Did June mean she would kill both of them? His heart was racing along with his mind.

When I returned with the salad along with the salad dressings, the man was giving off the fight flight pheromones, his blood pressure was up along with his heart rate. After I placed the salads, crackers, dressing on the table along with that extra wine glass I leaned over to whisper in his ear. “Your date told you. Now you’re scared of me after she finally calmed down. Yelling Huntress will get a lot of people hurt possibly killed as everyone panics. As a doctor are you sure you could live knowing you caused people to die by your actions? You came here with intentions of seducing your date. I smelled that on you when you walked in our door. Why don’t you think along that idea and calm down. After your meal, you’ll walk out of here, possibly have a nightcap with your girl, maybe get lucky. I could care less who you are or what you do for a living or that you know who I am as long as others don’t get hurt or die because you did something dumb.”

“S’il yous plait, parlez-lui, s’il hurelera Huntress les gens paniqueront et mourront peut-etre. Votre repas sera pret dans une quintaine de minutes. Je vous en remercie.”
(Please talk to him. He yell Huntress, people will panic and possibly die. Your meal will be in about fifteen minutes. Thank you)

Lt. Max Ingram walked in the door, looked around, saw June and that other doctor over by the hanging garden. He waved the Maitre d’ off. “I see my party, thank you.”

When he reached the table he pulled out a chair and sit down between them. “Doctor, would you like to clue me in why this is the most important thing I have ever done in my life?”

“Andy, would you pour my good friend Lt. Ingram a glass of wine? Or maybe you would like a Margarita or a martini? We haven’t touch either one of them.”

Max nodded. I’ll take that Margarita if that’s okay.”

Andy moved the glass over in front of the Lt. While June moved the martini over in front of him. She smiled and softly said. “You will probably need both. Remember when you told me you would prefer to have the Huntress guarding your back than anyone else?”

Max took a drink of the Margarita as he nodded in agreement. He wiped his lip with the napkin June handed him. “Yeah, and I meant every word of it too. All the research Maurice and I did while stationed in Germany? When one filtered out fact from fiction she was doing our job without all the bleeding hearts getting in the way.”

Returning with the plates I noticed the extra person at the couple’s table. Was he a late arrival? The woman did ask for an extra wine glass. Although it looked like he had been furnished the two drinks they ordered before they ordered wine.

He was talking to the man when I set the plate in front of the woman. He switched his attention to June when I set the man's plate in front of him.

Lt. Ingram had just taken another sip of his drink when June smiled sweetly at him. “Lieutenant I want you to meet our hostess.”

Max turned to say hi when he looked up. AND…, sprayed Margarita.

Quickly I picked up the extra napkins off the table and began wiping off the woman’s arm, her dress, and the table in front of her before picking up another napkin and wiping down the jacket of the Lieutenant. “Ma’am if you will give me a little time, I’ll bring another plate of food.”

“Lieutenant, are you okay?”

June looked at the Huntress. “You know him?”

“The Lieutenant and I met in passing twenty four years ago in Germany this coming November. If he wasn’t a Lieutenant, he was impersonating an officer with that gold bar he had on his shoulder.”

Max finally got his wits together. “You remember all that?”

“Yes, every detail. You were driving a blue Air Force van. There was another man in that van with you. A non com as he didn’t have any thing on his shoulder. Do you remember it?”

He nodded. “I’ll never forget it. Every detail is burned into my memory. You had a lot of company around you.”

Sadly I reflected the memory of them. “All dead now. That kind of life is getting harder and harder to survive. I don’t imagine it will be too long before I join them. If there is a God and a life after this, I will be allowed to roam the forests with all my friends for eternity. It is the only time I have truly found peace in my heart and my soul. Please, I must go and order another meal for this table. Do you wish to eat also?”

“No thank you. I’d like to talk some more if you have time.”

“To delay me?”

Shock and then disappointment spread across Max’s face. “Not in this lifetime. What made you think I would want to delay you?”

“You have the smell of a police station on you. You aren’t a visitor, it has permeated your skin and your clothes. There is also that police issued gun on the right side of your belt and handcuffs on your left.”

“Twenty four years ago I fell in love with a vision. The most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. I’ve spent the last twenty four years reading everything I could find about her, hoping to see her again.”

“That’s very sweet of you but it doesn’t alter the fact we are on opposite sides of the law. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go reorder this couple’s dinner. Are you sure you wouldn’t like me to order something for you?”

It looked like June might break out in giggles as she looked up at Nova and then at Max. “Order something. It will give you an excuse to stay and admire your vision a little longer. I mean after all, a twenty four year wait should be rewarded.”

Andy was smiling when he looked at June. “At least I don’t have to wait twenty four years to see the woman of my vision.”

Max pointed to Andy. “I’ll have what he’s having.”

The Lieutenant wasn’t lying. I could easily sense when someone was lying. It was one of those gifts of this damn mutant life I had been cursed or blessed with. And that particular gift had saved my own life a thousand times over. If he slips and tells any of those at where he worked, I’d be drowning in police, government agents, and military. Time was getting short and I needed to disappear. The others had to be told they could no longer hang around here. Spencer? He would need to use his own judgment whether he would stay or not since this was his home turf. Getting other mutants killed, or worse, captured because I happened to pass through was not any part of life I could contemplate. Everyone who got close to me became a potential target for government. The experiments the government did on mutants they captured were as evil as the worse mutants.

After Nova walked away, Max moved around to the other side of the table so he could watch as the woman of his dreams circulated among the customers in the restaurant. He didn’t fail to notice the uncommonly beautiful short blonde and the auburn haired beauty as the two women lead customers to their tables. They also seemed to circulate freely coming and going in the dinning room. There was no doubt in his mind they were friends of the Huntress. Everything he had ever read and researched hinted at the possibility some of the women mutants were above average in beauty. The odds of The Huntress, herself an exceptionally beautiful woman, and two others of like nature working in the same restaurant couldn’t be a coincidence.

Max turned to June. “Doc, how old do you think our girl is?”

“Twenty? Maybe nineteen?” June thought it was an odd question.

“Not even close. Remember I said I saw her twenty four years earlier? She was nineteen or twenty then, certainly not a little girl. And before you ask, it was her not her mother. She said she remembered me. I don’t believe there have been several different women over several hundred years. The stories about her began three or four thousand years ago.”

June looked at Max trying to comprehend what he was insinuating. “You don’t honestly believe she’s the one and the same!”

Max didn’t answer as a smile spread across his face.

“Impossible!” Andy tossed into the conversation.

“Of course it’s impossible.” June was staring at Max.

“Okay, how do you explain any of the stories you have read? I don’t mean the lies and fabrications, but the ones where there isn’t any dispute.

June and Andy were staring at Max. Both minds thinking the same thing, could it be possible?

“Tell me you haven’t read about or met one of them who doesn’t seem to age. When it becomes more than obvious to the friends or neighbors, they suddenly disappear. No forwarding address, no nothing. Hell, nine out of ten people believe their friend or neighbor has been kidnapped. I can tell you we get one or two calls a year about disappearing people who had no enemies, no debt, and good jobs. They cash out everything they own and step out of one life into another. Of course I can’t prove it. All I have are files of several dozen people who have disappeared the same way.”

Max sighed. “Who knows how long they live? If they can live one or two life times longer than us, what’s the limit?

Walking over to the Maitre d’ counter Eva was there as Kitcha was leading some customers to a table. “I’ve been made. The table I came from, the man in the mismatched pants and jacket is a detective. Twenty six years ago he saw me standing in the middle of Nagaru’s wolf pack. He remembers me. There wasn’t any use to deny it when he asked. He said he isn’t going to report me so we have a little time. Tell everyone to disappear. This restaurant and club are to be considered a hot zone now. No one is to be here come morning.”

A worried look was on Eva’s face as she looked across the room and the man. “Nova?”

“Safe for now but all that needs to happen is the wrong word or say something to the wrong people. I’m going out to the motor home and warn the other girls they have to pack it up tonight. I’ll come back at another time and finish up this mess. I’m not going to let them destroy Brent’s and Kathy’s lives.”

“I spread the word.” Eva turned to take care of some customers coming in.

Twenty minutes later I had informed the girls in the mobile home. Not all of them were there. Those who were said they would alert the others. They said they would be gone before the sun came up. I thanked them for their support and gave each and everyone a hug and a kiss on the cheek. They put their own lives in danger by being close to me.

The little coffee maker was eeeee it’s little heart out telling everyone it was making coffee and it was time to get up.

Kathy was in the bedroom of the executive suite where she had been sleeping for the past several weeks. She raised up on the and bed and looked around. Usually one of the women was in bed with her and by now others would be tracking through to the bathroom. She was the only one in the room. She rolled out of bed, found clean slacks, bra, and a blouse. Slipping on her sneakers she headed to the common room. Brent was sitting up on one of the sleeping pads on the floor.

She looked around the room. “Where is everyone?”

“Probably in the dinning room. I guess we overslept?”

“I’m going down to hear what is on the agenda for today.” Kathy was headed for the door.

“I’ll be right behind you.” Brent was pulling on his shoes.

When they walked into the dinning room there was Spencer and Kitcha drinking coffee.

Human nature to search even when one already knows. Kathy looked around the empty dinning room. “No one eating breakfast this morning?”

Spencer cleared his throat. “Last night Lieutenant Max Ingram stopped in. He remembered Nova from seeing her in Germany when he was in the military. He knew she was the Huntress. Nova and all the others…, except Kitcha left last night after everyone bedded down.”

Kathy wilted into a chair. “Oh no, what will we do? We can’t fight them ourselves.”

Brent pulled up a chair beside Kathy and put his arm over her shoulder.

Spencer looked at Kitcha. “You’re up.”

“Kathy, Brent, all those ladies who were here the last two days? They are mutants also. The government gets their hands on them and it’s all over for any of them who are caught. Each of them are in a class all their own and good at what they do. They took out the remaining members in that committee Nova wanted to eliminate before she had to leave. Craig Albright was head of the group. Their deaths could have come from anyone. Several of those ladies are better than good with a gun. There are a whole lot of businesses who will find they no longer have goods stolen or paying to not have things stolen. Eve’s Garden Club wasn’t the only business they were destroying.”

Kathy had her hand over her mouth. “I owe them so much. Nova, I owe her close to ten thousand dollars. If I give you the money can you make sure she gets it?”

Kitcha shook her head. “I have no idea where she has gone or how to get in touch with her. Nova comes and goes at her own pleasure. The only definite about her is she will be in the thick of things when the going gets down and dirty.”

“I hate to think of her out there needing money to survive like she did when she showed up here.”

Kitcha smirked. “Nova is a bottom dweller. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s where people who are most desperate for help seldom are able to find any and if they do they can’t afford it. Nova doesn’t need for money.”

“Do you know why the bank gave you a sweetheart deal of a loan when they don’t even know you and your credit history isn’t the best?”

Brent, Kathy, and Spencer wondered where this conversation was going. Kathy shook her head. “Because Nova asked them?”

Kitcha smiled. “It’s Nova’s money.”

“You’re not joking!” Brent was staring at Kitcha along with Kathy and Spencer.

“I wasn’t there so I didn’t hear the conversation. I bet at some point in the conversation she said Contessa. Nova is a Countess or Contessa Sophia deRoma. I am telling you things Nova has kept secret and very few know about her. She likes all three of you very much and wouldn’t want you to worry about her. She would kill me if she knew I was telling you this…, Well maybe she wouldn’t really kill me.”

Spencer kinda smirked as the gave that some thought. “Nova’s family should be set for life when she decides to settle down.”

Kitcha focused in on Spencer. “That’s in poor taste.”

“Why? What did I say? I only mention they weren’t going to be poor.”

Kitcha shook her head. “You’re serious aren’t you? Spencer, how old are you?”

Spencer still couldn’t understand what he had said that was wrong. “I’m forty six and thinking about settling down myself and raising a family. I know Nova is out of my league. I figured someone like Rebecca would be nice.”

Kitcha closed her eyes and shook her head before she looked at Spencer again. “You really don’t know do you?”

“Know what?” Spencer was wondering where this conversation was going?”

“Every mutant’s parents are normal. Mutation isn’t hereditary. Only God knows where it came from or how it picks certain people and not everyone. Spencer, we can’t have children. Something pertaining to conceiving is broken inside us. When we die that’s the end of our line. Probably God’s way of making sure mutants don’t crowd out normals. When it’s over there isn’t going to be any family to tell us goodbye for any of us carrying the mutant code. Male, female doesn’t make any different, only those who adopt become parents.”

She gave Spencer a weak smile. “I can understand you not wanting to get close to other mutants and learning some of these things. All of us try and hide from various governments as much as possible.”

Spencer shook his head. “I didn’t know.”

“Don’t feel too bad. Government doesn’t know either. They keep experimenting on those of us they catch, trying to duplicate the mutant, virus, DNA, whatever and it will never happen.”

By the time Ten O’clock rolled around the restaurant started filling up with diners. Despite the fact Marco and all the waitresses were doing their jobs efficiently. JoAnn and all her help already had food orders moving out. Harold, Ben and all the others had the barroom sufficiently covered. The restaurant felt empty as if it was lacking something. Everyone there, down to the last man and woman felt it. Kathy was standing in the hallway looking back into the dinning room. Business was better than it had ever been and she felt like crying. Brent was in his office trying to take care of the phone calls and paper work and having little success. Nova and the others had come into their lives and stole everyone’s heart. They would be missed but never forgot.

Kitcha took one last look around and left without saying anything. It would be thirty or forty minutes before anyone realized she was no longer there. No one noticed the older dirty brown Ford PU as it slowly pulled out of the parking lot. The driver glanced at her shorter friend. “Where you going now?”

Scooter asked me to stop by and visit for a while. I guess I’m headed north to Alaska. And you?”

Enchantress curled up her lip for a second in thought. “Think I’ll take Logan’s offer to fly over to Ireland in his private jet. Said he was headed that way and offered me a free ride.”

“Any idea where Nova headed?” Kitcha knew Crystal usually had an idea where most of the girls were at any given time.

“Not this time. Only she’s going to be gone for awhile. You know she found another Huntress don’t you?”

“No I didn’t know. That’s certainly surprising after all these years. I thought Nova was the only one.”

“Nova said the girl didn’t even know herself until she told her. No survival skills, nothing. Figured that was what got Jenna killed. Nova was going to disappear with the girl and train her to use her instincts before she became another Jenna.”

“Think she will be as good as Nova?”

Crystal snorted. “Hah, never happen. Nova is in a class all her own. She is, The Huntress.”

=============================

Spencer had informed Brent and Kathy he was no longer needed. Him and Ken would return to their company jobs. He was out in the parking lot thinking of the past month and yesterday. When Becky talked him into going with them he didn’t know what to expect when they parked off the road close to Choux Slew. It was a main road with a nasty hard left corner immediately after Maque Bridge over the drainage canal. The city had talked about “doing something” as there were several wrecks including fatalities there every year. Despite all the caution, speed signs, some people didn’t slow down for the curve. At two seventeen a Honda Goldwing motorcycle came flying down the highway with a police car in hot pursuit. The motorcycle driver laid down rubber to the corner, leaned the cycle way over as they took the curve and gunned it. The police car never slowed down as they hit the bridge, went airborne, and flew a couple hundred feet out into Choux Slew.

“That was easy. Come on Sue, we need the other one before a crowd starts gathering.” Becky was looking up the highway.

Spencer looked at Becky and then turned to look down the highway where she was looking. A second Honda motorcycle blasted into view with a second police car hot on it’s tail. Like the first, the bike braked, laid it over for the curve and blasted away. The police car kept going and it too went airborne even further out into the slew than the first one.

Darla started up the van, pulled, out and was driving away. Spencer and Ken were looking at each other and then at the girls. Spencer had felt Becky doing something but what?

She glanced over at him. “That was the four officers who assassinated Jenna. Think of OnStar and their control over anyone’s car. I took over the brakes, steering, and accelerator. Their deaths are nothing more than vehicle malfunction. Nothing to tie any of it back to Huntress. We look after our own. We also try and do our own housecleaning when one goes rogue. One way or another all of us owe our lives to the Huntress whether directly or indirectly.”

Spencer didn’t have a response. These women were frightening in their own way. They were beautiful and deadly. “It won’t take long for police to put out an APB on two motorcycles.”

Becky and Darla smiled. Darla gave a short glance in his direction. “Dash cams in the police cruisers are toast. The police lost radio contact before they started chasing the bikes. Jammers were on the bikes. Best the police will have is witnesses saying the police were following two bikes. They are loaded up in the back of a truck and headed out of state. Different license plates and different paint after being washed down. Cali and Sue will be in…, a thousand miles from here by this time tomorrow. The bikes will be garaged for a cooling off period before they are taken out again.”

Spencer didn’t know if he should mention it or not. “That leaves Craig and Captain Blake.”

Becky looked at her watch. “Probably taken care of. Craig’s cell phone was used to call Blake for a meeting. One of Craig’s four guardsmen shot and killed Craig along with the other three guards before turning the gun on himself. At the Lormar building a lot of steps up to the front doors. Blake trips and falls, receives a life ending bash on the sharp edge of the concrete steps. The last call on his phone is from Craig requesting a meeting. Dirty laundry all around. The police investigation will glass things over as much as possible.”

Spencer shook his head. The security people he had called in to protect the club could take lessons from these ladies. They were definitely in a league of their own.

In the parking lot Spencer started up his car and slowly pulled out into the street. His life had been changed just as Brent and Kathy’s and everyone else who met Nova and the other ladies.

=================================================
The old twin engine turboprop loaded with cargo plus two women was cutting smoothly through the sky after dropping down to ten thousand feet. The pilot turned and looked over his shoulder at two young women. “You’re both insane. There is nothing down there.”

Mikel, the crew chief was thinking the same thing as he had been talking to and studying the two for the past two hours. It was a waste of life for the girls to bail out over the Siberian Forest with nothing more than a couple backpacks.

Nova gave Mikel a hug. “Appreciate the ride. Don’t worry about us.”

She gave Michaela a final check. Both girls were wearing Kevlar jumpsuits to keep from getting torn up if they landed in the trees instead of the clearing Nova had seen in the satellite photo. “If it looks like trees, keep your feet, legs tightly together, arms folded tightly in front of your chest, head up. Don’t be looking down as you might get a branch in the eyes. If you get tangled up don’t panic. I’ll come and get you. Open your chute when you leave the aircraft and follow me.”

“If you lose your bow…,” Nova pointed at the long bow Michaela had in her left hand. “Don’t worry, we will find it. Probably have a lot of help if we want. I noticed two wolf packs in those reconnaissance photos I paid for. Any questions?”

Michaela shook her head. “You’re going to get us both killed or eaten alive.”

Looking at the two girls, Mikel knew it would be the cold that got the girls first. Then the wolves or whatever else was down there would feast on frozen bodies. They definitely were not wearing enough clothes to be dropping into the Siberian wilderness. Having pulled a bow and a few arrows in his time, he looked at and tried the bows each carried. When he tried pulling them, he only managed to draw the string back a couple inches. Eyes questioning ‘what the hell’ when he handed the bows back. The one called Nova took hers and pulled it back as if she had an arrow knocked. She held it as she swept around the cabin targeting moving game. Mikel was stunned. He didn’t think there were any men who could do what she did.

“FOUR MINUTES. WE HAVE DEPRESSURIZED.” Sonya, the copilot, yelled back into the cabin.

Mikel stepped up to the cargo door and hesitated knowing it was going to be brutally cold. The girls were definitely bailing out to their deaths. Gathering his courage he levered the door dogs, pulled the door in and slid it to the side on its rails. The plane was designed for military and airborne troops before it became a cargo aircraft. The door was designed such so it didn’t open out into a hundred mile per hour slipstream. Immediately after he opened the door hoarfrost started collecting on everything inside the aircraft.

Sonya turned the cabin heat all the way up along with the window defrosters as frost collected on the windshields. “THIRTY SECONDS.” And almost immediately. “NOW!”

Nova and then Michaela left the plane. Mikel immediately closed the cabin door. The aircraft made a long lazy turn to the left. The cabin warmed back up and the windows defrosted. Everyone was staring out as two parachutes opened up, one after the other. The girls seemed to be okay for now and it looked like they would make the clearing as they steered their chutes to head that direction. After making the circle, the aircraft started climbing for the designated thirty thousand feet flight altitude.

Michaela was glad for the thermal foam lining inside the jumpsuit. She wasn’t too sure she wouldn’t have frozen to death on the way down as cold as she was. Despite Nova’s assurance she could withstand extreme cold, she still felt it. After landing in the clearing she wasn’t positive she wasn’t about to become lunch. Without taking her eyes off what was in front of her, she reached down to her side, popped the cover on her quiver pack, and retrieved a handful of arrows.

The wolf pack surrounded the two women after they had invaded their territory. The alpha male was trying to decide if the two strange alpha females should be killed or not. One of them was nervous. The other…, She made him nervous. She was a top predator.

Nova kept a steady look on the alpha male while talking to Michaela. “Don’t draw your bow. This is an excellent opportunity. The pack will show us where there is shelter and game. Relax, they can smell your nervousness the same as me. The big male is the leader. I need a little time to convince him I’m their new leader.”

Michaela shifted her attention to the big male. “You talk wolf? He’s going to turn his pack over to you because you asked him nicely?”

“Yes I do and yes he is. The language is body movement, eye movement, pheromones we give off. Right now he is in hesitation attack mode. We look like an easy lunch. What I’m telling him is I’m not intimidated by him nor his pack. He knows I’m Alpha female but is hesitant to agree.”

“They noticed us when we were coming down. That was when my attention was drawn to them. Michaela, your survival instinct should have alerted you at the same time. Learning to follow that instinct without question is what will keep you alive. Whether in a crowd of people or out here in the wilderness it will alert you to everything around you; the sights, the smells, the other life forms. It will tell you if someone or something wants to attack you. Even in a crowd it tells you which one it is even if they are behind you or hidden. You have to train it to start with, which you never learned and why we are here. In time it will work without you consciously thinking about it yourself.”

Michaela took a quick glance at Nova. “Who taught you all this? How long did it take you to learn?”

“A wolf pack taught me when I was a little girl. It took a couple years running with them. I am still learning after a couple centuries. You’re in a crash course. You must learn this before you return to human society. You will learn it here or die here. Survival is as demanding Mistress here as it is among humans, maybe even more so.”

“Lessons begin now. What do you smell?”

Sniffing a couple times, Michaela wrinkled her nose. “Wolves?”

“Yeah, well besides them. Do you not smell the bear in the distance to the right of us? The wild Boar a little further out than that? The hare in the burrow to your left? Your survival instinct will alert you to the bear and the boar as possible threats and the wolf packs as allies to share hunting for food and shelter. You must learn to use all your senses if you are going to survive.”

Nova took in a deep breath of the frigid air. This was her element and where she belonged. Michaela, being born and raised in civilization would never embrace this wholeheartedly. In time she would learn her own innate killer and survival instincts and have a chance at surviving in that civilized environment. Eventually the world would have a second Huntress in their midst and it would be more than rumor. They wouldn’t be able to murder her like they did Jenna.

Nova started walking toward the forest. Michaela caught up with her as the wolf pack spread out around both sides and behind the two women. “What are they doing?”

“We haven’t been adopted into the pack yet. They are curious wondering what we are doing.”

Michaela shook her head. “You understand them that well?”

“Yes, and so will you before we leave. It’s over six hundred miles in any direction before we encounter human civilization. You’ll learn before we return.”