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Winter of Discontent

By: blackrandl1958



It was snowing heavily and very cold. When I say very cold, I mean something beyond most people's imagination. I live 30 miles southeast of Hammerfest, Norway and when I say cold I mean more than 50 below zero. Sane people just don't go outside in that kind of weather. The slightest mishap and you're a dead man. The only way in and out from where I live in the winter is by snowmobile or dog sled and the winter lasts nine months. I live there for a reason; I'm not a hermit, retreating from the world or a monk on a pilgrimage. I have reasons that will become clear as we move along through this recounting.

I was outside feeding the dogs when I heard an almighty thump about two miles away to the south. I stood there for a minute and when I saw smoke I got worried. Something had blown up and there wasn't anything in that direction for a hundred miles. My cheeks began to freeze and I went inside. I mulled it over in my mind and went to put on clothes. You dress right when it's 50 below or you die. If you sweat, you die. If you don't keep out the wind you die. If you get wet you die and there was a creek between me and the explosion. I took Sam and Bella, my Tibetan Mastiffs, and put on skies. I tied snowshoes to my pack and started toward the smoke. It was making a smudge heading south and it looked like rubber or oil.

As I got close I could see flames through the trees and I could see metal. It was a helicopter. One of the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks and it was a mess. I could see bodies. I knew it could carry 12 people and I could see eight lying around in various stages of dismemberment. I had no clue why it had crashed, but it looked like US military. That set alarms off in the back of my head and I took the SR-25 off my back and cycled a shell into the chamber. I didn't see any movement but I checked the bodies carefully. They were all dead. I approached the aircraft low and there was another body inside. It was a young woman and she didn't appear mangled, but there was a seat lying across her leg. I slipped off a glove and felt her neck. She was alive, but she wouldn't be for long. Her neck was freezing cold. I debated with myself for a minute. I should leave her here and hump back to the house. I knew I wasn't going to do it. The dogs were sniffing around and Bella barked once. I went to her and there was another body. I knew this one.

He was a Ranger named Benson out of Hunter in Georgia and the last time I saw him he was lying on a floor unconscious while I was getting the hell out of Dodge. He was trying to stop me and I couldn't let him. He was alive too, but not for long. He was bleeding out and I wasn't about to stop it. I left him there and went back to the woman. I got the seat off of her and pulled her out. I took off my pack and got out a blanket and a tarp. I put the tarp on the snow, placed the blanket on top and put her down on the blanket. I rolled her up and put my pack back on. She wasn't heavy and I draped her across my shoulders. I knew where there was a cave about half a mile away and I carried her there. It was a squeeze to get in carrying her, but I made it.

I noticed a deadfall near the cave and I put my pack down beside her and got a hatchet out. I got enough wood to last the night and in five minutes the fire was roaring. I put up a reflective sheet behind her and unrolled her. She was shivering and unconsciously tried to hold on to the blanket but she would warm up quicker with the blanket off. I put snow on to boil and added a soup packet. I carry things like that in my pack in case I'm caught out and it smelled pretty good. I called the dogs in and fed them. They lay on the other side of the fire and watched me. I checked the girl over and didn't see any obvious bad injuries beyond a bump, swelling on her head. I felt it and there wasn't anything broken in there. She moaned when my fingers probed around it. It obviously hurt. I should take her home with me but her company made her dubious. She was dressed like a spook; black winter clothes and she had a gun. It was a 9mm auto, Government Issue and that made me even more suspicious. I put it in my pack.

The soup was ready and I poured it into a cup. I sat her up and leaned her against me. I let the soup cool for a minute and poured a little into her mouth. She swallowed and I slowly fed her the whole cup. She began to stir when we were about halfway through. Her eyes opened and she looked at me. She didn't say anything until she finished her soup.

"Thank you," she said. Her voice was low and husky.

"You're welcome," I told her. "Do you know who I am?"

"Yes," she said. "You're Macalastair Slate."

"Do you know what happened to your chopper?" I asked.

"Yes, someone didn't want me to find you. Benson pulled a gun on us and shot the pilot. We crashed."

"Are you going to tell me why you were looking for me?"

"Maybe; I haven't decided yet."

"What's going to make up your mind?"

"If you don't kill me in the next few minutes I'll have an idea."

"Did you expect me to kill you?"

"I expected you to have horns and a tail. I didn't expect you to buy me dinner."

I laughed. "Well, I'm not going to kill you unless you try to kill me. Are you going to try to kill me?"

"If I were I would say no, and if I weren't I would say the same thing."

"Yes, I guess you're right. But, the same thing applies to me."

"I know, but you fed me and brought me here. If you wanted me dead you could have left me out there."

"Maybe I'm planning to torture information out of you."

"Maybe you are. Are you?"

"No, but I didn't know enough about you to make a decision to let you die. You look like CIA or NSA. If you are, I may take you back. Are you hurt?"

"I think my leg is broken," she said. "My head hurts like hell. I think I have a concussion and I can't hear well. I think my eardrums are ruptured."

I looked in her ears and she had been bleeding. Her eyes looked normal so I thought the knock on the head would be ok in a couple of days. I helped her stand up but her leg wouldn't take any weight.

"I didn't catch that," I told her. "Do you want me to check?"

"What will that involve?"

"Do you want me to take your pants off or cut them?"

"Will I need them again?"

"If I don't kill you; yes. We're quite a ways from shelter."

"Then we'll take them off. I don't want to be out there with my pants cut up."

She lay back and I unsnapped her pants. I pulled the zipper down and she cringed a little.

"Relax," I told her. "Whatever you've heard, I don't think you've heard I'm a rapist."

"No, I haven't heard that. Go ahead."

She had long cold gear on under her pants. It was very tight and she winced as I tried to push it up.

"You're going to have to take that off too."

It was now quite warm in the small cave and I thought it wouldn't hurt her. I pulled at her waistband and her panties started to slide down too."

"Woops," she said, and grabbed her waistband.

I laughed and peeled the cold gear down. She had on nice panties. They were red lace and bikini cut. They didn't leave much to the imagination. Her legs were long, tanned and muscular.

"Um, are you going to ogle me or help me," she asked.

"Both," I told her. "I do enjoy a good ogle every now and again."

She laughed. "Just look at my leg."

It was badly bruised but the break wasn't compound and there wasn't any curve to it. I wrapped it up in an elastic wrap and pulled her cold gear back up reluctantly. I helped her back into her pants.

"You have nice legs," I told her, "Nice panties too."

She blushed furiously. "Thanks, I guess. My name is Caden Rush, by the way."

"Pleased to meet you, Caden Rush. I like that name."

"Thanks again. What are you going to do to me, Mr. Slate?"

"Nothing, if you mean kill you or hold you hostage. We might do some things together. It depends on you. If you tell me why you're here, I might help you. I won't let you die, but if you're here and your interests are opposed to mine, I might have to stop you. I'll do that however I have to. How did you know I was here?"

"I didn't. I knew you were in Norway and somewhere up north off the grid. We were just trying to get wind of you somewhere. We were checking towns. Will you tell me where we are?"

"No, not until you tell me why you're here."

"Well, the dance goes on," she sighed. "Did you really kill a Seal team in Macon?"

"Yes, I did."

"Why did you do that?"

"Why did they tell you?"

"You had information vital to National Security. They were trying to extract it and you killed them and escaped. Is it true?"

"Part of it is true. I have no information vital to National Security. I've been gone five years. Is the nation falling apart?"

"Yes, but not because of you."

"By 'extract' they meant torture and drug. That's how they were 'extracting' the information."

"I see. Now the question is, do I believe you?"

"I don't care if you do or don't, Miss Rush. It doesn't matter to me. I didn't come looking for you."

"So, we're at a stalemate. How long can we stay here?"

"A couple of days. I can only feed the dogs one more time."

She looked across the fire at them. They raised their heads when they felt her eyes on them. Sam rumbled in his throat, but Bella thumped the floor of the cave with her big fluffy tail.

"What kind of dogs are they? I've never seen such huge furry dogs. Are they friendly?"

"They're Tibetan Mastiffs. They're friendly to my friends. Bella is friendly to everyone unless she thinks I'm being threatened. Sam hasn't made up his mind about you."

"What would they do if they thought I was threatening you?"

"Don't make them think that. You wouldn't last a minute. They would kill you, even if I hadn't taken your gun."

"Can I have it back?'

"Maybe. If you tell me why you're here, I might give it back."

"We keep coming back to that."

"I know. That's where we're stuck."

"You were right about me," she said. "I'm not CIA or NSA though. I'm with the Special Operations Group."

"So you are CIA. I don't remember what you do exactly, but I know that."

"Technically we're part of the CIA, but we run our own show."

"You conduct intelligence operations in hostile countries if I remember right. Is Norway hostile?"

"No, but you're considered hostile."

"I'm hostile to the CIA," I said.

"I don't understand that," she told me. "Why are you hostile to your own government?"

"Well, there's a little matter of kidnapping, torture and bondage I didn't care for much."

"I don't believe that happened. I was ordered to come here and talk to you," she said.

"Just talk? That doesn't sound right."

"I'm going to try to convince you to come back home," she said.

"I am home," I told her. "You're wasting your time. Why would I come back to be tortured and imprisoned?"

"You're supposed to come back because you like me," she said.

"I do, but it isn't going to happen," I told her. "Is there something special about you?"

"Yes, I'm related to you," she said.

"Really? I guess I shouldn't have looked at your panties then."

She laughed. "We're not related by blood. Your wife Sarah had a twin sister. Her name was Melissa. Did you ever meet her?"

"No, we were only married three months before Sarah died. We were in Africa all that time. Why do you ask?"

"I'm Melissa's daughter. I'm sort of your niece."

"Well, I'm glad to meet you and I'd like to get to know you, but I'm not going back."

"I hope to convince you that things have changed. You would be in no danger if you went back. There's been a sea change, Macalastair. Things are different in the agency and in the military."

"Why did you need a Ranger team to talk to me then? Why are you here with me and your chopper is out there burning?"

"Benson was a rogue. He still thought you should be found and eliminated. We didn't know he was part of that."

"How many more are there like him? You have no idea, do you?"

"No, I don't. That's why we need you. You can tell us and we can get rid of them."

"Well, Miss Rush, I have to tell you that I don't give a damn. You can all go to hell as far as I'm concerned. Not you, personally, but the whole nasty bunch. I'm out and I intend to stay out. I'd like to get to know you, but I won't be going back."

"Ok," she said. "I just have to accept that. Stop calling me 'Miss Rush.' My name is Caden. What are you going to do with me?"

"If I take care of you until you can go, are you going to tell them where I am?"

"Yes, I believe that we need you. I'll tell them why you won't come in and advise them to let me work on you."

"You're persistent. I admire that. How are you going to persuade me?"

"I'm going to seduce you," she giggled. "Do you know that was what they wanted?"

"I can believe it. Jesus girl, how can you work for people like that?"

"I don't work for them. I work for my country."

"You work for lines on a map? You fuck people for that?"

"No, I work for an idea. I work for freedom, the right to determine the course of your own life, the right to make free choices, the right to the rule of law; that's what I work for, and I wasn't going to fuck you."

"Do you imagine that the US represents those ideas? You're brainwashed, kid. That may have been true 200 years ago. It isn't anymore. Those ideas are dead. Are you aware that a majority of American citizens support the use of torture if it will keep them safe? They don't mind the government spying on them; reading their e-mails, listening to their phone calls? The America you're talking about is dead and in the grave. When the old hippies die, there won't be a dissenting voice in the country. You're becoming a nation of fascists. I think I'll just stay here."

"You're wrong, Macalastair. I mean, you're right, but I'm going to keep fighting for that. We can't be hermits and run away from all the problems of society. You're a coward. You just ran away."

"Let's see, have you forgotten the kidnapping, torture and bondage?"

"No, but that won't happen again. I won't let it happen."

"Thanks honey, but there's nothing you can do about it. Do you know why they want me?"

"Yes, you can do something paranormal. I don't know what."

"I can tell whether or not you're lying to me, Caden. I can tell if you're going to harm me. I can tell if there's anyone hostile close to me. I can tell you what they're going to do before they do it and what I can do to stop it. I can tell that about people I care about too. You can call it precognition, Spider Sense or whatever you want. They want to know how I can do that. I can't tell them. I have no idea. There are thousands of people in the world like that. We keep in touch with one another. The CIA wants to round them up and use us to facilitate their complete control of every area of people's lives. They were trying to torture the identities of those people out of me. I would rather die."

"Jesus, Macalastair. I had no idea. So you knew all along that I wasn't going to harm you?"

"No, I still don't know that. You haven't made up your mind. You're going to tell them where I am. That's going to harm me. The only way I see to stop that is to kill you. I could leave you here. You'd die here. Damn it, Caden. What am I going to do with you?"

"Please, Macalastair, don't let me die. I won't tell anyone."

"Now you're lying. You can't lie to me Caden."

"Shit, I forgot. I wasn't lying about not dying."

"I know. I don't want you to die."

"Then help me," she begged. "Let me convince you that we need your help. Convince me that I shouldn't tell. Don't just kill me! Please, Macalastair. I have a broken leg and a concussion. If you don't help me I'm going to freeze. How can you live with yourself if you let that happen?"

"I can't," I told her. "How can you live with yourself if you rat me out and they torture me to death?"

"They won't do that."

"Bullshit; that's exactly what they'll do. I have an idea. I'll take you home with me. We'll get you better and then we'll work out a way for me to turn myself in. We'll meet somewhere here in Norway. I'll give myself up and we'll see what happens. If they try to take me will you believe me?"

"Yes, that seems like a good plan. What if they do try to take you? What will you do?"

"I'll kill them all. Can you live with that?"

"I don't know. Do you have to do that?" she asked.

"What do you think?" I asked her. "Should I sing them to sleep? Should I tell them jokes and romance them into letting me go? They'll try to drug me, kidnap me and take me back. I know that's what's going to happen. I can see it. I know how I'll get away. I'm going to kill seven of them. Five more are going to live. You're going to get hurt, but not badly."

"My God, you really believe that, don't you?"

"I know it, but you don't. It's not a matter of a guess. I know exactly what's going to happen. I'm going to kill seven people for you Caden. You better be damn grateful."

"You're wrong Macalastair. It's not going to go down that way."

"Ok, you can think that if you want. It's late and we need to rest. I've got a nasty trek ahead of me tomorrow. Let's get some sleep."

I unrolled an Ensolite pad and my sleeping bag. When I started pulling off my clothes she watched. I could tell she wanted to say something.

"What," I asked.

"Jesus, you're huge, Macalastair. Your muscles have muscles. How much do you weigh?"

"Somewhere around 310," I told her. "I'm six feet six in case you were wondering."

"Do you have another bag?" she asked.

"No, you have to sleep with me."

"I usually like for a guy to take me dancing before I sleep with him," she said.

I laughed a long time at that. "We're just sleeping, Caden. I'll romance you later."

"Are we sleeping naked?" she asked.

"What if I said yes?" 

"I'd say I'm not tired."

"I'm leaving on my cold gear," I told her. "I suggest you do the same. Our clothes are wet and we'll sweat in the bag. We may have to get down to our underwear. It's a good bag, kid. We could sleep outside in it."

"You're going to have to help me," she said.

I unbuttoned her pants again and pulled them off. She winced as they went over her leg. I thought it might really be broken. Her coat was next and she had on a ballistic vest underneath. I took that off and pulled the black sweater over her head. She had on a cold gear top and I left that. I helped her hobble over to the sleeping bag and she got in. I rolled up the blanket for a pillow and climbed in after her. When I zipped the bag it was very cold and she shivered but it warmed up rapidly. We lay there for ten minutes and finally she pushed my shoulder.

"This is ridiculous. I'm roasting. Why do you have such a warm bag? This isn't going to work. I'm starting to sweat. I can't sleep like this.

"Ok, it is uncomfortable," I said. "I'll get out and we can strip off."

I unzipped the bag and stood up. I stripped down to my boxers and helped her get off the bottoms of her cold gear. Those little red panties were on display again.

"It seems that you are destined to show me those panties," I told her.

She laughed. "Well, you're the first guy that's ever seen them. You should consider yourself privileged. I just bought them last week. If I'd known I was going to be in someone's sleeping bag, I'd have worn granny panties."

She sat up and pulled the top over her head. Her bra matched the panties. I didn't want to look but I couldn't help myself. She blushed and slid down in the bag. I climbed back in and zipped it up. It wasn't intended for two, especially if one of them was my size. I could feel her hip against mine. I rolled away, facing away from her and drifted off. I had good dreams. I was holding Sarah in my arms and she felt amazing. Hair tickled my nose. I opened my eyes and it wasn't blonde. It wasn't Sarah. This was flame red and very long. It was all over us. Caden was spooned up against me with her head on my arm.


Winter of Discontent



The other arm was across her and my hand was on one of her breasts. I could feel the lace of her bra under my hand and there was a hard little bump in the middle. I wanted to pull my hand away. I wanted to pull away from that firm little butt pressing against me. Her arm was on top of mine, holding me in place. The thought of those little red panties was running through my mind, causing things to happen.

I started to pull my arm gently away and she clutched my hand, pressing it against her breast. I froze and she slowly became aware. She turned and looked up at me. Her eyes were spectacular in the light from the dying fire and the sunlight from the mouth of the cave. They were a deep, cobalt blue and I swear there were violet tints in them. I learned later that they changed color. The violet came creeping in when she was excited and they turned almost grey if she was sad. Greenish was when she was angry and the deep blue was just normal.

She slowly released my hand and raised her arm.

I pulled mine out from under hers. "I'm sorry, Caden. I didn't mean to feel you up."

"I know," she said. "It's ok. I liked it, but don't do it on purpose. I'm hungry, thirsty and I need to pee."

"Which do you want to take care of first?"

"Pee," she said.

"Ok, let's get your cold gear back on. I'll build up the fire and then help you back farther inside. Call me when you're through and I'll help you back. I'll follow you and then do something about the hunger and thirst."

I built the fire into a roaring blaze. We dressed her and I hated seeing all that golden skin disappear. She sensed my disappointment and laughed. "You can look at me all you want until I get well."

"Really? I'm looking forward to it."

I helped her around the corner and rummaged around in my bag a little. She called me and I helped her back to the bag. I did my business and opened up my bag. I fed the dogs and got out the supplies I had.

I cooked chunks of bacon while she toasted bread and put cheese on the slices she cut with my knife. I let the bacon drip on the bread.

We ate everything I had and drank two bottles of water each.

"This is good," she said.

"A bit of onion and an egg would have been nice," I said. "I'd like a cup of coffee too. How are you feeling?"

"My head aches like hell and my leg is killing me," she said.

"Are you allergic to Percodan?" I asked.

"No, why? Do you have some?"

"Yes, I have two."

"Jesus, why didn't you tell me Macalastair? I hurt all night. My whole body hurts."

"I wanted to know if you had any other injuries. The drugs would have masked that. Do you have any other injuries?"

"I have a pain in the ass," she said. "His name is Macalastair. Give me one of those pills."

She swallowed it as I chuckled. In fifteen minutes she was high and felt like getting dressed. I packed up and put out the fire. I had to leave the skis. I put the snowshoes on and helped her out of the cave. The snow had stopped and the sun was shining, but it was cold as hell. She began to shiver almost immediately and I wrapped her up again in the blanked and tarp. I put her over my shoulder and started walking.

It was murder. We were so heavy that even the snowshoes didn't help much. I broke through into two feet of show on every step. I'm in shape. If I wasn't I wouldn't have made it. As it was, I had to stop and rest a dozen times and about half a mile from the house I started to sweat. She was shivering uncontrollably and I knew I had to make a last ditch effort. It was like climbing Everest. I got to the packed down area around the shed and leaned against it for a minute, watching the dogs lunging through the snow. I got enough strength back to make it in the house. It was chilly inside. The fire had gone out. I put Caden down on the sofa and built an inferno in the stove and another in the fireplace. I pulled two chairs up between them and put Caden in one. I put coffee on and took her tarp and blanket.

She gave me her coat and vest and pulled off her shoes, stretching her feet out toward the fire. I went out and got the generator running. I have a gas backup, but I mostly use a little steam turbine. It's wood fired, and I got the boiler up to pressure and went back inside. The lights were on and Caden was asleep in the chair.

There were a million things to do and I got to it. I only have one bed. It's in the loft and I got the fans running to move the warmth from the stove and fireplace around. First aid supplies were in the bathroom so I got those out. I keep casting supplies and I got those too. There were no women's clothes but I got her a sweatshirt and a pair of shorts with a drawstring.

I went and shook her arm. "Caden, I need to clean you up and take care of your leg."

She opened sleepy eyes. "Can't I rest for a while?"

"You can rest after," I told her.

I stripped her down to her underwear. She was high enough that she didn't protest. "I'm going to feel you up now," I whispered.

"Ok," she agreed. "Wait! What did you say?"

I laughed. "I was just kidding. This may sting."

Her head had bled a little from a cut on the bump and she had abrasions all over her. I cleaned them up and washed her all over with a warm cloth. I cleaned the blood out of her ears and I put disinfectant on. She jumped when I touched her cuts and abrasions and I blew on them to soothe her.

When I had her cleaned up, I wrapped her leg in the soft padding from the casting kit.

"What color cast do you want?" I asked her.

"What are my choices?" she asked.

"Pink, blue, green or white," I told her.

"Green," she said. "You have to sign it too."

I was laughing as I wound the fiberglass strips around her after dipping them in the hardening solution. I got a walking pad and wove it in. It was easy to apply and I wound it up nearly to her knee. When I trimmed off the excess padding, it looked good. She hung it over the arm of the chair to dry and I made her a sandwich and a cup of coffee. I got the same for myself and found a bag of chips that we shared. The house was warm and I put the stove on automatic and moved her up over in front of the fireplace. We made smores and I carried her to bed. I tucked her in and she fell asleep almost immediately.

I woke her up at midnight and helped her to the bathroom. When she was finished, I carried her back to bed and gave her another Percodan. I replaced the one she had taken in my pack and turned in myself.

When I woke up the nest morning she was lying half across me. Her left arm was across my belly and her cheek was resting on my chest. The unbroken leg was across me and she felt like an angel lying there. I petted her back a little and her skin was like silk. Her flaming hair was covering both of us like a blanket. She stirred and looked up at me with those violet eyes.

"Good morning," I said. "It looks like you're the one feeling me up."

Her cheeks flushed but she didn't move. "I could get used to this," she said. "I need the bathroom again though."

I carried her down and left her until she called. She wanted to take a shower and I needed one myself. I found a plastic garbage bag and wrapped it around her cast, binding the top with rubber bands.

"You need me to scrub your back?" I asked.

She laughed and shooed me out after I helped her to the door. I put a towel where she could reach it and laid out the shorts and sweatshirt.

"I don't have much you can wear," I told her. "No underwear unless you want boxers."

"I might just wear them for shorts," she said. "I think I'd like that better. Go get me some."

When I came back she was in the shower, I didn't peek, I left the boxers where she could reach them and went to make breakfast. I heard the shower stop and after a few minutes she called. Her hair was wrapped in a towel and she looked adorable. I carried her to the kitchen counter and put her to work chopping onions, peppers and smoked sausages.

I went and showered and when I got back we made powered eggs and turned them into omelets; stuffed with the sausages, peppers and onions. They were very good, she said, and we stuffed ourselves. We drank a pot of coffee and sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace. She cuddled up against me and wanted to talk.

I told her about Sarah and she told me about her family. Her mother had passed away two years ago. Her father was a professor of economics at George Mason. She had a little brother in college and she had been a spook for three years. She had graduated from Dartmouth and had a law degree from Yale. We talked until the afternoon and I had never felt more comfortable with anyone. I made roast beef sandwiches and potato salad for lunch. We went back to the sofa and she snuggled up again. She seemed to be a very physical girl. She wanted to be touching me all the time.

"Are you like this with everyone?" I asked her.

"No, of course not. I like you though, and you're taking care of me," she said. "I hug around on my brother and dad all the time."

"Your aunt Sarah was like that," I told her. "My family didn't touch much and it took some getting used to."

"Does it bother you?" she asked. "I won't do it if you don't like it."

"I love it," I told her. "Don't ever stop. You make me feel warm all over."

She wiggled closer. We played cards and Trivial Pursuit until dinner. I roasted Cornish hens and baby carrots and we had a baked potato.

"You're a very good cook," she said.

"I like it," I told her. "I don't get to cook for people very much. I'm glad you like to eat. Do you like to do dishes?"

"No," she laughed. "It's only fair though. Put me over by the sink and I'll do my part."

She cleaned up while I went outside and fed the dogs. I stoked the boiler and carried wood to the box. The cold hadn't let up and I made sure we were ready. It looked like snow again.

When I went back inside she was through with the dishes and I carried her to the sofa. I poured her a couple of fingers of good, single-malt Scotch and got some for myself. We looked at old pictures of her aunt Sarah and I.

"She looked just like Mom did," she said. "It's so sad that they're both gone so young."

"Life isn't fair," I told her. "You just have to deal with it."

We had been dancing around the taboo subject of my abilities and she seemed ready to talk about it.

"When did you find out you weren't like other people?" she asked.

"I think when I was about 12," I said. "I could see things that were about to happen around me. It helped me in a lot of ways. I was very good at sports. When you know what the other team is going to do, it becomes easy. I could tell what the right answers were to tests and I did well in school. I went to MIT and the CIA recruited me out of college. I hid what I could do. Mom was the only one that knew and she had those abilities too. She told me about other families. It seems to be genetic. There are about 30 families around the world. Most of us are in the US and Russia. There are some in England and France too and a few scattered in other countries. We were considered witches until modern times."

"How did the CIA find out about you?"

"I was working an operation in Israel. We were driving down the street and I knew there was a car bomb ahead. The only way out was to stop the car. I stopped and the other operative asked me what I was doing. He was a man named Gerald Watts. I told him it was a trap. I walked him through what was going to happen and he didn't believe me. We played it out and took the driver of the car bomb out. He had Watts at gun point and I killed him. He thanked me for saving his life by leading the team that kidnapped me."

"You killed him and the whole team. I didn't know the details."

"They didn't give me a chance. There were 30 of them. I killed eight while they were taking me, four in the truck after they took me and six more at the compound. I got three at the air base, six on the flight and the last three in that room in Macon. Benson lived."

"My God, Macalastair; how could you do that?"

"You mean the method or how do I justify it morally?"

"I was talking about the method. You can answer the other if you want to."

"I can see opportunities. I calculate probabilities. For instance, the guys in the truck made a mistake. One of them got up to get a bottle of water. He crossed in front of the other three and I got my leg shackles around his neck. I crushed his throat and he dropped his gun. I knew where it was going to fall and I rolled on top of it and started shooting behind my back. I wasn't very accurate but it was close quarters."

"Jesus, that's creepy. You knew he was going to get up?

"Yes, they were kidnapping me, Caden. I knew they were going to beat the crap out of me. They waterboarded me 53 times and shot me full of drugs. I don't feel bad about killing them at all. I have the right not to be held against my will. I wasn't harming anyone. I saved Watts' life, for God's sake. I would have saved any one of those men. I have the right not to be tortured and given drugs. If anyone tries to take those rights away I'm going to fight like hell and do anything it takes to keep them from doing it. Do you believe in self-defense, Caden?"

"Yes, I just heard the story different."

"I just told you the way it happened. You can believe me or not."

"Everything I know about you firsthand tells me that you're telling the truth. You're incredibly gentle with me, Macalastair."

"I'm gentle with everyone that lets me be gentle." I told her. "You're nearly helpless. How could I not be gentle."

"Give me my gun back and I won't be helpless."

I decided to do it. She wasn't going to shoot me, at least right away. I got up and got it out of my pack. I handed it to her and she gave it back.

"I didn't really want it," she said. "I was just seeing if you would give it to me. I'll take it when we go in. You keep it for me for now."

I put in on the fireplace mantle. It was late and I carried her up to bed. She pulled the comforter up and wiggled around. The sweatshirt came out and she dropped it on the floor.

I got in and she scooted over against me, her back to me and we fell asleep, back to back. When I woke up the sun was coming up and she had turned to face me. She was hugging me and we were spooned up. I could feel bare breasts against my back and things started stirring. I got up before it got awkward and got dressed. She was still sleeping and I let her stay there until she woke up. I went out to the shop and built a fire in the wood stove there. The dogs came in and laid on the floor and watched me. I thought about making Caden some crutches. I went to the lumber shelves and found what I wanted. I cut and sanded until the rough or sharp edges were gone and screwed them together. They didn't look bad and they were adjustable, but I needed rubber for the foot end. There was an old snowmobile belt around back and I glued rubber tips on the bottoms. She needed padding for under her arms and I found some carpet pad that would work. I covered the pad with leather and stapled it down. They didn't look bad at all.

I cooked breakfast and went upstairs with a tray. She was awake, waiting for me go come and get her. We ate in bed and talked. She was a little careless with the covers and before long one luscious breast was exposed. A little pink nipple was staring at me. The breast was exquisite. It was big and firm and the areola was about the size of a quarter and a little puffy. She saw the direction of my gaze and looked down. She squealed and snatched the covers up.

"You could have told me," she accused.

"Then you would have pulled the covers up," I said.

"You're a bad boy," she said. "Go get me some clean clothes."

I dug around and found another sweatshirt and clean boxers. She pulled the sweatshirt on but not before I got another flash of those amazing breasts. Her face was as red as her hair and she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up.

"Take me to the bathroom," she said, holding the clean boxers in her hand. "I need to shower. I need to pee too."

I carried her downstairs and showed her her crutches. She was delighted with them. We had to adjust the height a little. She was taller than I thought. She went around the room and she could navigate just fine. She went into the bathroom and I read a book.

"What are you reading?" she asked when she came out.

"I'm reading The Abolition of Man," I told her.

"What's it about?"

"Philosophy," I told her.

"The killer philosopher," she said.

That hurt my feelings a little. I turned back to the book and she gasped.

"Jesus, I'm sorry Macalastair. I shouldn't have said that."

"It's ok," I said. It wasn't. I didn't like her feeling that way about me.

She came over and sat by me. She took the book and set it on the coffee table. She took my face in her hands and made me look at her. There were tears in her eyes and they were a smoky grey.

"It isn't ok. I know that hurt. I'm very sorry. You don't deserve that from me. I love my crutches," she sobbed a little. "I'm so sorry, Macalastair."

I couldn't stand it. I pulled her to me and kissed her. She melted into my arms and her slender body shook as she cried. I could taste tears on her lush lips and they moved against mine as she tangled her fingers in my hair and kissed me fiercely. She slid her arms around my neck and climbed on my lap, straddling me as she continued to kiss me, over and over.

She nuzzled into my chest and I held her. "Do you forgive me?" she asked.

"Yes, baby; I'll forgive you for anything if that's the way you apologize," I told her.

"I liked it," she said. "This isn't part of my job, Macalastair. I wanted to do it. Can you tell?"

"Yes, I can always tell."

"That makes me feel odd that I can't lie to you."

"Do you lie often?" I asked her.

"Yes, I lie all the time. That's my job. I almost never lie about personal thing though." She wasn't lying.

She looked up at me and her eyes were blue. "I wish I could tell if people were lying to me."

"It's a curse, Caden. People tell polite lies all the time. Most of the time they don't want you to know and if they think you do it gets very awkward."

"I can imagine. It would be nice if I knew you were telling me the truth. I hate doubting you, but I can't ignore the possibility that you're playing me."

"I know, but there's nothing we can do about it. We'll just have to wait and see. I know you're not playing me. That makes me very happy, Caden."

"Macalastair, I would like very much to make love to you. I can't with the way things are. I know it makes it seem like I don't trust you. I do, I just think you're wrong. Even if every detail went down exactly like you say it did, I don't think it's going to happen like that again."

"I'd like that too. You honor me, Caden. I'll remember. I understand. In your place, I'd feel just like you do. I think you're hopelessly naive, but that's part of your charm. You seem like a wide eyed innocent to me. Keep that as long as you can. Can I at least hold you like this and kiss you? Will you still sleep with me?"

"Yes, I promised you back in the cave I'd let you look. Would you like that?"

"Oh, my God yes. I had a couple of chances, you know. I didn't want to ogle you without your permission."

"You have my permission to ogle. You can even touch a little. Don't try to get me to go any farther. I probably would, but I would hate myself after. I wouldn't like you very much either."

"No, I won't then. I want you to like me."

"I do, more and more every day."

I hugged her close and wrapped her slender form up in my arms. She felt so little and cute I wanted to pet her all over.

"I never thought to ask you, Caden. Do you have a boyfriend or a lover out there? Are you married? Have you been married?"




Winter of Discontent



She laughed. "I'm married to the job. I've had boyfriends, but never anything I was serious about. I dated the same guy all through high school. He wanted us to sleep together before we left for college. I wouldn't and he slept with my best friend to teach me a lesson. I learned it well. Men are cheating bastards that think with their pricks."

"Present company excepted, of course," I said.

"Yes, you surprise me, Macalastair. You've had plenty of opportunities to take advantage of situations and you haven't. I know when you got out of bed this morning you could have stroked me a few times and I'd have let you do anything you wanted. You didn't even look. Thanks for respecting me."

"I don't make people do things they don't want to do," I told her. "I don't even try to make them stop doing things they want to do that I think are bad for them."

"That's the difference between you and me. I want to make people do things they don't want to do if I think it will be good for them."

"I know, but I think it's morally indefensible," I said. "People have the right to go to hell in a hand basket. They own themselves. You either believe that or you believe in slavery. If they want to destroy themselves, they have that right. If they want to take drugs or prostitute themselves, who are you to tell them they can't? You don't own them."

"No, but they do harm to the rest of society. We wind up paying for their stupidity."

"Yes, but the question is, why do we pay for it? We only pay for it because we insist on meddling in things that are none of our affair."

"What if they take drugs and become invalids? Who takes care of them then?"

"No one. They chose that. Let them take care of themselves or die. I never interfere with the destiny people have chosen for themselves."

"You're very persuasive, Mack. Do you mind if I call you Mack?"

"No, I've been that most of my life. Would you mind if I called you Cade?"

"Yes, people do and I hate it. I won't call you Mack."

"No, it's ok, I was really asking, not trying to make a point. I actually love Caden."

"You love me?"

I laughed. "I was talking about your name." I looked down at her and she looked into my eyes and hers were filled with those violet tints. "My God, I do love you, Caden," I blurted out. I instantly regretted it. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that."

"Say it again," she said.

"No, I don't want things to be awkward between us. I'm sorry."

"So, if you love me, that's awkward?"

I realized that it wasn't. She hadn't changed. I couldn't feel any change in her.

"Why doesn't that make you feel awkward," I asked her.

"Well, I think I love you," she said.

She was telling the truth! I tried to kiss her but she wouldn't let me.

"No, Mack; don't do that. I can't right now. It might make me do something I'd regret. Just hold me and don't move for a while. I'm very horny."

Of course, that made me feel like a 16-year-old on my first date. I petted that long flaming hair.

"Caden Rush, I love you," I whispered in her ear.

She stood up. "I told you to just hold me," she said. "I'm going to sit in this chair now." She stumped over to the chair on her crutches.

"I'm in love with a crippled girl," I told her.

She laughed. "Now that's more like it. Tell me a joke."

"A lawyer, a doctor and a rabbi to into this bar," I started.

"Oh, my God," she laughed. "Do you really know a joke that starts like that?"

"No, but I do know one about a lawyer, a doctor and a rabbi." I said. 'A doctor told her patient that he would need a heart transplant. She said, 'You can have a doctor's heart for $10,000, a Rabbi's heart for $25,000 or I can give you a lawyer's heart for $100,000.' The patient asked, 'Why is the lawyer's heart so much more expensive than the others?' 'Well,' the doctor said, 'we have to go through a lot of lawyers to find a heart.'"

She laughed hysterically. "That was a good one, Macalastair. You know I'm a lawyer, right?"

"Yes, me too," I said. "That doesn't mean it isn't true. Do you know why snakes won't bite lawyers?"

"No, why?"

"Professional curtesy," I said.

She liked that one too. "I'm ok now," she said. "I'm coming back to your lap."

She stumped over and curled up on me. She felt like a kitten wiggling around to get comfortable.

"How long do I have to be in this cast?"

"I think six weeks," I told her. "I'm a lawyer, not a doctor."

She laughed again. I loved hearing that husky little laugh.

"I can't wait six weeks," she said. "I'll go crazy. What do you do here, Mack? Doesn't it drive you crazy?"

"Caden, except for the three months I was married to Sarah and before my mother died when I was sixteen, I've always been pretty much alone. I'm happy in my own company. I have Sam and Bella. I have my books, I hunt and fish, I go to Hammerfest once a month and sometimes I have a drink and talk to people. I occasionally meet a lady and ask her out. I'm never bored. There's too much to do when you live this far north."

"You have no telephone, no internet, no computer and no television," she said. "How do you get news?"

"I don't give a damn about the news," I said. "I do have a computer. I have a television and a Play Station 4 too. I own thousands of movies."

"When were you going to tell me about this?"

"I wasn't. I'm having too much fun talking to you."

"That's flattering but I want to watch a movie. Where is your stuff?"

I opened the door to the basement and waited for her to stump over. "I can't go down the stairs," she said. "You're going to have to carry me."

She held her crutches in one hand and I picked her up. I took advantage of the opportunity to squeeze her butt. I'd been dying to get my hands on it anyway. It felt amazing. It was very hard and I could tell she was very strong.

She gasped. "Stop that," she said. "You're horrible."

"No," I told her. "I'm going to do this every time I carry you from now on."

She let me get a good squeeze in and wiggled it provocatively. I set her down at the bottom of the stairs and she looked around.

"Jesus, Macalastair, you have quite a setup here."

I have a huge TV, a very good sound system and a big recliner in front of it. There are shelves full of movies and some with games.

"What games do you have?" she asked.

"Skyrim is my favorite," I told her. "I have Madden football, an NBA game, Grand Theft Auto, Saint's Row and some shooters. Are you a gamer?"

"Yes, but I mostly play the combat games."

"I have Call of Duty. You want to play?"

She did, and we played coop and against each other. "It's more fun online," she said. "You're too good for me."

"Well, being online means girls from the Special Operations Group drop in on you uninvited," I told her.

We were sitting together in the recliner and she punched me. "Yes, and one of them is going to show you the time of your life as soon as she can walk."

"I enjoy carrying her," I said. "She lets me play with her butt. It's fantastic!"

She punched me again. "I told you to stop! You did it anyway."

"It was your call of Duty to stop me."

She gave a disgusted sigh. "You're an idiot, Mack. The pun is the lowest form of humor."

"On the contrary," I told her. "Frequent punning is a sign of genius."

"Save me, God," she said. "I want to eat popcorn and watch a movie."

"Don't you want to eat dinner first?"

"Well, yes, now that you mention it. What are we having?"

"Chicken ala King," I said.

"I don't know what that is," she admitted.

"Wait and be surprised then," I told her. "Play something on the computer or on the PlayStation and I'll have it ready in an hour."

I made biscuits first and popped them in the oven. I made more than we needed so we could eat them for dessert. The secret to good biscuits is a crispy bottom, a moist center and a flaky top. You get the last two by not working the dough too much. Shorting in the bottom of the pan makes them crispy. I cooked the chicken and made the gravy. We had green peas and I cooked those too. Thyme, shallots, dry sherry, parsley, onion and heavy cream along with salt and red and black pepper went inside the pot. It needed to simmer for a while and I turned it down. The mushrooms were sautéed and ready to go in.

When the biscuits were done, I mixed the other parts and left them to simmer. I made cinnamon and honey butter and got out some grape jelly. I went down to get Caden and she paused her game. She stumped over to the stairs and tried to go up. It wasn't working.

"I think you could go down easily, but not up," I said.

"Now you tell me," she grumbled. "So help me God, Macalastair, if you touch my butt I'm going to stab you with my fork at dinner."

I didn't touch her butt. I picked her up and knelt down with her across my knee. I kissed her thoroughly and she melted. She clung to me and her lips were alive against mine. When I squeezed her butt she didn't even notice. I carried her upstairs and all the way to the bar while she refused to stop kissing me. I put her down on the barstool and she finally let me go.

I got the biscuits out of the oven and asked her if she wanted one or two. She decided to start with one since she didn't know if she would like it.

"It smells delicious though," she said. "Where did you learn to cook like this?"

I've always known," I told her. "I just pick things that I know are right for what I want to do."

"You're a big fat cheater!" She couldn't believe it. "You mean your abilities make you a good cook?"

"No, they help me know how much of what I should put in. They don't give me the original ideas."

"It's still cheating," she thought.

"Did your grandmother knowing how to cook without a recipe because of her experience make you think she was cheating?"

"No, but you used a key word here; 'experience.' She got her ability to do that by experience."

"I just get my experience beforehand. The result is that same. Give it a try."

She cut her biscuit up and took a bite.

"Well?" I asked.

"You don't have to fish for compliments," she said. "You know it's delicious. I'm going to want two after all."

We ate all we wanted and I buttered biscuits with cinnamon butter. I buttered more with normal butter and put grape jelly on them. The coffee was ready and I got two mugs and took them downstairs. When I came back up I put the biscuits on a tray and took them down. She tried going down the stairs and managed to master the trick.

She had picked out the movie. It was one of those star-crossed lovers' tragic romances. I can't imagine what possessed me to buy it. I hated it, but I didn't tell Caden. We ate biscuits and drank coffee. I fed her and she liked the cinnamon butter best. She wept and laughed and wept again as the movie unfolded. She sobbed as the hero made his last tragic and maudlin statement.

"Oh, my God, that was so sad, Macalastair. Wasn't that a great movie?"

She clung to me and kissed me for a long time. "I loved the ending," I told her.

She finally quit crying and we cuddled for a while. She was tired and I took her upstairs. When my hands slid down, she didn't object and I held her butt in my hands as I climbed the stairs.

"I see you've become reconciled," I said.

"Yes, I actually kind of like it," she said. "I just don't like men treating me like a sex object."

"You mean men you don't intend to have sex with?"

"Yes. Of course I want the men I intend to have sex with to treat me like that."

I put her down and she hobbled off to the bathroom to shower. I brought her clean clothes down and knocked on the door. "Just throw them in," she called. I did although I wanted to go in and get in the shower with her. When she came out I showered and carried her upstairs. I put her in bed and crawled in. Her t-shirt came out from under the covers and she curled up with her back to my chest. I could feel that fantastic butt against me and her naked back against my chest.

She looked up at me and her eyes were pure violet. "Don't take me, Mack. No matter what I say, ok?"

I nodded and she pulled my arm over her and placed my hand on her left breast.

"You can feel it," she said.

I cupped it in my palm and lifted it up, feeling the weight in my hand. It was large and heavy and very firm. She still had the resilience of youth and there wasn't an inch of sag in spite of their weight. It kept its shape, even lying on her side. I ran my finger around the areola in a circle and it crinkled up a little. I felt the puffiness forming a little miniature cone. I touched the little nipple and she shivered. I rolled it between my thumb and forefinger and she moaned and shuddered. She spun over and clung to me, her body seeking mine and I held her in my arms. Her passion rose and she tried to slide down. I held her firmly and kissed her firmly.

"No, Caden!" I told her. "Relax; rest, it's time to sleep. Turn back over, baby and let me just hold you."

The violet fire smoldered and died in her eyes. She kissed my lips. "Thank you, Macalastair," she said. "You're the sweetest man I've ever met."

She rolled back over and snuggled in. I held her breast in my hand and we slept. In the morning, there was a change in her. She was no longer sure of herself. She was beginning to trust me and that made her question her assumptions about what the CIA was going to do when they found me. She didn't know what to think.

She became even more physical with me. She constantly rubbed herself against me and touched me whenever I was close. She kissed me fifty times a day and her eyes glowed every time she looked at me. It was driving me crazy and I decided to alter our timetable. As soon as I did, the possibilities shifted around and I didn't see her getting hurt anymore. Instead I saw that there was little likelihood that I would get out unscathed. The way with the least damage involved her shooting a CIA agent.

I told her I had been thinking about a way to move things along as soon as she could use her walking boot. She was all in favor of that. Anything that took the load of doubt and anxiety off her mind was good the way she saw it.

"I'm on edge all the time, Mack," she told me. "I need to get this over with one way or another. If it turns out like you think it will I'll know what to do. If it turns out like I think it will you'll go with me and everything will be good too."

"Let's suppose it turns out like you want it to," I said. "What, exactly, do you think is going to happen?"

"I think we'll come in, we'll meet with some top people and you can tell them what they need to know. Would you mind if we ran some tests on you?"

"I'm not a lab rat, Caden."

"No, of course you aren't. What if it would help people?"

"I would like to help people in the abstract. How much of my life do I have the responsibility to give up to help other people? Where will the tests be run and will I be free to quit if I feel like the demands are unreasonable?"

"I'll fight for that, Macalastair," she said. "If those aren't the conditions, we won't do it."

"If they won't agree to those conditions, what are you going to do?" I asked her.

"I'll help you walk out."

"What if they won't let me go?"

"We'll shoot our way out. I'm not a monster, Mack. I don't want you tortured or held prisoner."

"Are you really willing to do that? Will you shoot a fellow agent?"

"Yes, if he's violating your rights. I won't let anyone hurt you."

"Ok, supposing they want to play nice. What's going to happen to you?"

"I'll ask to be assigned to the project. We can't do any testing here. Where would you be willing to go?"

"I'd be willing to go to Reykjavik or Geneva."

"Why there?"

"I can protect myself there."

"Well, I don't see what that would be a problem. I'm kind of dancing around something here. Do you think you will want to be with me afterward?"

"You mean if it goes well and they agree that I get to call the shots?"

"Yes, that's what I mean."

"Will you want to be with me if it doesn't go well?' I asked her.

"I won't have anywhere else to turn," she said. "Damn it, Macalastair, I'm trying to get you to say something. Here I am, head over heels in love with you and you won't even tell me you'll let me be with you." She began to cry and I felt like a heel. We were sitting on the sofa and I pulled her down and she lay on my lap with my arm supporting her head.

"I want to be with you no matter what happens, baby," I told her. I pushed her hair back and cupped her cheek in my hand. I traced one of those high cheekbones and marveled at the little dusting of freckles across her cheeks and her nose.

She stopped crying and held my hand against her face.

"That's what I wanted you to say. When will we begin?"

"As soon as you get off your crutches. I'd say another week or two. We can start getting ready right away. I think we could leave for Oslo soon. It will take us a while to get there this time of year. Especially if we don't want to attract any attention."

"Tell me about it," she asked.

The only way out from where I live is by snowmobile. We would need to ride over to Hammerfest. It's a 22 hour drive from there to Oslo. This wasn't the time of year to try the drive. Besides, I explained to her, we'd have to pass through multiple countries. Caden had no papers, and although I could fix that in Oslo, I didn't have that ability at home.

We would need to fly and if someone was looking for us, that was risky. It was a risk I felt like we could take. We would be on the move and Norway just isn't an important enough country for the US to have many assets here. I had two safe places in Oslo. One of them was perfect.

As soon as she could use her walking boot we packed our bags for traveling and I promised to get her clothes in Hammerfest. We couldn't take guns. I put 500 pounds in the self-feeders for the dogs. I knew a native I could pay to come and check on them. They knew him from previous trips and wouldn't eat him.

When we got ready to leave, Caden cried. "I wish we could stay here forever," she wept. "I love this place. This is where I met you."

"I'm all for that," I told her. "This is all your idea. I was here before you came, remember?"

"I can't," she agonized. "I can't live with not knowing. It would drive me crazy. I can't be with you like I want to without knowing. Do you understand?"

"Sort of," I told her. "It's different with me. I don't have to take things on faith so I really don't know what you're feeling. I wish you'd just believe me."

"I do believe you," she said.

I hadn't known that. It surprised me and shocked me a little. "So tell me again why we're going?

"I think the situation has changed," she said. "I was just supposed to talk to you. I didn't have any orders to kidnap you."

"I think they were using you Caden. They thought I would have a soft spot for you because of your connection to Sarah. How else do you explain the team they sent with you?"

"I can't explain them. I don't know what their orders were. I assumed it was to protect me."

"From me? Did you imagine that I would be a danger to you?"

"What if I had come and knocked on your door? Would you have been glad to see me?"

"Decidedly not, but I wouldn't have reacted violently. If you had come with Benson I would have shot first and asked questions later. Why in God's name did they send him? They had to have known I would have killed him on sight and anyone with him."

"He was part of the support team. He wasn't part of the team that was going to make contact with you. Once we located you I was tasked to personally approach you solo."

"Ok, we'll see where that goes. You've completed your mission. All you have to do is bring me in. I'm going voluntarily. If anyone tries to make it involuntary I'm going to take it personally."

We got out the snowmobiles and after the first 15 minutes, Caden began to get the hang of it. Snowmobiles are very fast, capable of automobile speeds in the open. At least, mine are. As she became more familiar with the balance our speed was upward of 50mph. In an hour and a half we were in Hammerfest and we parked our machines at the house of the native that would be looking after the dogs.




Winter of Discontent



We walked downtown and she got the rudimentary clothes she needed. "I'm going to be glad to have a bra," she said. "Another six weeks and my boobs would be down around my knees."

I squeezed one. "Feels so amazingly firm to me that I think you don't need to worry about that," I told her.

"I wasn't really worried about that," she said. "Jesus, lighten up. Mack.'

It was a long flight to Oslo. It was late afternoon when we got in and we caught a cab to the waterfront. There's an old cannery there that looks like it's rusting away. Those are carefully cultivated looks. It's actually in very good shape, structurally. The interior is dry and clean. There is a very good fence around it and I had mined it years ago when I first acquired it. Walking around the grounds inside was dangerous to the uninvited. The gate was electric and swung on high grade steel. When it was closed it was reinforced by two four inch steel bars that closed and interlocked. You couldn't just drive through it.

The fence, itself, was steel, ten feet high with razor wire on top and I could electrify it. There were two inch steel rods between the fence posts with caltrops built into the bottom of the fence. I punched in the code and the gate swung open.

It closed in 30 seconds and I punched in another code on a garage door. We walked in and I turned the generators on. The buildings aren't hooked up to utilities but I have two 2500 kilowatt Cummins diesel generators. The lights came on and I led her through the factory. It's all metal on the exterior and it looks rusty, but the metal is sound. A contracting crew works on it all the time, replacing the metal that is rusted through with carefully, superficially rusted replacements. The complex is nearly half a mile long and it butts up against the fjord on the far end. There's a dock inside and I have a 41-foot retired US Coast Guard UTB tied up there. There were a dozen gates through steel wire partitions that required codes before we reached the area where I had made living arrangements. I fired up the heaters and we soon had the area livable. I showed Caden around and she was impressed. There was a nice kitchen, a bedroom, a library, a communications center and an armory there.

I replaced her 9mm with a 45ACP in the same model and got myself another. We didn't need long arms yet and we left them alone. We needed to go shopping and I took her to get the Volvo truck we had passed on the way in. We bought groceries and five prepaid cell phones. I would use them and then throw them away.

Caden made the first call and events began to unfold. Her superiors had no idea she was alive or what had happened to their team. They had no location on the chopper crash and Caden couldn't tell them where it had gone down. She told them she had made contact with me and that I was ready to talk. They needed 48 hours to set it up and we agreed to meet at the ferry terminal. She told them we would call and what time to expect it.

We had driven 20 miles away from the factory and she threw the phone in the trash. We drove four blocks down the street and settled in to wait. It took them four hours to get someone there. Two men eventually showed up. They canvassed the area and finally located the phone in the trash. I asked Caden if she knew either of them, but they were new to her. I suspected that they were local assets and when we followed them it turned out that they were police. We waited again and when they got off shift we followed one of them home. I had a cable TV uniform and I carried a clipboard up to his apartment. When he answered the door I hit him with the taser. He went down and I picked him up and carried him out to the truck. We strapped him down and drove three miles away.

He recovered and we questioned him. Caden had on a ski mask and she handled the questions using a voice modulator. She was bundled up until you couldn't tell her sex and she was wearing dark glasses. I didn't care if he recognized me.

"Who contacted you and what were your orders," she asked him. She was very sinister and he was plainly terrified. He appeared to be even more afraid of her than he was of me.

He gave us the name of his contact and told us that he had been ordered to find us but not to make contact. They had traced the call location and he and his partner had gone there to get eyes on us. When they found the phone they realized that it was a burner and that we weren't in the area. They had no orders to harm us and they were not to make contact, merely observe.

I duct taped his hands behind his back and put a strip over his eyes and we pushed him out. I drove back to the factory complex and we unloaded our groceries.

We nuked pizza and settled in to wait.

"I think it's a good sign that they didn't send snipers or a team to capture you," she said. "The lunatics aren't running the asylum anymore,"

"It's an encouraging start," I conceded. "I don't see any long term change though."

She counseled patience and I have plenty of that. When I get to spend time talking to Caden, I have all the patience in the world. The time passed quickly and we drove 10 miles in the other direction. She made the call and we set up a meet time at the ferry terminal.

I put together a plan and we went over it. She was to wait in the truck. I was going to hack into the terminal network and she would be able to watch over their security system. I was going in dressed to change my appearance three times. I wore a hat and sunglasses, a reversible jacket and a sweater over my shirt.

I parked outside and started hacking their wifi.

"How are you doing that," she asked. "How do you know their passwords?"

"I don't," I told her. "I just type the letters that are right. I can tell which ones they are."

"Damn," she said. "I wish I could do that."

"I'll lay hands on you later and impart the gift," I told her.

She laughed. "I can't believe you still have the ability to joke around at this stage. Be careful in there, Mack. I don't want to lose you." She clung to me and kissed me for a long time.

"Nothing is going to happen to me in there," I assured her. "I'll be out in 33 minutes."

"Are you sure? Is this something you know or you just trying to make me feel better?"

"No, I can tell."

We had a two-way radio hookup and we checked it. I put in our earpieces and we were good to go.

I got out and walked in. There were hundreds of people milling around and I hung back along the wall until she told me she had me spotted. I had to assume that they were watching the same feed but I kept my face down so they couldn't use facial recognition software on me. She spotted our contact and told me where she was. It was a woman she knew. She thought highly of her and I checked the area out.

"There are three more with her," I told Caden. "The man reading the hot rod magazine on the bench, the blonde on the second phone from the right and the guy in the trench coat at the store. I'm going to approach her."

I walked the long way around the room and stood behind a column out of sight of the camera.

"Mack, I can't see you," Caden said in my ear.

"I know, neither can they. I'm going to call her."

"Where are you?" the woman asked when she answered the phone.

"I'm behind you. Don't turn around. What's your name?"

"Melinda Crane; don't play games with me, Slate. You set this up."

"Yes, you came looking for me. What do you want?"

"We want information. The situation got out of hand in Jaffa. The cowboys were running the show. We regret what happened to you there. If you'll stay in contact with us, we just want to run intel by you. If our relationship is working out and you feel like you can trust us we'd like to run tests on you. Anything you don't feel good about, we pull the plug."

"What about your three buddies? They want to play nice too?"

"Two of them do. The blonde one thinks you're dangerous and weird. She won't do anything about it. She's not very decisive."

"Will you walk out of here with me by yourself? You won't let them tail you?"

"Yes, I'll tell them you've agreed to talk to me but you don't want any company."

"You're lying, Miss Crane. Not about your three buddies, but they have some way of tracing you."

"I was hoping you wouldn't catch that," she chuckled. "I have a chip in my neck. They'll know where I am, but they won't come within five miles of me. Those are the orders. If you kill me, they'll know and come for you. I don't exactly trust you either."

"How many people do you have here?"

"Those three plus twelve more."

"Good, you didn't lie. Tell them you're leaving and walk out the exit marked K. Walk down Kelly Street to Pine. Turn north and I'll meet you."

She stood up and held her hand to her ear. I saw her talking and she pulled out the earpiece. Her agents looked the crowd over, but I had turned my back and was walking out exit D. I stopped beside a kiosk and left the glasses. I turned my jacket inside out and watched her. No one was following her. I guess they were depending on the chip.

My street paralleled hers and when she turned on Pine we met in the middle of the block. There were several people on the sidewalk and she didn't recognize me. I walked up behind her.

"Melinda, I have a .45 aimed at your back," I said. "Just stand here and wait." I called Caden in and the truck pulled up.

I made her get in the back and when we were in, I pinned her to the side of the truck. I searched her and took a 9mm out from under her coat and a .32 out of an ankle holster.

"If you wanted to feel me up, you could have just asked," she said.

"If you didn't want to be felt up, you could have given me the weapons," I replied. "Ok, sit down and relax."

Caden drove through the streets and pulled up at the complex. She opened the gate and the door and drove in. When she opened the door Melinda and I got out. Caden hugged her.

"I'm glad you're alive," Melinda said. "When your chopper didn't show we thought you must have found Slate and he took you all out."

"He didn't have anything to do with the helicopter going down," Caden told her. "Benson heard that he had been seen in Hammerfest. He pulled a gun on us and said Macalastair was too dangerous to be allowed to live. Davis jumped him and he shot the pilot by accident. We crashed and I was the only one that survived. Macalastair found me. I had a concussion and a broken leg. You can see the cast. I was freezing to death and he saved my life. He's been nursing me all this time and he agreed to meet with us because I asked him too. He saved my life, Melinda. I believe he's telling the truth about what happened in Jaffa and in Macon. The team was torturing him. He killed them to get away."

"It doesn't matter," Melinda said. "That isn't going to happen again. We have three high priority assets and we want to run them by him. What happened before will go away if he helps us. These are terrorists that we believe are part of two groups planning to kidnap and execute American citizens."

"That's all you want?" I asked.

"No, we want you to be available to do that any time we need you."

"Where would this happen?" I asked.

"It could be here if that's what you want," she said. "There's more. We know what you have is a recessive gene combination. We would like to do some medical tests on you to see if it can be replicated and what the conditions might be. It would be helpful if we had other test subjects. As we move along and you find out we can be trusted, would you be willing to reveal other names?"

"There's no way in hell that's going to happen," I said.

"Please, Mack," Caden pleaded. "Don't be like that. I know you won't sell out your friends. Would you be willing to ask them if they would voluntarily participate?"

I couldn't resist her. "I'll ask them, but I won't tell you any names without the permission of the people involved and I want to monitor them. I want to make sure they aren't being spirited off somewhere to be tortured."

"We couldn't ask for any more," Melinda said.

"Ok, what's next?" I asked. "What will you do, both of you girls, if you find out this is an elaborate scheme to get hold of me, force me to reveal the names and round us all up?"

"I'll fight for you," Caden said. "Melinda, what about you? What if they've taken us younger agents and fed us a line and that's what they're really planning?"

"I won't work for people like that. I'll defend you with my own life, Macalastair."

"You're going to survive," I told her. "Do you want to be with Caden and I or do you want it to look like I shot you and left you alive?"

"What the hell are you talking about," she said. Her voice had an edge of fear in it. "If you got me here to kill me, they'll never stop hunting you."

"They aren't patient people," I said. "I would have gone along just to ease Caden's mind. You would have got the intel you wanted on the terror suspects and I would have let you do the tests. Are there really terrorists, or do you think that was a ruse too?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said. "There was no ruse."

"Yes, there was," I said. "I know you're telling the truth. It's like I told Caden, they're playing you. You need to answer my question, Malinda."

"I want to be with you," she said. "What's going on?"

"Look," I pointed at the monitors. There were 12 of them. They were dressed in urban camouflage and they had assault weapons. They were getting out of an RV parked across the street from the gate. I could see demolition charges in the hands of two of them. They ran across the street and placed them against the gatepost.

"Melinda, let's see how committed you are," I said. "Flip the big yellow switch there. We need them all down so they can't follow us or track us."

She pulled the relay and the lights dimmed as the fence took the charge. "Arm yourselves with whatever you like," I told them. "Grab your stuff and put it in the boat."

"What are you going to do?" Caden asked.

"I'm going to blow them up," I said. "It's likely that they won't come in without being drawn in. We can't afford much of a fire fight."

I took an M16 and a Remington combat shotgun. "Stay here until I get back," I told them.

"No, don't leave," Caden clutched at me. "Don't leave me here, Macalastair. You're not doing this."

"You can't run, baby," I told her. "I'm going to need to run."

She clung to me and Melinda looked at her, comprehension beginning to dawn in her eyes. "So that's the way it is," she said. "I didn't know, Caden. I'll go with him."

I knew she was going to say that. This was where we were both going to get hurt.

"Caden, go get in the boat and get it started. Don't raise the doors. We'll ram them off with the boat. We'll need hot water and bandages. Painkillers and blood are in the refrigerator over there. Bring it all." I kissed her and Malinda and I jogged off.

We were halfway to the garage when I heard the thump of the explosives. I knew they wouldn't take the gate down with what they had. They would try to use the RV and two of them were going to be electrocuted. We left the gates open and hurried toward the garage. There was a crash and the lights went out. They came back up as breakers tripped and I knew they were probably in.

There were screams outside and two explosions as someone hit the caltrops and two mines exploded. A ram thumped the door three times and it began to sag. I put six rounds through it and someone screamed again. The door was badly bent and the next thump brought it down. I was shooting and I heard Malinda fire bursts. They came swarming through and we got three before they located our position and returned fire. We fell back and Melinda took a bullet low through her belly, just above her hipbone.

I snatched her up and slammed a gate behind us. As I trotted down the walkway I got hit in the back, just under my left shoulder blade and to the outside. It felt like I had been kicked by a mule and it staggered me. I made it through another gate and there was a firing positon there. I put Malinda down and we took five more of them at the first gate. Two more went down at the second and they were going to overrun us. Malinda could run, after a fashion and we limped along, leaking blood as we ran. Four more gates closed behind us and we were in the living area.

I led her down a flight of stairs and we heard the diesels of the boat idling ahead. I pulled the switch and the 1 minute timer started. Malinda had climbed aboard and I struggled up the ladder myself.

"Go," I shouted at Caden. "Smash through the doors and take us far away from here. Find an island between us and here and put some distance into it before you stop.

"You're bleeding," she froze. "Oh God, you're both bleeding."

"Go or we're going to die here," I shouted.

She thrust the throttles forward and the big boat surged ahead. We crashed through the doors and made fifty yards before the explosions started. It started near the gate and progressed down the building. Fire rolled 50 feet in the air and the building blew apart. We were two hundred yards away when the blast wave hit us. The boat reeled from the shock and the whole complex was a roaring inferno.

Caden kept driving and I looked at Malinda's wound. It was serious but she was going to live. I didn't feel like I would. By the time I had treated her, my head was swimming. My whole right side was stiff and bloody and it was running down my back. The floor came up and hit me as I heard Caden scream. I couldn't remember lying down, but the deck felt wonderful. I would just close my eyes for a minute.

When I woke up we weren't running. The boat generators were running and it was warm but the engines had been shut down. I was lying on something soft. There was a pillow under my head and a blanket over me. I looked up and there was a deck chair sitting beside me. Caden was sitting in it. She heard me stir and she knelt beside me. I tried to reach up and pet her. She was crying and she looked like she had been crying for a while.

"My shoulder hurts like hell and my right arm doesn't work," I told her.

"You were shot," she said. "I got the bullet out. It was under the skin on your pectoral. You've lost a lot of blood. I didn't know what type to give you."

"It's all O negative," I told her. "We can all take that."

She jumped up and got a bag and tube out of the refrigerator. She started an IV in my arm and gave me two pills to swallow. One was an antibiotic capsule and one was a pain pill. She opened a bottle of water and I swallowed them down. In fifteen minutes I was feeling better.

Do you think you can get up and get in a bunk?" she asked.

"Yes, I think so. Where's Melinda?"

"She's in bed. We need to get her some blood too. She didn't lose as much as you. We tried to get you in bed but you weigh a ton, Mack. We might lift your weight but we couldn't find any handles."

I laughed and it hurt. She helped me up and I leaned on her while my head spun and the deck tilted around me. I felt better and she took me to the bunks. There were five and Melinda was in one of the others. She was asleep and we didn't wake her.

Caden made sure I was comfortable and went to get the bedding they had put on the deck for me. She put it back on the bunk and went to get a bag of blood and an IV line for Melinda. She woke her up and got the blood drip started. She pulled a chair over between us and sat down.

"We need to talk," she said. "I don't know what our next move is. We're going to be hunted. Do you think they can find us."

"They can find me," Malinda said. "They just have to find the chip."

"What's the range?" I asked.

"Less than 10 miles. If we had a scalpel we could take it out."

"We do have a scalpel," I told her, "but I think we should leave it in for now. You've lost enough blood. They don't know we're at sea; there are thousands of islands out here and thousands of boats too. They'd have to get very lucky."




Winter of Discontent



I thought about it for a minute. "No, they aren't going to find us. It looks like we're going to find them."

"What do you mean," Caden asked. "Are you doing the prophet thing?"

"Yes, but I can't figure out why you want to find them."

"I don't," she said. "Malinda, are you planning to contact someone?"

"No, I'm planning to lay here and heal. I'm dying here, Caden. I need to sleep."

Caden moved her chair over by me. We talked quietly for a while.

"Macalastair, I need to say something to you," she said.

"What is it, baby?"

"I was wrong," she said. "I should have listened to you. We should have stayed at Hammerfest. I'm very sorry. I trusted you, but I had to know."

"I understand, Caden. I was wrong too. Evidently there are some people in the agency that are straight. Malinda was and maybe we can find others. You two give me hope. If we can get enough people like you two, if we can find some sort of leverage, maybe we can do something about the situation."

"I know you just did this for me," she started to cry. "You knew you were going to get hurt and you did it anyway because I wanted you to. God, I love you, Mack. I never dreamed I'd know a man like you. I can't believe you. I've never heard of anyone that would just deliberately take a bullet to prove a point. I thought you were going to die, Mack. You were unconscious and bleeding all over the place. You scared me to death. Don't ever do something like that again, no matter what I want. I'll never doubt you again. I know how much you love me. You just showed me. Tell me."

"I love you Caden," I told her. "I'll always love you. Don't cry now. I don't want you to be sad."

"I'm not sad about anything but that you're hurt and I can't make love to you," she said. "What are we going to do, Mack?"

"We need to get somewhere safe. I have another location in Oslo. We need to get there and I'm going to lean on you a lot. You're going to have to do most of the heavy lifting."

"I'll take care of it," she said. "What do you want me to do?"

"We have to stay out of sight. You need to cover up that hair. Wear a hat everywhere you go. That's your most distinguishing feature. Well, except for your butt."

She laughed. "You're incorrigible, Mack. Just tell me what to do."

"I have a boat slip at Sentrum, We need to get there and you need to catch a bus back to Oslo." I gave her the address. "It's a jeweler and he has a store in the front. I'm going to give you a key. It's to a door in the back of the shop. His name is Jacobs. Through the door is a whole complex. It's an old building that was used for a lot of different things. There's a garage door in the back and a car in there. Get the car and come get us. We'll go from there."

"Ok, I'll get started. Are you ok? Do you need anything?"

"I just need to sleep. Wake me up when you get back with the car."

I gave her the key and she went up. I heard the engines rumble to life and I could feel that we were underway. I drifted off and the dreams weren't good. It was a big black thing and Caden dragged me out of it. It was dark outside and she was stroking my face.

"Wake up, Mack," she said. "I have the car. We need to wake Malinda up and go."

Malinda was in a lot of pain when she woke up and we gave her pain medication. In thirty minutes we got her up and we made it to the car. We were quite a trio, one limped along on a broken leg and two of us were shot. We put Malinda in the back so she could lie down and I climbed in front with Caden. She drove and it took us 30 minutes to get back to the shop. We entered through the garage and we had to wake Malinda up again. We got the heat going and sat in the car until it warmed up.

We all needed to shower and use the restroom. There was a half bath upstairs and we helped Malinda into it. Caden found her some clothes and we went back downstairs. I gave her directions and we got everything up and running. By that time, Malinda was done and Caden helped her to bed. She came back down and I told her I was going to shower. She helped me take off the bandage and put another on with plastic taped over it. I was fairly mobile so I got in the shower. I heard the bathroom door open and someone moving around.

"Caden, what are you doing?" I asked.

The shower door opened and she stepped in. "I'm going to share your shower," she said.

My eyes roamed and she let me look. This was really the first time I had gotten to see her completely naked. She was spectacular. She was one of those redheads that tan. She was a golden brown all over except where she obviously wore a bikini. Her flesh was a clear, paler golden where it had covered her breasts and butt. She had freckles on her chest and I saw that she was a true redhead. There was a little V of closely trimmed flame colored curls at the top of her thighs. She was slender and muscular at the same time. Her slim hips had a flair into her little round butt and she came and stood under the water with it pressed against me. I soaped her up with my good hand and explored her everywhere. She leaned back into me and spread her legs, giving me access. She moaned and writhed as I caressed her. I could feel wetness and heat as I slid my finger up and down her pussy lips, seeking out the little bud of her clitoris with my index finger and stroking it. I felt it swell under my finger and I manipulated it firmly. Her hips began to churn and a groan of completion came within minutes. She shuddered and held my hand against her.

"Oh my God, I needed that, Mack. I need you inside me!"

"You'll kill me," I told her. "I'm not in shape for that."

She spun to face me. "I'll do all the work. You just enjoy."

She washed me thoroughly, dried us both off and led me to bed. I lay on my back and groaned as her luscious lips closed around me. Her head bobbed and I felt her tongue swirling around the sensitive rim of the helmet inside her scalding mouth.

"Jesus, Mack," she looked up at me. Her eyes were pure violet. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

"Is that a pun?" I laughed.

"No," she giggled. "I don't know very much, lover. You're huge all over. You're my third time. It's going to be slow and careful."

She moved astride, careful to avoid hurting my shoulder. She kissed me for a long time before she moved around and fed me one of those hard little pink nipples. When I pulled it into my mouth and flipped it up and down with my tongue she shuddered and moaned. The other must have been lonely because she immediately sought the same treatment for it. I held her down and wouldn't let this one go. She had the most beautiful nipples I had ever seen. They were just little nubs, but they capped the most erotic looking areolas. They were pale pink, almost invisible against her skin but they were slightly puffy and thick, forming their own tiny feature on the tip of each big breast. They were so sexy that I didn't think I could ever get enough. I let her switch again and she came, grinding her little pink pussy lips against my throbbing cock and claiming my lips with hers again.

She gazed into my eyes, hers that deep blue with streaks of smoky violet in them. "Damn, Mack; that's twice you've made me cum and you aren't even inside me yet. I've been burning up waiting for this and I'm so horny that I'm about to die. Quit controlling me! I don't like to be held like that. Well, I did like it, but I'm already scared to death and you aren't helping. You're going to hurt me at first. It's been a while for me. I'm not going to do this if you don't let me control it. I need to go very slow and you need to be very gentle; not holding me down like that. I'll let you do that when I'm ready for it, ok?"

I really hadn't meant to scare her. "Yes, baby; I'll let you drive. I don't ever want to hurt you or scare you. I was just playing. I just want to make love to you now. I don't want anything else. Sometime I'm going to fuck you like a jackhammer, but I want this sweet and slow too."

She kissed me again for a long time. "You've never been anything but gentle with me," she said. "I'm just a little scared. I'll be ok."

She eased herself down and I felt the wetness of her pussy kiss the head of my cock; the lips parting and sliding around the head. I could feel her stretch tightly over it and the pressure was extreme. She trembled a little and drew in a deep breath. My cock was as hard as an iron bar and it was a good thing. She would have bent me double if it wasn't. She kept pushing slowly harder and I felt her stretch and part over me as the head slid inside. She was dripping wet and that eased the entry. She stopped and lay on me, her little body trembling. I wrapped my arms around her and held her close. She was so soft and her skin was so silky, but it was like holding one large muscle in my arms. I ran my hands all over her back, feeling the muscles flex under a soft layer near the skin. I cupped her butt in my hands and she flexed it, making it jump under my fingers. That roundness stuck up three inches from the small of her back and it was amazing to look at and feel under my fingers.

We kissed for a long time and she slowly stopped trembling. She scooted down a little and a couple of inches slipped in, making her start the trembling again. 

"Jesus, Mack; this is even harder than I thought. I think I'm going to love it once I get used to it, but it feels like you're tearing me apart! I think going slow is like getting in cold water slowly. I'm just going to do it!"

She pushed herself down in one long, slow stroke until I felt the my pubic hair mesh with hers. She made a squeal of pain and there were tears in her eyes as she looked at me. "Christ that hurt," she shuddered. "I know you took a bullet for me, Mack. It must seem like I'm being a little pussy here."

"Yes baby, you are a little pussy, literally. Just rest for a minute. You're so hot and tight and wet. I've never felt anything so good."

She lay with her big breasts crushed against my chest, her hard nipples poking holes in me. When she was ready I felt her bring her knees up and her hips moved up a couple of inches before driving back down. She reversed direction when she felt her pelvic bone on mine and found a rhythm. She was amazingly flexible, her hips pumping up and down while she rubbed her breasts over my chest and kept her lips on mine. She began to lose concentration on kissing me as her breathing began to quicken into pants and moans of pleasure. I knew I wasn't going to last long in this exquisite girl and I was glad she came easily. She began to quiver in my arms and her rhythm faltered as she went stiff, forcing herself down on me as deeply as she could and making short, convulsive thrusts. She threw her head back, the long waves of fiery hair sweeping over us. She exploded with a groan and I made one of my own as I felt the cum jetting out into her creamy pussy. She ground my cock into her, making circular motions while holding me as deeply inside her as possible.

I could feel the walls of her little pussy convulsing around me as she continued to cum. "Fuck," she groaned; her voice low and husky. "Oh, fuck, Mack. Oh, my God; I'm cuming! I feel your cum in me, baby! It's filling me up! It's so hot, I... I... I'm, Oh Jesus, so good; so good!"

She continued to moan and gasp, over me and around me as her hot, tight little pussy milked me for the last few drops of cum. She went limp in my arms, turning her head to lie with her cheek on my chest; cradled in my arms. I petted her and kissed the top of her head.

"That was everything I thought it would be, and more," I told her. "God I love you, Caden. You're the most amazing woman I've ever met."

She raised her head to look at me. There were tears in her eyes but she was smiling. "We're a mess, Mack. The agency is looking for us, I have a cast on my leg, you've been shot and Melinda is in the next room with a bullet wound and I just finished making love to you. All I can think about is how happy I am. I've found the love of my life, he's the world's most wanted fugitive and all I can think about is how long it's going to take to get you hard again."

I laughed. "People are resilient. We can't control our circumstances; all we can do is control how we let them affect us. If they break in here now and kill us I'll die a happy man. I don't think I can make love to you again right now, baby. I think I'm bleeding."

She sat up in alarm and rolled me over to look at my bandage. It was bleeding and she began to cry. "I'm so sorry, Mack. I was just so horny! I was so selfish. God I'm sorry."

"It's ok," I told her. "We'll just change the bandage and I'll be fine. I wanted it too; we just pushed it a little too fast."

She jumped up and nearly fell. Laughing, she sat on the edge of the bed. "I can hardly walk, Mack! I think you've damaged my legs!"

She stood slowly on trembling legs and went to get a new bandage. When she got back she changed it and I rolled onto my good side, looking up at her.

"If all nurses looked like you I'd be willing to be shot every day." I told her.

She looked amazing!. She had that just loved look on her face and I could see a trickle of cum running from her freshly fucked pussy and down her leg. She looked down and giggled.

"I think I need another shower," she said. "Don't move and I'll clean you up when I get back."

I heard the shower running and when Caden returned she was carrying a warm, wet washcloth and a towel. She washed me carefully giving the head of my cock a kiss after she dried me off. It twitched and became semi-erect under her touch. She crawled in bed on my good side and draped her naked body over mine. I could feel the soft curls above her pussy pressed against my thigh. She rested her cheek on my chest and we slept.

When I opened my eyes again we were spooned up together and she was still asleep. I watched her sleep for thirty minutes, just looking at that beautiful face and feeling her breathe against me. It was hard to believe this gorgeous girl had given herself to me and she was mine. I kissed her shoulder and she stirred and looked at me with sleepy eyes.

"Good morning, angel," I said. "I have an angel in my bed."

"Yes," she agreed. "You make me feel like one. Good morning Mack. I love you again today."

We got up and brushed our teeth. I made breakfast while she brushed her hair and put make up on in the bathroom. We ate, snuggling together on the sofa and took a tray up to Melinda. We had to wake her up and feed her. She was in a lot of pain so we gave her a pill. She felt better after a while and we talked about what we were going to do.

"I think we should take out my chip right now," she said. "I don't want to be found by anyone but people I trust."

"I have some cocaine we could use for a local," I told her. "I'm a competent field surgeon. I know the right things to do."

She agreed and we took out the chip. Caden smashed it to dust with a hammer while I sewed up the little wound in Melinda's neck. We left her to rest and went back to the sofa.

"Why do you have cocaine?" she wanted to know. "Do you sell or use drugs?"

"No, it's a very good local anesthetic," I told her. "That's what it was originally used for. It's one of the two street drugs I keep for medicine. I smoke a little weed every now and again; that's it."

"I smoke a lot of weed," she said. "Do you have any?"

"Yes, but do you really want to get high now?"

"No, we need to think clearly. Will you get me high tonight?"

"Yes, baby, but we need to talk about what we plan to do."

"Can we just go back to your house and stay there?"

"We could, but what are we going to do about Malinda? She stuck her neck out for us, we just can't leave her hanging out to dry," I told her. "Are we going to take her with us? I can't see it. We can't ask her to hide out with us the rest of her life. I can't imagine you being satisfied with that either. You told me I was a coward for doing that."

"I'm sorry, Mack. You were right. We should have just stayed home. Do you think they would have found us?"

"We'll never know. It doesn't matter. What are we going to do now? That's the question. We have to find some way to get her clear. They know we're in Norway now. They'll never stop looking, Caden. They can't stop looking. That's what they do. They try to find some advantage over everyone else so that they can control everyone else. That's what governments do."

"You're a cynical bastard, Mack. You always paint things black or white. There are lots of shades of gray."

"Yes, I'm aware of that. Some governments are better than others. Some people are better than others. The thing is, governments want power. That's the reason they exist. Have you ever heard of a government in the history of the world that ever gave up one scrap of power unless it was at the point of a gun or at the hands of a revolution? They want more, not less. That's why they want me and the families. Once they knew about us I knew they would never stop looking. I think the best we can do is make some kind of a deal with the devil. Give them enough that they won't come looking for more; they'll just be happy with what we give them."

"I have no idea how to do that," she said.

"I got an idea from the stunt they pulled back there. What if I agreed to run intelligence ops on their high priority targets. I tell them I need you and Malinda as my team. We let Malinda tell them we kidnapped her and she's ignorant of the sting they tried to pull. She gets back in and sets up the meets. It's for real this time. I give them a blood sample to work on. That should keep them busy and happy for a while. We meet with them in places where it would be very difficult for them to mount an operation. So far as they know, you're still on their team too. You be my handler. I tell them I talk only to you and Malinda. We feed them just enough to keep them happy and we make them pay us obscene amounts of money. What do you think?"

"Will it work?" she asked.

I thought about it for a minute. I couldn't tell whether it would or not. That's the way it usually is for something that's going to work for a while. I felt the same way about hiding where I had been living. I suspected they would eventually find me.

"It will for a while, anyway," I told her. "We'll have to be very careful. You'll have to convince them you talked me into letting Malinda go. If you tell them you seduced me, they'll buy it. I can tell about that. They know you're exactly my type."

"What type am I exactly?" I could tell she didn't like that.

"Smart, funny, athletic, drop dead gorgeous, young, just a little dangerous and loyal."

She looked up at me. "Do you really think I'm all that?"

"You have no idea how attractive you are to me," I told her. "Your aunt Sarah was a lot like you and I suspect you're a lot like your Mother was. Sarah wasn't as beautiful as you, but she had those same good qualities. I didn't think I'd ever find that package again. Here you are and you are all that and more. I'm desperately in love with you."

"That makes me so happy," she said. "Damn, I wish you'd hurry up and get well. I need to make love to you, Mack."

"Yeah, me too," I told her. "I'm also desperately tired, Caden. My back is killing me too. Do you really want to smoke some weed?"

"Yes," she said. "Where is it?"

"It's outside the back door under the manhole cover there. Can you get it?" I gave her the key to the lock.

She went out and in a minute she came back. "Christ, Mack; there's a whole room of stuff down there. You have kilos of weed and pounds of coke. I found some bricks of hash too. Is it good? I brought that. If it's good I want to smoke it with you."

"It represents money," I told her. "You can sell it anywhere in the world for local currency. The hash is very good. It's probably 65 percent THC. There's a pipe in my nightstand drawer."