But the thought of William and Brandy held captive, along with the image of Susan’s skull splattering across the white tile floor, wouldn’t leave me. The guard’s presence only added to my anxiety.

Unable to take it anymore, I stood and confronted the armed man. “I need something to put me out. Drugs, booze, a bottle of cough syrup—I don’t care what it is, but I need it now!”

“How about I just punch you in the face?”

“Do it, arse. Then you can explain to the Colonel why his lead scientist can’t function when we get to Antarctica.”

Realizing he needed to deal with my issue, the guard radioed for a physician.

Ten minutes later Dr. Stewart was rigging an I.V. drip to service me in the first-row window seat. “This will put you in La La Land for a good fifteen hours. When you wake up, you can take these pills, one every four hours. Just make sure you eat something first.” He slid the needle into a vein in my left forearm, securing it in place with medical tape. “By the way, I’m sorry about Susan. To waste a life like that… It’s not why I joined MJ-12. All life is sacred. No matter the species, we’re all God’s creatures. Even the bloody Irish.”

He winked, started the drip, and left.

I reclined my seat, pulled the blind down over my window, and closed my eyes, allowing the liquid elixir to float me away.

30

Susan’s soul came to me, only it was harbored in the physicality of another.

As was mine.

We were on a mountain bluff overlooking a tempest sea. The sky was violet, but not by dusk’s cool touch, for the sun was still high in the sky. She was picking purple flowers that grew from vines twisted around branches of a scarlet oak, and the wind kept catching her tunic, causing the sheer fabric to bloom above her hips, revealing her naked torso to me.

“You’re using the wind to tempt my loins.” I said aloud.

“And why would I do such a thing? This is my fertile time, and the Council has placed yet another moratorium on conception. Or perhaps you’ve spent so much time in your cave that you haven’t heard?”

“I am a scientist, Lehanna. The decree is in response to the latest Miketz update. The magma chamber’s internal pressure has risen higher than our geologists predicted.”

“How much longer do we have?”

“It’s best not to dwell on predictions.”

“Avi Socha, as your senior wife I need to prepare our home for every eventuality.”

“The Miketz is a probability, not a certainty. It could still subside.”

“How long?”

“Two solar orbits, with the pyroclastic blast most likely occurring before the spring harvest.”