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Out of the West

Chapter 35-Enter the Granger (B)

Despite appearances, Leo Green wasn't dozing in a chair facing the woods on a sunny afternoon. While Liz (Annette) and Harry (Harry) were running around sprucing up the house for Harry's friend's visit, important exercises and experiments in psionic sensing were being conducted. True, while he was engaged in these Leo was a good bit less attentive to his surroundings, but some sacrifices must be made. Currently he was trying to see how far he could stretch his 'Sie' ability toward his front. He was trying to sense into the treeline about thirty yards to his front. The sensations were disappointingly weak and inconsistent. He closed his eyes in order to reduce distractions. The conscious parts of his mind didn't even register the very light footsteps coming up behind him, with a rhythm that said "not Liz, not safe." He wasn't even really noticing it when an arm moved toward him and his reflexes kicked in and he grabbed it, augmented his pull with Teek, and flipped the person on the other end of the arm into the air and over his head. Reaching for the knife in his boot sheath and pitching his body forward to land his knees on the body's torso (with a chance of breaking ribs) were all just trained fighting reflexes. It wasn't until he caught a glimpse of the figure in mid-air and his mind went into full connection did the thought strike him, "Oh shit, it's a guest!"

He frantically Teeked her so her landing wouldn't be nose first, and put as much power as he had to decelerate her before she hit the ground and broke something. He leaned forward a bit, so his knees would hit the ground a little bit over her shoulders, and used his unoccupied hand to stop his forward momentum. He felt he should distract her while certain essential social courtesies were attended to: "You must be Miss Granger; may I call you Hermione?" he asked as he rocked his body weight back a little, met some resistance, and slid the knife back into the sheath. From there he went smoothly back up to his feet, and offered her his hands for a lift up to a standing position. Yes, greeting guests with a drawn knife in your hand could only rarely be considered polite manners. He could almost hear Walburga chiding him in a disappointed tone of voice.

"Sorry about that. My sister and I sometimes play with her trying to sneak up on me, and I try to catch her. She should have warned you."

"She did, I just… Pleased to meet you. I'm fine with Hermione, Mr. Hahn."

Leo had just put things together and realized that the resistance to rocking backward he had felt earlier was his running into her breasts; perky breasts. "Just call me Otto; Mr. Hahn is just about business. Well, Harry said his friend was good looking, but I thought he was just being a friend. I'm very pleased to see you."

That comment flustered her a little, and she blushed very nicely as they went back into the house. Leo decided that the day was warm enough for a bit of pleasure swimming; his early morning dips were more of a matter of getting a mile or two done as a way of keeping in condition. There was no reason that he be the only one not having fun on a glorious day during the summer!

When he got down to the canal all the others were in the water, but Hermione wasn't quite relaxed enough for a good War of the Splashes. Liz proposed a bout of "Chicken Fight" as a way to loosen things up. Leo tried to beg off; he had no particular problem with Harry carrying Liz around (as long as there was a chaperone), but he felt a little awkward having a strange woman's firm butt resting on his shoulders. But when Liz was on a roll he never had much of a chance to deflect her, and within two minutes he was carrying Miss Granger (no, Hermione!) while he tried to trip up Harry and she grabbed at Liz. After a very small amount of this type of activity it became impossible to be very serious about anything, and the next forty five minutes of so were as much fun as they were exhausting.

When they got back the mail was in and Leo sorted through it. Along with junk mail, and several items that he would have to re-direct the next day, there was one addressed to him, by his proper name. In the lower right corner there was an instruction, "Open in morning" with a small picture in ink of a monkey, with its fingers arranged in the traditional V. He brought that up to his room.

Even though he hadn't thought to coach her, Hermione managed to put in the right straight line when they got to the restaurant he had picked for dinner. Harry laughed himself silly and only Leo knew why. The food was decent too.

Driving back, in the dark, Leo was able to keep up about a twenty yards zone of perception, up and down the road. To either side there were just too many obstructions to analyze as they moved along past hedges and fences. So, unless things changed marvelously twenty yards was his outer limit, maybe ten for any useful details. And keep the speeds less than forty miles an hour.

That evening started out pretty calm and domestic until Hermione started to greet them in Chinese. From there it got freeform and silly. Poor girl was tired from the swimming, probably, and went to bed before things really got interesting and Harry joined in. They all turned in before midnight, imaginations exhausted, but acknowledging Harry victor in the Pun War.

Leo woke up at 2:30, sweating and with his heart pounding. It had been one of those dreams; failure and pain and being lost in a maze of doors without meaning. He lay there for a little while, then got up, dressed, and went quietly through the house. At each closed door he stretched his awareness and encountered a peacefully sleeping person; Liz, Harry, and Hermione. He wondered what he would really have done if it had been Hermione, and Liz with Harry.

He decided on nothing, really. He was too happy she was having a ball with the young man. One of the fears that woke him up at night, and stayed with him during the day, was that she would end up diving into the DataStream and never come out. She had described, the first few times she had dipped her toes in the world without bodies as a rush of freedom and possibility that almost overwhelmed her. Leo worried that one day, as her abilities grew and technology made her powers and freedom there even greater, she would just give up the flesh and leave the limited world of one pair of eyes and a reach only as far as the length of her arm. Leo felt guilty; that might be the path of immortality for her, and if anyone was worthy of being the guardian angel for the world it was his brilliant kid sister. But he didn't want to give her up, especially before she had tasted real, grown-up life. And that led back to Harry.

Leo really felt it was better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all. He realistically didn't give her summer romance (and he was pretty sure that was what was happening) much of a chance of long endurance. But it would be a strong memory, and a sign that you could be deliriously, insanely, happy as a mere human being. He wanted her to have as many of those memories as she could, as many ties to the world of matter as possible.

Leo tried to distract himself with increasingly bizarre thoughts, and finally realized that he was not going to be going back to sleep again this night. Only one thing to do then: 'shake the crazies out' as his kindergarten teacher had used to say. He went down to the kitchen, and then out into the woods and began to burn off his energy. If his heart was going to be racing, he'd give it something physical to deal with.

At first he went slow, just running in the dark between the trees. Then jumps, Teek aided and not, up to fifteen feet up onto branches. Then all of that, and lifting rocks and bringing them with him as he moved back and forth through the woods. Next, bouncing from one unseen branch to another, yards away, and flinging twenty pound rocks like pebbles at targets at the edge of his psi perception. Dropping like a stone to the ground to pick up more rocks, bouncing between one place to another, faster and faster until even if someone saw him in full daylight they would have been seeing a blur. Sometimes he missed a landing (vertical or horizontal) and crashed into a trunk or the ground. What little vision he had went to grey, but he still tried to go faster, higher, throw things harder. The night active creatures had left, to somewhere less dangerous. Now the ones that moved in the daylight scattered in worried bursts to safer parts. Shake the crazies out.

When dawn came he slowed up; he had done enough damage to the innocent trees by then anyhow. He began doing simpler things, just walking up and down, and carrying weights. By about seven he was down to walking up and down the tree trunks slowly (his muscles were sore, and his bruises starting to ache) carrying some tires, with the rims still in them, that he had found in a shed on the property. He saw Hermione looking out of her window. She was wearing a very modest white night gown, proper wear for a young innocent. Leo waved to her, the tire he was carrying in that hand couldn't have been more than forty pounds, no problem.

After that he put away his toys, met Harry setting up to make breakfast in the kitchen as he went in. He went up to his room and opened the letter from his favorite monkey. It just said "Go to swim." He changed into a pair of trunks and grabbed a towel. He met Harry again in the kitchen, and asked him to tell the others he'd like a morning by himself, down by the water.

The water felt good as he moved gently so his body wouldn't twinge too much. A family in a house barge went by. A family taking a long, leisurely summer cruise from one of the interlocked canals of Britain to the others. Father was steering the boat, a young boy ate something out of a bowl, waving to the man swimming next to them, a small, alert looking dog stood up in the bows like a furry lookout. That looked like a good way to travel.

Leo thought on the dog. Liz and he had been arguing for over a month on getting Aaron a puppy. Not over "if," much more which type. Leo couldn't remember the name of the type of dog, but it had looked smart and bright. He'd suggest the breed to her for when they got back home.

A van had pulled off of the road and into the woods on the other side of the canal. A man and a woman got out, waved to him and set up a little portable camp stove and began making tea. Leo saw them unobtrusively look around them. Checking out the road, checking the canal for any traffic or pedestrians taking a stroll. They waved again and invited him for a hot cuppa. Their patterns were so wrong Leo couldn't resist. He climbed out on their bank, and thanked them, said that he had been getting chilly. The man walked him over to the canal edge and asked questions about its depth, the type of bottom, did boats still use it. Leo kept his Sie concentrated to his back. The woman put something into the tea in one of the tin cups, and carried over to the two of them. They were a courting couple it seemed. Leo noticed she was careful to put the loaded cup into his hands. He blew on it a little and began to sip.

The conversation continued for about ten minutes, all the friendly trivialities that are said by people who meet while traveling and may not ever meet again. For some reason the pair seemed to grow increasingly agitated and almost impatient as the time went on. Leo turned to thank the pair for their hospitality, and managed to get a good look at their vehicle and its license plate. The man almost made a grab at Leo as he turned back and dived back into the water.

By the time Leo was up on the other bank, and toweling himself as he waved back at his hosts they were putting away their stove and piling into the van. He noted what direction it drove off. Leo then carefully pulled the fluid he had just drunk out his stomach. He had enclosed it from the start in a slender envelope of Teek, not letting any get into his system. He set off at a shuffling jog (he'd gotten stiff enough that a run was beyond him) to the house.

Liz was in the living room, discussing music with the others, and came over to say good morning.

"Keep them out of my way for the next ten minutes, I'll be using the phone. Keep them out of earshot."

She wasn't experienced, really, in field operations, but she was smart and could see something was going on. She nodded and went smiling back to her friends, even if one of them didn't realize it yet. He went right to the telephone and called a constantly monitored number.

A report poured out: his name and location, the reason for the call, "Checking out if there were any witnesses, giving me a drink I'm sure was drugged. Becoming nervous when I didn't react. Despite saying they had been stopping for a camping breakfast at that attractive spot leaving after only brewing the tea to give to me. Their patterns of behavior were totally off, they weren't professional, but they had something big they were hiding, and undoubtedly dirty. Volks van, tan, a few years old, number ECV 201 M. Left going west on the A 259. If possible please investigate. I do not think it is AGER business, but it certainly is something. I'll be at this number; it has an answering machine for further communication if needed. Right? Good."

He then walked back to the kids and wondered if he had just made himself a complete idiot, or perhaps just exposed that he had been one for a long time. It was a good day for a field trip; the London Zoo was in for some havoc.

The next day their newspaper had a headline:

Mysterious Double Suicide!

Two days after that the papers had:

Revelations from a Cornish House

Of Horrors!

It seemed that a pair of serial killers had beaten themselves up and then hanged themselves in remorse. When local police had visited their home, evidence had been found of why twenty three people had disappeared in southern Britain over the last five years. There were souvenirs. Hermione started to read the story, gagged, and left at a run. Harry picked it up, turned slightly green but continued on to the end. His only comment: that all-in-all Luna was a better writer than most of those in the professional press.

Leo wasn't worried about his reputation, at least at the moment. He knew Quiller, and knew that even when it wasn't strictly AGER business the local branch sometimes did what they termed, "Pro Bono" work. Quiller's comment when Leo next talked to him was that sometimes you just helped out around the place, taking out the trash.