Soldiers also knew to eat whenever food was available. Yeah, they weren’t in any danger of anyone interrupting them or, worse yet, incoming fire, but old habits died hard. It didn’t take long for them to finish off the sandwiches and chips.
About halfway into his second beer, Mike finally spoke again. “Okay, I need to hear what happened to you, start to finish. After that, I’ll tell you what I know about what’s going on with the investigation.”
As he spoke, he stared at Eli’s hand, the one he’d sliced open outside to convince his friend that he wasn’t bullshitting him about what had happened. He held it up so Mike could see the clear evidence that the wound had disappeared completely in the time they’d been together. His friend shook his head and took another long drink of beer. Eli knew just how he felt.
“We were on a training run, getting ready to ship out again. We hadn’t been given specifics about when, but it was supposed to be soon.”
He paused, not sure how to continue. The rest of the story would only make him sound crazy. Maybe it was time to throw in some information about his family. “It’s hard to know where to start, but I’m going to back up a few years. When I was a kid, both of my parents were killed in a car wreck while we were visiting my grandparents over in Spokane. As near as I could tell, my mother’s family never liked my dad, much less his father. It didn’t help that Granddad showed up at the funeral acting all crazy and screaming. He shoved my other grandfather up against a wall and accused him of killing my dad a second time by having him cremated too soon.”
That memory still hurt. “They used his whack-job behavior to take full custody of me and even changed my last name to theirs allegedly to protect me from any negative fallout from his craziness. To make a long story short, I didn’t see much of Martin after that. I stopped by here to see him after I’d enlisted and was about to report for duty. He went on a total rant again, telling me I couldn’t afford for the truth to come out. Something about dying and not staying that way. Then he stormed off into the trees without explaining what he meant.”
The scene played out like a movie in his mind. “Turns out he was right.”
Mike frowned big-time, clearly struggling to get his head around what Eli was telling him. “So your dad had the same ability?”
“Hell if I know. If my folks were aware of any weirdness like that, they never told me about it. Of course, I was just a kid when they died. Maybe they’d planned to explain things when I was older.”
Time to move on. “Anyway, back to the crash. Everything went as planned right up until we were on the way back. There was a loud noise. No idea what it was, and there was no time to figure it out. We went from flying to plummeting in a matter of seconds. I remember screams, then moans, then silence. Weird as it sounds, I’m pretty sure I died right along with everyone else.”
He half expected Mike to interrupt him. When he didn’t, Eli went on, nearly choking on the grief he’d been living with since the crash. “I checked everyone for signs of life, but no one else made it. The wreckage was filling up with smoke, and I could see sparks of fire. It was only a matter of time before the whole thing would blow. I made it as far as some boulders before that happened. While I waited for my ears to quit ringing, I assessed my condition.”
By this point, he wished he hadn’t just eaten. His stomach roiled as he listed his injuries. “There’s no describing how fucking weird it was to watch them healing up all on their own. By the time I changed clothes and started down the mountain, they were all but gone.”
Mike leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “And up until this point, you had no idea you had this ability? No other miraculous recoveries?”
“Not that I can remember. For sure, I don’t remember ever being sick for more than a day. No broken bones, either. And I always just thought I was lucky to never get a scratch despite being deployed all those times.”
“What happened next? Why did you leave?”
Wasn’t that obvious?
“How could I explain how everyone else died and I didn’t? Not only did I survive, I couldn’t even prove that I’d been badly hurt. Even if I’d been thrown clear of the explosion, I should have had some major injuries. I was covered in blood, but not a mark on me to explain it. I figured I’d end up in a loony bin if I told the truth or in Leavenworth if they decided I’d somehow sabotaged the mission. Neither prospect held any appeal. Then there was the chance someone would want to turn me into a lab rat.”
“I can’t argue with that assessment.” Mike stared at Eli for a long moment before continuing. “How are you managing to fly under the radar? You can’t access your bank account or use your credit cards without drawing attention.”
“My grandfather must have figured I’d run into problems at some point. I was deployed when he died, but he’d named me as his sole heir. I had the attorney put all the legal papers in my storage unit. That was my first stop when I came down off the mountain. I found a key to a safe deposit box, which contained a shitload of cash, a letter explaining things, and a birth certificate with my original name on it. That’s why I go by Eli D. Jervain these days. It was Eli Yates who ‘died’ in the crash.”
He needed to get up and move around. After gathering their dishes, he carried them into the kitchen. While he was there, he put on a pot of coffee, more as something to do than from any desire for a shot of caffeine. As it brewed, he thought back to earlier that morning when he’d found Safara in his kitchen impatiently waiting for her first cup of coffee of the day. It seemed longer ago than just a few hours.
“How do you take your coffee?”
“Black is fine.”
He delivered Mike’s drink and then stood by the front window, staring out into the quiet shadows beneath the surrounding Douglas firs. “That’s pretty much my story. I’ve been keeping a low profile while I try to figure out where I go from here.”
Glancing back at Mike, he asked, “What happened since the crash that has you worried?”
“I was in meetings on the base when the helicopter went down. I wasn’t able to visit the crash site for the initial investigation, but I did get there on the third day. Investigators were swarming all over the place, still trying to figure out what brought the chopper down in the first place. For what it’s worth, they determined that it was mechanical failure. No foul play of any kind.”
That didn’t change the tragic loss of life, but learning that it was no one’s fault came as a relief. Just bad luck, that’s all.
“But while I was up there, another bunch of investigators showed up, all flashing some kind of federal identification. Any kind of crash can draw investigators from different agencies, but this bunch stood out. They were dressed in identical black uniforms that had no identifying insignias. Mainly, though, it was the kind of questions they were asking.”
Eli frowned. “How so?”
“They asked about all of the men who were on that flight, but they asked way more questions about you. By this point, the bodies—or what was left of them—had already been removed. There wasn’t much to look at up there other than scraps of metal and the burned grass and bushes. These guys started at the wreckage and kept circling farther and farther away from the impact site, snapping photos and taking measurements.”
Eli’s gut was tied in a solid knot. “You’re thinking that maybe I didn’t make as clean a getaway as I’d hoped.”
