Kindle Edition Download to your Nook (eBook) Download from Apple iTunes (eBook) Category:  Fantasy Publisher: Wild Culture Press Pages: 113 Copyright: 2013 Price: $2.99 (eBook) This urban fantasy superhero adventure novella is set in a near future world where a team of superheroes fight crime and find romance. Rachel Connolly, the heroine of Sweet Mercy has a brother, David Connolly, Coordinator of Team Guardian, an organization of people gifted with special abilities - or Talents - created as an after-effect of the Probability Bomb that shook the foundations of reality ten years ago, transforming the world as we knew it. Beth Talbot's psychometry Talent is a curse as well as a blessing, making Time for her less a smoothly-flowing river than a storm-tossed ocean. She sees David Connolly as a rock of stability in that maelstrom, with his Talent for neutralizing other Talents like hers. But how can she even try to turn his attention her way when everyone on Team Guardian needs him, especially with a mad Talent out to take control of the entire world's computing - and banking - systems. Excerpt A few loose bills and packets of twenties littered the vault's floor. As far as David Connolly could tell from behind the line the police had established five feet outside the gaping steel door, nothing else had been disturbed. Safety deposit boxes remained closed. Only one shelf of stacked bills had been disturbed. David gave only passing attention to his survey of the scene, primarily concerned with reassuring Inspector Donaldson. “Yes. The delay is worth it. Our psychometrist can tell you things about the perpetrator that you can't get from even the best forensics team.” “Forensics sure didn't find much at the other scenes.” Donaldson spoke through clenched teeth. Graying and stocky, he gave the impression of a grizzled veteran who'd survived the cops-and-robbers wars. “You sure this is connected to the other robberies?” David pressed. He hated to waste his team's time on a job ordinary police work could handle. “Like our call said, these break-ins all look like inside jobs -- no signs of forced entry to either the bank buildings or vaults. Except there've been five now, and no two jobs hit the same bank. This time it's Midwest Federal, last time was City Bank. USBank, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America were hit before that. Nobody's on the inside at all those places.” “Right.” It smacked of extraordinary powers brought to bear by some rogue Talent. Something the inspector had been diplomatic enough not to mention. “That's why I'm here.” A slender figure in a fawn-colored coat paused near a couple police officers stationed to keep unauthorized parties from entering the secured area. David's pulse slipped into a higher gear. Just eager to get down to business, he told himself. “There's our psychometrist now.” He pitched his voice to reach her and gestured her forward. “Beth! Over here.” The guards stepped aside to let her pass. Beth Talbot approached with her usual a look of grim determination, moving like a lonely frigate on choppy seas, beset by hard winds. From what he knew of her Talent, she had to steer through currents of past events invisible to everyone else. Something in him pressed toward her. Beth possessed the delicate features and slim figure to qualify as a beauty, but she held her shoulders slightly hunched against those invisible currents, and her brows drawn in as if it took intense concentration simply to cross the room to join him at the roped off area near the vault. Every time he saw Beth, he wanted to put an arm around her, to do whatever he could to steady her against the world. But he doubted someone so intent on finding her own way would appreciate it, and it would hardly be appropriate behavior for the Coordinator of Team Guardian's Minneapolis offices. He had a position of authority and had better keep his mind on the business at hand. “Hey, there.” The inspector held out a large hand to her. “You must be the little lady we've been waiting for.” Beth flinched, a barely visible flicker across her features David only noticed because he knew what to look for. He checked the urge to step in and intercede. She extended her -- gloved -- hand to the inspector. “Bethany Talbot,” she said, giving a very brief shake to the inspector's proffered hand. “Regional Psychometry Lead for Team Guardian.” “Inspector Ralph Donaldson, Minneapolis PD.” The man stepped aside, making room for Beth to approach the vault. “None of our people have been in there yet. That's what you need, right?” “Right.” Beth faced the velvet ropes, strung between brass stanchions that had probably been borrowed from the customer service area out front. She pulled back her shoulders, shrugged aside hair like a sheet of caramel-hued silk. “It's best if you don't tell me anything about what happened. Let me gather my own impressions. I'm ready to start.” ~ * ~ David's presence exerted a steadying influence on Beth, like finding a large, dry, flat boulder on which to pause while crossing a river on the backs of slippery moss-grown stones. She paused only long enough to enjoy the sensation while he unclipped a section of red velvet rope and held it aside for her, like an usher at the theater. Maybe it was just the effect of his talent, nullifying hers, but passing near him, the whole world seemed to stand still on its axis, the swirling impressions of times past retreated and the moment played out clear and strong, unblurred by the overlay of other people and events. She sighed, passing beyond David's nice solid sphere of influence to approach the vault's gaping maw. She paused to pull the cotton glove from her right hand, and then the latex glove worn beneath the cotton one. With the gloves she could handle most ordinary contact -- even shaking hands with a stranger -- but they'd only get in the way now. Thank God she faced only a case of robbery -- not the scene of any more violent crime. She drew a deep breath. Where to start? The intruder must have touched the packets of money scattered on the floor, but money made for poor impressions. Too many people touched it with too many and various emotions, from avarice and calculation, to gratitude and relief. No. In cases where people projected strong feelings she could often get a reading by touching the walls of a room. But she sensed no such strong emotion here. Whoever entered last would have had to touch the handle to pull the door open, even if wearing gloves. Gloves didn't interfere with people leaving impressions as much as they did with her picking the impressions up later. Beth found this a mixed blessing. She reached for the handle of the vault door. Cold steel met her hand, but all other sensation fell apart in the flood of impressions dragging her under. ~ * ~

Safe Haven is a goal
Ten years after a probability bomb shattered normal in the world, security and sanity have not been restored. There is still no rest or safe haven for David Connolly, who coordinates the Talents in the Minneapolis office of Team Guardians.

Beth Talbot is psychometric Talent who can sense information—feelings, faces, motives. She is called to a bank robbery thinking this is a straight-forward crime. But the perp is a new generation thief Talent, a madwoman who can meld her mind with security systems, and who needs to kill Beth to cover her tracks.

This is the set-up for Naomi Stone’s novella, Safe Haven. I was drawn quickly into the plot when the thief easily manipulates Homeland Security into believing Beth is a terrorist—and hires an arsonist to torch Beth’s apartment building as a backup.
Working with David’s soothing, coordinating talent, Beth insists on risking her life to bring the madwoman to justice.

Safe Haven is a romance, and Naomi Stone weaves a believable and satisfying love story into the action. Beth and David had always kept things strictly professional, but the dangerous stakes in this case shatter their usual strictures, and they discover more intimate talents. Then the madwoman kidnaps David.