Rings of Fire Ch. 10

Lauren felt her cheeks redden with each word exchanged. She had read 'that' book too. Strictly out of scientific curiosity about the fuss. Of course, that was all it was she assured herself. After all, the ink was not even dry on the divorce back then. She was merely sexually frustrated; she assured herself. She certainly would not want... No, certainly not.

Hell, Brent's silk ties had been shocking enough. She certainly did not want to imagine paddles or any of the other kinky stuff she remembered like floggers, clamps, and tawse. Lauren inhaled and stopped her mind from trapesing further down that unknown path. No, ties were bad enough.

So, why were her nipples hard inside the lace bra? And why did she have to shift uncomfortably on the hard seat to keep her jeans from rubbing certain sensitive spots? She turned back as Jill stood up.

"Well, I better get back to work. The lunch crowd will be here in less than an hour. But it was nice actually getting to talk with you, Dr. Masters." Jill held out her hand, and Lauren shook it, "I can't tell you how glad I am that you came. Doc always said yours was the one mind that could put it all together."

"Ain't the woman's mind dat has dat man smilin' and struttin' his stuff round here like a banty rooster," teased Simone.

"You be good. Don't go scaring her off with your 'written in the stars' shit. People have to work that stuff out for themselves; you know that." She turned back to Lauren, "Besides it has been nice having another woman to chat with round the table. Who knows I might have to make scones tomorrow. If it will draw you back here, Dr. Masters?"

"Lauren. Call me Lauren, especially if I am invited back for scones."

"Deal," she replied, holding out her hand again.

Lauren took the woman's hand and was only mildly shocked when another darker one covered both of theirs, "Ain't been this much fun since..." But Simone stopped, and sad looks covered both of the women's faces.

Lauren would have asked what was wrong, but the doors swung open. Brent and Monique entered with a couple of others, whose names she could not remember.

"We have to now, Brent. Lives depend upon it..."

***

Brent saw Lauren's head come up at Monique's assertion. It was the same argument they had been having all morning. From the moment, he had explained all the implications of Lauren's findings to her, Monique had been insisting that he give her a plane so that she could fly directly to Los Angeles.

She had more than one friend in the media. She could be on every major network, get the news out in a day, she insisted. While Brent had concluded that they did have a moral obligation to share what they knew, he knew that how they did it was just as important.

It was not just the safety of those he cared about here either. There might not be much he could do to stop 'them' from smearing his name, Monique's, or perhaps even Lauren's now, but he was all too familiar with how people took these warnings.

More than once, his teams had raised the alarms on a volcano. Called for evacuations...too soon. The people left, but if they did not see immediate results, if the volcano did not begin erupting on their specified schedule, and they rarely did, then people began to trickle back. One by one return to the danger zone and lives were lost. It was a case of the 'boy who cried wolf.'

This time even more so because the eruptions in Iceland seemed so distant, so unrelated to their everyday lives. Even in Europe, he knew that most people still believed this was nothing more than a few days, a couple of weeks max, of inconvenience until the skies were clear again and their lives returned to normal just as it had in 2010 with Eyjafjallajökull. Asking them to make this kind of long term jump, months and years into the future? Well, Brent still had not figured out best how to accomplish that.

Lauren turned back to Simone with a smile and said something before standing and walking over to them. She looked decidedly uncomfortable as she bit her lower lip and stared at the floor. He wanted to laugh as he realized what was going through her brilliant mind. His wife was not sure what to say or do - after last night.

In true Lauren fashion, she ignored the issue and turned instead to Monique, "Good day, Monique. I could not help overhearing what you were saying. What do we have to do now? What lives are depending on it?"

Brent braced himself for the explosion that he knew was to come. These two women, his best friends, never agreed on anything and he was confident this one was going to be a biggie. A VEI 6 at least.

"Good morning, mon cheri. I am trying to convince this stubborn husband of yours to let me fly to Los Angeles. I have friends in the media there. People need to know what is happening. What is to come," Monique asserted yet again.

"Yes, I agree. People do need to know what is to come," Lauren nodded her head as she placed her hands on her hips.

Brent's mouth dropped open.

But nothing could prepare him for what came out of his wife's mouth next. "That is why I am going back. To talk to my contacts in London and Washington. Make them see the truth. Help them to formulate strategies to handle this situation, the proper way."

"Oh hell, no, you are not," Brent practically shouted as all around them everything and everyone came to a complete standstill.

She turned towards him. Without even so much as a cordial 'good morning,' let alone a proper greeting after all they had shared last night. Her hands firmly on those hips, her feet wide apart, she glared at him, "Yes, yes, I am, Brent. It is the only thing that makes sense," she said.

Brent knew that look. Hell, he had seen it often enough those last couple of years. Shit, on some level, it was the same one that had made him take notice of the pesky little kid with all her 'yes, buts' all those years ago at science camp. But it was a matter of magnitude. He knew when he was going to be on the losing end of that look.

And short of throwing her back over his shoulder and carrying her off to their bedroom and tying her to the bed once more, he knew he was in big trouble here.

He sighed as he looked around at the toddlers playing and Simone almost laughing. He knew that in less than an hour, this place would be packed. Even before then, Jill needed to set things up out here. This was certainly no place for this kind of argument. Besides, there was expertise that he needed...and hopefully it would be on his side.

"Okay, you two follow me," he commanded as he hit the button on his radio and summoned Daniel and Samuel to meet them in the bunker. Though why he would think a room full of guns was a good idea for this conversation was beyond him. Pistols at high noon in the bunker, it was then.