Chapter 77

Kayla very briefly told everyone what had happened. Just as she was finishing up, Sheriff Tate, who had been eating with the team, walked into the hallway to chat with the others. "I helped the guys move the bodies out. We found a roll of black plastic in the basement and covered the pile of them."

"That piece of plastic over there on the floor," Jill said, motioning down the hallway near the theater door, "is that where one of them..."

"Yeah," Kayla said. "General Whitworth has a forensic cleanup crew on the way to take care of things."

"I looked under the plastic when we came in. They'll never get that much blood out of the carpet," Bill said.

"So the investigation is over already?" Kathy asked.

Sheriff Tate chuckled. "I don't think this is going down like one of those shows you watch on TV, or what we would have to do if my department were taking care of the investigation. General Whitworth has declared it a military operation, and I certainly agree with him. He said this originated with one of his personnel at the base. I think the extent of the investigation was just pretty much to ask the lieutenant here (referring to Kayla) and Jeff what happened, then clean up the mess. These guys had automatic weapons, were wearing body armor, and had some very sophisticated radios and other equipment on them, plus their weapons were silenced. Four of them were wearing quasi-military uniforms, but the uniforms were pretty much generic. No way to tell where the uniforms came from or what organization these men represented, if they were, indeed, mercenaries at all. Same for where the weapons came from. You can buy them pretty much anywhere in the world. Whitworth discovered where their orders originated, though, and is in the process of taking care of that."

"So what can we do to help?" Wainwright asked.

"I guess just wait for the crew to get here and maybe see what they need. The General said they would bring equipment with them to take care of things, though. But, I'm with you, Bill," Tate said, glancing at the pilot. "I don't think they'll ever get the blood out of the carpet so the stain doesn't show, and there is a row of bullet holes down there," he finished, pointing. "And the Sergeant says the Matthews' bedroom looks like a war zone. They will definitely need someplace else to sleep tonight."

Wainwright shrugged, "I bought more carpet than we needed when we built the retreat, same for paneling and other things. It was all bought because carpet gets worn, or torn, or stained. Paneling gets nicked or scratched. There should be plenty of everything to take care of this, all stored in the basement, and it's out of the same lot, so it should match perfectly..."

Jones stepped out of the kitchen and interrupted them. "Uh, Lieutenant, someone by the name of Dave Henson just turned into the driveway with a bunch of people in the SUV with him. He says he lives here, and he about ate the guard's lunch for having the audacity to stop him. You might want to meet them out back."

"Oh, shit," Kayla muttered as she, carrying her helmet, took off down the hall toward the back door. Quickly donning her coat, she rushed out the back only seconds before the Escalade slid to a halt.

"Who's hurt?" Evie said as she flung the passenger's door open and got out.

"Arlene is," Kayla answered, "but the Ship says she will be fine."

"Oh, wow. Neat," all three girls said in perfect unison as soon as they were out of the SUV and standing. "It's big," Nat added as they all stared at the ship.

"What do you mean that Arlene is hurt? How is my granddaughter? Will she..." Susan started as she scrambled out of the SUV, she and everyone else now focusing on Kayla.

"She's in one of the healing chambers, and Jeff says that the Ship is confident that she will be perfect when she comes out. Jeff told us about those, remember? The Ship has already healed Jeff's arms, and Helen's bullet wound. Everybody is waiting for Arlene to come out of the chamber..."

"Jeff's arms and Helen's bullet wound?" Evie asked.

"Long story. The short of it is we were attacked. Jeff burned his arms getting a set of plastic cuffs off; they shot Helen, and then shot Arlene. We killed all their asses. The ship came to help out with the last attacker, and healed Jeff and Helen, but Arlene was hurt much worse, and is still in the healing chamber."

"Who?" Dave snapped.

"Several men I think were probably some type of mercenaries, plus the Hagewoods, all led by the cleaning crew."

Dave stared at her. "Shit."

"Yeah," Kayla said. "Seems like we've been saying that a lot today."

Everyone stood staring at the ship. The others had all come outside to meet Dave and the returning family. "I don't think the Matthews need everyone in there right..." But Kayla stopped, realizing it was a lost cause. The whole group had started toward the ship, already. Crap, I want to be there, too, Kayla thought as she fell in step beside Evie.

The blown path ended before they got to the ship, but there had been enough traffic to open the path pretty well, anyway. Kayla knew from experience that there were going to be some cold feet shortly, since Dave and his group had dressed for Denver weather, and Wainwright and his group also had on low-top shoes.

The group slowed as they got to the ramp, and Kayla took the lead. She stamped her feet on the ramp to dislodge some of the snow, then the thought hit her. She didn't remember any melted snow on what passed for carpet inside the ship. Things were happening so fast she hadn't even thought about it. Stepping through the doorway, she said to the Matthews, "The rest of our family is home."

Kayla stood back as the hugs and explanations consumed the next few minutes. The room had suddenly sprouted places for everyone to sit. The "seats" weren't exactly furniture, but were the unambiguous gray of the walls and floor, though certainly softer.

This time, Kayla took notice. Kneeling, she swept her hand across the ... carpet. Nothing was wet, and there were no wet tracks from where all the people walked across the room. There were no chunks of snow or any evidence that they had just trudged across several hundred feet of snow. She looked down at her own boots, (she had long-since changed to warmer clothes and footgear) but the tread was devoid of the slightest bit of moisture, or anything else.

"Dirt doesn't come in, either," Jeff said, obviously having been watching her. "I've spent some time trying to ask her about that. I think the function is unconscious with her, or automatic or something; I had a hard time getting the point across. Just think of it as her version of our welcome mat at the back door of the retreat, where you wipe your feet before entering. Kayla, the things she does can't really be described as advanced technology; they're far beyond that."

Jeff had half expected the girls, and his younger wives for that matter, to go off exploring the ship, but they didn't. Instead the three new girls sat near Arlene's healing chamber, soon to be joined by Ann, Melissa and Jennie. Evie joined Diana, Helen and Laura as they sat on the wall-bench huddled together. Susan sat on the floor, leaning back against her daughter's legs, occasionally patting Diana. Margaret, Jill and Kathy joined them as well as Dave's women. Wainwright, Dave and Bill sat near Jeff. Kayla put Jeff's helmet back on in case the General might need her.

Everyone waited.

Jeff sprang up as the mist cleared in the healing chamber. Arlene lay there, a look of confusion on her face, then weakly, "Momma?"

"I'm here, Baby. I'm here," Diana choked out as she quickly took the two steps needed and reached for her daughter's hand. "You're fine."

Arlene sat up, Little One now resting on her shoulder, but the look of confusion continued. "I'm fine? But ... I thought ... I mean..."

Diana and Jeff helped their daughter out of the chamber, sitting her on a seat that resembled a toadstool, that suddenly grew a back as she relaxed onto it. "But, he shot me. I died ... didn't I? There was this beautiful bright tunnel I was walking through, and there was something I was walking toward, but I can't seem to remember just what it was. But then this pretty lady called me back a little way. We sat and talked for a while. It seemed that I should know her. She knew things about us. I really liked her. Then suddenly she was gone and this other — older — lady was there. Oh, she was so beautiful. She took my hand and told me things. Things that I can ... almost remember. We talked for the longest time. I thought I was ... in Heaven. How did I get back here? I was dead. I..."

Arlene looked around her, seeming to suddenly realize that her family was all gathered near. Jeff gently lifted Little One to his shoulder and held his collar open for her to flow onto his back. "Helen, you were shot," Arlene continued, putting out her hand to touch her sister.

Helen took Arlene's hand and squeezed it. "I'm fine now. Little One and the ship healed me."

As Arlene turned to her dad, he spoke up, "Yeah, me too. The ship took care of my burns and the lump on my head while you were being healed."

Arlene took a breath, again looking around her. "It was so bright there. The colors were so — intense. It seems so dim here, in comparison." She squeezed her mother's hand as she stared up at Jeff. "Hold me, Daddy. Just hold me, please."

Jeff caught Diana's eye as Arlene snuggled her head against his chest. "The women: Little One and the Ship," Jeff quietly explained.

"That's what I thought," Diana said, a smile touching her lips.

Later. They were no sooner back in the retreat and had walked into the kitchen when the phone rang, yet again. "Matthews' residence. Kayla speaking."

The voice of Alesha came on the line. "Hi, Girl. What's happening?"

"Oh, not too much," Kayla said, lying through her teeth.

"Look, I thought I would give you a call. They asked me to work a double, as I knew they would, since the evening shift girl was sick as a dog when she relieved me yesterday. Sure enough, she's worse today. I brought a change of clothes and my makeup with me, and they always comp a room if you have to work extra and you want to stay. Anyway, don't expect me for dinner."

It was hard for Kayla to not sigh with relief. Alesha had worked over before, but this was definitely fortuitous for tonight. Now she (Kayla) wouldn't have to ask Alesha to stay over with Jessie, and probably hurt her feelings by obviously keeping secrets from her.

"Thanks Alesha. We would have been worried that you might have had a wreck if you didn't show up on time."

"Got someone at the desk. Have to go. See ya."

"Bye."

As Kayla hung up the phone, Jeff turned to her with a freshly-poured cup of coffee in his hand, an eyebrow raised.

"I was going to call Alesha and ask her to stay with Jesse tonight, since the Ship is sitting out there and Alesha hasn't been blocked, but she's going to stay at the lodge after working a double. With everything that is going on..."

"Might not have been such a good idea to ask her to stay with Jesse," Diana injected as she took the cup from her husband's hand and sat at the table.

Jeff made a motion as if he were drinking from an imaginary cup, then turned to pour himself more coffee.

"They're not sleeping together," Diana went on, grinning at her husband.

Kayla smiled at Jeff, as he mimed looking around to see if someone else was going to steal this cup of coffee, then to Diana, "You're kidding me. But they do everything together. He stays late in her suite. I just assumed..."

Diana put cream and sweetener into her coffee, then sat absently stirring. "She's had some bad things happen to her. As best we can tell, none of them have been her fault, but she blames herself, anyway. She's being careful, and since she's told Jesse everything, he appears to understand and isn't pushing her. We're all rooting for them to make it permanent. They're both good people, and even though they haven't been together long, they're obviously made for each other. At least, we all think so."

Kayla could tell that Diana was still stressed, and there was an occasional, barely noticeable tremor to her hands when she sipped her coffee. Jeff sat at the end of the table, then reached over and took his wife's hand.

"Where's Arlene?" Kayla said, just to break the silence.

Diana hesitated for a second, then, "She, Ann, Jennie and Melissa have a special bond, I guess you could say. They grew up together, and they've only become closer now that they're sister-wives. I just thought they needed some time alone after what's happened. They picked one of the suites for us to use on the other end of the retreat near Dave and Evie's apartment. Ann said they were going to disassemble the bed, move it to another suite to get it out of the way, and put a couple of mattresses on the floor for us to sleep on tonight.

"And, yeah, all I want to do is sit and hold my daughter, but that's the last thing she needs right now. Getting a place ready for us to sleep will keep her mind off what's happened to her for a while. And Kayla, I want you to know..."

Kayla stepped over to hug Diana, interrupting her, "I did what little I could. I darn sure can't cook worth a crap," she giggled.

Before they could say anything more, Dave stuck his head in the kitchen door and spoke to Jeff. "Evie and I are going with the General and most of your team to check out the ski lodge. Well, actually, we're going to set them up with a place to stay for tonight..."

"Nonsense," Diana broke in. "They can stay right here. We darn sure have enough rooms."

"Whitworth says he wants them to get set up at the ski lodge for now. They can show your security around when they get here later in the week. He's bringing in more monitoring equipment on the choppers to get things started, as well as bringing your team's packs. I gave all my crews a long weekend for all the extra work they have been doing, so they were off today, but tomorrow morning, they'll start with the rough work where the tree and that big boulder met up with the lodge. The General says the guy who is going to be in charge of the security team is coming with the cleanup crew so he can look over the lodge. As soon as he tells us what he needs changed, we'll get started on that."

Dave came on into the kitchen, his attention primarily on Jeff. "With the help of this forensic crew, I can snatch up the carpet in the affected areas, and put some new back down. Replacing the affected paneling in the classroom and hall will be easy. Your bedroom has drywall, so they can clean the walls and I can patch the bullet holes with no problems. We have leftover paint from when we redid your suite, so that won't be a problem, either. By morning, the place will look like it did before those assholes came in here to do their thing."

"Dave, I..."

But Dave interrupted. "Before you say anything, Evie and I will sleep tomorrow. Tonight, we're going to be busy. Oh, yeah, I told the General about the incinerator. No use taking ... uh, things back to the base for disposal. Turns out the base incinerators are the same as the one out back, just bigger. Wainwright made them for him so nothing would ever come out, just like he made ours. We're going to be using a little gas tonight — well, actually a lot of gas tonight," he chuckled. Anyway, when the crew gets here, we'll get started on the incinerator, and a couple of your team members — those not involved with security duty or helping set up the ski lodge — are going to help with the grunt work by bringing up the paneling, and helping to rip out and get rid of the carpet, and stuff like that. Check back with you in a bit," Dave finished before hurrying out the door.

Diana had called to warn Joyce and Caitlin that they would be stopped by security at the bottom of the drive. Despite their wanting to know what had happened to prompt security being here earlier than they had expected, Diana just glossed over the reason, saying that Whitworth had changed the time tables, not wanting to elaborate on the phone.

When Joyce left the class in Denver, she had called Caitlin. Caitlin was waiting in the hospital parking lot when Joyce pulled in beside her. As their windows slid down so they could talk, Caitlin said, "What's going on? I thought they were going to fix up the ski lodge before the security people came in."

Joyce sat tapping a nail against the steering wheel. "I don't know. You have your gun with you?"

"You know I do. But if there was something bad going on, Diana would have told us."