Cole knew that if he didn't have base telepathic abilities, he would have never understood that sentence from Heather. She obviously didn't need to breathe for a while, he decided while listening to her speech without taking a breath. No man should be around a fifteen-year-old girl unless he was a telepath. That should be a law or something.
"Uncle Cole, what are you doing here?" she insisted again.
"For some reason when your parents found out you were missing and there had been shooting right before you disappeared, they were a little worried," he replied with a grin. "They somehow had this weird idea you were in trouble, and since I was in Colorado anyways for Thanksgiving, your mother called me to hunt you down while they traveled here. Now who's your protector with the rifle?"
Heather glanced over her shoulder. "Ummm…"she started, a little confused as how to make the introduction. "This is Ms. Miller, my gym teacher. She's a chaperone." She turned to her teacher who still had her rifle aimed. "Ms. Miller, this is my uncle, Cole Lydecker. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't shoot him."
Janice lowered the rifle. Uncle? Well, at least she knew Heather got her abilities honestly. She eyed Cole, trying to place him. He looked familiar somehow. He looked like he was in his early-to-mid-thirties or so, but he could be older. Something told her he was at least. She was used to trusting her instincts. He wasn't someone she had worked with, that was for sure. He was eyeing her back just as hard, as if trying to place her as well. Had they met before somewhere?
Cole did not like this at all. Occasionally there was a norm he couldn't read. It was extremely rare, but it happened. It was happening now. He'd met her before somewhere, but he couldn't grab it out of her head where. Her deep brown eyes were perfectly unreadable. It reminded him vaguely of someone else, and then he got it. "It's Janice Miller, isn't it?" he asked. She nodded slowly. "I thought so. We met at the Pentagon a few years ago. It was a counter-terrorism meeting. I was there as a spectator."
Comprehension dawned in her eyes. "I was wondering what a flyboy was doing in there," she said. "But you're not an ordinary flyboy at all are you?"
Heather looked from her uncle to her teacher in complete confusion. She had gotten used to having weird family secrets and stuff like that, but she had never thought that regular people could have lives that they didn't talk about or couldn't talk about. After hiding something like Manticore, everything else seemed vanilla. "Wait," she said to her teacher. "Are you really a teacher or just hiding out because that chick was calling you Nightshade and that was just weird."
"I'm a real teacher," Janice said, realizing whom this Cole was now. He'd been sitting with a member of a Special Forces counter-terrorism team. Janice had recognized her immediately. Shadow was the first female ever admitted into their hallowed ranks. She was supposed to just be a medic, but had become a full team member. They were a very tight team, arguably the best there was, and all of them had a barcode tattooed on the back of their neck one night after they'd all been out drinking for a while one night. Janice had learned that Shadow had gotten a barcode on her neck as a teen, and the rest did it to unify. It had looked funny for there to be an outsider with that particular team, but Shadow seemed comfortable with him.
"Now what the hell is Manticore and why do they think you're part of it?" Janice asked. Cole looked sharply at Heather.
"I didn't say anything," the girl protested immediately. "They kept talking about it and having a prototype."
Cole went to say something, but looked up sharply. He knelt, and motioned them to get down. Janice noticed that he was using hand signals that most Air Force pilots didn't know. They were normally used by black ops units. Like hers. Janice went low to the ground, and then rolled over twice so that she was near them. Further explanations were going to have to wait until they were all safe. She made a hand gesture. "What do you see?"
Heather seemed to know what that meant as well. Cole looked at his niece and smiled a little. He quirked an eyebrow at her, and Heather wanted to laugh. He used to play this game with her when she was little. He would see something, and then make her look for it. The game had helped to focus her abilities and she was glad to have it now. She started to scan the nearby ridges.
Janice was wondering what the hell was going on. She couldn't see anything except for more snow. Something was very weird about these two. He was not the typical pilot she'd known at any rate. Was Manticore some kind of solider training facility? She knew there had been some to create advanced infantry troops, but what she had seen was far beyond those humble training facilities. A sudden flash of memory caught her. Heather not getting hurt falling fifty feet. Cole jumping off a high ledge. Heather got her ability honestly. Genetically?
Janice had heard vague rumors about secret genetics lab breeding facilities to make a perfect solider. She knew something like that had been tried in South Africa once, but it had failed miserably. That was like twenty years before though. The US had never done anything like that. Would they have? Janice was positioned slightly behind Cole and Heather. Cole had pulled down the hood of his coat when he was fighting so that he had full vision. He wasn't freezing like Janice knew she would be. On his neck, just a little above his collar, she could see black lines poking up vertically. A barcode? Was he part of Shadow's group, or was she part of his? Janice knew Heather had an odd birthmark on her neck. It looked like a black smudge. Was it supposed to have been a barcode?
Heather made a hand gesture, and Janice focused back on them, not just their necks. Heather pointed to her eyes. "I see." She pointed up on a ridge with two fingers, and then another with three. "Two men there, three over there." Cole shook his head and then pointed to a third location with two fingers. Heather looked a little sheepish. She'd missed a couple. Oh well, that's what Cole was there for.
Cole glanced back at Janice. "Looks like we still have company," he said low.
"Those guys don't give up ever," Janice replied. "I've dealt with them before. They'll be back with more firepower real soon. That bit…" she glanced at Heather, "woman has never reneged on a contract."
"Then we get moving," Cole said firmly. He picked up a backpack, and mentally inventoried it. He had some toys, but not nearly enough. He glanced up. Gray clouds were starting to roll in. Snow clouds. Janice was noticing it too. She did have some decent training. Know everything possible about your surroundings.
"About a mile northeast of here there's the entrance to some caves," Janice said. "It's a complex maze in there. My…I've been there a few times. There used to be supplies deep within it; there still may be. They won't be able to search for long if the snow gets heavy enough."
Cole really wished he could read her. Was she working with the enemy? It could be coincidence that she was there. He didn't like to trust to coincidence. It didn't matter. She was still a norm. "Move out," he ordered. He looked hard at Janice. "You run point. We'll keep an eye out for things."
She nodded, and they started to move as the first few flakes began to fall from the sky.
