314
They were running all out. It was an extravagant use of their energy, but the Sergeant said they would drop by Henry Gable’s place to take him up on his offer of a recharge when they were on the way back to Washington.
Mick signaled there was a turn coming up, and they’d be stopping. They got really good at paying attention to her signals as they were moving so quickly, it was too easy to get separated by considerable distances otherwise. They reached the turn, and everyone stepped off the small highway to gather next to the Sergeant who was checking her cell for the location.
“Okay, it’s a few miles up this road, tucked away in the woods. It’s just residential properties up here. The uber-wealthy families keep their country homes here. I doubt many of them will be inhabited this time of year.”
She gestured to the road, and they saw there weren’t any car tracks in the snow.
Then they were on the move again but slower now that they were close. The road wound through the forest and rolling hills, and they enjoyed the winter scenery. Most of the homes had forbidding looking gates on the driveway.
They came around a corner, and this section had far less snow on it. They stopped to look at the shape of the area of reduced snow coverage. They jogged forward as they panned their eyes over the roadway. “It’s very even, like a wide straight line. Right down the road,” Mick suggested.
“Could this be the area of the heat burst?” Feinberg asked.
Mick looked back in the direction they’d come, and there was a distinct tubular shape of the melt pattern, now covered by snow but still visible. “Yeah, I think so.”
Yablonski pointed ahead to the opening of a driveway. “It starts from there!” This time the driveway led into a treed lane, and there was no nasty gate to stop them. He rushed forward and just began to hear the Sergeant protest when he turned into the driveway and bounced off, flying back across the road into the bushes on the opposite side.
Head spinning from the shock he’d taken, he looked up at the concerned face of his Sergeant. “What-what hit me?”
Feinberg leaned into his field of view. “It’s what you hit.”
“I hit? The driveway was emp-” He looked again and saw the rest of the squad pressing their hands against empty air. “A force field?”
“Seems like it,” Mick said and turned to face Corporal Dane. “Dane, map its boundaries.”
The Corporal nodded and reached out his left hand to hover next to the field as he ran further up the road. They saw him turn left and hop over a fence at the road and pick up speed as he ran parallel to the fence leading away.
Mick lifted her cell and called the General.
“Yes,” Yablonski heard the man answer.
“We’re at the coordinates, and we’ve encountered a residential property that may be under some kind of force field.”
“Tell me Yablonski ran straight into it,” the General said, and Mick chuckled.
“Yes, sir. It packed quite a kick.”
Yablonski stood and frowned at the Sergeant’s smiling face.
“We’re investigating,” Mick said.Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org
“Be careful. If anything dangerous comes up, just throw Yablonski at it first,” Crane instructed, and Mick laughed.
“Yes, sir!” She disconnected, and the cell went back into her harness pocket.
Yablonski snorted. Working for the Brigadier-General was a regular riot.
-=-
Layla and Felicia, Amanda, and Belinda stood at the driveway’s end, staring at the Silver People acting oddly. This was the first encounter for all of them, so they weren’t sure what to make of it or what to do.
Felicia, Brian’s oldest daughter, was also sixteen, but Layla had the foresight to befriend the leader of the Faun’s as Henry had been named by the kids. This gave her more clout in the eyes of the others, so Felicia looked to her cousin. “What should we do?”
Layla was on the spot as Amanda and Belinda looked at her and waited. She could think of only one thing. “We need to tell Henry immediately! Let’s go!”
She turned and sprinted back to the house with the others right behind. When they came dashing out of the treed lane into the circular drive before the house, the other kids stopped to look. Layla and Felicia immediately went inside, but Amanda and Belinda paused on the steps as the rest of the kids ran up to get the news.
The fourteen-and-thirteen-year-old girls liked being the center of attention and quickly spilled the news to their attentive audience. Then began the rush to look at these Silver People, Danny and Tommy Nelson in the lead. Amanda chased after them, calling out for them to stop.
Belinda remained on the front step, fretting about what to do.
Inside, Layla and Felicia quickly learned from their parents that Henry was in the cave, so they raced through the Magic Door and into the main cavern. There they came to a complete stop as they looked up in wonder. The cave ceiling was crisscrossed with silver web threads, and hovering above these were the fire orbs, but each was easily twice the size of a basketball and throwing a sparkling white light everywhere.
Clinging to the cave wall was Michelle Beaumont in her Spider form. She was affixing a thread of webbing from one cross cavern thread to another.
Meixiu crawled down the opposite wall, her sharp claws finding purchase in the rock surface.
Layla looked to Henry, who was standing in the center of the chamber with his eyes closed.
“That’s almost got it, Michelle! I think we need a final link between cross-strand four and five. Then they’ll all be interconnected.” He opened his eyes and saw Michelle was looking to the entrance. He followed her gaze and saw the two young women. He moved to join them as Michelle climbed to reach strand four.
Layla smiled up at Henry and saw Felicia getting a little awestruck. Then, she hadn’t witnessed how poorly he threw a snowball.
“What can I do for you ladies?” he asked.
“SILVER PEOPLE!” Felicia blurted.
Henry’s eyebrows went up as Layla frowned. She quickly moved to control the situation. “We were at the end of the drive and saw a group of Silver People touching the outside of the barrier you made for us.”
“Were they wearing anything?” he asked.
“STRAPS!” Felicia blurted again, embarrassing Layla.
“Vests made of black straps with little American Flags-” She stopped when she saw Henry’s expression relax.
“Friends, I believe. I’ll go talk with them,” he said. Then he looked into their eyes. “Don’t spill the beans on the decor here to anyone as we want it to be a surprise tomorrow.”
Layla and Felicia grinned widely as they loved being part of the secret. They nodded.
Michelle, in her Human glamor, and Meixiu joined them. Henry looked up and reached out to the lowest orb. He sent it instructions, and each globe strobed and sent out a cascade of sparkles in sequence all the way up to the cavern ceiling three stories up.
“Ooo!” Layla and Felicia gasped.
“Our secret,” Henry said again, and they nodded in excitement.
“After the Christmas dinner, I’ll add one more light closer to the floor so everyone can have a go at making the lights do something pretty,” he explained.
Layla couldn’t wait, and her mind was already thinking up patterns for the light show.
Henry dimmed the light orbs as they walked back to the vestibule.
“Now, let’s go talk to the Silver Soldiers.”
-=-
Danny and Tommy were running all out to stay ahead of the others. They loved being Fauns, and running was so much fun! Not being bundled into bulky snowsuits was especially cool.
They came around the last corner, and there they were. The Silver People were standing on the roadway just beyond the end of the driveway. Danny saw how close they were getting, so he skidded to a stop, but Tommy didn’t see his brother stop until too late. He tried to stop but tumbled instead and slid on his back through the force field into the legs of one of the Silver People who fell, barely missing squishing Tommy.
Danny stood on the inside and fretted about what to do. When he saw a Silver Person take a grip on his brother’s shoulders to lift him to his hooves, Danny surged forward through the field.
“Don’t you touch my brother!” Danny yelled.
The one lifting Tommy looked at him, and Danny saw it had a female shape and features.
“We meant no harm. He looked a little dazed from knocking Yablonski off his feet,” she said and gently guided Tommy into the arms of his brother.
Danny quickly pulled Tommy after himself and ran back to the driveway, only to bounce off the shield and fall on his ass. He stared at the empty driveway in shock. Tommy was beginning to look scared. He needed to be brave for his little brother. He stood and pulled Tommy behind him as he faced the Silver People and pulled his shoulders back.
The female Silver Person sat down on the road and crossed her legs with a smile, resting her wrists on her knees. The others quickly matched her until Danny and Tommy were the only ones on their feet.
“I’m Sergeant Michelle Tennison of the US Army. This is my squad,” she said. “That was quite surprising, you coming out of thin air like that. We couldn’t see you coming at all.”
Danny was feeling a little more confident now and nodded. “Mr. Gable said it would keep us hidden.”
The woman looked surprised again. “Henry Gable? He’s here?”
Danny nodded cautiously.
“I’ll give him a call, let him know he should let you back inside,” the Sergeant said.
“No need, I’m here.”
Danny turned around and saw the big Satyr smiling down at him. Then he saw a large arch spanning the driveway entrance, and he could see the other kids watching them.
The cavalry had arrived. He looked at Tommy and saw the smile on his face too.
Now, if he could only think of a way to keep his parents from hearing about this.