our progress, we'll be heading south off Hokkaido, past what used to be Tokyo, toward Iwo Jima, then east to San Francisco. We don't expect the detour to add more than an hour to our arrival time but we'll keep you posted."

As the aircraft began taxiing down the runway, the military police officer sitting in the aisle seat next to Logan uttered an obscenity. Intent on sleeping, Logan pretended not to hear his armed escort but the MP sitting in the opposite aisle seat couldn't ignore it as easily.

"What's the problem now, Higgs?" Corporal Gianni asked. "Forget to say goodbye to one of your sweetie-pies?"

"Didn't you hear what he just said?" Higgs asked then went on before his superior officer made any comment. "A southern heading takes us right into the Dragon's Triangle. We'd be better off flying directly over China."

"For God's sake! You and your stupid superstitions again. Throw some salt over your shoulder or whatever you normally do and grab some sleep like McKay's doing."

Higgs's voice raised a pitch. "Sleep? I'd just as soon spend my last hour awake. And this is not superstition! I read a book about it. Hundreds of planes and ships and thousands of people have disappeared in the area between the Philippine Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It's like a triangle that runs from Yokohama to Guam to the Mariana Islands and back to Japan."

Gianni laughed. "You've got your triangles confused, kid. The
Bermuda
Triangle is where vessels supposedly disappear, and it's clear on the other side of the world."

"Oh yeah? What would you say if I told you the Dragon's Triangle is on the
exact
other side of the world and that there's a magnetic field that runs straight through the planet from one triangle to the other?"

"I'd say you spend too much time reading fiction. If you aren't going to sleep, make yourself useful. Go find out if they put coffee on board."

Logan heard Higgs huff then unfasten his seat belt. He hoped the kid wasn't the kind that had to hear himself talking all the time but he had a sinking feeling he was. As the plane leveled out and he felt the first waft of heat, he decided he could even put up with a nutcase like Higgs if his toes got thawed out in the meantime.

Suddenly he heard a woman's voice out of a dream, yet he knew he wasn't sleeping.

"Corporal Gianni? I'm Captain Yan. Private Higgs said you asked about coffee. There are meals and beverages on board, but I don't think self-service is a good idea with the possibility of turbulence from the storm. Since your prisoners aren't going anywhere and my nurses are busy with patients, I would like to enlist the private's help."

"Sure. In fact, if you could keep him busy for about nine or ten hours, I'd appreciate it."

Logan raised one eyelid a fraction of an inch to see just how accurate his memory was.
Bullseye.
The voice did indeed belong to the Captain Yan who occasionally crept into his dreams despite his wish to forget she existed. She looked exactly the way he remembered—exotic, secretive...
untouchable
. Her body was compact and toned yet clearly female. Her very straight, nearly black hair was tied at the base of her neck and her thick bangs framed her slightly slanted dark eyes... exactly as he remembered.

But it was her voice rather than her appearance that first bewitched him. It was unlike any voice he had heard before or since. Somehow she made the most ordinary statement sound like a lover's whisper—husky and intimate, as if she were physically stroking him with her words.

Eight months ago, he had been wounded during a shelling and, although it wasn't anything to be sent home over, he had spent four weeks in a mobile hospital unit. It was her voice that had made him want to return from the concussion-induced darkness he was hovering in. When he finally opened his eyes, the dark angel watching over him made him wonder if he'd been sent to heaven or hell.