Coming Home: The Finders Series

CHAPTER 13: LARRY, JAMES AND MORE

The next morning found me rising to a new day with some level of anticipation.  If we stayed on our course, we should make it to Solitaire Mountain by the morning after next.  However, something was bugging me.  At first, I could not put my finger on it, but then I got a look at the kids and Phil.  The kids were in the bathroom, peeking around the corner, and Phil was peeking through the closed curtains on the front window.  I knew what had me uneasy now.  It was the way I was awakened that had me on edge.  We had been probed again.  I slid straight out of bed and into my pants.  I slipped over to the window next to Phil.

" Can you tell how many or where they are setup?" I asked.

" We have four on the roof across the way, two trucks at each end of that street blocking the road, and at least two dozen in the street on each side, heavily armed and mean as can be.  I don't think they're going to let us sneak out of here quietly this time.  If I didn't know better, I would say the Major had it in for you after that stunt you pulled back at the diner." 

Those odds were not very good in my book.  But I had one thing the Major didn't, six years of training in how to use my powers efficiently and effectively.  I also had two amazing kids whom I had been training personally.  I knew what they could do, and I was sure, even if they weren't, that they were ready for this. They could do this.  The phone rang, and Phil about jumped out of his skin.  I thought he was going to have a heart attack right there on the spot.  Even the kids laughed.  I started working my way to the foot of the bed, and the phone started moving that way too.  I was not about ready to answer where it was in case it was a trap to line me up for the snipers across the street.

" Hello, Major.  Fancy meeting you here.  Do you come here often?" I was fighting to remain calm so that my voice remained casual.  I don't know how successful I was at it, but I had to try.

" Let's dispense with the niceties, shall we?  I want those kids, and I'm not finished with you yet either.  Your Buddy Phil will be standing trial for treason and aiding and abetting as well." 

" Oh no, see, he has been a member of Gamblers Anonymous, so he can't be a betting on anything.  I see do that." I gave Phil a wink, and he just shook his head.

" Forty thousand comedians out of work, and here you are cracking jokes.  Well, listen here, funnyman.  We have this whole block cordoned off as well as a secondary perimeter around the entire town.  Either I get what I want, and I mean right now, or you can join your sister.  I don't hear you laughing now, do I?" He was right.  I wasn't laughing, which should have been a warning to him.  It wasn't.  My eyes were going nicely now, but I was in control.  Now I understood how meditation and yoga were to help me.  It was not to make me let go of my anger, but rather to take control of it and master it like all my emotions. I now knew that I could have that rage while still remaining calm.  The calm kept me thinking clearly while the rage powered me up and heightened my senses to a whole new level that I never noticed before.  Now, I did not have to probe anything.  I could see everything out in the street just as clearly as if I were still at the window looking out. 

" Well, I will tell you what, Major.  If you want these kids, you will have to come in here and get them.  But be warned.  If you do come in here, you had best be ready for a fight because we're not going to come willingly.  You have my word on that." I quickly hung up the phone.  I did not want him to have the last word this time.  Phil was looking at me rather strangely.  I didn't care.  I knew my ploy had worked. By saying what I did and not letting him respond, the Major was now angrier.  He was now coming up the stairs himself with eight soldiers and Larry.  I had done it.  He thought that by having Larry, he would be able to withstand anything we threw at him, but he was wrong.  Larry was untrained, undisciplined, and weak.  I looked at the kids.