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  “Perfect,” Drake said.

  “Call us if you need backup on this date,” Marsh said, smiling at Gage.

  “Don’t call me,” Drake said. “My wife and I are having dinner with my charges tonight in Portland. We’re going to tell them we are Seeders as well.”

  “But not that you have been guarding them?” Gage asked, surprised.

  “Nope,” Drake said. “We like them as friends and just figured we could expand the menu for meals some if they knew who we really were.”

  Gage laughed. “Real good point.”

  “Wish we could tell Carrie and Matt,” Marsh said. “We like them as well.”

  “I have a hunch the reason we are all doing this guarding will come clear sooner rather than later,” Gage said.

  “You know something we don’t?” Marsh asked.

  “Just a gut sense,” Gage said. “When I report how close Angie came to being killed today, movement might just happen.”

  “Yeah,” Drake said. “Real good point. Now can we get out of this heat?”

  With that, Gage touched his ear. “Four transporting on board.”

  “Clear,” came the response.

  And a moment later they were back putting their weapons away. Gage jumped back to his apartment after thanking his team and wrote his report and submitted it.

  Then he headed for the shower, whistling, after spending an hour watching Angie ride into Portland to make sure that she got safely to her apartment.

  He had a date with a beautiful and courageous woman. It didn’t get any better than that.

  SEVEN

  ANGIE LAY IN her tub in her wonderful apartment, just letting the water calm her and take away the shaking.

  Well, at least attempt to take away the shaking. She had never had this kind of reaction before to an event. But she had never gotten within a second of sure death before either.

  When she got home, she had forced herself to make a sandwich and eat it before taking a bath. The food and the warm water were helping, but still every time she thought about how close she had come to dying today, she started shaking again.

  She was getting annoyed at it and also annoyed that her shaking was making water slosh out of the tub.

  Finally, she drained the water and took a very cold shower and then washed her long black hair. The day was warm enough it would dry before her dinner date.

  And doing such a regular thing and the cold water finally got the shakes stopped.

  She couldn’t believe that a handsome man had just shown up, saved her life, and then arranged to have a date with her. That was a very, very goofy thing.

  Except for the part that he had saved her life.

  And that he was scary handsome.

  All she really wanted to do was touch those muscles under his T-shirt to see if they were for real. He looked to be about her age at thirty, but she had never met a man in that kind of shape at that age before. Clearly they existed.

  What she didn’t realize was that those stun weapons they had used existed. Especially done in a way so that they looked like regular-issue rifles. That seemed pretty advanced, especially only three years after the Event.

  There was an awful lot about the handsome stranger who had saved her life that she wanted to know.

  She checked the time. She needed to get dressed and get going on the four-block walk down to the restaurant.

  This would be a very interesting dinner. Not only because he was so handsome and had green eyes and muscles that wouldn’t stop, but because she wanted to know exactly how he had followed her for six months without her knowing it.

  And where those stun weapons came from.

  And if he had a girlfriend.

  EIGHT

  CHAIRMAN SOMA ASKED Gage to report to his office at once just forty minutes before he was to transport to the planet for the date with Angie.

  Gage and his team were stationed on the Seeders ship Home Stand that was one of five shielded ships in orbit over this planet to try to help it rebuild from a devastating hit by an electromagnetic wave. Thousands of Seeders were implanted in communities around the globe to help in the rebuilding.

  But in almost a year being on this ship, Gage had not had a chance to meet Chairman Soma.

  Every Seeder ship was its own business that worked to make a profit and continue, thus what would be called the captain was called the chairman. Gage knew what he was getting for his guard duty was very high pay, so for some reason this planet out of all the other human planets in this galaxy was special.

  You didn’t often see five Seeder ships in orbit around any planet for any reason, especially planets that hadn’t advanced far enough yet to join the larger group of planets.

  Gage had a hunch his report today was what caused this sudden meeting with the chairman.

  Gage finished putting on his tennis shoes and transported to the chairman’s office.

  The room was huge, with a large oak-colored wooden desk, soft brown carpet, pictures of various planets and star-groups on the walls in oranges and reds. There was a large brown cloth couch and a few large chairs that matched.

  The room felt comfortable and lived-in.

  As he arrived, Chairman Soma stood from one of the chairs and extended his hand. “Great job today keeping Angie Park alive.”

  “That’s what I am assigned to do,” Gage said.

  Captain Soma was a solid man, with huge shoulders and no gut at all. He looked like he could pick a couch up off the floor with one hand. He had short-cut brown hair and dark, penetrating eyes. He wore what looked like sweat pants and a massive body shirt and no shoes.

  Another man stood from a second chair. The other man was tall and had very long silver hair. He wore a silk shirt and dark pants and just radiated power and intelligence.

  Soma turned and said, “Gage Teal, I would like you to meet Chairman Wade Ray.”

  Gage shook his hand and said, “Nice meeting you.”

  “Actually,” Ray said, “the pleasure is mine.”

  Then Gage’s brain kicked in and he realized who he had just met was the legend of all Seeders, maybe the oldest human alive. He was rumored to be hundreds of thousands of years old.

  Gage started to open his mouth to say something but not a damn thought came to his mind to say.

  The two chairmen indicated that Gage should take a seat on the couch and he did.

  Chairman Ray got right to the point. “We think it’s time to bring in Angie Park and tell her about us.”

  Of all the things either of these men could have said, that was the biggest surprise. And it finally explained why he and his team had been guarding her for all this time.

  “She has Seeder genes?”

  Both men nodded.

  “She is very special,” Ray said, “and so are you and four others in this area of this planet.”

  Again Gage opened his mouth to say something, but then realized that the greatest human to have ever lived had just called him special.

  Ray just smiled as Gage managed to get some sort of sense of thought back in control. Ray would not be here if there wasn’t a need for some mission and since he had just called him special along with the others on the surface, that meant that whatever quality they all had was needed for something very important.

  He had been around the military part of the Seeders for a few hundred years now and he knew that was how it worked.

  “I assume you have a mission for us,” Gage said, “meaning me and the other five still on the planet. And whatever makes us special is the key to this mission.”

  Ray glanced at Soma who just smiled and shook his head.

  “We do,” Ray said. “And yes, you are correct. But if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to explain it all to everyone at the same time.”

  Gage understood that completely and nodded. “So what do you need me to do?”

  “You know Angie Park as well as anyone, since you have been tracking her,” Ray said. “Figure out a way to intr
oduce the fact that this ship is here and what Seeders actually are.”

  Gage nodded. “I have a date with her in exactly ten minutes. How long do I have?”

  “As soon as possible,” Ray said. “A few days at most.”

  “And the others I assume are the ones my team has also been protecting?”

  “They are,” Ray said. “Two are already Seeders and will be bringing along the other two.”

  “What about my team?” Gage asked.

  “They will be going with you on your mission if you want them, and they agree to it, as you must do as well.”

  Gage nodded and stood.

  The other two men stood and both shook his hand.

  Chairman Soma said, “Report to me your progress and I will keep Chairman Ray updated.”

  “And enjoy the date,” Ray said, smiling.

  “I will,” Gage said and then jumped back to his apartment on the ship, splashed some water on his face to try to get his mind working, and then told command that he was jumping to the planet.

  “Clear,” the command voice came back.

  A moment later he jumped to a sidewalk near the restaurant. He was shielded so no one could see him and then, as he walked down the street, he dropped the shield.

  The evening was a beautiful summer evening in what used to be called the Rose City. The air had a freshness to it and a slight breeze kept the air comfortable. In this area of town a number of cafes had tables and chairs outside on the sidewalk and they were filled with people talking and laughing.

  One thing for sure about surviving something like the Event, it made the people of this planet very cheerful and looking to enjoy life. All of them had lost loved ones and family and knew they were lucky to be alive and rebuilding.

  He had a date with a beautiful woman. One of the smartest and bravest women he had ever had the chance to meet. It had been a very long time for him, maybe almost eighty years since he and his first and so far only wife had decided to go their own ways. They still loved each other, but just had very different interests.

  He had a few one-night stands out of bars over the years, but his job kept him busy and not really meeting the right kind of women.

  He had a hunch Angie was the right kind of woman now that she was being recruited to be a Seeder.

  If he didn’t blow this.

  And why he and Angie were special to someone like Chairman Wade Ray was beyond him.

  In all his life he had never been this confused about anything.

  And excited at the same time that he could be honest with Angie Park.

  He just had to hope she didn’t end up hating him for being an alien.

  A human alien, but still an alien.

  NINE

  ANGIE STOOD JUST outside the restaurant watching for Gage Teal. There was no chance in hell she was going to go inside, get a table, and then sit there alone if he stood her up.

  Or if she had just been imagining all that this afternoon.

  The evening was flat perfect, with a cool breeze off the river and the temperature in the mid-seventies. She had decided to just go with her normal way of dressing in jeans, but had put on her best new blue blouse and some pearl earrings that had been her mother’s.

  Angie felt dressed up. And that was all that mattered.

  Then suddenly there he was, walking toward her down the sidewalk. He also had on jeans, tennis shoes, and a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He saw her and broke into the same smile she had seen up in the mountains earlier after he had saved her life.

  And that smile almost melted her right there on the sidewalk.

  “Sorry I am slightly late,” he said as he came up to her. “A meeting with some top brass.”

  “Only just got here myself,” she said, smiling back at him and those intense green eyes.

  God, if she wasn’t careful, she might just stare into those eyes all night and not say a word.

  “Hungry?” he asked, indicating the restaurant they were in front of that smelled wonderful.

  The smell was a mixture of garlic and pasta and fresh-baked bread. This place was also known for the best pizza in town and chicken in an Italian sauce that could melt in a person’s mouth. After getting here, the smell of garlic and pizza had made her decide that was what she was going to have.

  “Famished,” she said. “Almost being killed can do that for a girl.”

  He laughed as she turned to lead the way inside and damn if she didn’t love the sound of his laugh as well.

  It was going to be everything she could do to just not jump him right here in the restaurant. She realized this afternoon that she hadn’t had a date since the Event. For some reason she had just never met a person she wanted to date amid all the death. But now that life was returning to at least Portland and a few other cities around the world, she was beyond ready.

  Also during the first part of the last few years, her focus had been on staying alive and then helping in the recovery. But she had never been the celibate type before the Event. While working on her Doctorate in Physics, she had even been engaged. But they had both been too busy and that had broken off.

  And after she became a professor, all the men just looked too young for her, even though she wasn’t much older than most of them.

  Of course, even when she was dating, she just knew she sucked at long-term relationships. Just sucked.

  But now she had a date and if she didn’t screw this up, it might be something worthwhile for some great sex for a few months.

  They managed to get a table in the back corner of the restaurant. The table was wood with a red tablecloth on it and the chairs were solid and also wood. A couple tall plants divided their table from the nearest one and gave them some privacy, which she liked.

  A waiter named Bud took their drink order and left them staring at each other.

  “I am so glad I finally get a chance to meet and talk with you,” Gage said.

  “I’m glad you and I can talk as well,” she said, smiling at him. “If you hadn’t been shadowing me this morning I wouldn’t be here.”

  He just shrugged, which she loved. “Just doing my job.”

  “And who hired you to do this job?” she asked. “And why me?”

  “Honestly,” he said, “those are the two toughest questions you could have asked and I will tell you the truth on both a little later, except I honestly don’t know why you.”

  Then she watched as he laughed. “And to be honest, I don’t know why me and my team either. So I’m hoping together we can get some answers as to why both of us ended up in that compound this morning.”

  She frowned. She had not expected that kind of answer at all. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but it wasn’t that.

  “How about we get to know each other a little first,” he asked. “What did you do before the Event? Were you married or engaged and if either of those questions are too personal, tell me to mind my own business.”

  She laughed and the worry in his eyes dropped away.

  “You sure you want to know?” she asked.

  “Very much,” he said, nodding.

  “Not married and no boyfriend before the Event and I was a professor of physics.”

  He sat back with that, clearly thinking for a moment. Then he said, “That’s cool.”

  “That I didn’t have a boyfriend?” she asked, smiling at him and he laughed.

  “No, the physics part,” he said, “but glad you didn’t lose a loved one as well.”

  She looked into those green eyes. Did she really want to know this man’s background or not. Finally she decided she did. “And you?”

  “Pretty close to your expertise, actually,” he said. “I have a doctorate in mathematics.”

  That rocked her back. God, he was smart and handsome.

  Holy shit.

  “In fact,” he said, “all four members of my team have higher degrees in one thing or another.”

  She shook her head and he laughed.


  “Military image doesn’t often cover higher degrees, does it? Does that make you want to stop this dinner?”

  She laughed and said, “Oh, I think I can put up with someone who is smart for at least the length of a dinner. So that education scares off women, does it?”

  He shrugged and took a piece of bread from a basket that had just been dropped on the table by a waiter. “Honestly, been so long since I went out to dinner with anyone but friends, I don’t remember. Never was much good at long-term stuff.”

  She loved the sound of that. He was in the same place with relationships she was in.

  Maybe, if she didn’t say something really stupid, there was hope for this after all.

  At least short-term hope, and right now, in this new world, that was all she wanted.

  TEN

  SIX WONDERFUL HOURS later, they both came up for air after a second passionate love-making session at her apartment.

  They were in her big king bed on top of wonderful-feeling cloth sheets. The city lights around them lit up the room that she had made very much her own with a few stuffed animals a couple dressers covered with knicknacks, and cat toys.

  He had fallen instantly for her two cats who seemed to think he was the best thing ever, thankfully.

  Gage couldn’t believe how much he enjoyed every moment with Angie, and just touching her had sent shivers through him the first time, as if making a connection he had been waiting his entire life to make.

  Even though he had to be careful with some things he said during dinner and on the wonderful, hand-in-hand walk to her apartment, he hadn’t enjoyed time with anyone else like that before.

  She rested beside him now, trying to catch her breath, her beautiful body wonderful in the lights through the window. She didn’t seem to be even in the slightest bit modest in front of him, which he also loved.

  Finally, she rolled over to face him. “Where the hell did you come from?”

  He laughed. “You honestly don’t want to know.”