Air (4 page)

I looked at him in awe. “I will pay you a thousand bucks each time you do that. Once a day would do wonders for my mood.”

He laughed. “I’m thinking there won’t be a need soon enough. See? The clouds are already weaker.”

I followed his gaze upward and thought he might have a point, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Things will get better for you,” he said, “and so will the weather.”

Chapter 4

Code Breakers

She was familiar enough with her dreams to realize this one was different. It didn’t seem to be driven by her subconscious. The dream had a mind of its own. She was trapped, subjected to the dream’s whims, if there were such a thing. It wasn’t pleasant. The atmosphere was tainted and cold. She shivered, wrapping her arms around her body.

The dream answered her need. The skies opened up and a crash of lightning in front of her sparked a small fire. She floated toward it and settled herself, stretching her hands out to soak in the heat. The fire crackled and sizzled and spoke to her, ‘lightning man’. When the dream felt she was sufficiently warmed, the fire died down, but did not disappear.

As her eyes adjusted to the dimming light, Shawn appeared across the fire. She sat completely still, a strange calm forcing its way inside her. Still, the tainted air kept her alert.

‘They call me mellow yellow…’ the words to the 1960’s song vibrated through her head.

Shawn smiled, his expression friendly, but his eyes cold. As she shivered once again the fire flared up. It grew and grew, fueled by an intruding wind until everything was consumed.

* * *

I spent the majority of the next day evading Vayu’s attempts to examine me. I was bribed with more bouts of sunshine, food, and massages but didn’t care to have Vayu’s amateur hands probing me God knows where. I only got rid of him once I sold out Alex’s hiding place. As Vayu walked off excitedly, I sent a silent apology to Alex, knowing it wouldn’t be received. He didn’t have the same abilities as the rest of us.

Searching for something to do, I found myself in Cato’s library. Scanning the walls of books for something to read, I was disappointed to find no fiction; just rows and rows of boring textbooks, some dating back to the 1800s.

How accurate can those be?
I wondered.

Distracted by the books’ uselessness, I turned, knocking over one of the stacks of books. They scattered, mixing in with notepads and loose papers on the floor.

“Crap,” I muttered at the room. I was going to have to get used to my changing body.

“Is that you Kaitlyn?” Cato called from deeper within the library.

“Yes, yes,” I responded, trying to put the pile back in some order. Not that it had had much of one before. “I’m coming.”

Making my way to the sound of Cato’s voice was a trial. His office was ten times more packed than it was the last time I’d seen it, something that should not have even been possible. I worked my way around an especially large pile of junk and found Cato sitting at a desk under the giant tree growing in the middle of the room. The tree looked diseased. Its leaves drooped, some turning brown. The lack of sun was affecting more than just us humans.  

Cato cleared his throat, averting my attention from the tree. Micah sat across the desk from Cato, settled on a torn, ratty couch.

“This is the letter Micah brought home from your trip to the states.” Cato motioned to a letter. “We have been studying it for the last few hours. On the surface it doesn’t make much sense, but we believe it is coded. Do you want to look?”

I stepped closer to the desk after a sideways glance at Micah and leaned over the letter.

Prepare Your Fire And Rock my Worthiest opponent, in Mass quantities.

The subject line sat written in clear print across the top.

Cato continued, “The first line serves as a key to the rest of the letter. We are assuming any word not capitalized is not part of the key. There are several words and phrases we have pulled out; although it is likely more than one key exists to create different messages. Then we will just have to guess which message he is trying to send. Unless of course, anything here jumps out at you?”

Cato pushed his notebook toward me and I scanned over the list of words.

ruin kim

warm

wary

eye norm

pour a worm

ray of arts

aye dot

princess

I didn’t need to review the entire list; I knew it when I saw it. They should have guessed by the simple clarity of the word.

“Princess - it’s what Shawn calls me,” I said it quietly, hesitantly, but there was no sense in hiding the fact. I looked at Micah but couldn’t read his expression. Cato took back the notebook and began to decipher the rest of the letter. Taking a seat on the dusty couch next to Micah, I could feel his eyes boring into me from the side. I turned to face him. “What?”

He looked a second more, face stony. Finally, his eyes softened. I didn’t even want to know what was going through his head. He covered my hand with his own and put his other arm around me. I moved closer, welcoming his warmth. It was the closest we’d been in a long time. We sat in silence until Cato finished his puzzle. It didn’t take long.

“Take a look.” He motioned us closer. Micah stood quickly, me a little more awkwardly, the sagging couch fighting against the growing weight of my stomach. Luckily, the men didn’t seem to notice. I joined them; all three of us leaned over Cato’s scribbling.

 Princess – Come find me where our dreams meet.

“Does that mean anything to you?” Cato asked, studying me intently.

“Maybe, I…I had a dream about him last night.” Micah tensed beside me. “It doesn’t happen often.”

“Well,” Cato interrupted, “where were you in the dream?”

His question gave me pause. I tried to think back to my dream but nothing came to mind beyond the fire. “I don’t know. We were … nowhere. I mean, there was nothing around us. “Is there anything in there about a lightning man?”

“No,” Cato said, studying the letter again. “Why?”

“Never mind. Just a thought.”

“Fire?” Micah spoke up. I didn’t know if I had spoken my thoughts aloud or if he was reverting to an old, unwelcome habit of reading my mind.

Cato didn’t give me time to address the issue, “That is most unhelpful, Kaitlyn.”

I shrugged my shoulders and he grudgingly bent back over the letter, looking for more clues. Micah motioned toward the door and we started off, leaving Cato in peace.

We hadn’t gotten far from the library when the quiet hallways erupted with Vayu’s excited voice, “A fire!”

His words were chilling, and the wind that swirled around Vayu made me shiver. I immediately grabbed for Micah’s hand.

Micah moved to stand in front of me, and asked Vayu, “What fire? Where?”

I peeked around Micah’s shoulder and saw Vayu eyeing our posture. I detected a hint of jealousy in the look he sent my way. The wind picked up. Micah spoke up again, “Vayu – calm yourself! Get your element under control!”

Vayu made a visible effort to relax and the wind died down abruptly. “Australia, in the Northern Territory. One of the largest brush fires they’ve ever seen – it’s being spread too rapidly by the winds to get it under control. I could help…we could help. We could be there by tonight.” Vayu had barely taken a breath while rushing to get everything out, and was now breathing hard, his lungs working to catch up.

I squeezed Micah’s hand, moving to his side to look up at his face. “Do you think—?”

“Yes,” he interrupted. “It’s too much of a coincidence not to be him. We’d better tell Cato.”

The three of us turned back toward the office. Vayu, in all his excitement, reached the door first. Just as he began to pull it open it Micah slammed it shut again. “Make sure you’re under control.” Micah gave him a pointed look. His eyes slid to me. “We’re still reorganizing in there after the last windstorm.”

Vayu smiled. “I appreciate the concern, sweetheart. But I’m okay now.”         

Vayu attempted to open the door again. Micah, looking rather annoyed, held it closed. “Don’t call me sweetheart.”

I could see a spark in Vayu’s eyes; the altercation was exciting him even more.

Before he could respond I stepped in between the two. “Ok, guys. Break it up. Business first, quarrels later.” I pushed both of them back and opened the doors myself.

Vayu was relaying the information to Cato before we could even reach him. By the time we got to him, Shawn’s letter sat discarded to the side, and he had produced a detailed map of Australia. “Where did you say the fire was?”

Vayu answered, “In the Northern Territory. It’s covering some 2,000 square miles.”

They all leaned over the map, and Vayu asked, “If this is Shawn’s doing, how does he expect us to pinpoint the meeting place in all of that?”

Slowly, all heads turned toward me.

I huffed at the thought of helping them find the only man I wished to never see again, but studied the map anyway. Vayu pointed out where he remembered most of the fire being shown on the news and I squinted at the names of cities and other places. Finally, I zeroed in on the most obvious possibility. “There, in Kakudu National Park. Yellow Waters.”

The three men followed my finger.

“Are you sure?” Cato asked, reaching into his shirt pocket for glasses.

I frowned. I’d never seen him wear glasses. “Pretty sure. Yellow was part of the dream, too.”

Micah opened his mouth, forming a question.

I interrupted before he could even start, “Don’t ask.”

“Well then.” Cato took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “We have a destination.”

Vayu jumped up and down, clapping his hands.

Cato frowned, sending him an annoyed look. “Vayu, find Alex and brief him on everything. He’ll need to arrange transportation for all of us, including Susan and Kaitlyn.”

My shoulders puffed up as I prepared for an argument and racked my brain for all the reasons I shouldn’t go. Cato and Micah’s stares convinced me otherwise and without a word spoken, I had lost the fight.

“Lightning man makes sense now, was that part of your dream, too?” Cato asked.

“Kind of.”

He pulled a dusty book down off of one of the higher shelves. “Namarrgon is an aboriginal legend meaning lightning man.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“Nothing,” Cato said. “It is Shawn letting us know this fire isn’t natural. He most likely started it. This is his way of ensuring we go to battle it instead of letting nature take its course.”