Kyle paused at the door, scanning the center table and caught Adrian’s nod. It said to do his job and the mobster gave a firm nod in response. I will.

  Lingering near the showers, Marc watched them roll out with a bit of worry and only a little of the nagging urge to follow that had fallen over him during the airport drama. This time, he knew where she was and what Kyle had planned, and while Marc was glad to know it had already been scouted, he couldn’t stop the curtness in his tone as the day progressed and she didn’t return.

  6

  Still high on her successes, Angela kept her foot on the brake, letting the Eagles survey the hill they were about to roll down. She got set, listening to them. They were only a few miles from camp, but the feeling of being out with an Eagle team was worlds apart from the training tent.

  “You sure, man?”

  “Awful steep sides.”

  “Check out her face. Recognize that?” the team leader gently reminded them. “We were all rookies once.”

  Daryl’s mind flashed to his own excitement of his first trip. “Those were the days. Rollin’ through no-man’s land while Adrian shot at us. Fun times.”

  Angela’s grin widened as she picked up the dusty image, loving the idea that in time, she too, might be trained that way. “You guys ready, or what?”

  Kyle tightened his belt and confidently put his hands behind his neck. Inside, his gut was a churning ball of nerves. She might kill them all. “I’m set.”

  The others followed his lead, getting excited, and Angela pressed on the accelerator with a bubble of happiness in her chest. She had the start of their trust through saving Adrian and she was an Eagle to them, if only for this minute.

  Malevolent attention followed the single vehicle down the steep grade, hoping for a wreck. If Dean followed them, he would be in plain sight. If he went in on foot, he wouldn’t be able to keep up.

  The man growled in frustration. They were being too careful, which meant they wouldn’t come this way to meet up with the camp, so even an ambush was out. The man pounded his fist on the wheel and the jeep shook in response. She will pay!

  Dean slowly retreated, locking his anger away so that he could think. If he couldn’t get to her from the outside, then inside was the answer. He would take a line from Cesar and attack under the cover of the next storm. He would have to test their wire before then.

  “I’m comin’ for you, baby!” Dean crooned, resisting the urge to spin out and kick up telltale dust. He would lay low for as long as it took.

  Angela hit the brakes halfway down the hill, no longer hearing the men who yelled for her to go faster. The feeling of menace was consuming and she shut her lids in concentration.

  It would have been natural for the men with her to assume Angela had viewed the next incline and frozen in fear, but Kyle’s team had been there for Marc’s miracle and each of them immediately swept for the danger.

  “Are things 5-by?”

  Angela shook her head at Daryl’s question. “He’s traveling to our camp to test the perimeter, searching for a way in.”

  “Who is?”

  Drawing her courage, Angela grabbed Daryl’s hard wrist, making him jump.

  “Sorry,” she muttered, flushing as the Eagle stiffened in aroused surprise. “The radio isn’t an option. Dean can’t know that I know.”

  She released his hand a moment later. “I told Adrian. He’s tightening things.”

  Angela opened her lids…the morning’s feeling of victory returning. It was okay to go on, Adrian had it covered.

  Without warning them, she hit the gas and the full level of Eagles bounced, shouted, and slid to the bottom of the dirt and weed-dotted grade that had once been the most challenging ATV trail in the state.

  7

  “We’ll use these trips to get you caught up,” Kyle told Angela a while later. They were waiting for the other Eagles to check the wooded area, verify their perimeter alarms hadn’t been broken, and set up a sniper watch.

  “We’re doing it this way so the camp doesn’t know how much work I need, right?”

  “No, mostly it’s the actual training. Camp members wouldn’t understand, but you do, and that’s why we’ve set it up this way.

  “I appreciate the rearranging.”

  “It’s all Adrian. He’s handling your schedule personally.”

  “He has a lot of dreams,” she stated.

  Kyle’s curious expression said that he, too, was eager to discover if she could fulfill some of them.

  “Let’s make this happen. You ready?”

  She flashed a grin he had to steel himself against. “You know it.”

  “Good. Take in as much as you can and we’ll cover it all again in the next lessons.”

  Angela followed nervously, a bit self-conscious, but determined not to be run out by her own fears.

  “Rookie lessons, gentlemen, and I hope you remember them.”

  There was a laughing round of groans and good-natured complaints as they settled into the grass at Kyle’s feet.

  “You’ll sit on my left, the learning place, until you know the lesson, then you’ll join the team. Right now, you are a rookie. A place with us has to be earned.”

  Angela quickly sat down, hoping her face wasn’t as red as it felt like.

  “From the very first day, Eagles. We’ll start on the right.”

  Daryl stood up and his words carried an instant ring of magic.

  “Eagles are men and women who care about the future of their country. So much, that they are willing to sacrifice their lives for it. They are not afraid to get involved and can easily tell wrong from right.

  “Eagles are not thieves. Some of them may have been in the past, but no longer. An Eagle can now be trusted with a life, the only possession that has any true value.

  “Eagles have hope and suspicion in equal amounts. They believe in the truth when it’s called for, and silence when it’s not. An Eagle helps, plans, searches, and defends without being asked and no payment will ever be taken. They are strong and loyal defenders of those around them.

  “There are a lot of reasons to join my Army. Worry over the future, a need to belong to something you can depend on, but it comes down to a simpler fact. We all want to be better than we are–mentally and physically. Humans are an ever-evolving species. Before the war, you were something else. Now, you’re an Eagle in my Army and I’ll accept nothing less than your best.”

  As Daryl sat down and Chris stood up, Angela realized these had to be the exact words Adrian had spoken to them as Safe Haven’s army was formed.

  “There is no room in my army for slacking off. If you can’t cut it, get out now.” Chris paused lightly as the words required and then went on, but he suspected that wasn’t going to be a problem with Angela.

  “America comes first with us. Not that shit to enforce laws that hide greed, but only for the greater good–the survival of our country. The continuation of America is all I care about and there isn’t anything I won’t do, any one person I won’t sacrifice, to make it happen. Be sure you want this. It may be your life that I take to save theirs.”

  Kyle stood up. “Two minute break.”

  Understanding the mobster was giving her time to process, Angela ran it through again. This time, she could hear Adrian’s voice and feel parts of the magic that must have surrounded them as he accepted the first team of men into his army.

  Kyle nodded and she listened as Billy spoke.

  “An Eagle is the only line of defense between the camp and this hostile new world. Extreme force is necessary and will be used at my discretion, no matter the age or condition of the threat. Mercy in this new hell comes from death and hardly anything else. Be prepared to not only face it, but to also be the one pulling that trigger. Lives are not to be taken lightly but they will be taken.”

  The oral lesson went on for almost an hour, with Kyle calling periodic two minute breaks to keep her from being overwhelmed. Kyle himself went last, voice so similar to Adrian’s that it rang in her head and her heart.

  “We’re writing history, here and now. In this new world, we are the first military power. As such, we are duty-bound to each other and the lives we come in contact with. Their needs are our needs, and we will always take care of them before ourselves. We are Guardians, shepherds of the remaining American flock, and everything we do, all that we are, is for them, for Her. We will be closer than any army was before, more in tune with each other and the environment. Because of that, we have an edge. Knowing what’s coming will save us.”

  Kyle couldn’t help a pause as his mind said that Adrian had been thinking of Angela when he’d told them that in Nevada. He’d known she was coming, even then.

  The men around him shared the thought.

  Angela waited without telling them that Adrian hadn’t known for sure it was real then, or that any of the help he had dreamed of would show. These men could never know he had based their new lives on a maybe.

  Kyle went on, voice a bit awed. “I’m going to ask you to do things you’ll hate me for and yourself as well. Do them anyway. The motions we make now, are waves we’ll ride later, when there are more of us. You’ll have doubts and questions, and moments of weakness when you think you’re about to fail and maybe cause the fall of these goals, my goals. Accept it as hard duty and learn to live with your demons. Talk to me, I am here for that, but more so, talk to each other. The old saying of not letting one hand know what the other is doing, does not hold with us. We will be a family inside the Safe Haven community and there will be none tighter than these first teams. You are more valuable than anyone will realize or give you credit for, and if the camp finds out about the things we do on missions, you’ll be run out or worse. You must be sure. There is no going back.”

  Kyle waited for a moment, studying her for that glint of determination not to be the one who was responsible for causing the collapse.

  When it came, he fired the final words that had given his own loyalty to Adrian. “None of you were where you belonged in the old world and you felt it every day. In this new world, in this moment, you are exactly where you should be, and I need you.”

  Kyle sat down.

  “Whatever you guys need from me to help him, I’ll give it.” Angela wiped at her cheeks, heart full of a joy she wished would carry to camp. This really was where she was supposed to be, Adrian was right about that, and she would give it her all, no matter how much it hurt.

  Sensing a good moment for the words she’d chosen, Angela allowed them the honesty they needed. “And if that ends up being me resigning, I’ll do it without a fight and keep my mouth shut about what I’ve learned and heard. It’ll be hard for me to know when it’s enough, because every second I get to spend as an Eagle will teach me and I won’t want that to stop. When it’s a threat to his plans, come to me and I’ll bow out quietly. I’d never get in his way.”

  There were nods and relief, and Kyle spoke for them all. “We will, but not unless we have to. Adrian wants female Eagles. He always has.”

  Knowing she needed to be very clear on how much Adrian was counting on her, the mobster’s voice became hard. “Repeat to me the first sentence of Daryl’s words.”

  Angela replayed it as quickly as she could, trying not to get flustered at being put on the spot or distracted by the small pack of mutated ants moving through the knee-high weeds by the Excursion.

  “Eagles are men and women who care about the future…” she trailed off, understanding his point.

  “Yes. Men and women. He wanted you in his army even before there was one and we’d give him this. But you have to be one of us for it to work. If you’re holding us up, fighting the choices at the wrong time, it will get someone killed. Until we, as a team, give the okay, you won’t go on missions, be a part of live fire exercises, and many other things. This is not because you’re a female,” Kyle stated sternly. “It’s because you’re a rookie and the rest of us like breathing.”

  Angela was disappointed, but understood the real okay would come from Adrian, not the Eagles.

  Kyle checked his watch… Right on schedule. “Let’s do the rookie sets. Put it in that sun spot and I want a sniper sentry rotation, by two, in the next three minutes.” His tone deepened. “And anyone caught slacking off on that detail will find himself off my team as soon as we hit camp.”

  With that warning ringing, they got moving and Angela quickly spoke up. “What should I do?”

  Kyle waved toward the 20x20 area that was currently receiving full sun. “You’re ‘man in the middle’ now. When you’re ready, join in for a while and then go back to observing.”

  Angela felt out of place as she stepped into the circle while they set up an obstacle course like she and Marc had done each morning on their way to Safe Haven. Barrels, crates, and beams on blocks, all subtly taken from camp and stored in the rear of the Excursion made her smirk in amazement as they continued to pull items out. She snorted as the punch line of a forgotten joke came to mind. How many clowns can they fit in that car?

  Unaware of being scrutinized, her amusement was a glimpse of perfection and men stumbled, stared.

  Kyle gave a short whistle and such a harsh glower around that Angela’s smile faded. She’d been distracting them. Sorry.

  She pushed it at Kyle absently and he met her eye for a brief moment before regarding his men, never betraying his shock. She was in my mind!

  “One every ten, let’s go.”

  The six men lined up at the start of the mostly round course. At Kyle’s nod, the first of them took off. Ten seconds later, the next went, and so on, until all of them were flying through the course.

  Angela was enthralled as they leapt from beam to barrel, jumped a high stack of boxes, tucked and rolled upon landing and then crawled under another stack of obstacles, this one crates.

  It was a simple, basic run and yet six Eagles doing it at the same time was almost mesmerizing. She rotated slowly in the center, taking it all in.

  They’d gone through it more than half a dozen times before she remembered she was supposed to join in. Can I do that?

  Angela observed them run it again. Yes. She’d probably fall a few dozen times, but after enough practice, she could do what they were doing.

  Kyle had been watching her, waiting for the right moment, and he gave a short motion.

  One by one, the six men finished their run and lined up, making Angela pause. Not sure if she had waited too long, she started to ask and then realized they were all looking at her expectantly. She flushed and quickly walked to the line that she would begin this time. Not a word was spoken while she got set, evaluating Eagles keeping her cheeks red, and she knew the first try would be ugly.

  Angela did fine on the beam, balance coming as natural to her as dancing, but she landed precariously on the wobbling barrels. Her foot caught the tip of the boxes as she jumped and they toppled, spilling her on the ground in an awkward sprawl. Cheeks a furious red, she picked herself up and moved determinedly toward the beginning.

  A sharp motion from Kyle was all that had kept the men in line at her fall, but it couldn’t stop the help they wanted to give.

  “Tuck your feet behind your ass.”

  “Get set on the barrels before you jump.”

  Storing the advice, Angela took off. She remembered to steady herself before the leap of faith, but the stack of boxes was higher than the barrels and her foot caught them again, sending her to the ground.

  Kyle saw the problem, but his orders were clear. If she wanted to be one of them, she would have to account for her shortcomings and improvise.

  Angela wiped the dust from her scraped palms and paced around the stack of boxes, mind working the problem as the Eagles reset them. When she proceeded to the starting point, even the snipers, with their very fast glances, knew she’d come up with a solution.

  Angela got set, tuning out the tense males. When she felt that coolness settle over her nerves, she took off like a shot. Moving twice as fast as the first times, she was over the beam in an instant, and leaping forward with all of her body weight. She touched the barrels only lightly, enough to springboard off them, and she cleared the boxes by more than a foot as she launched into the air.

  Angela automatically crouched for the abrupt landing and rolled under the crates, sending one of them tumbling. She scrambled to her feet with a grin at having done it for the first time and streaked toward the beam.

  Her fourth attempt was better and she bounced from the barrels and into the air more easily, controlling her arms and legs. She managed the quick tuck and roll again, but went off course and crashed into the crates this time, sending the empty wood flying.

  Kyle’s motion was ignored, but the men rushing to help stopped short at her snap, “I’ve got this!”

  Angela stood up, blood smeared across her cheek, and reset the crates. The Eagles helped silently, retreated as she took her spot and got ready for another run.

  Anger was building. Why couldn’t she do this?

  You can, the Witch encouraged. Concentrate!

  8

  By the time the babysitting group left the training tent, all the kids were dirty and happy, their day of exercise and fun underway. When they ducked out of the flap, the little boy they’d taken on the obstacle course stayed with her and the two girls, and Samantha didn’t complain.

  Samantha noticed Neil had Cynthia’s other charge and the reporter was nowhere in sight. She motioned to the boy questioningly.

  “Some people got it like that,” Neil joked. “And some people want it!”

  She laughed, showing a face Neil suddenly thought he could stand to stare at for a long time.

  Their next stop was bathrooms for a break and wash-up, and Sam tried not to snicker when Cynthia’s boy tugged on Neil’s sleeve. He had the child tucked firmly along his hip and glanced down distractedly.

  “What?”

  “I had a accident.” The child grimaced in fear. “On you.”

  The warm stain ran the length of his side, but instead of a scold, the trooper only sighed. “One of those days, Bobbie. Don’t sweat it.”