Glimpse of the Future

**This story immediately follows the "The Quadruple Cross"**

CHAPTER 1

"NO!" Matt screamed and sat straight up in bed, covered in sweat. The lamp on the other side of the bed turned on and CJ sat up looking startled. "Hon, are you okay?" She touched Matt's arm.

He nodded trying to catch his breath. Sitting up on the side of the bed, he put his head in his hands. CJ reached over and rubbed his back. "What is it – Iraq?"

Matt shook his head. "I don't know. There's a big explosion and a ball of fire." He had hardly slept in over a week because of the recurring nightmare. He got up and walked over to the closet, pulling out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and began getting dressed. CJ looked at the clock on the nightstand: 2:11am.

"Hon, come on back to bed. You need to get some rest." She got up and went over to him, wrapping her arms around him. He could feel the baby kicking in her belly. She was in her twenty eighth week of pregnancy.

"No, you need to get some rest and I'm not helping the matter any." He zipped his jeans, put the t-shirt on, and pulled on his boots.

"Matt, that cold you have isn't going to get any better if you don't rest." Matt didn't get sick very often – which was a good thing because he got extremely grumpy. "Maybe it's the cold medicine. We should try some other kind."

He shook his head no and headed out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. After starting a pot of coffee, he sat down at the kitchen table, his head in his hands, trying to remember exactly what he had seen in the dream. He closed his eyes and thought. There was sand and dirt; it was very dry and extremely hot: a desert. Maybe it was Iraq, but he had never had a nightmare quite like this one before. Usually his nightmares from the time he was in the Army were about things that he had actually been through. This was different. Sure he had witnessed plenty of explosions during his time in the military, but that wasn't what he was seeing. He wasn't sure why, but it wasn't an IED or grenade; it was something else. As hard as he tried he just couldn't see what the flames were shooting out of, but it felt so real. He could feel the earth shake and feel the heat of the flames when the dream occurred. Plus, he hadn't had one of those nightmares in a few months, not since his mission with the Navy SEAL's when he had guided them to the hideout of the terrorist who had planned and financed many attacks around the world.

When the coffee was ready he poured some into a travel mug and walked out of the kitchen and down to the barn. The fresh air and sound of the crickets chirping helped to calm him down. He stepped inside the barn and turned on the light, then sat down on a bale of hay and took a sip of the coffee and tasted absolutely nothing. "Damn cold." Still, the hot coffee felt good to his sore throat. Taking another sip, he looked around. Bo and Lamar, his two hands at the California ranch did a good job – maybe too good. He was looking for something to do, something that would tire him out so hopefully he could sleep and not dream. Climbing up into the hayloft, he turned on the light and started moving bales of hay and restacking them, straightening up the space. After he had spent an hour on it, there was nothing else to be done so he descended the ladder and went to the tack room and began cleaning and straightening the harness and saddles that were in there. After another hour he had run out of things to do. He climbed back up into the loft and sat on a bale of hay, leaning back against the wall of the barn and looked at the stars outside.

At 6:00 am CJ shut off the alarm clock and got out of the bed. Matt hadn't come back after she had drifted back off. She went to the bathroom and turned on the shower. Climbing in under the steamy water, she wondered where he had landed. One night he had stayed out on the patio by the pool; another night he was on the tailgate of his truck. The one thing that she knew was that she was making a doctor's appointment for him. Carol might not be able to cure the common cold but she could sure prescribe something to make him sleep. Of course as stubborn as he was, she would be lucky to get him to take it – if she could even get him into the doctor's office.

After getting dressed, CJ went looking for him. He wasn't in the house or on the patio. She stopped and looked around. He wasn't in or on the truck. Maybe the barn? she thought to herself and headed down that way. "Matt?" She didn't hear an answer and walked on inside, looking around but not seeing him. Then she went to the tack room. He wasn't there either. "Matt?" Still no answer. She looked around and spied the ladder up to the hayloft. Very carefully, she climbed up and once she set foot in the loft, she found him: lying on a bale of hay sound asleep. She walked over to him and felt his forehead with the back of her hand. He was feverish. Now what do I do? Since he was finally asleep, she didn't want to wake him but knew that he needed to be inside. Sleeping in the hayloft wasn't going to help his cold any, but she knew he was exhausted. Looking around she found an old jacket that someone had left up there and covered him with it, then went back down the ladder and back to the house.

Carol LeMaster was not only CJ and Matt's doctor; the two women had been sorority sisters. They were still best friends. CJ picked up the phone and called her friend's cell phone.

"Hello?" The voice always sounded cheerful, no matter what was going on.

"Hi Carol. I hate to call you so early, but I've got a problem."

"Okay CJ, what did he get into now?" Carol was used to hearing about Matt getting shot, stabbed, or hurt in various ways in his job as a private investigator.

"A cold. But that's not the worst of it. He's barely slept in the last week. He's having a recurring nightmare. Do you think you might be able to give him something? He's never going to get over the cold at this rate."

"Sure. Just tell him to come to the office and I'll work him in." She had a feeling she wouldn't be seeing him – Matt liked her as a person but hated going to the doctor and would use just about any excuse to get out of it.

"That's going to be hard to do. I've got to go to Hawaii to take care of a business deal this morning." There was no way she could postpone it.

"I really don't like to give out anything without seeing someone, especially when he's already got a cold."

"Okay, I'll talk to him and see if I can get Uncle Roy to herd him in there." Both women laughed.

"Well if anybody can do it, I'm sure Roy can. I'll tell Christie to send him on back when he gets there – that way he can't skip out on me."

CJ thanked her and hung up. It was 6:45. She picked up the phone again and called Roy, who answered in a chipper voice on the first ring. "Hi Uncle Roy."

"Good morning, beautiful niece of mine!" He was always so cheerful; she wondered how he did it.

"I wish it was. Look, I need your help." She explained about Matt and told him what Carol had said.

"Oh boy, well, I could always hog tie him and throw him in the back of the truck, I guess." They both laughed. "Okay CJ, I'll get him there."

"Thanks Uncle Roy. Guess I better get my bag and head out. Take care of him for me, okay?"

"You know I will. You be careful while you're gone. Don't get too tired, alright?"

"Okay. Thanks again. 'Bye." She hung up and went back to get her suitcase and loaded it into her Navigator. Bo and Lamar were heading toward the barn from the bunkhouse so she drove down to let them know what was going on. They agreed to keep an eye on Matt and try to help Roy get him to Carol's office. She parked the Navigator and got out, walking into the barn and climbing back up into the loft again with the two cowboys following. She and Matt had a rule: you never leave without telling the other goodbye, no matter what. Quietly she walked over to where he was laying, and knelt down beside him, giving him a kiss on the forehead. "Good bye, Matt. Love you." She kissed him again and then headed back down the ladder with Bo in the lead and Lamar following her.

"Don't you worry none, CJ; we'll make sure he gets to the doc." Lamar opened the door of the SUV for her and closed it behind her.

"Thanks guys." She put the Navigator in gear and headed down the driveway on her way to the airport. If there was any way she could have put off the meeting, she would have. But it had already been rescheduled twice because the Houston Industries lawyer who was supposed to handle it was in the hospital. Murray Chase, the CEO of the company, had asked her to take care of it for him. It had been over two years since she had done any work for the company that used to be Matt's. He had put it in Murray's care and had given up control and the profits from it. Instead, all of the profits were put into trust for various charities. Thousands of people were being helped. Although it had put a dent in Matt's finances, he was much happier. He had worked with Derwin Dunlap on a project called BugBytes, which involved surveillance equipment, and had also worked with him on a video game. Both ventures had proved to be profitable and he had already recovered from the hit he took when he gave away the corporation.

Strange as it sounded, though, Matt wasn't interested in the money. He had worked with Derwin on the BugBytes program in order to be able to conduct surveillance while still staying safe. Plus the profits from the video game weren't going into his pocket. He hadn't told them yet, but he was putting all the money that he made from it into trust funds for Vince Novelli's four sons and Michael Hoyt's daughter.

CJ arrived at the airport and boarded the Lear jet, headed for Hawaii. She hadn't told Matt, but Vince Novelli and his mother Rosa were going to come back with her for a visit. Hopefully he would be feeling better by the time they got back in two days. As the plane took off, CJ couldn't explain it, but she had a really bad feeling that something was going to happen. You're just out of sorts because of the way your morning got started. Snap out of it! she thought to herself. Opening her brief case, she pulled out the contract that was the reason for her trip to Hawaii and began going over it again so that she would be fully prepared to discuss it with the client that she was going to meet.