Magic in the Desert by Christine Pope

Author:Christine Pope [Pope, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Valentine Press

We all trooped outside, except for Kara, who had turned back to her computer in a vain attempt to look as if she really didn’t mind being left behind. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw what was waiting for us in the parking lot.

“You really think you’re going to be inconspicuous in that?”

The van was black and had “UFO Night Tours” painted across the sides in an acid green almost the same hue as the shop’s sign. An alien with huge teardrop eyes stared at me from directly above the wheelwell.

“Protective camouflage,” Kiki responded cheerfully. “Everyone’s used to seeing tour buses and vans all over town. No one takes it seriously. Even the MIBs pretty much ignore us.”

“MIBs?” I echoed.

“Men in black,” Lance said. “Not to be trifled with. Get in — time’s wasting.”

I wondered who, in one of my exes’ pithy terminology, had pissed in his Wheaties, but decided it wouldn’t be prudent to ask. Instead, I climbed into the back of the van, since Adam had already taken the shotgun position. There were three rows of seats, and I settled myself in the one directly behind Kiki, while Michael Lightfoot sat down next to me. Lance, of course, went all the way to the back, where he stared out the window as if expecting a squad of MIBs to descend on us at any moment.

Kiki didn’t wait to see if we’d all fastened our seatbelts, but instead squealed out of the parking lot in a scatter of loose gravel. I clung to the armrest and decided that Lance, despite his sour mood, hadn’t been exaggerating about her driving.

There was a good deal of traffic on the main drag, despite it being a Sunday morning. To take my mind off the way Kiki was weaving in and out of the cars, SUVs, tour buses, and vans not terribly unlike our own, I leaned toward Michael and asked in an undertone, “So what’s the deal with Lance?”

He smiled, the lines around his eyes seeming to make them almost disappear for a moment. “Ah, Lance. His way has not been an easy one.”

“He was part of Project Stargate,” Kiki chimed in.

“What?”

“Project Stargate. The army’s remote viewing program,” she added, sounding a little impatient, as if everyone should know what that was. “But he left even before they disbanded it. The whole thing does seem to have made him a little cranky.”

“Can you stop talking about ‘him’ as if he wasn’t in the same vehicle with you?” came Lance’s sour tones from the back of the van.

I risked a quick glance over my shoulder and saw him leaning forward in the space between the two headrests. To my surprise, he appeared far less irritated than his comment would have indicated.

“‘Remote viewing’?” I repeated, curious despite myself. I didn’t really expect him to answer me, but I couldn’t help asking, “Why did you leave?”

“Saw more than I should have,” he said, and shot me a narrow-eyed look. It was almost

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