Diego shrugged. He didn’t want to pull up those memories. None of them were good. “She was certain I was born to sacrifice for the family and to keep Rubin alive. It makes sense that I went out hunting when things were rough.”
“Why Rubin? Why didn’t he stay home? One never went without the other.”
“Rubin didn’t allow me to go alone. He ignored her when she was angry with him; he just picked up his rifle and went out the door. Rubin doesn’t argue.” Diego shoved a hand through his hair and then was annoyed that he’d given Luther any indication that the conversation was getting to him.
“What happened when Rubin left the cabin?”
“I followed him. I always have his back.”
“What did your mother say or do when you returned?”
Diego didn’t allow himself to think much about his childhood. He tried another casual shrug. “She blamed me for not going on my own. That was just the way it was, Luther. No big deal.”
“That’s the problem with a child living with mental illness in the house. It could be years before they realize their mother or father are ill. By that time, the damage is already done. You think the way your mother treated you was normal. You believed her when she told you Rubin was special and the ‘good’ one. From thetime you were a little boy she treated you as the bad child. Not only did you accept that treatment, but you came to believe her. I’m telling you it’s bullshit.”
Diego gave him a false smile. “You saying that doesn’t make me a believer, Luther. I’ve lived with my strange detachment all my life. I know for a fact Rubin is not like me when it comes to killing anything. Even when we hunted for food for the family, he agonized over taking the shot. I feel more of an affinity with animals than I do with people, but I never hesitated or thought about it. For me it was a simple matter of survival. Of necessity. With the people we hunted, it was just as simple. They committed a crime against our family or against our country or against my unit. I don’t hesitate, and I don’t lose sleep. Rubin does.”
“Why should that make you evil? Or ill? You do your job, just like the rest of us. You should thank the Lord that you’re so good at it. Who do you think gave you the abilities you have? If you didn’t use them to save lives, that would be wrong.”
Diego couldn’t help the small smile that escaped. “You see in black and white, Luther.”
“I seeyou. Your own brother doesn’t see you, but I can. I would rather have you fighting at my side than anyone else I know.”
Diego took a few minutes to spread healing energy through the wound in Luther’s arm. He sank back, sitting abruptly. Healing drained strength. The more psychic energy spent, the harder the crash.
“Tell me about your nieces.”
“Bridget is in bad shape. She doesn’t have filters and needs an anchor. I didn’t even know what an anchor was. I didn’t have Whitney experimenting on me. I volunteered to be enhanced physically because I wanted to serve my country to the best of my ability. I also had it in my head that I would be able to save my fellow soldiers. At the time, I was young and not so smart about life.”
Luther shifted his weight and reached behind him to the small red cooler tucked in the shadow of the corner of the cave. He handed Diego a water bottle and took one for himself. Diego knew from his past experience that Luther had cached supplies for any occasion in the cave.
“Leila was trained as one of us and she’s hell on wheels. What they didn’t count on was her loyalty to her sister. She never once let on that she was furious that General Pillar took them and then separated the two of them. Pillar is a lieutenant general. First chance Leila got, she tracked down her sister and broke her out of the hellhole she was kept prisoner in. Guess Whitney and the commander of the lab, General Phil Chariot, want their experiments back. Chariot is a major general.”
“We search for Whitney all the time. He has too many friends in high places warning him if we plan to make a move against him. How is it possible she tracked down her sister?” Diego didn’t comment on the subtle warning Luther gave him by mentioning the ranks of Luther’s opponents. Enemies were enemies as far as Diego was concerned. He tended to see the world in black and white. What had been done to those girls was wrong. It was that simple.
Luther sighed. “It’s clear you have gifts you’ve developed, Diego. I have a few, but they aren’t as strong as yours. I practice daily to strengthen them, but you’re clearly enhanced. Leila is like me. She’s very gifted, but she hasn’t been enhanced; at least she told me they didn’t do the kinds of experiments on her that Whitney did on her sister. In all honesty, I’m not certain she’s telling the truth. I made the mistake of getting angry when I found out the government had stepped in and taken the two girls away from me when I didn’t even know they existed. I told her I was going to go to war with them. That was a very bad mistake on my part. She protested vigorously and said they wanted to be left alone. That the girls needed me. She told me Bridget was in a bad way. She also told meshe would have to disappear for a short time and needed me to take care of her sister. She wanted me to work with Bridget to develop barriers in her mind. It’s possible they did enhance her psychic gifts and she didn’t want me going after them.”
“Why would she leave her sister here and go off somewhere?”
“Leila keeps her own counsel. She reminds me of me. She’s careful with information.”
“She was asking a pretty big favor.”
“That’s so, but they’re my only living relatives. She believed I would have the same kind of loyalty she does. And she is loyal. There’s no question, if she heard I was under attack or injured, she would have come to my aid. If they tested her, my guess is they would have found her protective nature and loyalty to family to be off the charts.”
Diego found satisfaction in that. He knew Luther was shrewd at reading people. A segment of society made the mistake of dismissing seniors—Diego wasn’t one of them. Luther was an excellent judge of character. He was extremely observant. Diego was also an observant man, and from the time he was a child he had watched Luther. He’d had no idea the man had been enhanced as a soldier. That was how good Luther was at hiding in plain sight. Diego couldn’t help but admire the man. If Luther said his great-niece was like him, Diego believed him. That made her…extraordinary.
“You go after Leila,” Luther said. “They’re headed up the mountain with her. That’s your backyard. You’ll get to her faster, and she needs medical attention. I’ll go after Bridget.”
“Chances are good they’ll get both to a vehicle or plane before we can stop them.” He was extremely worried about Warrior Woman. She hadn’t looked good when the attackers had carried her off. A part of him hoped her captors had already transported her to a facility where there was good medical. He didn’t share with Luther. “You have a phone? I can send you the app to track bothwomen. It’s encoded, so I’ll have to send you the key. Just remember, if you get captured, your phone has to be destroyed.”
“That won’t happen,” Luther assured. “I may be old, Diego, but I can still run rings around these young soldiers. They look at me and see an old man, so they discount all my experience. That is their biggest mistake.” His eyes, shrewd and almost cunning, stared directly into Diego’s eyes. “Never forget that, son. Experience always counts.”
Diego nodded, understanding that Luther was passing on good advice to him. He knew Luther didn’t bother to educate very many others, and Diego felt privileged to have the old man impart his wisdom. Luther mostly didn’t bother to speak to people, keeping strictly to himself. The old man had always been considered eccentric, but he had evaded detection for years thanks to his secretive lone-wolf ways.
“They’re going to know you’ll be following them, Diego,” Luther continued. “They have no idea who you are, but they’re afraid of you. You took out their commander, and that’s stirred up a hornet’s nest. They lost too many men and didn’t expect that either. Their orders are most likely to stick around and find us no matter what. And they’ll be looking to identify you.”
Diego gave him a faint smile. “I’m a ghost in the woods, especially my woods. They won’t see me, Luther. Be careful and don’t take chances. If they bring Bridget to Whitney, we’ll have a way into Whitney’s compound. If not, we’ll be able to find her no matter where she is.”
