Keira Ramsay Works in Progress
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Prologue
She looked out over what had once been a thriving city, unable to believe the destruction she saw. It unfolded before her eyes, a war-ravaged landscape no longer peopled by the beautiful, the affluent. Now Los Angeles lay in ruins, the dregs of society living off the remnants of civilization, one scanty meal to the next.
Peri Johnson stood on what had been the mountain overlooking the Hollywood sign, not quite believing this was the teeming city she’d left just five years before. The sun reflecting off her aviator’s Ray Bans and the trim, expensive cut of her blue flight suit seemed to mock the devastation and poverty laid out before her. Shaking her head slowly, she tried to take it all in, absorb the impact, but her eyes kept straying, almost as if ordered, to the crooked “D” seventy-five feet below. It was all that was left of Hollywood; all that remained of the glitz and glamour of the movie capitol of the world.
They’d seen the news reports broadcast to the space station, but none of the colonists had really believed it, and it wasn’t exactly something you wanted to dwell on. Granted, they knew a temblor had hit Southern California, and it was reportedly a bad one. But the news coming from planet-side had become increasingly hysterical over the past year, even more hyped than usual, so they’d pawned the utter destruction displayed on their personal viewpads to be a shameless grab at ratings, then turned back to their training. The fact that none of them had ties to their mother world any longer had taken the guilt out of their group indifference quite nicely.
Now they could be blind no longer. Omega Five had returned to Earth, its training complete, its inhabitants enhanced to the nth degree by low-gravity living, nano-tech implants and the innumerable scientific benefits of living and working in a world void of virtually all stimuli. There had been no ticker-tape parades, no blinking wall of vacuous cameras. Their return had ceased being newsworthy as cities across the world began to disintegrate, from the LAs of the world, with its natural catastrophe, to the Detroits and their utter collapse from the inside out.
Now they were back, here to complete a mission they’d never really believed. Not really. But how could they? Being back on Earth was almost too much. Not the devastation, the Fivers could view that with a dispassionate, scientific eye. No, it was the colors, the smells, the tastes that wafted through the wind and danced on the tongue. There was too much to see, too much to do.
Peri longed to flee back to the comforting confines of Edwards Space Command, nestled in the dry, desolate scrublands of the high desert. Protected. Unchanged. She wanted the bland, the dun-colored, the metallic tasting again. She wanted the company of her fellow Fivers, with their witty humor and reference-ridden repartee.
It was not to be so. Each of the Fivers, all fifty-three of them, had been dispatched to their home city, their mission now more timely than ever. Their implants would keep them in touch with their handlers and with the other fifty-two of their clan. They would find suitable mates, reproduce, and begin to populate the world with strong, intelligent progeny--and in doing so, repair the ills of the world. Five years ago, it had seemed a noble goal, something attainable, if a bit imperialistic. Now, looking down at the carnage of her beloved Los Angeles, Peri wasn’t so sure.
With one last look and a tiny shudder, Peri began to walk down the hill, heading toward her future--and the future of the world.
Air Force flight surgeon Tallie Cavanaugh is going home to Oklahoma—but only under duress. Her best friend has signed her up to speak at the local base’s graduation ceremony--without her knowledge. As a decorated veteran of several campaigns, she’ll do it for the Air Force, but going home means putting up with the pomp and circumstance she’s always despised.
When a mid-air collision between two jets calls Tallie’s skills into action, she meets up with the one man she hasn’t been able to forget…fire chief Connor Jackson.
Connor knows all about Tallie’s career, hell, he and every other person in their small town have followed her achievements. Fifteen years have passed since he’s seen her, and for most of those years he’s been able to forget all about her…the way her mouth tasted on a hot May night, but he’s avoided seeing her until now because of the memory of what one little kiss had done to him all those years ago…
Chapter One
Lieutenant Colonel Tallie Cavanaugh strode into Deke’s Tavern, sure of only one thing—she was going to kill Malone. She bellied up to the bar, not caring that she was still wearing her flight suit, only concerned with getting her hands around her fellow surgeon’s neck.
“Where is he hiding, Deke?”
“Now Doc, you know I can’t give him up when you have every intention of breaking your Hippocratic Oath.”
“Jesus Deke, you’ve gotta remember to leave the day job at the college. C’mon, just tell me where he’s at. I promise not to hurt him…that badly.”
Deke laughed. He was more than a bartender, he was a retired C-130 pilot who’d been there and done that in Vietnam and now taught English Composition at the local university. “Hell Tallie, it’s not that big a deal, is it? All you’ve gotta do is bore a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears lieutenants and their parents for half an hour and eat some overcooked chicken at the O-Club.”
Tallie dropped her head in her hands and groaned inwardly. How in the hell her best friend could have set her up her like this was a mystery.
“It’s not so much the speaking part as it is facing the town fathers and the women’s auxiliary. Last time I was home they almost gave me the key to the freakin’ city…ergo, I don’t go home anymore.”
Sure, she visited on occasion, but more often than not, her parents hopped into the RV and visited her at whatever base she happened to be stationed at. Right now that happened to be Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina.
As for her brother…God only knew where Mike was. He’d finished his pull in Desert Storm and disappeared off the face of the earth. She still had a private investigator on the payroll to find him, but no one in the family had heard from him in almost fifteen years. The consensus was that he was dead, but she couldn’t, wouldn’t give up hope until she saw the proof for herself.
Deke slid a mug of Guinness in front of her. “Don’t worry, Tallie-girl, you’ll have that key yet.”
That’s what she was afraid of.
***
Tallie straightened the cummerbund on her mess dress, the military’s version of black-tie, and grimaced into the mirror. Oh, she looked fine, her blonde hair pulled into a chignon, her make-up flawless, but she really wasn’t looking forward to the meet-and-greet reception line prior to dinner, or the three hours of monotonous chit-chat with the wing commander and the various town dignitaries who were sure to be at her table.
The one bright spot in her day had been reconnecting with one of her old friends from Bosnia, a flight nurse who was now the commander of the hospital on base. Well, that and the fact that she’d managed to muscle Malone into being her “date” for the festivities. If she had to choke down mystery meat at the Club, then she was taking him down with her.