Stone of Fire: An ARKANE Thriller (Book 1)

Chapter 37

Biosphere 2, Oracle, Arizona, USA
 May 27, Pentecost Sunday, 11.52pm

    Firefighters and police arrived at the Biosphere, drawn by the storm and the inferno that had been seen across the plains to the town of Oracle. An ambulance crew rushed to meet the group as they emerged from the dome, coughing in the smoke. Jake squeezed Morgan’s hand and then disappeared towards the police vehicles. She watched a paramedic work on Gemma as she held her arm around her sobbing sister. She borrowed a cellphone and dialed David’s number, handing the phone to Faye when he answered in a desperate tone. They belonged together and only now was her guilt beginning to lift.
    Morgan turned to watch as the structure of the Biosphere burnt furiously in the night, the fires still fierce even in the bucketing monsoon. She held her face up to the storm, feeling the wash of cool rain running down her neck, hiding the tears of relief now that her family were safe again.

***

     Hours later, Morgan sat in one of the Biosphere’s outlying adobe houses watching Faye and Gemma sleeping on the bed. Faye was wrapped around the little girl, her body a protective shield. Morgan reached out to gently brush a curl from her sister’s forehead. She thought of what these two meant to her and how she would have given her life to save them. It was time to go home. But first, she wanted to find Jake.
    Standing, she looked at herself in the mirror on the rough wall. Her eyes were bloodshot, skin bruised from the beating and still sooty from the ash. Her arm was in a new sling but her t-shirt was dirty and she smelled of smoke. She smiled. This wasn’t Morgan the academic anymore and she was glad of it. Despite Jake’s betrayal, he had come back and he had helped her find this side of herself again.
     She walked out into the Arizona dawn, the first rays of the sun inching over the horizon. The fires still smoldered but she could see firefighters and police now sifting through the ash. Jake stood at the edge of the debris, his back to her. She could see the strength in his stance, the muscles in his back through the torn shirt. There was so much to say but she knew it would go unsaid by both of them. As she walked up behind him, he turned, silhouetted against the russet sky.
     “Hi,” Morgan said, smiling up at him.
     “Hi yourself. How are Faye and Gemma?”
     “They’re sleeping now.”
     They both fell silent and then spoke at once.
     “Jake ...”
     “Morgan ...”
     Laughing, they turned back to look at the shattered ruins, the moment broken.
     “They only found one skeleton,” Jake said.
     “What? How can that be?” Morgan looked puzzled, remembering the vision she had seen. “Nothing could have survived that inferno.”
     “It’s true. ARKANE is working with the police to ID the body we have but they were twins and the remains are burnt beyond recognition so we don’t know which one it is.”
     Morgan looked at him, “And what about the stones?”
     “I’ll find them, don’t worry. It’s time you took your family home.”
     As they watched the last of the fires burn down, Jake reached for Morgan’s hand. Her fingers entwined with his, united for a moment at the end of the storm.

***

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