Chapter 246

Idaho Springs

... Shortly after the women had eaten, the phone rang. Courtney saw Matt's cell number on the caller ID. "Hi, Hon," she said, answering.

"Is your guest there with you?"

Courtney grinned as she turned to Bridget. "Why don't you have a look around the house while I set my husband's mind at ease?"

Bridget smiled back at Courtney, walked down the hall and turned into the living room.

"How are the two of you getting along?"

"Just great, Husband of mine. What have you got to tell me? I know you've checked her out by now."

"White female, blond, nineteen, five feet six inches, one hundred and twenty-five pounds, Denver address – not in the best area – her mother and father deceased, father recently, no priors, not even a traffic citation as far as I've been able to determine. Still checking school and job history..."

Courtney broke in with, "She's the one, Baby,"

"What ... Now look, Honey..."

Courtney lowered her voice so Bridget couldn't possibly hear. "She's the one from my dreams. She's trying to hitchhike to Reno to find her cousins and get a job. All her family is dead or gone, except the cousins..."

"Court, uh, I'll admit that she's probably going to check out okay, but just because someone doesn't have a criminal history or anything bad in their recorded background..."

"She's beautiful, Matt. You're going to come in your pants when you see her."

"Dammit, Court, I told you that you're all I need. I love you, you little idiot. Just because those other guys have more than one wife..."

"She's going to fall for you like a ton of bricks; I just know it."

"Courtney, you are not listening. I don't need... "

"See you at the usual time, and don't you dare be late."

"Court..."

"Bye, Baby. Love you." And she hung up the phone.

Courtney found Bridget looking out the picture window at an increasingly darkening sky that seemed to be threatening snow more by the minute. "Aren't you glad you're out of that?"

"But..." Bridget started as she fought back tears, "I need to be on my way."

Courtney gently turned the girl so they could look each other in the eye. "Why? You're in a warm house and you can stay here as long as you want. There are bound to be jobs around the Denver area..."

"I can't believe you're inviting a stranger to stay with you, but even if I did stay, we're thirty miles or more from Denver. Like I said at the gas station, I've been trying to find a full-time job, but it had gotten to the point that I was using what little money I had left over after rent for bus fare looking for a job, instead of buying something to eat. I could walk to work in this tiny little town, but surely there aren't any jobs here..."

"Just a minor obstacle to be overcome. I'm sure some of the agents my husband works with will know of a job somewhere, and your not having a vehicle can be corrected. You mentioned college. How were your grades in high school?"

Bridget looked flustered for a second, "Uh, good. My dad was proud of me. I made a thirty-four on my ACT, but I didn't try for any scholarships, not with Daddy so sick."

"Plenty of colleges around Denver, and there is always the online option as well. I'll bet you could get a free ride at some of the colleges with that ACT score." Courtney reached to take Bridget's hand. "Come on. I'll show you around the house, then we can talk the rest of the afternoon. Forget about hitching to Reno. If you want to talk to your cousins, I'm sure Matt can locate them and come up with a phone number."

"But I don't even know their married names..."

" ... But you know their maiden names. Heck, for fifty bucks on the Internet, I might even be able to find out myself, but let's not worry about that right now. You can always talk to them later, and ... tell them how well you're doing and what you're studying in college."

Bridget stopped to stare at her new friend, tears beginning to sparkle in the young woman's eyes. "You really mean that, don't you? But why..."

Courtney stood staring back at Bridget for a moment, then making up her mind, "I can't tell you how right now – well not without making myself look like an idiot – but somehow ... I just want to welcome you home."

"But..."

"Yeah, I know it sounds odd, but darnit, I think you feel it, too. I'm sure we're going to be good friends." Worrying that she was scaring Bridget with too much familiarity, she hastened to say, "Let's go get some fresh coffee, sit down and have some girl talk."

Friday late afternoon

"He's on the move," the General told Jeff over the phone.

"I'm on the way, Sir." Jeff put the phone back in its charger and turned to the women. "He's moving. Get your gear," he told Kayla and Arlene. "I'll call Art and meet you in the General's office."

In minutes, Jeff was with Whitworth in his office as they watched the icon that represented the diplomat's rented limo move slowly across one of the big screens.

"The son-of-a-bitch must have had his office rent a limo instead of using his own. If we hadn't been following his security person, too, we would have missed him. Our guy barely managed to slap a tracker on the limo, and if he hadn't, we would have been shit out of luck. The damn diplomat walked out the employee entrance of the building just as the limo rolled up. And ... somewhere in the building, the son-of-a-bitch changed into jeans, a flannel shirt and a fucking ball cap. He looked like a construction worker when he came out. It would have all gone to shit, if my people weren't so sharp."

"And well trained," Jeff added with a grin.

"Yeah, you know how I feel about training. There can never be too much of it."

Jeff had alerted his team via radio as soon as the General had called. Even as the two watched the screen, the SUV's carrying the team moved quickly into the back lot and headed for the invisible Ship.

Arlene and Kayla, already dressed in their camouflage fatigues, came in with their gear and Jeff's – something that had already been planned out. Art arrived a few seconds later, also already in battle dress. As the Prime worked his way into his camouflage, the women and Art, encouraged by Jeff and the General, brought up last minute "what if" scenarios as thoughts came to them.

Whitworth and Jeff grinned at each other when no one could think of anything that hadn't already been thought of, and if possible, planned for.

Much later, they began to discern a general destination as the icon representing the limo moved farther along its route. "Looks like he's headed toward the mountains," Jeff commented.

The General spoke to his base personnel via his throat mike. Other screens came on showing high-definition views from space. Intelligent computer programs searched the route ahead of the diplomat's limo, the prime target: a white panel van.

As time moved slowly onward, the number of roads that the limo might turn onto diminished as it traveled farther into the mountains. Whitworth, now wearing his helmet, said, "Three possibilities." The view from space on the big screen zoomed out to reveal a larger section of the mountains and was overlaid with a road map. The three vans spotted, many miles apart, were highlighted with flashing red circles.

"Can we back the time up three or four days, then work forward to see how long the vans have been there?" Jeff asked, turning to Whitworth.

"Won't look exactly the same," the General said after a short, subvocalized conversation with a tech at the base.

Shortly, the bigger screen's image shifted, shrank, then reoriented as the technician struggled to overlay images from days ago and from different satellites and different angles to be superimposed over the current picture. Two of the vans were gone in the daytime, but returned late each afternoon. One of the vans disappeared from the map and did not reappear until last night.

Jeff came to his feet. "Chances are that's it."

"I'm sending the maps and the rest of the data to your helmet. Damn, I wish I could go with you..." Then after a pause, "Good hunting, Colonel."

As Jeff, Kayla, Arlene and Art stepped into the hallway, they were met by all Jeff's wives, as well as Art's. While Art's wives kissed him, the Clan Queen hugged her husband. "We know you're in a hurry, so just kiss me and I'll kiss the others for you. The four of you come back to us," she admonished.

The farewells were brief, and the four hurried out the back, jogging toward the Ship, all with their weapons and gear.

Jeff and Arlene stood on the ramp of the ship to get the latest few seconds of update before stepping inside. Somehow, we have to figure out a way to get a radio to work past the dimensional shields. Oh, well, we'll work around it for now.

Inside, Jeff started toward the bridge, but Arlene put a hand on his arm. "I was there when you and your team worked out the details. I have all the information you have, and I have the location of the van, also. I can get us there. Should you be a taxi driver when you could be going over last-minute decisions with your team?"

Kayla bit down on her lip to keep from laughing at the expression on Jeff's face. He opened his mouth, but hesitated. Shit, she piloted us to the moon, he thought, and she's spent hundreds of hours Ship-time training in the simulator. Arlene is right. Time to suck it up and trust my First Officer.

"Very well. Carry on, Number One." Shit, that sounded corny talking to my daughter, but I would have said it to any team member, and she's being professional.

"Aye-aye, Sir," Arlene responded, dead serious, then spun and jogged down the hallway toward the bridge, the Ship helpfully supplying her with the Ship's uniform even as she ran.

"Look out for her," Jeff told the Ship.

"And who says she needs looking after," Ship said in his mind, with a hint of smugness behind her mental voice. "I have tested her. She is young, but she has proven herself in both simulated battle, as well as real. She, like your other wife standing beside you, is a warrior. And she has sufficient training to manually take us to our destination, should the need arise. But ... I am still awaiting my Chief Engineer trainee."

"Uh, I'm working on that," the Prime responded as he and Kayla started for the ready room where his team was waiting.

"Captain, are you aware that Selina is in uniform and sitting at the nav station?" Arlene asked the Prime via the Ship's mind.

"What? Hell no. She can't go with us; she's a child. I'm certainly not taking her into danger."

"She's determined to go and obstinate that she can plot a course to the destination you earlier gave to the Ship. She's sees it as her duty, since she's the navigator."

"No way..."

"There is no place safer on Earth than on my bridge," the Ship offered. "No weapon on this planet can penetrate my shields."

Jeff hesitated a moment. "Keep her out of trouble, Number One. And ... tell her we will speak when the mission is over."

"She says that she left a note for the Clan Queen, so she won't worry. And Daddy, you didn't exactly tell Selina she couldn't go. I'll take care of her."

Jeff knew when he was beaten. "Just get us there," he admonished before ending the link.

By the time Kayla and Jeff got to the ready room the Ship had prepared for the team, the wall screen showed that they were already high over the Retreat. A deep, but muted gong sounded three times. "Translation in ten seconds," Arlene's voice said, seeming to come from all around them.

Below them in the Retreat, Diana stood with Selina's note in hand, saying a silent prayer as she heard the rolling thunder of the Ship's translation.

"I'm as low as I can get," Arlene told her father via the Ship. "It's a mountainside, and the house is surrounded by tall trees. There's a clearing a little over a half mile down the mountain we can use for pickup, but there isn't any way to put the Ship down closer. I'm hovering on the backside of the house. Oh, yeah, uh, Captain, the van has Tennessee plates."

"Feels right," the Prime replied.

Four men and four women, led by Lieutenant Richardson, invisible in their camouflage, anchored invisible lines to a stanchion provided them by the Ship, and stepped off into space. Jeff and Kayla, armed with pulse rifles, watched the house, as the team rapidly descended to the ground. Jeff hit the rewind on the lines, and seconds later they were back up.

Leaning farther out again, he told the team good luck via his helmet radio, then the two stepped clear of the hatch.

"The limo is less than twenty miles away, Captain, and on this road. This has to be the place," his daughter advised via the Ship's mind.

Jeff wanted to be part of the rescue, but he had to trust his people if he wanted the rest of the mission to work out the way he had planned.

Below the Ship, the rescue team separated, and two of them took up positions on diagonal corners of the yard, in order to watch the entire house and grounds. With their helmet night vision enabled, the scene was bright as day for the team, although colors were muted. No one could leave or approach the house without being seen.

Everyone still invisible, Lieutenant Richardson, stubby gun in hand, stood just to the left of the front door as Kimberlee brought her lock picks out of a fatigue pocket. Shit, that looks weird, Richardson thought as the picks became visible, then seemingly of their own volition, slid into the door lock. Five seconds later, the lock picks moved away from the lock and disappeared. "Ready, Sir."

"Three, two, one," Richardson counted out over his helmet radio as Kimberlee, now standing to the side, reached to turn the knob. Instead of rushing in, Richardson pushed the door gently open and stepped quietly inside, Kimberlee coming in behind him with the others following just as quietly. After a short hallway, they turned into a living room where the three kidnappers and the two hostages sat watching a survival show on TV.