Entangled Interaction (3 page)

"Hey!"

Jasmine giggled. Bas grinned. I kicked the Neanderthal in the shin under the table.

"Behave." He wagged a finger at me.

"Brothers are so trying." I opened my water and took a long drink.

Jasmine nodded in agreement. "Now's that a fact."

Chapter 3

Cannibal, my immediate boss and a tough, no nonsense Enforcer, called before dawn the next morning. "Pack a week's worth of warm clothes. The warmest you have."

Half asleep, it took an extra click to understand what he was saying. "But…"

"What you don't have, we'll purchase along the way." He sounded as if he were tossing his own clothes into a bag while on the phone.

"Where are we going?" I crawled out of bed, heading to the closet to pull out a large suitcase. "And, when? I have to talk to Dad about taking care of the boys."

"I've already spoken to Victor. He'll pick up the boys in an hour and keep them for as long as you need to be gone." I heard a zip in the background along with a thump, like he had tossed a heavy bag on the floor. "You just have to get a move on."

I pulled out a couple of sweaters and a heavy coat from the closet when a sudden thought hit me. "Wait a minute. You never told me where we're going."

He puffed a breath against the phone. "To find the Yeti."

I blinked. "What's a Yeti, and why are we looking for it?"

I could almost hear the amusement in his voice. "You probably know it as the abominable snow monster, and because."

My mouth fell open as the jacket I held dropped from my fingers to crumple on the floor.

Just great
. I would be stuck with the one quiet but deadly Enforcer whose pastime consisted of hunting mythical creatures in the middle of nowhere, in a place where glacier pools must feel like a sauna.

"And I have to go why?"

"You're a gopher. I might need something."

"Yeah, you need something all right. Sanity," I mumbled into the phone.

I could almost see his mischievous grin, even as the other end of the line remained mute.

"They don't have gophers in…" I mentally pulled up what I could remember as the home turf of the snow monster. Mountains and freezing cold was all that came to mind. "Wherever we're going?"

"No. No Enforcer, or gopher for that matter, in his or her right mind would go there."

I snorted in reply. I guess that left him and me, obviously not of sound mind, heading to who knows where, to find a white hairy monster who liked to eat people.
Wonderful.

No Twilight Zone music followed, so I surmised this was unfortunately a reality. A sigh of downtrodden acceptance escaped.

Right on time, Cannibal met me at the private plane, bags in hand. One glance at my half a dozen oversized and overstuffed suitcases and he shook his head. "You going to carry that up the mountain with you?"

I pursed my lips and considered my answer. "I haven't decided yet."

He cracked a small grin.

The pilot clambered down to help load up the baggage, giving the Enforcer a wide berth. Even in the outer circles of the Division, Cannibal retained a reputation for his surly temperament and penchant for snacking on body parts. Good news spreads fast or so I've been told.

Before long, the plane took off, and we were headed to… somewhere. I took the opportunity to pull out the laptop, navigating Google to fill in many gaps in my knowledge of this Yeti thing and his home range. Nothing I read sounded appealing. High mountain altitudes, frigid temperatures, gusty winds, ice, snow, and people falling to their death. If I didn't fall off the mountain, I still had a high probability of freezing to death in a small tent staked to the side of a cliff.
Great. My kind of vacation brochure. Oh, joy.

I turned to study Cannibal as he sat with feet propped up on the seat in front of him, those long legs extended. The ends of his shoulder-length dark hair rested just under his shirt collar. A tall, solid frame held an abundance of muscles, more from manual labor than from bulking up lifting weights. With his piercing eyes, he probably found himself the topic of more than one woman's dream. As typical, he dressed in all black, blending easily into the shadows. No one knew his genetic makeup, and he didn't offer up hints. He didn't drink blood, possessed fangs, but I'd never seen him change forms or hike his leg on a tree. In my mind, he simply fit under the 'other' category.

We met one difficult evening that ended with a ripped thong attached to my bracelet, a snarling vampire listing me as the main entrée on his menu, my panties soaking wet, and my face planted in his lap. Afterward, he asked for me to be assigned primarily to him. I guess he considered since I'd had an up close and personal meeting with his version of Mr Happy that we'd bonded enough for me to be his sole assistant.

"Why am I being dragged along?"

"I already answered that."

"Yeah, but I don't think that was the real answer, or maybe it was only part of the answer."

"What do you think the 'real' answer is?" He turned those deep brown eyes my direction.

I met his gaze and answered, "I'm your emergency food supply in case you get lost in the mountains. Who needs granola bars when you can have Shy toes to nibble on instead?"

He smiled, even chuckled. But he didn't bother to correct my line of thinking.

Minutes went by without him saying another word. "You needed a vacation. So did I. Consider this an escape from the real world and all the troubles there."

I considered his words and found them sound. Maybe some time away from my broken relationship would prove beneficial. If I survived the trek into the frozen tundra with all my fingers and toes intact.

* * * *

By the time we reached our destination, I knew two things. First of all, I had a bedhead hair-do that couldn't be tamed without a shower. And secondly, I had no business going to the middle of nowhere, in a country I had barely heard of, searching for a mythical creature with a man who sees my toes and thinks dinner is served.

"Why are we searching for this thing?"

"The Yeti?" He looked around, guiding me off the plane, even as a man gathered our bags. A nearby SUV waited.

"Yeah, that."

"Because?"

He loaded us into the vehicle, and we were soon on our way, through cold and snow.

"But, all I know about the abom… abomin… the big white snow monster…" He grinned at my stuttering attempt to actually pronounce the word. "All I know about it is when Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck found him, he wanted to keep them, hug them, love them, and call them George."

A wide smile appeared on his normally serious face. "You get most of your information from the Cartoon Channel?"

I shrugged. "Works for me."

"I can see that."

However many hours we drove, I had no clue. My body complained loudly about jetlag and the downright rudeness of being pulled from a balmy Clearwater City to an environment so cold, my hair froze stiff upon exposure.

We stopped at some sort of outpost, where Cannibal bought us the warmest parkas available along with hiking and climbing supplies to help us get to the land of the Yeti thingy. Workers happily stuffed me into the new clothes, zipping me until only my nose and eyes peeked out. Extra sturdy hiking boots completed the ensemble.

I tried to move and discovered with so many layers my knees didn't bend nearly as well as they used to. Come to think of it, my arms stuck out from my trunk too. One glance into a nearby mirror had me cringing. I now looked like a frosted version of the little gingerbread man in
Shrek
and walked like him too. That or a penguin. I couldn't decide which.

"Are you
sure
this is a good idea?" I asked, trying to wobble from side to side and not take out the nearest shelf of food.

Cannibal nodded. He shifted and bent easily despite the extra bulk from his protective clothing. A couple of heavy-duty backpacks lay at his feet, where he quickly stuffed in food items and blankets.

The native store owner produced a map, explaining in a foreign language directions and paths to take. Cannibal seemed to understand, pointing and speaking back in the same unfamiliar tongue. After a couple of minutes and some hand gestures, he appeared satisfied. A wad of bills passed to the storekeeper before Cannibal spun toward the door and hit the trail.

Thirty minutes later, I felt like a frozen Popsicle version of the gingerbread man, and the thoughts of being baked in an oven actually sounded appealing. "Why can't we rent a snowmobile?" I puffed out through the heavy scarf, trying to ignore the wind gusting right into my face, leaving it tingly and raw. No one told me to bring lotion, either. At this rate, my cheeks would be red enough to rival a baboon's rear.

Cannibal moved ahead, keeping the rope connecting us snug. "Snowmobiles can't climb up the steep slopes or handle the rocky terrain."

He had a point
.
What I'd encountered thus far was stretches of a low angle incline only to meet up with rocky outcroppings where we had to climb up five or six feet before meeting the next flat tundra area. Thankfully, no sheer cliffs or true mountain climbing dangled in my future. The smaller slopes were more than enough for me to handle.

I'd never admit it, but I sighed with relief when he attached the rope around my waist. I didn't have much hiking experience, let alone on a real mountain. Toss in it being night with snow flying, and I was easily out of my league.

"How about a helicopter?"

"No place to land."

Drat.
"How about we take the helicopter up, they hover, and we jump to the ground?"

He paused to turn in my direction. "You want to jump out of a helicopter from two hundred feet in the air?"

I blinked back. "Okay. Well, since you put it that way… no."

We continued walking.

Cannibal carried the bulk of our heavier supplies in his backpack. Mine held the lighter items, although it was packed just as full. He ambled along as if he tromped through a light snowstorm in rocky high terrain every morning for exercise and relaxation. I wasn't nearly so graceful or enduring.

"Remind me again why I'm here?" I huffed out the question while trying to climb over a particularly rocky patch, one that I had slipped on once already only to land square on my backside. One benefit of a dozen layers of clothing, my bottom wasn't injured although my teeth jolted from the abrupt landing.

"Food supply."

"Oh, yeah. How could I forget?" A low rumbling began in my belly. "Do cannibals get gas?" I panted out between gasps for air in the high altitude climate.

Cannibal paused long enough to yell over his shoulder. "Why in the hell are you asking me that?"

I pulled myself another step upward before answering. "Well, I think those energy bars you fed us may have had extra fiber. I'm beginning to feel kinda bloated. Anyway, it would make me feel a whole lot better if you tooted first, you see. Ladies don't pass gas, at least not in front of their boss. But if you did it first, we can blame it all on you and avoid soiling my untarnished image."

He snorted and kept moving. I took that for an affirmative on my plan. Now, I just had to convince my body to hold out until his fiber bars kicked in.

Two hours later, we climbed snail-ishly slow up another large hill. The full moon helped greatly, allowing me to see shadowy shapes in the woods, most of the terrain, but nothing in great detail. The rest relied on feel and being literally dragged along by the big old cranky one.

Cannibal had more control over his gas passage innards than anyone in the rest of the world. I wasn't near so lucky. Luckily, he didn't say anything, I felt better, and I decided if he so much as mentioned my human fault of granola bar-induced stinkage, I'd blame everything on him. After all, he's the one who fed them to me.

I had argued for a light as we started this hair-raising trail. Even one of those miner's hard hats with the bulb up front would work great for me. After all, no sane person would climb these mountains in the dark. Come to think of it, we already established the lack of sanity a while back. My suggestion met with firm resistance, something about a light shining on the packed white snow and ice-covered rocks to the point of glare. At least his reasoning explained why we traveled at night instead of the bright daylight. With the sun beating down on the pristine white snow, I'd need sunglasses too. Sure, I could nicely make out gross shapes from the light produced by the moon on the snow, but the black ice on the dark-colored rocks gave me fits. He assured me his eyes did just fine in these stark conditions, and with additional illumination on top of the snow blindness, he couldn't see well enough to ensure we didn't fall, along with the threat of alerting any enemies to our exact position.

What enemies? We were looking for the abom… abom… the big white snow monster in the middle of nowhere. I didn't believe much lived out here, definitely no humans in their right mind. Any critters that came along, I could always toss a bland energy bar to. That left the Yeti. If he happened to find us first, that was a plus, right? Instead, I followed along blindly, considering ways I could pay the Enforcer back for this little adventure.

Grabbing for purchase on a particularly sheer-faced rock, my hand landed on an odd feeling handhold. All I knew was that this rock, although quite hard, had a certain Charmin squeezability to it. I didn't wonder much more as I grabbed on tight and started to pull myself up the bulging and extra-large ten foot tall rock.

"If you don't get your hand off my ass right now, I'm going to…"

"ACK!" I squealed, realizing for the first time what my hand attached to. Hastily releasing, my fingers dug for purchase in the real stone, only to slip off. My balance soon followed, sending me sliding and twisting down the side of a small hill. The rope linking Cannibal and me drew taut, catching between my legs, holding for a split second, before it somersaulted me and slackened.

I landed hard on my right side into a pile of wet snow, which triggered another rumble as more snow covered me head to toe. Breathing became a challenge as I tried to stop the swimming in my head.