Page 50 of Viking Unchained

Aaaahhhh.

Nude jogging? Now there’s an

idea . . .

“Do you believe in miracles?” he asked Geek later as they sat before his lap computer on the scullery table, drinking beer and studying history. That Abe Lincoln was quite a fellow!

Geek cocked his head at Thorfinn. “I tend to look for scientific explanations for most things. Why do you ask? Oh, you mean the time travel.”

“That and other things.”

“I don’t know what happened with you and the rest of Max’s family that brought you here. Or why I went back in time with Max and the other guys that one time. We all have our own explanations, but mostly we try not to think about it, or we pretend it was a big joke that will be revealed to us eventually.

Or, yeah, a miracle, I suppose. Myself, I expect someday there will be an explanation, that scientists will find that time travel really can work. But not anytime soon.”

“You know whose keep this is, do you not?”

Geek nodded. “Lydia Denton. Dave Denton’s widow.”

“She thinks I am a miracle, sent by her dead husband to console her.”

At first, Geek looked surprised. Then he chuckled. “Been doin’ a lot of consoling, have you?”

“That I have.” He could not help but grin.

“Where is she, by the way?”

“The food mart. And mayhap a stop at her dancing establishment.”

“Oh, that’s right. She owns that aerobics club in Coronado. ”

“Yea, she does. And truly, Geek, I cannot fathom a country where people pay someone to make them sweat and work their muscles ’til they nigh scream in pain. My men go to the exercise fields to practice their fighting skills, not to have a winsome thigh or shapely buttock.” Thorfinn tapped the computer then.

“Dost think any of this is going to help get me in SEALs?”

“It can’t hurt. And believe me, Torolf made it through BUD/S on a lot less knowledge than you’ve gained the past couple months. Besides, getting in is mostly a physical thing, and you seem to be in pretty good condition. Have you been jogging?”

He groaned. “I hate running. ’Tis such a useless exercise, lest someone is chasing you.”

"Well, you gotta do a lot of jogging in SEALs. A whole lot.”

“I will run this evening on the beach.”

“How about your water skills? You’ll have to survive the drown-proofing rotation.”

“My father always said I was leather-lunged. I do not think that will be a problem.”

“I agree. Your problem is that you’re older than the average SEAL trainee. It’s only the past year or so with the shortage of special forces and the rising terror threat that they’ve been more lenient on taking older guys.”

“I am not yet in my dotage. I can do as well as any twenty-year-old.”

“Maybe.”

“Besides, the age on my identification papers says twenty-five. How old are you?”

“Twenty-eight, but I’ve been a SEAL for six years.”

“Really?”