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Realigning Destiny
by TT

Sometimes chance intervenes in our lives and causes destiny jumps the tracks. When this happens, fate steps in and realigns destiny’s course to bring us to where we need to be. But, as with the course of true love, the road of realignment doesn’t always run smooth.

Part 24 - Power

Stephanie pulled Charlie's door closed, smiling as she headed down the hall. He was quite a kid. Over dinner he had gotten not only Bob, but also Ranger, to discuss troop deployment and battle plans. The three of them had been so intent on their discussion, they had even started using the cookies as troops and moving them around the table.

They had been so into their plans, counter-plans and deployment schemes that they had completely forgotten about her. At least, they forgot about her until she reached onto the “battlefield” and swiped all the “troops”.

When they realized that she had taken all of their “troops”, they protested loudly.

She had just smiled at them and taken a bite of one of the cookies. That single act triggered all three of the males in the room to move after her.

A brief chase had ensued. It had only taken a minute or so for Charlie, Ranger and Bob to corner her. She managed to taunt them by eating two more cookies before Charlie managed to take the plate while Bob and Ranger kept her pinned in the corner with threats of tickling.

Charlie had taken the opportunity Bob and Ranger's distraction provided to escape with the cookies and eat them.

By the time Stephanie had managed to gasp out that Charlie had disappeared with the cookies, there was no sign of him. Of course, Stephanie had a pretty good idea where he was hiding, but Bob and Ranger didn't. They did some sort of silent communication thing and set off to look for him.

Stephanie gave it a few minutes before heading to Charlie's favorite hiding place. Sure enough, he was squirreled away in the cubbyhole under the stairs. Crawling in with him, she smiled and silently took a cookie from the plate he proffered.

She wasn't sure how long it had taken the men to find them, but she and Charlie had made quite a dent in the cookies before they were found.

Now she was headed back downstairs for a less pleasant reason.

Between yesterday and today, the three of them had taken in a lot of information. Now they needed to go over what they had learned.

As she entered the kitchen, a cold chill ran down her spine as she remembered what Ranger and Bob suspected the group was building.

Growing up during the end of the cold war, she had learned to fear nuclear weapons, as had any child. With the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall, that nightmare was supposed to be gone. Having that fear resurrected did not sit well. The men and women involved in this group they were researching had to know that nuclear weapons were not an answer.

As she took her seat at the table, the question slipped out, “Why would they do this?” When she realized she had said that aloud, she looked up into Bob's eyes, searching for an answer.

“Power,” he responded.

Stephanie shook her head. “Fear isn't power,” she stated, sure of her observation. Many stalkers had taught her that. Fear was a currency that only gave you power if your victims were willing to let you affect them. Once you stopped letting the fear control you, the person inflicting that fear lost their power over you.

She knew without a doubt that true power was the strength you gained from friends and family, the knowledge that what you did was right, fighting the dark things in the world to bring light to those who need it, protecting those who couldn't protect themselves... As cheesy as it might sound and as silly as it might seem after all she'd been through, she still believed that light was more powerful than darkness, love was more powerful than hate and, in the end, good would triumph over evil. She needed to believe it. Her eyes drifted to Ranger. Without that belief, she could have no hope that they would, someday, find a way to be together and give “them” a try.

Her attention snapped back to the present when her friend spoke.

“For one person, no,” Bob agreed. “For one person, fear can be overcome. If they were only coming after me, then I wouldn't fear them. But there's no way I can ask millions of people not to fear, not to give in to whatever demands they are requiring.”

Stephanie's eyes slid closed as she worked to push away the feeling of helplessness Bob's statement engendered. Taking a deep breath, she slowly released it. “All right. Oh, before we start, Bob, the other guest room is all made up if this runs late and you don't want to drive home.”

Bob thought about it for a few minutes. “If I stay we can discuss this some more in the morning.”

“No,” Stephanie protested, her voice firm. “I won't have Charlie exposed to this.”

“And I wouldn't want expose him to it,” Bob assured. “But we're running out of time. You had your twenty-four hours and now we need to move.”

“I don't like it,” she protested.

“You don't have to like it,” Bob assured. “But we need to get it in place.”

“But there are so many unanswered questions,” Stephanie whined. She knew she was whining; she could hear it in her voice.

“There are,” Ranger said, leaning forward and resting his forearms on the table. “Planting the listening devices will help us get those answers.”

Stephanie sighed, knowing she wasn't going to win that argument and not wanting to get into it too much further just then. They had a lot of information to cover. “So, why do you believe that they're building a bomb?” she asked, not quite completely suppressing the shiver that thought provoked. “Was it just the report of the depleted uranium?”

“No,” Bob admitted. “Knowing you, you probably researched it as soon as we hung up. But what you won't find on-line is exactly how complex it really is to build something like that. There are a whole lot of aspects that are still classified.”

Ranger continued, “Several of the people we researched worked for companies that do government contracting work. The parts that those company made can be used in such bombs, but no one person would have all the knowledge to put it together themselves.”

“What we really need is to find out exactly what sort of projects the people in question worked on. Were they involved with the weapon components? Were they involved in experimentation? Development? A lot of their titles are pretty nebulous,” Bob observed.

“I can't really do that sort of research without contacting the companies directly,” Stephanie explained. “Do you want me to start making calls.”

The two men glanced at each other. “No,” Ranger said. “If we can't get what we need from the cameras and bugs, we'll rethink that, but right now it's best that knowledge of this doesn't go beyond the three of us.”

“You're really going to go through with that?” Stephanie demanded, her voice tight.

“We have to,” Bob replied. “You know we do. We're not getting the information we need and this is the best way to get what we need quickly.”

“Babe,” Ranger added, “right now we don't even have a time line for what they're planning. We need to know how long we have and what we need to expect. The listening devices and cameras are the fastest way to get that information.”

“I know,” Stephanie conceded. “But I worry. Especially because I can't figure out why they need twelve chemists if they're making a nuclear weapon,” she grumbled.

Ranger seemed to freeze.

Stephanie noticed the sudden stillness and looked between Ranger and Bob. They were staring at each other. “What?” she demanded. “Didn't you notice that? Didn't you think it weird? Or did I totally miss something?”

The silence dragged on and Stephanie was about to walk off in a huff when Bob asked, “Distraction?”

Ranger rubbed the back of his neck as he thought. “Be one mighty big distraction,” he observed.

“Depends on what their objective is,” Bob stated, nodding his head slightly.

“Bottom line, we need that information. If what we know isn't right or we've come to the wrong conclusion, that could change everything,” Ranger replied.

“I was looking at Denver to see potential targets and there are a lot of them,” Stephanie said, deciding to ignore the fact they were planning on putting themselves in danger tomorrow night.

“There are,” Ranger agreed nodding.

“If they're after money, there's the Denver Mint, though I'm sure that's beyond protected,” she commented.

“The sports arenas, government buildings, the stockyard,” Bob threw out. “There's a lot there and we need to know what they're planning, what they're after, what their goal is.”

“So, what else do we know about these people?” Stephanie asked, slouching slightly in her chair to get comfortable. It was going to be a long night.

It was several hours later when Stephanie's yawning became more frequent than her statements.

“We need to go over our plan of attack,” Bob stated, as he rubbed his eyes.

“Tomorrow,” Stephanie commanded, having seen her friend's exhaustion. “You both have to be at least as tired as I am and if you're tired your not going to be at your best. Go upstairs, sleep, rest and handle it tomorrow night or whenever.”

“Yes, ma'am!” Bob retorted, rising from his seat and snapping off a crisp salute.

“Oh, ha, ha,” Stephanie sneered back. “I'm going to bed,” she informed, standing.

“Night Steph,” Bob said, smiling at his friend as he went upstairs.

Ranger stood as well and approached her. Turning her slightly, he gave her a chaste kiss on the lips before wrapping his arms around her and holding her tightly. “Night, Babe,” he added, giving her one more lingering kiss before he released her and headed for the stairs.

“See you for breakfast, though not before Charlie does,” Stephanie offered as she headed to the back of the house, a smile on her face despite what would happen tomorrow. She knew tonight she would dream of Ranger's kiss and the promise of what awaited them when this was all over.

To be continued in Part 25: 025. Forget

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