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Entering the caves tracking a wounded Luther was a bit like hunting a wounded cougar or leopard. Diego knew the way through the cabin into the narrow, low man-made tunnel Luther had dug to connect to the cave system. The dark, twisting uphill tunnel was reinforced with metal, rebar and cement. Diego followed along, bending nearly double in places as he made his way uphill and then down toward the woods.

At first the tunnel was uncomfortably warm, but that gave way to cold air abruptly as he came to a wide-open cavern. Layers of rock were of unexpected colors and quite beautiful. The cave was a good distance underground, so he knew his voice wouldn’t carry to any soldiers sweeping the area looking for Luther.

Diego sang a few notes of a female morning bird, the indigo bunting. Lotty loved those birds, the male with his brilliant blue feathers and the female with her paler, much more subdued coloring. Luther had learned their songs to lure them close so she could watch them. Silence greeted his call, but he was certain Luther was in the caves. He could feel the waves of pain coming off the man. He hurried, ignoring the chandelier overhead in the form of a stalactite. The color was nearly pure white but had a wide band of red at the top, tapering as it came toward the bottom. There were several stalactites on the ceiling, some bigger than others and all beautiful.

The stalagmites rising from the cavern floor were in columns of pale blue, purple and a shade of rust red. In two places the stalagmites nearly touched the stalactite above it to form a long pillar. Water dripped continuously as he made his way around the limestone. Rocks gave way to a shallow stream. The rock walls appeared orange with the peculiar red rust running along the edges of the water. The water was dark in places, forming pools, but Diego knew the floor was solid rock.

Water trickled from the walls of the cave on either side as he walked through the pools of water. The colors and various formations seemed ever changing as minerals mixing with calcite changed subtly. The walls were thick with tubes of yellow. On the floor were enormous tubes resembling shawls. Some were pencil-thin while others were huge, round and fat. Pale blue stalactites hanging from the ceiling gave way to ones of royal blue. Large and thick, there were so many they appeared nearly impenetrable.

He spotted the narrow corridor that veered off from the main direction of pools of water. The tunnel was dark and foreboding. He’d been down that tight, shadowy passage that was really a wide crack in two giant slabs of rock.

This was Luther’s refuge when he was in bad shape and knew it would be difficult to protect himself. Those coming for him would have to do so in single file. He felt the older man ahead of him, pain coming off him in waves. The scent of blood permeated the air.

Diego gave the birdcall one more time as he hurried forward through the narrow, mud-slick tunnel. Then he called out.

“Coming in, Luther,” he announced.

Strangely, that well of healing energy stirred, drove him toward the old man’s hiding spot, the need to help him stronger than anything he’d ever experienced, even with the animals he loved so much. He’d never had such a powerful response to a human being in trouble.

It felt like déjà vu as Diego rounded one more bend to see the larger hollowed-out chamber where Luther lay, blood covering his clothing so it was impossible to tell where the wounds were until he got right beside him. An arm for certain, and the worst wound was on Luther’s left leg.

“Tell me what’s going on, fast,” Diego instructed as he ran his hands over Luther’s arm and leg.

“They came for the girls. My nephew Collin’s girls. I had no idea they existed. When Collin and his wife died in an accident, rather than bring the girls to me as their parents requested, Bridget was taken to Whitney, and Leila was sent to the lab with the people I work with.” Luther sounded grim.

“Whitney did that?”

Luther shook his head. “A man by the name of General Pillar oversees the lab in Maryland where volunteers are enhanced and trained. Pillar made the decision to take the girls when Leila was ten.”

“Which one is Bridget and which one is Leila?” Why knowing that was important, Diego didn’t want to dwell on, but he wanted to know which was Warrior Woman.

“Bridget was curled in the ball and Leila is the fierce fighter.”

Diego found himself turning the name over and over in his mind. Leila. He couldn’t be paired with her since she hadn’t been sent to Whitney for enhancement. But he was inexplicably interested.

“The lab experimenting on you does the same thing Whitney does to women and children?” Diego sounded mild enough, but he didn’t feel that way. He knew Whitney had many facilities all over the world. He had hoped the division responsible for Luther was different.

“No, to my knowledge the government lab only took soldiers who volunteered. They made an exception for the girls because they’re interested in natural genetics and what they can do with them. My fault. They knew I had psychic abilities and figured my kin would also. I didn’t think about family. I lost all contact with them after Vietnam.”

Diego understood what he was saying. The post-Vietnam years were a time of turmoil, and the returning soldiers weren’t treated in a respectful manner to say the least. Many became estranged from their families when they needed them the most.

“I had Lotty,” Luther said as if reading Diego’s thoughts. “She was my world and made everything I faced in my life worthwhile. I’d take nothing back, Diego. Not one thing, just to know I could have those years with her.” He looked up at Diego’s face. “Just heal the damn thing. I know you’re a doctor, but you can also do that mumbo jumbo your brother does.”

Diego drew back, deliberately lifting his eyebrow. “What makes you think that? Rubin is…” He broke off, trying to search for a word that would adequately describe his brother. “Elite. One of a kind. There is no one like Rubin.”

Luther gave a snort of derision. “You had everyone fooled, but you gotta remember who you’re talkin’ to. Spent a lifetime foolin’ folks myself. You can bet I spotted your game back when you were a little kid. You might be ten months younger than your brother, but you shoulda been twins. You’re exactly alike. Could be the same person. Fix the leg and arm so we can go after the girls.”

Diego was a little disgusted with himself. He should have known a man who ran a con his entire life would see right into him. “Rubin and I are alike in some ways; we share the same gifts, but he doesn’t have the kind of darkness in him that I do.”

He passed his hands over the wound in Luther’s leg. At once that well inside him opened, heat and healing energy pouring out. “Our mother saw it in me. She talked to me often, explaining I was born to be the opposite of Rubin, that he was pure light and healing energy. I had the darkness in me. She described me as the executioner. She told me my sole purpose was to keep my brother safe. Our mother had gifts and she could see things others couldn’t.” He spoke matter-of-factly because he’d accepted his mother’s assessment of him before he was eight. He’d lived with that knowledge and done his best to make the most of his life.

Luther eyed him with a kind of shock. “Boy, you had to know your mother was ill. Mentally ill. She was always too soft inside for the kind of life she had. After your father died, and she lost your two older brothers, she had a mental break. She made you and Rubin responsible for your sisters and her. You were just little kids, and she forced you to take on the role of adults.”

“That doesn’t negate what she knew. She was a seer.” Diego placed his hands above the wound on Luther’s arm. That healing energy welled up strong. He’d never used it on humans, but he’d healed countless animals. His gift hadn’t gone to waste. He’d never revealed to anyone, including Rubin, that he had the same gifts his brother had.

“Children have no idea their parent is mentally ill. How they are raised and the things the parent says and does are normal to those children even when it’s abuse. You were abused both emotionally and physically, but you and your brother simply accepted it as how parents raised children because you never saw any other way. You accepted that you were responsible for bringing your family food. That required hunting. I know you got beat if you ever missed and came home a bullet short. I saw the evidence on more than one occasion. I used to bring fresh meat to the cabin in an effort to spare you boys when the weather got rough. Your mother had no right to expect eight-year-old boys to go out in the middle of a snowstorm and bring back food to the family.”

“Someone had to do it,” Diego pointed out.

“Not in the middle of the storm. Your father would never have gone out in that weather, but your mother insisted that you and your brother go. She didn’t recognize your genius—finding the parts to put together a generator, bringing water to the cabin. Diego, think back to your childhood. You had to have questioned her orders and decisions at some point. You had to realize she was putting your life in danger.”

Diego shrugged. He didn’t want to pull up those memories. None of them were good. “She was certain I was born to sacrifice for the family and to keep Rubin alive. It makes sense that I went out hunting when things were rough.”

“Why Rubin? Why didn’t he stay home? One never went without the other.”

“Rubin didn’t allow me to go alone. He ignored her when she was angry with him; he just picked up his rifle and went out the door. Rubin doesn’t argue.” Diego shoved a hand through his hair and then was annoyed that he’d given Luther any indication that the conversation was getting to him.

“What happened when Rubin left the cabin?”

“I followed him. I always have his back.”

“What did your mother say or do when you returned?”

Diego didn’t allow himself to think much about his childhood. He tried another casual shrug. “She blamed me for not going on my own. That was just the way it was, Luther. No big deal.”

“That’s the problem with a child living with mental illness in the house. It could be years before they realize their mother or father are ill. By that time, the damage is already done. You think the way your mother treated you was normal. You believed her when she told you Rubin was special and the ‘good’ one. From the time you were a little boy she treated you as the bad child. Not only did you accept that treatment, but you came to believe her. I’m telling you it’s bullshit.”

Diego gave him a false smile. “You saying that doesn’t make me a believer, Luther. I’ve lived with my strange detachment all my life. I know for a fact Rubin is not like me when it comes to killing anything. Even when we hunted for food for the family, he agonized over taking the shot. I feel more of an affinity with animals than I do with people, but I never hesitated or thought about it. For me it was a simple matter of survival. Of necessity. With the people we hunted, it was just as simple. They committed a crime against our family or against our country or against my unit. I don’t hesitate, and I don’t lose sleep. Rubin does.”

“Why should that make you evil? Or ill? You do your job, just like the rest of us. You should thank the Lord that you’re so good at it. Who do you think gave you the abilities you have? If you didn’t use them to save lives, that would be wrong.”

Diego couldn’t help the small smile that escaped. “You see in black and white, Luther.”

“I see you . Your own brother doesn’t see you, but I can. I would rather have you fighting at my side than anyone else I know.”

Diego took a few minutes to spread healing energy through the wound in Luther’s arm. He sank back, sitting abruptly. Healing drained strength. The more psychic energy spent, the harder the crash.

“Tell me about your nieces.”

“Bridget is in bad shape. She doesn’t have filters and needs an anchor. I didn’t even know what an anchor was. I didn’t have Whitney experimenting on me. I volunteered to be enhanced physically because I wanted to serve my country to the best of my ability. I also had it in my head that I would be able to save my fellow soldiers. At the time, I was young and not so smart about life.”

Luther shifted his weight and reached behind him to the small red cooler tucked in the shadow of the corner of the cave. He handed Diego a water bottle and took one for himself. Diego knew from his past experience that Luther had cached supplies for any occasion in the cave.

“Leila was trained as one of us and she’s hell on wheels. What they didn’t count on was her loyalty to her sister. She never once let on that she was furious that General Pillar took them and then separated the two of them. Pillar is a lieutenant general. First chance Leila got, she tracked down her sister and broke her out of the hellhole she was kept prisoner in. Guess Whitney and the commander of the lab, General Phil Chariot, want their experiments back. Chariot is a major general.”

“We search for Whitney all the time. He has too many friends in high places warning him if we plan to make a move against him. How is it possible she tracked down her sister?” Diego didn’t comment on the subtle warning Luther gave him by mentioning the ranks of Luther’s opponents. Enemies were enemies as far as Diego was concerned. He tended to see the world in black and white. What had been done to those girls was wrong. It was that simple.

Luther sighed. “It’s clear you have gifts you’ve developed, Diego. I have a few, but they aren’t as strong as yours. I practice daily to strengthen them, but you’re clearly enhanced. Leila is like me. She’s very gifted, but she hasn’t been enhanced; at least she told me they didn’t do the kinds of experiments on her that Whitney did on her sister. In all honesty, I’m not certain she’s telling the truth. I made the mistake of getting angry when I found out the government had stepped in and taken the two girls away from me when I didn’t even know they existed. I told her I was going to go to war with them. That was a very bad mistake on my part. She protested vigorously and said they wanted to be left alone. That the girls needed me. She told me Bridget was in a bad way. She also told me she would have to disappear for a short time and needed me to take care of her sister. She wanted me to work with Bridget to develop barriers in her mind. It’s possible they did enhance her psychic gifts and she didn’t want me going after them.”

“Why would she leave her sister here and go off somewhere?”

“Leila keeps her own counsel. She reminds me of me. She’s careful with information.”

“She was asking a pretty big favor.”

“That’s so, but they’re my only living relatives. She believed I would have the same kind of loyalty she does. And she is loyal. There’s no question, if she heard I was under attack or injured, she would have come to my aid. If they tested her, my guess is they would have found her protective nature and loyalty to family to be off the charts.”

Diego found satisfaction in that. He knew Luther was shrewd at reading people. A segment of society made the mistake of dismissing seniors—Diego wasn’t one of them. Luther was an excellent judge of character. He was extremely observant. Diego was also an observant man, and from the time he was a child he had watched Luther. He’d had no idea the man had been enhanced as a soldier. That was how good Luther was at hiding in plain sight. Diego couldn’t help but admire the man. If Luther said his great-niece was like him, Diego believed him. That made her…extraordinary.

“You go after Leila,” Luther said. “They’re headed up the mountain with her. That’s your backyard. You’ll get to her faster, and she needs medical attention. I’ll go after Bridget.”

“Chances are good they’ll get both to a vehicle or plane before we can stop them.” He was extremely worried about Warrior Woman. She hadn’t looked good when the attackers had carried her off. A part of him hoped her captors had already transported her to a facility where there was good medical. He didn’t share with Luther. “You have a phone? I can send you the app to track both women. It’s encoded, so I’ll have to send you the key. Just remember, if you get captured, your phone has to be destroyed.”

“That won’t happen,” Luther assured. “I may be old, Diego, but I can still run rings around these young soldiers. They look at me and see an old man, so they discount all my experience. That is their biggest mistake.” His eyes, shrewd and almost cunning, stared directly into Diego’s eyes. “Never forget that, son. Experience always counts.”

Diego nodded, understanding that Luther was passing on good advice to him. He knew Luther didn’t bother to educate very many others, and Diego felt privileged to have the old man impart his wisdom. Luther mostly didn’t bother to speak to people, keeping strictly to himself. The old man had always been considered eccentric, but he had evaded detection for years thanks to his secretive lone-wolf ways.

“They’re going to know you’ll be following them, Diego,” Luther continued. “They have no idea who you are, but they’re afraid of you. You took out their commander, and that’s stirred up a hornet’s nest. They lost too many men and didn’t expect that either. Their orders are most likely to stick around and find us no matter what. And they’ll be looking to identify you.”

Diego gave him a faint smile. “I’m a ghost in the woods, especially my woods. They won’t see me, Luther. Be careful and don’t take chances. If they bring Bridget to Whitney, we’ll have a way into Whitney’s compound. If not, we’ll be able to find her no matter where she is.”

Luther nodded and straightened his body slowly. He had learned years earlier that haste wasn’t a good thing. A smart operator planned his actions and took care of the wounds in his body before making any fast moves. Death came to anyone who moved without thinking it through. Luther had the patience of a hunter. Diego had the patience of a predator.

Diego wanted to point out that subtle difference to Luther, just to get his opinion. Luther was one of the few people he admired and would listen to. Luther didn’t believe Diego was evil at heart, but Diego knew there was darkness living inside him. It had grown heavier over time. Depression was the curse of his family. He knew his mother suffered from depression and two of his sisters had. He hadn’t considered that he did, but now, after making the decision to end his life, he was fairly certain he carried it as well.

Diego wished Luther good hunting and made his way out of the cave. He avoided the soldiers still searching for Luther and him. It was easy enough to do when he knew the terrain like the back of his hand.

Hunting in the woods, however, always made him feel alive. Part of nature. He was a natural predator, and the moment he slipped into the trees and began tracking his prey, his world changed. Every sense became more acute. The wind spoke to him, bringing information on his surroundings. Lizards, voles and ants scurrying through the bracken on the forest floor were like extensions of his own senses, their movements absorbing information and funneling it back to him.

The Appalachian Mountains were different from any other mountain range. They were old, with an eerie, spooky atmosphere amplified by the fog and the high canopies blocking out light to many areas. The terrain was steep, the forests overgrown, making it very difficult to navigate and easy to get lost. The extreme weather of snow and rain created a tropical rainforest in many areas.