False Horizon - Alex Archer [100]
Tuk nodded. “Yes, well, thanks for the offer, but I don’t know if I should. Things get more dangerous around you than I’m comfortable with. I mean, a little danger is fine, but fully automatic weapons, assassins and nuclear waste are too much for me.”
“You’re not the only one.”
“Yes, but you know how to deal with it. I don’t. I’m not some globe-trotting superhero who can take down enemies and save the world.”
“Neither am I, Tuk,” Annja said. “I try to get out of bed in the morning and see where the day takes me. I’ve got this part of me I’m trying to make sense of. Some kind of destiny that I can’t always come to terms with, and yet I’ve got to. The danger, the near-death experiences, they’re all a part of it. But I don’t ever look in the mirror and think that I’m something amazing. The day I do that, I think will probably be my last.”
“You’re modest, too, aren’t you?” Tuk asked.
“I don’t know about that,” Annja said. “I’m just me.”
Tuk nodded. “Well, I’ve got to head out. I’m going to see about a house up the hills.”
“Hills?”
Tuk shrugged. “Mountains, I guess you’d call them.”
“You’re buying there even with all of that snow?”
“I love the snow,” Tuk said. “It’s just dying in it that I can’t stand.”
Annja grabbed him and gave him a hug. “Anytime you want to come to the States, give me a call and we’ll hang out. You’re a good man, Tuk, and I’m happy to have known you.”
Tuk pulled back and brushed his hands across his eyes. “You’re going to make me cry. Stop that.” He blinked back tears and smiled at her. “I’m happy to have made your acquaintance, too, Annja Creed. You really are an amazing woman.”
“Thank you.”
Tuk waved at her one last time and then ducked out of the door quickly. Annja listened to it hiss shut and closed her eyes.
She thought about it for a few minutes and decided that if she could just lie in this reasonably comfortable bed for about a month, she might honestly start feeling pretty good again.
She could sleep the days away and just concentrate on getting herself back to normal. She stretched her limbs and felt her muscles expand and then contract. A yawn came over her and she sank back into the bed, allowing her spine to lengthen, and she heard a few muffled pops as it relaxed even more.
The phone on the bedside table rang. Annja opened her eyes and stared at it. “So much for peace and quiet.”
She reached for the phone and picked it up. “Hello?”
“Annja? It’s Doug.”
Annja groaned. Doug Morrell was her producer on Chasing History’s Monsters. “Doug, what are you doing calling me here? Did you hear that I was close to death?”
“Of course I did. But since you answered the phone, it can’t be all that bad, can it?”
“I suppose not. I haven’t seen the doctors yet, though—”
“Well, there’s no time. Listen, I need you to get to Scotland. A whole rash of new Nessie sightings have just sparked up over there. We’re talking some crazy stuff. People running into the monster on boats, cars and someone even claims they stumbled upon it on a path in the woods.”
“Sounds delightful. Why don’t you send Miss Lose-My-Top on this one so I can take a much-needed vacation?”
“Annja, your vacations are what tend to get you into trouble in the first place. Need I remind you that this trip to Nepal was supposedly a vacation? And we nearly lost you! No way. I need you back to work as soon as humanly possible.”
“I’ll ask my doctors how soon I can get out of here. Is that satisfactory to you, Doug?”
“As long as they say you can leave tomorrow, then, yeah, absolutely.”
“I’ll be sure to tell them that.”
“Call me when you’re released.” The phone disconnected and Annja slumped back into the bed.
The Loch Ness Monster? Again? Hadn’t she already run that story down before? And yet here it was again.
Annja took a series of deep breaths and willed herself to relax. Doug could wait if need be. She wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere or do anything until she had rested enough to truly regain her strength.
There were only a few times when she’d felt as