HI: Threads are starting to unravel.


Chapter 72

The nightmares continue.

Minutes before dawn

The younger Pownall's bedroom thunders with noise. Intense creaking of the bedsprings join a chorus of gasps from Ben as the staccato-like moans of a wide eyed Ryn increase their volume.

"Ryn, please…" Ben looks up toward his thrusting lover. Her fingers squeeze muscular arms as if their skin were made from a sponge.

She wishes to speak, but the pleasure of total domination shoots up her spine as sensual squirts of power run through her loins.

"I know you were leaving me." Her declaration does not diminish her pulsating movements. Ben's added strength from the cell therapy has given him a stamina unknown to a human male.

A stamina he wished would dissipate.

"You are bound to me. You are mine." A screeching hiss causes Ben's face to cringe. "We are joined…till death do us part." Lips recede as Ryn's teeth clinch.

"To leave me is to choose death."

"No…" He pushes out through a strained mouth. "Ryn, your…the pain…my arms…my…" His respiration falters, forcing him to suck in deep breaths.

"You and her belong to me." A shaking Ryn can feel the rush of blood upward from her legs. She releases one of Ben's arms and clutches her breasts.

With a rolling head whipping dark as night hair in a whirlpool of delight, streams of sweat fly through the air.

Flopping on her lover, she rolls to his side. "neither of you can ever leave me." Placing her chin on his rising chest. "Ever try to leave me again…Ever!"

The shout causes Hope in the next room to stir from her restless slumber.

Ben is silent as the combination of her orgasm and his, keep him almost paralyzed. He stretches his chin, as short shallow breaths leave the distraught or fearful expression.

"Now, I have total control of you. Even when you finish your male duties."

The angered young woman appears to have softened.

Strumming his sparse chest hairs with her fingers, she begins to whisper in a gentle tone.

"When we are all under the surface…" Ryn takes a breath. "All of us. Our children, our Maddie." A smile advances across her expression.

"Oh yes, my sweet love. Start Maddie on the stem cell therapy." Slithering her nude form upon his.

"My sweet Ben, under the water our love making will be different. The longer I stay on land the angrier I get." Gentle lips are pressed on his. "I was angry. You left us. Left us when those people came."

"Ryn?" He finally speaks as if forming a question. "Ryn…Ryn…"

Her eyes become clouded by a wavering mist.

"Momma, momma." Ben's voice continues.

His words become dimmer as his tone changes.

And then there's a blast.

"Momma!" It is Hope and her voice is full of anguish.

In a flash Ryn springs upward. A chill from the damp bedsheets cause a slight tremble as they stick to her soaked body.

"Momma…momma…who is in there. Is daddy back? Momma," the distressed young woman continues to knock. "Is he back from the hospital."

"Oh, no…no…a dream. Ben is not here." She puts her hands to her forehead.

"How could I have thought such a thing?"

Running her unsteady hand over the sheets, her chest begins to quake.

"My Ben…my Ben…" The distressed woman begins to move her body back and forth. "No, I can never hurt you

like that. It's just a dream…no, a nightmare."

Tears run down her face, as Hopes knocking has brough a dreary eyed Little Ted to her side.


A short time after dawn

The bell over the front door of the shop causes Helen to turn. Though it is early in the morning, the proprietor is not surprised.

"Let's go to the backyard." Still worried over Navy surveillance, the older woman waits to extend a hand to the visitor.

Bloodshot eyes and a labored stride matched the tenor of the young woman's voice during her phone call.

"Maddie, we're safe back here. Please tell me what happened."

The two women walk to a green picnic table. Helen takes a cloth and wipes the morning dew from the benches.

"Sit here, sweetheart." Helen says as she places herself opposite Maddie.

"I have to say, after this we're going to the beauty parlor."

The older woman's comment brings a smile to Maddie.

"I know, I look like hell." Sitting straight, she continues. "Helen, I had another visit from Tia."
"Oh, no. What dah hell does she want." Shaking her head, "that psycho just won't stay dead?" Directed to Maddie.

She told me Ben is going to be ok." Maddie's breathing has started to slow down.

"Thank the Good Lord." Helen's reply. "What else does this maniac tell you. I mean, Maddie," a wrinkled hand slides over Maddie's. "She must have told you something to look like this."

"Helen, it was about the money she stole from the Russians."
"Yeah, I remember you talking about it." Helen scratches her teeth over a lower lip. "Something about being buried in three cities in Europe."
"Not buried," Maddie has regained composure. "Someplace big, large in the cities. Think of the biggest train stations in those cities." She runs slender fingers through a cluster of knotted hair. "Helen, please help me with this mop. I know I have more things to worry about…but."
"Absolutely, please darling." Helen pinches the smiling expression of Maddie.

"She naturally kept telling me how much she hated me, and if she could she'd rip my throat out."
"I know it's late, but you are a big girl." The older woman stands up and reenters the back of the shop.

"Helen…" Maddie is confused. Her eyes and mouth are open.

"Here dearie. Here." Helen puts a bottle of scotch on the table. "We'll have breakfast later, pancakes will calm down your tummy like this will calm down your nerves."
Pouring a couple of ounces in each glass, the older woman touches Maddie's.

"Drink up, I know there is more to tell." She smiles at the young woman.

"Yes," Maddie sips the liquor. "Oh…" She needs to take a couple of breaths. "Ok, when she wasn't telling me how much she hates me," She takes another sip. "Something about a time when America got some kind of bug infestation. Maybe I'll google it?"

"What? Bug infiltration. Where?" Asks a suspicious Helen.

"I know, I don't want to believe her, but considering where she is and how much she wants the baby…" A silence covers the picnic table.

"The baby?" Helen asks.

"She said, 'when insects invaded the US.'" Pausing to inhale, "also…It's Joe's baby. She wants us to raise it in the lap of luxury." Maddie raises her eyebrows. The reaction matches Helen's.

"There's more."
"Maddie, you stop there." Helen downs the scotch in one movement. "We have to plan for Ryn's reaction when that little darling comes out normal."

"I told you. It's a nightmare.


Lieutenant Martinez's metallic blue Honda.

"Insects?" Chief Hawkins repeats the reaction. "Insects, invading, United States?"

"It must mean something. A clue." Nicole sits back in her seat. "Maybe an exact location of the money?"
"Should I put this down?" Hawkins ask.

"Oh yeah, they're talking about breakfast now." A slight chuckle leaves her lips.

Putting down the small speaker, he passes a comment. "You sure had some foresight to plant a bug in her yard."

"A bug? Chief, there are little bitty bugs all over that tiny yard." A snorted laugh escapes her mouth.

"Mamm, what do we do about the…bugs…I mean Maddie's bugs?"

"Sit and wait. Chief, in a little while we will recover millions of dollars for the US Government."
"Right, and…" He waits for her to complete his sentence.

"And, I'm sure they won't miss a couple of hundred thousand." She stops to smirk. Let's call it a finder's fee."

"Ok, you're the officer. Let's just make sure we don't get too greedy."
"Chief, you're right. Plus the currency, we'd definitely be put on a fast track for promotion."

"Mamm, if it blows up, we'd be put on a fast track to a court-martial."

"Now," Nicole takes a breath and finishes her statement.

"That would be a nightmare."


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