For the entire
helicopter ride to their mission, Andrea sat quietly, going over her
conversation with Kate, looking for any clues as to what the other woman had
been about to reveal. Her anxiety only
increased as she turned it over and over in her mind, wondering what it was
that could be so terrible. It didn’t
even register that they had touched down until Tom shook her shoulder to rouse
her. Andrea forced herself to
concentrate on the task at hand, thinking there would be plenty of time to
speak to Kate later.
As she stepped
from the helicopter she was almost knocked off her feet by the force of the
wind. They had landed on a hillside
above the small Cornwall village of Bancastle.
Given that it was summer, the village would normally be a haven for
tourists, its picturesque seaside setting making it a popular stop for those
coming to the westernmost county in England.
Its tea and gift shops should have been bustling with visitors disgorged
from their coaches for the day.
However, that particular day was a different story altogether.
Unluckily for the
local residents of Cornwall, and Bancastle in particular, the county had been
hit by some very unseasonal weather.
The storm had swept in during the early hours, bringing with it more rain
than normally fell in the entire month of June. That amount of water arriving in one go had been more than the
ground could cope with and it wasn’t long before the floodwaters had started to
rise. Bancastle’s position made it
particularly susceptable, since it sat in a natural valley leading down to the
sea, and it had been engulfed by flash floods and mudslides.
The windswept
hillside where they had landed was the closest they could safely set down. Andrea had to shield her eyes from the
driving rain as she gazed down at the village below, just able to make out the
rooftops through the sheets of rain that swept over the valley. Closer by were a whole host of emergency
service vehicles, among which which were a number of other military ones. The overall scene was one of organised
chaos, with a multitude of police officers, paramedics, firefighters and
soldiers dashing back and forth. Andrea
thought it unlikely that their presence would cause any kind of stir amongst
the frantic hubbub.
One beacon of
calm amongst the tumult was Kate, who was currently standing in a group of
emergency workers, commanding their full attention as she got the lowdown on
the situation. Andrea watched
admiringly as Kate took charge, ignoring the elements as they buffeted her and
whipped at her clothes. Her hair was
already sodden from where it poked out from underneath her cap, the droplets
running off it and over the standard issue army jacket she wore. She made one final nod, sending a fresh
cascade off the peak of her cap before returning to brief the others.
“All right, we’re
here to assist the emergency services in any way we can,” shouted the Major
over the squally wind. “As you can
probably see there’s a fair amount of property damage and we have a number of
pockets of people trapped on rooftops and elsewhere by mud, floodwater and
landslides. With all that’s going on no
one’s going to be too bothered how we get the job done, but let’s not try and
make things too obvious regards your powers.
We’re still trying to keep things as quiet as possible and we don’t want
to give our friend Miss Kaminski any extra work do we?”
Andrea wasn’t
sure about that, thinking it might be quite amusing to get the government
official out from behind her desk and slogging through the mud of some remote
Cornish field to try and tell some local farmer that the human-like object he’d
seen in the sky was in fact a very large bird.
Andrea was brought back to the present situation when she realised Kate
had turned to her specifically.
“Andrea, I want
you to head down to the beach. There
have been reports of people trapped by a combination of rockfalls and the
tide. See if they’re true and help out
where you can.”
Andrea nodded her
understanding and made her way over to a nearby copse of trees, hoping to find
a surreptitous spot to take to the sky from.
She took a final glance back across the hillside, finding a pair of
blue-grey eyes meeting her gaze through the storm. Kate smiled briefly, a small reassuring one that caused a welcome
prickle in Andrea’s chest. Andrea
returned the smile with her own before making a last check that the coast was
clear. Gauging that no one was paying
her any attention, she pulled her goggles down over her eyes and leapt into the
grey skies.
The air was
turbulent up above the village and Andrea had to fight hard to maintain her
course against the raging storm. She
swept down over the houses in the valley, able to see the great slicks of mud
that had pummelled the buildings from her high vantage point. The river that ran through it had long since
burst its banks, the streets swamped below the floodwaters. At the far end of the village the river
opened out into the sea, and Andrea soared out over the churning waters before
turning back to land to see what the situation along the coastline was. She hovered in the air being battered by the
wind, her only company a few hardy seagulls.
Imposing, dark cliffs rose high either side of the small beach formed at
the river’s delta, stretching out along the coast in both directions. Infrequent pockets of shingle were dotted
along at the foot of the cliffs where there were natural coves. Andrea could immediately see a group of
people huddled in one of those coves, cut off from the village by what looked
like a fresh rockfall. Andrea started
down towards them before assessing what her options were. Supposing she could hardly swoop in without
causing a stir and noting that there were far too many of them for her to carry
all at once anyway, she shifted direction and landed on the village-side of the
rockfall instead.
As she landed on
the empty beach, Andrea had to take a moment to remove and wipe her goggles,
trying her best to re-tie her damp blonde hair away from her face too. The waves crashed onto shore a few metres
away, throwing up a cloud of spray that added to the rain that was already
drenching her. Andrea could feel the
droplets dribbling unpleasantly down her spine beneath her black uniform and a
long, hot bath back at the base was suddenly looking very appealing. The thought that she might be joined in the
steamy water by a certain someone else only made that image more tempting. Dragging her wandering thoughts back to the
present, Andrea sized up the large boulders before her. She stepped forwards and attmepted to get
hold of the nearest one. The rock was
slippery from the rain and it took a couple of goes before her fingers managed
to gain purchase so she could heft it up and away. As she deposited it out of the way she was amazed at how easy it was
to lift such immense objects, the boulder as easy to pick up as one of the
pebbles under her feet.
A creaking noise
echoed out over the beach and Andrea’s eyes were drawn to the looming cliffs
above, from where the pile of boulders had tumbled. Deducing that there could be more rockfalls at any moment, she
sped up her efforts to clear a path to the trapped people, throwing the rocks
out of her path as she cut her way through the slip. A well placed punch shattered the final rock and she saw the people
cowering next to the cliffs, as far up the beach as they could get, away from
the raging sea. Andrea had to wade
through the shallows before she could reach the group. She could have flown over, but then that
would have been a great show for the people who had now spotted her, and Andrea
remembered how Kate had warned against public displays.
“Come on,” she
called as she got close to the gaggle of about a dozen people, “We’ve cleared a
path through the landslip, but you need to come now before the tide comes in
any further.”
The people didn’t
need to be told twice, following her back over the beach and through the jagged
path she’d cleared. As they stumbled
frantically along a few loose bits of rock tumbled down from above, crashing noisily
around them, splintering on the existing rocks. Andrea saw the people all the way back to the harbour in the
village, the sea now nearly all the way in and obscuring the entire beach
behind them.
Andrea? Are you there?
It was Kate on
Andrea’s earpiece. She could hardly hear her over the howling wind and Andrea
had to cup the small gadget closer to her ear, turning away from the direct
force of the storm.
“Yes, I’m here,” she yelled back.
Did you find anyone on the beach?
“Yes, I’ve got
them all back to the harbour though, and not a moment too soon. Those cliffs look like they’re about to go
any minute and the tide’s right in.
What about…”
Andrea was cut
off by someone frantically tugging at her sodden sleeve. She turned to see a bedraggled middle-aged
woman, one of the people she’d just helped to safety.
“My son!” she wailed, “He’s still back there! You have to help him!”
“Ok, calm down,” said Andrea, trying to sooth the woman.
“Please!” she begged.
Andrea?
What’s going on?
“There’s a woman,
she says her son’s still on the beach somewhere,” Andrea told Kate before
fixing her attention on the woman. “Are
you sure? Are you sure he didn’t make
it back here with everyone else and you lost him in the confusion. What does he look like?”
“No! He’s not here, he’s still down there,” she
continued hysterically, before getting a vague grip of herself, rattling out a
description in quick sentences between sobs.
“He’s only seven, he’s got dark brown hair, he’s wearing an orange
t-shirt. His name’s Ben.
The description
didn’t sound like anyone Andrea had seen.
“All right, all right,” said Andrea to placate the woman before
addressing Kate again. “She’s adamant
he’s still out there. I’ll go and take
a look.”
Didn’t you just say the cliffs were about to go?
“I’ll be all right, I do have a means of escape after all,” noted Andrea.
Suddenly the
woman was on Andrea’s arm again, tugging beseechingly. “Please, you have to help him!”
At the same time Kate’s voice was in her other ear.
At least wait for backup, we’re only five minutes
away from your position.
“He doesn’t have five minutes.”
Andrea…
“I have to go, now!”
Andrea didn’t
have time to find somewhere safe to take off from, leaping directly into the
sky from the harbour wall and swooping out over the waves again. She flew round to where she had found the
group of people, staying low to the waves in case she saw the boy amongst the
waters, scared that she might. The huge
swell crashed over her a couple of times almost pulling her into its murky depths,
but there was no sign of him. Her
clothes hung heavy from her body by the time she swept towards the beach.
“Ben!” yelled
Andrea as she drew close to the shore, scanning what was left of the
shingle. “Ben!” There was no sign of anyone and Andrea
drifted down onto the tiny bit of land still exposed at the foot of the
cliffs. “Ben!” she shouted one final
time into the breeze, growing increasingly worried as to the boy’s fate. The sea pounded unremittingly in her face as
she stared back out into the unforgiving waters.
“Help!”
The voice was faint but it just filtered to Andrea’s ears over the sounds
of the surf.
“Ben?” shouted Andrea with renewed vigour.
“Where are you?”
“I’m here!” came back the small, scared voice.
Andrea tried hard
to place his location, but it was difficult with the wind continuing to whip
viciously around. Through the rain she
suddenly spotted an area she hadn’t noticed before, set back from the beach, a
narrow gap between the cliffs. Andrea
clambered over the rocks and into the sheltered area, the cliffs towering high
above. There in the shadows she could
see a tiny figure, hunched on the ground with his knees drawn up to his chest
as he shivered from cold.
“Ben?” she said, reaching out to him as she stepped forwards.
He flinched
backwards, trembling against the damp rocks.
It occurred to Andrea that she could look imposing to a frightened
seven-year-old in her all-black outfit and eye-obscuring goggles. She reached up to take them off, hoping a
more human face might ease the boy.
Kneeling down to his level she held out her arms invitingly.
“It’s all right, I’m here to help you,” she said gently.
He eyed her up
for a moment, Andrea offering him a small smile of encouragement. It seemed that was all he needed as he
peeled himself away from the rocks and flung himself into her arms. Andrea held his tiny body close, trying to
impart some warmth into his chilled bones though she herself was soaked too. They sat there for a moment, entwined
together when suddenly a grinding noise broke the relative calm.
Andrea’s eyes
shot to the cliffs above her, looming dark against the grey sky. A jagged crack was splitting through a great
swathe of the rock, unstoppable in its downward course. With an erie cracking echoing off the chasm
walls, several large sections of the cliff sheared straight off, plunging down
towards them.
Andrea instantly
knew she couldn’t get away in time.
There was nowhere to go, nowhere to run. She pulled the boy close, knowing all that was left was to shield
him as best as possible from the deadly rockfall.
Then suddenly out
of nowhere Kate was there, standing in front of Andrea, directly in the path of
the falling debris.
Andrea’s heart
leapt into her mouth. “Kate! No!” she
cried from where she crouched helplessly watching.
Kate ignored her
plea though. Her hands were up, palms
and fingers open, pointing in the direction of the huge chunks of rock. Andrea barely had time to crinkle her brow
in confusion, wondering what the hell the other woman was doing, when all of a
sudden visible waves of force erupted from Kate’s hands. So great was the power in the cascading
ripples as they sped towards their target, that Andrea was buffeted by the
displacement of the air from where she knelt, pushed back against the
cliffside.
The waves blasted
into the debris, and the rock exploded into a shower of dust, blown apart into
a million tiny pieces to drift harmlessly down to earth. It was completely destroyed, crumbling into
nothingness like a whisper lost on the breeze rather than the tonnes of heavy
rock it had been.
Andrea could only
gawp in total and utter astonishment as Kate slowly swung round to her. Andrea’s wide-eyed gaze tracked upwards to
meet the blue-grey eyes of the other woman.
There was an indefinable look on Kate’s face, though Andrea thought she
could detect a definite hint of trepidation in there. Kate didn’t say anything, perhaps not knowing what to say after
what had just occurred or maybe waiting for Andrea to go first. However, Andrea’s mind and mouth weren’t
functioning at all, it was just too much to comprehend.
The only
congizant thoughts she could manage was a repitition of the same things over
and over.
Kate had powers.
Kate was a superhuman.
Each repitition did little to help the fact penetrate any further into her
racing mind.
The only other
thing she could do was stare numbly up at Kate who didn’t seem capable of
moving or speaking either, mutely returning the gaze. Out of the corner of her eye Andrea was dimly aware of others now
appearing on the scene. She wasn’t sure
if they had witnessed Kate’s display or not, and she didn’t really care at the
moment. Finally she managed to engage
her mouth, whispering out one plaintive question before the others reached
them.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
………..
As soon as the
helicpoter touched down Andrea whipped open the door and started striding for
her quarters, not looking back to see what Kate was doing.
The journey back
had been a numb blur for Andrea. They’d
been enveloped in a hubbub of activity and questions back at Bancastle and she
hadn’t been able to say anything further to Kate once the others had joined
them. She had no idea what to say
anyway and was almost grateful for the distraction and then the chance to sit
quietly on her own in the helicopter, the noise of the blades and engine pretty
much precluding any attempts at conversation.
She didn’t even care that she was sitting in sopping wet clothes as her
thoughts pressed in on her. Left with
those thoughts, the implications of what she had seen slowly started to sink
in. As it did a whole array emotions
started to well up inside her, predominat of which was a sickening sense of
betrayal.
Andrea had barely
closed the door to her quarters behind her when she heard it opening
again. She swung round angrily to see
Kate there, coming towards her.
“What do you think you’re doing,” Andrea spat, “Get out!”
Kate kept coming
towards her, her voice calm and even.
“Andrea, please, I just want to talk to you.”
Andrea was having
none of it, backing away. “Didn’t you
hear me? I said get out!” she cried
gesticulating wildly at the door.
“Andrea, listen…”
“No! I don’t want
to listen!” shouted Andrea furiously, causing Kate to finally stop in her
tracks. “All this time you were a
mutant too and you never said a thing?
When I was struggling to come to terms with it, face up to it what were
you doing? Laughing behind my back?”
“It wasn’t like that…”
“And what the
fuck was it like?” demanded Andrea. “Or
do you just like deceiving people, is that it?”
“I didn’t set out to deceive you,” said Kate apologetically.
“Well you did a
pretty good job of it,” noted Andrea bitterly.
“Sucked me right in!
Helvete! I can’t believe this.”
“Andrea…”
Kate tried to reach
out for Andrea again, to place a calming hand on her arm. Andrea whipped it out of the way of her
searching fingers.
“Don’t touch me! Don’t fucking
touch me!”
“Andrea…”
“No!” screamed
Andrea, all sense of reason gone now.
All she could see was that Kate had deceived her, lied to her. That hurt, more than she had ever thought it
could and she didn’t want to have to face it anymore. “Just get out! Get out!”
Andrea grabbed
Kate’s arm, trying to march her over to the door and throw her from the room.
“Andrea,
stop!” Kate was trying to dig her heels
in, twisting in Andrea’s grasp, but Andrea was far too strong. As they reached the still open door Kate
jammed her hand against the frame.
Andrea clenched
her jaw angrily, making to move the stubborn hand when suddenly Kate’s free
hand was hovering by her chest. Andrea
glanced down just as a ripple of air blew outwards from it, knocking her back a
couple of paces. It was only a gentle
shove but the open display of Kate’s power only served to infuriate Andrea
further. She darted for Kate, but she
was hit again in the chest, slightly more forcefully this time. Andrea tried a third time, only to find
herself sitting on her backside on the floor.
“So you’re not
afraid to use your powers now then!” spat Andrea, clambering back to her feet.
“I’m just trying to calm you down, so I can speak to you.”
“I don’t want to
hear anything you have to say,” seethed Andrea, “I can’t believe anything you
say anyway, you’ve been lying to me all this time.”
“I haven’t exactly been lying to you…” offered Kate slowly
“Don’t try and
worm your way out of it!” said Andrea incredulously, “You’ve had plenty of
chances to say something, but you haven’t.”
Kate looked at
her pleadingly. “But I wanted to, I
desperately wanted to, you have to believe me.
It’s been so hard not saying anything all these weeks.”
Andrea folded her arms defiantly across her chest. “Really, then why didn’t you?”
“I was trying to, this morning, before we got called out on the mission.”
Andrea was
blind-sided for a moment, recalling the conversation of earlier. “Oh my god.
The terrible thing you were going to tell me…this was it. That you were actually a superhuman too?”
Kate merely
nodded. “I told you that you might end
up hating me, it seems I was right.”
Andrea turned
away looking out to the gloomy skies that sat outside her window. It was all too much to take in. How could Kate have kept this secret all
this time? Why hadn’t she said
something? What else was she
hiding? As she stood with those
questions and a hundred others racing through her brain she could feel the
warmth of the other body behind her.
Kate wasn’t actually touching her, just standing very close.
“I’m sorry I
didn’t tell you before,” said Kate, her voice low and full of contrition, “But
if you give me a chance I’d like to try and explain…”
Andrea sighed,
her shoulders slumping along with her head.
Without looking at Kate she crossed over to sit on the sofa, not
bothered that she was still soaking wet.
Only when she was safely there and sitting did she dare to look up to
Kate, trying to hold her warring emotions in check. Kate’s eyes immediately met hers holding them in a look of sorrow
and regret.
Kate joined
Andrea on the cushions, though she kept a discrete distance, maybe sensing that
Andrea was going to listen but that was all she was commiting to right now.
“Go on then,”
said Andrea caustically, uanble to help herself, “Let’s hear why you felt it
necessary to lie to me.”
Kate ignored the
tone, taking a couple of deep breaths as she sought where to begin. “All right, I’m going to tell it from the
beginning, so you know I’m not hiding anything else, that this is the whole
truth.”
Andrea just scoffed disdainfully but didn’t say anything.
“I suppose it all
started last year back in Iraq…” Kate
paused for a moment, rubbing at her temple as she tried to gather her
thoughts. For the first time since they
had entered the room, Andrea took the chance to study the other woman. It occurred to Andrea that she looked tired
as she rubbed her face, bedraggled from the earlier efforts in Bancastle, her
normally lustrous hair hanging limply about her face. She had removed her jacket somewhere in between the helicopter
and Andrea’s quarters, but, like Andrea’s own clothes, the shirt she wore
underneath was just as soggy as that had been.
There was a strong urge welling up inside Andrea to move closer and wrap
her arms around Kate, sooth away those worries that were causing her brow to
crease. Andrea had to make a conscious
effort to fight the impulse down. She
was angry with Kate, she had to remember that.
“No, that’s not
strictly right, that’s when things came to a head,” said Kate, breaking Andrea
out of her observations. “I’d known
that I had these special powers long before that, since I was a teenager in
fact. As you can imagine I was pretty
scared when I found out, not unlike yourself.
I’d never heard of anyone else who could do anything similar so as a kid
I was frightened to tell anyone, scared to be singled out as different. Then it just naturally progressed that way
into adulthood – it became second nature to hide my abilities.”
“You do a good job of it,” commented Andrea bitingly.
Kate noted the
remark but didn’t comment. “That
continued on into the army - I didn’t think my fellow officers or soldiers
would take too kindly to some weird mutant amongst them so again I kept it
hidden.”
“I’m guessing
there’s a point coming where someone finds out?” prompted Andrea, getting
slightly impatient. All this talk of
being an outsider and having to hide her real self was making her feel
increasingly sympathetic towards Kate, not what she wanted to be feeling at all
when she had managed to work herself up into such a great fury.
“Yes, there is,” agreed Kate. “At the beginning of last year I was posted in Iraq. Of course even with all the leaps in equal opportunities I wasn’t officially on the front line, though where that ends in Iraq is anyone’s guess. Anywhere and everywhere were equally as dangerous. Anyway, one day I was part of a convoy, delivering some supplies to a squadron of our troops near the town of Basra, a squadron that happened to be commanded by my father…”
Kate had to pause, taking a deep breath to compose herself. Andrea could see the moisture already edging at the corners of Kate’s eyes, knowing to some extent what must be coming next in the story.
“We got there and then…then everything went to hell. We were attacked by some rebel troops, still loyal to Saddam. They seemed to come out of nowhere. They were all over us. We scattered, tried to regroup.” Kate’s account was becoming increasingly disjointed as if the memories were hard to recall in any kind of ordered way. “I lost track of my section in the skirmish. There were bullets and explosions and sand…sand everywhere…swirling around….blowing in your eyes…clogging your throat. I was stumbling around…and then my father was there, as always. He and a small group of his men had hunkered down, were trying to fight back. It was actually working. The Iraqi’s weren’t as highly trained, their attack relying on surprise more than anything else. But then…then…”
Kate faltered, choking on her words. It was all Andrea could do not to step in and hold her, hold her close to banish all these terrible memories. But she had to know the whole story, now Kate had come so far.
“It was a stray bullet; just a stupid stray bullet.” Kate’s eyes were closed now, her brow creased as she recalled the painful memories. “Not aimed, not intended, totally random. But still deadly, oh so deadly,” Kate shook her head, her throat bobbing as she swallowed hard. “He managed to cling on for a moment, ever the fighter. He was looking right into my eyes as the light faded from his. He died, there in my arms in that godforsaken place, his blood running out over my hands onto the sand.”
Kate looked down at those hands now, as if she could still see the blood on them. “But they didn’t care!” she cried, making Andrea jump with the sudden change in volume. “They were still coming, still shooting. How dare they still be shooting! How dare they!”
Kate’s eyes rose to meet Andrea’s once more, the pain and anguish so plain to see. “And that’s when I lost it. I lost control of my powers. I just started blasting everything that moved, I didn’t care who saw me or what damage I inflicted. I wanted to stop them, punish them for what they’d done. And I was angry – angry with myself for not acting sooner, for not using my powers sooner. I could have saved him, but I was too busy hiding what I was, protecting myself as always. It didn’t take long for me to wipe them out. I killed every last one of them. And you know what? At that moment in time I didn’t care. I was happy that they were dead.”
Kate’s voice was low again now, her breathing ragged, like she was reliving the moment then and there. Like she was as exhausted now as she must have been then, spent after her grief-filled rage had been taken out on the enemy troops.
“And then that’s when I noticed it,” she continued slowly, “The wreckage of the helicopter that must have been passing overhead and got caught in one of my wildly destructive blasts.”
There was another slow, deliberate intake of breath.
“It was one of ours.”
Andrea herself gasped, not realising she had until Kate’s eyes shot to her once more. They held her gaze as her guilt-ridden words continued.
“Four of our men, killed instantly on impact. They didn’t stand a chance,” she said hauntingly. “Friendly fire, that’s what they call it,” she added bitterly, “Friendly goddam fire! There was nothing friendly about those four mangled bodies though.”
Andrea could hold back no longer, whatever rage she had been feeling having been replaced by an unstoppable wave of sympathy. “Oh, Kate…” she said stupidly, not knowing what else to say. Instead she reached out to place a tentative hand on Kate’s shoulder.
Kate’s lip visibly trembled but she held herself together somehow, managing to continue on in a more even tone now the most harrowing part of the tale was over. “The army covered it up, of course, and I was shipped straight back to England. I was in a mess and really didn’t give a damn what happened to me. I half expected to be court-martialled on the spot, and I really wouldn’t have been bothered.”
“It had been nearly three months of what was officially designated as compassionate leave when Colonel Parsons came to see me with a proposal. It turned out that I wasn’t the only person with these superhuman abilities after all, that the government had been investigating them for a while with the intention of setting up some sort of project for further research. The army had gotten involved too, since it needed to be top secret and for some reason they seemed to think that given my…experience…I might be a good choice to head it up. I practically laughed in the Colonel’s face. I was in no state to be commanding anything, let alone a new untried unit. I didn’t even really hold a high enough rank to be commanding an entire base, but he insisted my background made me perfect for it and that they were willing to forego normal ranking precedence in this instance. He’s not an easy man to say no to, and he had been friends with my father and always knew how to get to me. I think he thought it would be good for me – something to throw myself into to take my mind of what had happened out in Iraq. So in the end after what was deemed sufficient counselling I took command of the Superhuman Research Unit.”
“Only the ironic thing was that even though they’d wanted me because they thought I might be able to understand the superhumans, at the same time they didn’t want me actively using my powers. I’m not sure what the full reasons behind it were, I think it was partly that they wanted to draw a distinct line between the military and the superhumans, but also I’m sure there was an element of fear.”
“Fear?” queried Andrea.
“They’d seen what I was capable of in Iraq and didn’t want a repeat performance.”
“So they told you not to tell anyone?”
“Yes, as part of the conditions of my transfer I had to agree to keep my powers secret and not use them in any way.”
“That seems a bit over the top,” noted Andrea, “And how would they know anyway?”
The Major turned her right arm to Andrea, tapping her bicep area. “I have a monitoring device, just like yours.”
Andrea looked from Kate’s face to her arm in amazement.
“I have to provide regular reports of the readings from it,” continued Kate, “Just to verify I’m not doing anything I shouldn’t be.”
The talk of reports rang a distant bell in Andrea’s mind. “Oh my god!” she cried in sudden realisation, “Those reports that you and Doc were talking about, they were about you!”
The Major looked at her curiously, not understanding the reference.
“I overheard you once, in the corridor, talking about having to prepare some extra reports for the Colonel,” explained Andrea, “I just assumed you were talking about me.
“Ah, yes,” said
the Major, “They were indeed about me.
Doc is the only other person on the base that knows I’m a mutant, since
he needs to have some input into those reports and monitor my ‘condition’.”
“So it’s not
secret from everyone then,” remarked Andrea, bitterness edging back into her
tone.
“I’m so sorry, I
really wanted to tell you,” insisted Kate, “Even from the start it seemed
somehow wrong to hide it from you, even though I didn’t really know you then.”
“But somehow you always held back?”
Kate nodded guiltily. “Yes.”
“Hang on,” said Andrea, suddenly remembering something else, “That night of the car accident, when we crashed into the river - you could have saved yourself?”
“Maybe, maybe not,” allowed Kate, “Obviously I was unconscious when you first found me, then I was hoping that the rescue services might arrive before I needed to do anything.”
“But they didn’t, did they?” noted Andrea, accusingly, “And still you did nothing. Would you have let yourself drown just to protect your secret, or were you relying on me to do something?”
“No,” stated Kate adamantly, “I didn’t want you to endanger yourself like that! I was reluctant because like you I wouldn’t have been able to see what the hell I was doing in all that murk. I could have blasted my own foot off, or, even worse, harmed you or Thompson by accident. But when it was obvious time was running out I was going to give it a go, but you went and beat me to it. I tried to stop you, I called out, but you were already under the water at that point.”
“Christ I nearly died that night,” Andrea recalled bitterly, “And all the time you had the power to do something.”
“Don’t think I wasn’t grateful,” Kate tried to explain, “I know how much that took for you to do that, how dangerous it was. When you were shaking in my arms I was so scared that you weren’t going to make it. And then when you passed out I knew I couldn’t wait any longer.”
Andrea looked at Kate quizzically, not understanding what she meant.
“How do you think we got back to the base that night?” asked Kate slowly.
“We got picked up by the emergency chopper, the one you called,” Andrea said, before catching the odd look Kate was giving her, “Didn’t we?”
Kate slowly shook her head.
“Then how?” asked Andrea.
“I carried you.”
“You carried me?” repeated Andrea, confused, “But…the sea…,” a realisation was slowly dawning on Andrea. “You…you can fly too?”
Kate nodded. “Yes I can. I knew the helicopter was going to be ages, even if it could get off the ground, which was highly unlikely in that weather. So I flew us both back here and managed to collude with Doc to cover up exactly how I’d made it back so fast. I think Chadwick suspected something, but he didn’t push it.”
“So I have more to thank you for than I thought from that night,” noted Andrea.
“I’m the one who should thank you, you did save me after all,” Kate reminded her, “I was just grateful you were all right in the end after that fright you gave me.”
“You were actually concerned then?” said Andrea, suspecting she knew the answer, but wanting confirmation anyway after the shocks of the day.
“I was!” insisted Kate, “I should have realised then that you meant more to me than any normal operative should.” Kate moved closer to Andrea on the sofa, reaching out to place a tentative hand on her thigh. “So are you all right about this?” she asked uncertainly, her eyes searching Andrea’s face the whole time.
Andrea met the questioning gaze. “About you being a superhuman? Of course I’m all right about that,” she said, “About you lying to me…” She paused for a moment.
How could she remain angry with Kate? Especially when Kate was looking at her like that, with those soft blue eyes burning a path directly into her soul. She supposed that for most of the time Kate had kept her secret they hadn’t actually been ‘together’, so it wasn’t as if Andrea had any right to expect Kate to divulge it.
Eventually Andrea let out a long sigh. “I suppose I can forgive you.”
A tiny smile crept onto Kate’s lips. “Thank you,” she said simply, her hand caressing Andrea’s thigh more softly.
“Just don’t do it again!” added Andrea.
“I won’t, I promise, no more secrets!”
Andrea narrowed
her eyes suspiciously, but her anger had completely left her by that
stage. She had to admit that it
actually felt good to have cleared the air, since it was obvious this had been
preying on Kate’s mind for a while. As
she thought more about it, she supposed it really wasn’t that bad that Kate had
powers, in fact it gave them something else in common too, as if being madly in
love wasn’t enough. “So what exactly
are these powers of yours then?” she asked, curious now.
“You’ve pretty much seen them,” Kate replied with a shrug.
“Now you’re being
modest,” noted Andrea, “That was pretty spectacular, whatever it was you did on
that beach. And thank you, by the way,
for saving my neck…again.”
“You’re welcome.” Kate’s fingers brushed gently along
Andrea’s shoulder, Andrea leaning into the intimate caress when they got near
her face. “It’s far too beautiful a
neck to let anything happen to it.”
Andrea took
Kate’s hand in her own, bringing it down into her lap to look at it, turning it
over a couple of times as she studied the elegant digits. It didn’t look any different to the day
before, though now she knew the deadly power hidden within.
“What was that
then? What you did to the rocks?”
“I guess you could
call them concussion waves,” Kate explained, “At least that’s what Doc likes to
call them. They’re basically waves of
kinetic force.”
“But I could…see them,” Andrea recalled.
“Yes, they do
produce a slight physcial manifestation, mainly from the distortion of the air
as the waves pass through it.”
“There certainly was some distortion – I could feel the displacement
of the air too.”
“Well, those were
quite powerful ones that I used on the rocks.
They obviously needed to be. But
I can produce quite a variety of different strengths and size of wave. So I can ‘fire’ wide-dispersal ones like
those earlier that blast apart whatever they come into contact with, or I can
refine it down to a very fine almost beam-like blast to punch a small hole in
something. And I’ve also learnt how to
direct them to use them to push myself through the air, thus giving me the
ability to ‘fly’. Not that they all
have to be powerful blasts, as you’ve already seen, those I used on the rocks
were quite different to those I used on you.”
“Thank goodness!” noted Andrea with some relief.
“Indeed. I have to be very careful with how much
force I use, especially on people. If I
got it even slightly wrong I’d end up breaking every bone in someone’s body or
maybe even blowing them to pieces rather than just knocking them over.”
“Ouch! Maybe you
should keep those concussion waves away from me in the future,” remarked
Andrea.
“I’m sorry I knocked you over.”
“Forget it, I was being a bit of an arse.
I’m sorry for trying to throw you out.”
“So now we’ve finished being all good and sorry, what should we do?”
Andrea looked
over at Kate, her eyes sweeping over the other woman’s body. “We do have all these wet clothes to get out
of…”
…….
Andrea’s eyes
were closed, but she could feel the warmth of the sun through her eyelids, its
caress over the rest of her body like the welcome touch of a lover. Breathing deeply, she thought she could
happily lie where she was forever. The
cold droplet hitting her shoulder was most unwelcome.
“Helvete!” she
cried bolting upright.
She was met the
sight of Kate standing above her, trying desperately to hold back the smirk
that was threatening her face.
“Ooops, sorry,”
she said, Andrea thinking she was nothing of the sort.
Andrea brushed
the water off her bare shoulder, though the hot sun had almost dried it off
already. She shot Kate a dark look,
but the other woman looked unrepentant.
Andrea suspected she had done it one purpose since there was plenty of
room to avoid dripping anything on her on the large yacht.
“Do I need to
find somewhere safer to sunbathe?” asked Andrea, taking the opportunity to
reach for her sun cream, thinking she may as well top it up since she had been
disturbed.
“No, you’re fine
where you are, I like the view from the wheel.”
Kate eyes had
travelled down Andrea’s body and the young woman followed them, noting that
Kate would indeed have a very good view down her bikini top from her position
at the back of the boat.
Kate knelt down
beside her on the front canopy, Andrea’s own eyes sneaking a peak up the
Major’s shorts. “Why don’t you let me
do that?” she suggested, holding out her hand for the bottle of sun cream.
Andrea passed it
over, turning so that her back was to the other woman and pulling her ponytail
out of the way over her shoulder. She
fliched slightly when the cool cream first hit her skin, slowly relaxing into
the langurious strokes of Kate’s fingers.
“Mmm, that’s
good,” she noted, closing her eyes to savour the sensation. She was sure the simple putting on of sun
protection wasn’t meant to be quite so arousing.
“You’re enjoying
our little trip out then?” asked Kate, continuing to rub down Andrea’s spine in
broad circles.
“Yes,” agreed
Andrea, “Especially since you’ve managed to avoid knocking me overboard this
time.”
“There’s still
time.”
Andrea’s head
swung round. “Do it and you’ll be
joining me!” She might have been hot,
but even in the height of summer the Atlantic off the coast of Scotland was not
the most inviting temperature.
Kate laughed. “All right, no impromptu dips. We certainly don’t want anyone catching you
using your powers either, since it’s a lot busier out here this time. Who knows who might have some binoculars or
a camera out.”
Andrea turned
back to the front as Kate put some more cream on her hands. “I can’t believe no one has found anything
out yet.”
“I know,” agreed
Kate, “We were lucky no one saw me in Bancastle, even that little boy was too
busy hiding in your arms to notice what happened. And as for the woman at the harbour, well, I’m assuming Miss
Kaminski worked her normal magic on her.”
“No doubt,”
nodded Andrea, wondering exactly how the government official persuaded people
to remain quiet.
The Major’s hands
had slipped around her sides now, sneaking up Andrea’s front and over her
bikini top.
“I don’t think I
need any sun cream there,” noted Andrea jokingly.
“I don’t know,
haven’t you heard that the sun can penetrate clothing.”
Andrea hadn’t,
but she wasn’t about to make that point when the Major’s fingers had slipped
under the thin material and were now teasing her nipple. Andrea leant back into the body behind her,
resting her head onto Kate’s chest and looking up to her. “What about all those
people with binoculars and cameras?” she reminded the other woman.
Kate made a show
of glancing around. “Good point,” she
conceded, “Maybe we should head below decks?”
Andrea
grinned. “Now that sounds like an offer
too good to refuse.”
Andrea felt like
a naughty schoolkid playing hooky as they snuck downstairs. Not that they hadn’t earnt some time off
from their responsibilities back at the base after all the recent drama. Andrea wondered if anyone thought anything
untoward about the fact that she and Kate had chosen to spend their time off
together, sure that it would spark some rumours. There had been gossip the last time they had been on a boat trip
together and they hadn’t even been an item them, so she suspected their latest
jaunt would cause at least a slight stir.
Kate didn’t seem
overly bothered by the possibility, Andrea thinking she was starting to become
more comfortable and relaxed about their relationship. Maybe in time they would actually be able to
make it public. She forgot all about
such concerns as they reached the bedroom, though. As they’d already discovered the gentle roll of the boat
certainly added an extra interesting dimension to their lovemaking and they
slipped slowly down onto the bed, determined to find out more now.
They took their
time, knowing there was no need to rush out on the seas with no one to disturb
them. Andrea didn’t even know how long
they spent down there, not caring when she was enveloped in such a mind-blowing
whirl of ecstasy.
Eventually she
lay back onto the soft sheets, pulling Kate’s now naked body to her. “I sure hope you anchored the boat before we
came down here,” she remarked, stroking her fingers across Kate’s sweaty
shoulder.
“If I didn’t we
could well be halfway to America by now.”
Andrea chuckled
to herself. “I think I’m starting to
really like sailing now,” she commented.
“It’s certainly a
lot nicer when the weather’s so gorgeous,” agreed Kate, “Along with the
company.”
Kate’s eyes were
on her, her soft smile lighting up her face and warming Andrea far more than
the sun had managed up top.
“Though I’ll
still be making you come out with me in the depths of winter you realise,”
continued Kate, “The times my father hauled me out of bed on a Sunday morning
to go down to the harbour at Weymouth…” she added with a amused shake of the
head.
“You loved it
really, though?”
“Yes, I just
liked to make out I was offended at being disturbed from my warm bed, but I
loved the thrill of taking the boat out when it was challenging
conditions. And of course I loved
spending time with my father.”
Andrea smiled,
though inside she felt a small pang of regret.
“You were lucky to have that close relationship.”
Kate propped
herself up onto her elbow to look Andrea in the eye. “You could still contact your parents, you know.”
“I know,” said
Andrea, “I just don’t think the time is right.
It’s not like I’ve changed, at least not in any way they might have
hoped.”
“If you’d rather
speak to them in person I could come with you,” offered Kate, “I mean I
wouldn’t intrude, rather that if you wanted to take a trip off the base to see
them…”
She left the
offer dangling in the air, and it was tempting to Andrea. Despite everything they were still her
parents, and no amount of bravado could cover up the hurt of their rejection.
“Thanks,” she
finally said, “If I change my mind, I’ll let you know.”
“All right,” said
Kate, reaching up to stroke Andrea’s cheek as a soft reassurance. “On a more positive note, in all the recent
excitement I forgot to mention that I heard from my friend, the one on the team
investigating the warehouse accident.”
Andrea sat up
excitedly. “You did?”
“Yes, I’ve
arranged a meeting with him on Monday.”
“Off the base I
hope?”
“Indeed, he was
reluctant enough to see me as it was, but I called in a couple of favours so
I’m seeing him just outside Ayr, at your favourite pub.”
Andrea frowned
slightly at Kate’s playful jibe, knowing she meant the one where Andrea had
gotten steaming drunk and tried to start a fist fight with Kate.
“You know you
look so cute when you pout like that,” noted Kate.
Andrea’s face
brightened at the compliment.
“And irresistable
when you smile,” added Kate, slowly pushing her back down onto the bed.
…………………..
Two days later
the Major sat in the booth of the remote country pub, glad to see she seemed to
be the only occupant of the bar. She
knew she shouldn’t have been surpised, even in the middle of summer this wasn’t
exactly number one stop of the tourist trail.
The only other person she’d seen in there that lunchtime was the barman
himself and he’d disappeared out the back now, leaving her on her own in the
low celinged room. Kate was out of
uniform since this wasn’t official business, waiting expectantly for her
friend. Checking her watch again, she
noted that he was already twenty minutes late.
She hoped that was because of the vagaries of the British transport
system and nothing more sinister.
Picking up her drink she finished off the orange juice, thinking she
might try something a little stonger if she was forced to wait any longer. Eventually there a telltale creak from the
door and she turned to see her friend furtively approaching.
“Kate,” he
acknowledged, his eyes making a quick sweep of the room before sitting opposite
her.
“Phil,” greeted
Kate in return, concerned at his state of agitation. “It’s all right, there’s no one else here.”
“I can’t believe
I agreed to this,” he replied, finally looking her in the eye.
Kate could sense
the fear emanating from him. “What on
earth is going on with this investigation to put you in this state?”
Phil delved into
his bag, pulling out a folder which he slid across the stained wooden
table. Kate opened it up, flicking
through some of the pages while Phil talked, keeping his voice low despite the
fact they were alone.
“It’s all very
hush, hush – everything’s on a purely need to know basis so I’m not completely
in the loop on the entire investigation,” he explained, “This is just some
stuff on what exactly was being stored at the warehouse.”
“Chemicals?”
noted the Major, reading through the list of names.
“Yes,” he
confirmed, “I think the police were expecting weapons or drugs, but these were
highly specialised chemicals.”
Kate conceded
that he was right, since none of the names meant anything to her. “Do you know the purpose of them?” she
asked, wondering at the same time if she could get Dr Todd to take a look at
the list for her, to see if he could shed any light on the subject.
“We don’t know
yet, we have our scientists working on it,” replied Phil.
The Major nodded
thoughtfully. “And what about Cowley,
any leads on him?”
“As I said things
are on a need to know basis, and it seems I don’t need to know about that part
of the investigation. Kaminski’s
keeping that very close to her chest.”
Kate’s eyes shot
to him in shock. “Kaminski?”
He looked nonplussed
in return. “Yes. Didn’t you know she was heading up the
investigation now?”
“No I didn’t,”
replied Kate darkly, suspiscious of the other woman’s motivations. “I thought it was a military investigation,
what is she doing poking her nose in?”
“I’m sure you
know Miss Kaminski well enough to know that’s one of her specialities, getting
involved in anything that she can use to her advantage or use to advance her
career. Somehow she managed to persuade
the powers that be that it was best to have someone independent in charge.”
Kate
frowned. “I suppose she has a
point. Though I would rather it was
someone else - I don’t trust that woman.
She would never do something unless there was something in it for her,
which makes me wonder what her angle is in this case?”
“I don’t know,”
answered Phil with a shrug, “Though I have to admit she’s determined and
thorough if nothing else. If there’s
something to be uncovered I’m sure she’ll find it.”
Kate supposed he
had a point, though that did throw up one further question - how would Kaminski
use that knowledge if she did uncover it?