“It‘s only puberty. That’s all. There is nothing wrong with my daughter.”

“I’m not so sure, Mr. Miller.” The Doctor held up a graph of spiking lines. “Penny’s readings are off the charts. The scans of her frontal lobe are like nothing I have ever seen before. I sent her file to my colleagues at the…”

“You did what!” screamed Frank Miller.  He was a six feet, three hundred pound man of solid muscle, but jumped out of his chair like a house cat. His sudden burst of anger and close proximity to Dr. Stephens made the little physician sweat. “Who gave you permission to send her records anywhere?”

“I…I was only. The new federal guidelines require all medical records to be sent to the Center for Disease Control that show unusual…”

Penny sat in the examining room feeling miserable, as her father and Dr. Stephens talked about her.  She was thirteen now and no longer needed to be in the room to know what others thought about her. The new round of headaches, which caused her to meet Dr. Stephens, signaled a change. She was not happy about it, and she knew instinctively her daddy wouldn’t like it either.

Tired of the useless conversation in the office, she got up and walked to the full length mirror. The backless green hospital gown was not flattering.  Penny reached around and pulled the paper tight to her body, as her eyes rolled over her still boyish shape.  She knew no sexy clothes would make her into a beauty. She was her father’s baby. She didn’t have his dark complexion, his bulk or his receding hairline, thank God, but she had his dark eyes and his crooked smile, when he smiled.  Even though she never knew her mother, or had seen any photographs of her, Penny had always known she had the woman’s voice, mannerism and her white skin tone. Her father never spoke of her mother, but then, Penny did not require him to speak, for her to know things. She knew perfectly well, of the love he had in his heart for the woman. She knew he wished she would come back, and she knew that he understood, she never would.

Penny pulled herself out of her reflection and checked in on her dad. He was angry and scared, but he was not going to pummel the little doctor. It was time to go. Quickly she pulled off the paper gown and donned her red school uniform. Silently, she cursed herself for passing out in school. Her father’s fears and those of Dr. Stephens were all her fault. She didn’t care much for the doctor’s worries.  A drink after work and he’d be fine, but she hoped her father was wrong about his fears.
********

The Colonel studied the medical file with clear, unfeeling eyes. He had only been in position as the new leader of the Spook Squad for three days, but sitting in the Captain’s old seat, behind his Victorian desk, made him feel uneasy. There was something cold in that room. You could feel it. The Colonel didn’t want to believe in ghosts, but considering what he did for a living he wasn’t sure they didn’t. He didn’t know what the man was, exactly, but to be stabbed through the heart by a black cowboy with a fancy gun wasn’t supposed to happen to the leader of the Squad.

The Colonel pressed a button on his desk. “Macy, have the squadron placed on stand-by, and tell Major Simmons I want to see him.”

“Sorry, sir, the new team is still in Nevada going through pre-conditioning. They won’t be active until Monday.”

“Shit.” The Colonel didn’t like not having the best at his command, but he knew a soldier frequently had to make do with what he had. “Fine, then have Field Team Six placed on stand-by.”

“Yes, sir. The Major is here, sir.”

“Send him in.”

The Major walked in and stood before the Colonel with military precision.  He didn’t salute; no one in that building did.

“Have a seat, Ben.”  The Colonel handed the file to the Major. “What do you make of these readings?

The Man read the file for several seconds. Occasionally he looked up at the Colonel and then back to the pages.

“And these are from a normal thirteen-year-old girl?” the Major asked, his voice just above a whisper.

“Thirteen-year-old, yes, but as you can see from those readings, there’s nothing normal about her. The boys in the lab tell me if she not a full telepath now, she soon will be.”

“And she’s only 13!”

“Yeah, ain’t puberty a bitch?”

“What’s the mission? You want to feed Little Red Riding Hood to the wolves?” The Major handed the file back to his boss.

The Colonel dropped the file on his desk and leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed. He had no issues with killing anyone who posed a threat to his country, and he had killed children many times before.

“Ben, we lost a lot of men with that Senator Devlin fiasco. The new squad looks good on paper, but they are missing a few things. A telepath would add a great deal of power to the team.” The Colonel studied the Major for reactions but got only a blank slate. “Your mission is a simple retrieval. Go to Chicago and bring our young recruit home.”

“Her file indicates a single father, no mother. I doubt he would be open to this.”

“Take care of him as you see fit, dismissed.” The Major got up and turned. “And, Ben, make sure you see the boys in R & D. They have a little something to even the odds for you.”
*********

Penny and her father ate their dinner in silence. He knew she knew what he was thinking, and that he wasn’t ready to talk. It wasn’t easy having a child who could pick your stray thoughts out the air like drunken butterflies. In the beginning, when she was still more of a baby, it was cute and made changing diapers easy. No accidental sprays or mistaking cleaning time for fun time.

Penny had never doubted her father’s love and willingness to sacrifice all for her. She was completely safe in his big arms.  Mr. Miller never had to raise his voice or repeat himself. His baby knew what he wanted. She knew when to be quiet and always stopped crying when he entered her room.

At first Frank thought he was just one of the lucky father’s with a quiet, intelligent, ‘good’ child.  It wasn’t until the night he had a pretty bad nightmare, and he woke to the sound of his three-year-old child screaming next to his bed. Her eyes were wide with horror, and her crying was uncontrollable for hours.

The more panicked he became, the more hysterical Penny got. It was then that true understanding dawned on him. With great care he filled his mind with calming thoughts of rabbits running through a green field on a bright summer’s day. He held that image for what seemed like forever until his baby girl began clapping her hands and shouting, ‘Make the bunnies jump. Make the bunnies jump.’

Ever since that day Mr. Miller took great care to monitor his thoughts when Penny was in the room, and he always slept in his room with the door closed, lest she stumbled across the dreams a lonely man, who missed his wife, kept private.

The door bell ringing caught them both by surprise. Startled Frank dropped his spoon and the blank wall he kept in the front of his mind. His eyes immediately fell on Penny.

“I don’t know.” Her brown eyes registered confusion and fear. “I can’t sense anyone.”

The bell rang a second and a third time. Whoever was out there was growing impatient. Mr. Miller pushed himself away from the table and stomped to the door.

“Who is it?” He called out in a deep baritone.

“My name is Dr. Ben Nelson, and I’m from the Center for Disease Control.”

Frank turned to look at Penny standing behind him. She raised her shoulders.  Reluctantly Frank opened the door.

Standing in the doorway was an average-sized white man in a dark grey suite. He had what looked like a Bluetooth in his ear and a typical briefcase in his hand.

“Thank you, Mr. Miller. I apologize for the late hour, but I assure you this is a matter of life and death. May I come in?”

Frank instantly thought back to Doctor Stephens. He said he sent Penny’s file to the C.D.C. But how can her life be in danger?

I feel okay now, but maybe you should let him in and ask him.

Frank suddenly stood straight up. The voice in his head sounded like Penny’s. She had never projected her thoughts into his head before. As if things weren’t weird enough.

Sorry, Dad, you always said puberty would bring changes.

“Are you all right, Mr. Miller?” The Major looked around the big man to the little girl, his hand drifted up to his ear. “Is there something wrong?”

“I…I don’t know. You tell me.” He moved aside and ushered the man indoors. “Penny, go upstairs while we talk.”

The Major watched Penny begin to turn before her dad could say her name. Inside he smiled. She does look like little red riding hood in that uniform.

“I don’t think that would do any good. Would it, Mr. Miller? “The two men stared at each other. “We both know that Penny can read minds. Here or upstairs it makes no difference.  She can still listen in on your thoughts.”  The Major tapped the device in his ear.  “But she can’t hear us.” 

“It shields our thoughts from her. That’s why she couldn't detect me at your front door.”
Frank Miller squeezed his paws into fists. He didn’t like this man and liked even less that he knew about his Penny. Should I kick him out or smash him in right now?  I don’t want Penny to see that, but…

Daddy, he’s right, I can’t read him, and what did he mean by…us?

Frank wasn’t used to hearing his baby in his head and turned toward her just as he would if she were speaking.  His movement and change of facial expression was not lost on the Major.

“She’s speaking to you in your mind. Isn’t she?”  He reached his hand into his pocket for a second. “Telepathic projection and at such a young age; she’s simply amazing. Pity you didn’t have twins. The Colonel would love a matching set, but we’ll take what you have.”

“What?” Frank Miller used to play football in college. Quicker than a lion he charged the Major. A normal man would have been caught by surprise. A lesser man would have been terrorized at the sight of three hundred pounds of muscular rage bearing down on them, but the Major was far from normal.  He waited for what seemed like minutes for the enraged father to close the distance, and then like a child playing dolls lifted Frank Miller off his feet and threw him through the living room wall.

“No!” Penny screamed.

A little girl screaming didn’t bother the Major, but the sound of almost two hundred neighbors on the block simultaneously screaming shook the wolf in him.

“Now, Lieutenant,” he barked.

Penny spun around as quickly as she could. She was too late to stop anything, but she was in time to see the bright blue spark of a stun gun pressed into her neck. She fell into darkness and into the strong arms of the Major.
******
Penny awoke in the back seat of a car. Her throat was sore on the outside and dry on the inside.  She dragged herself up and saw the back of two men’s heads in the front.

“Well, it seems Red is awake. She looks good enough to eat.”

“Stow that talk, Lieutenant, Penny is our guest and not on anyone’s menu. Though she does keep reminding me, too, of Little Red Riding Hood.” The Major turned and inspected Penny. “The Colonel was right, you are far from normal. That stunner was calibrated for your dad, but you took it like a champ, and with no visible injuries.”

At the mention of her father Penny’s heart jumped and her courage surged. “You had better let me go. My daddy will come for me and when he does…”

Both men began to laugh, cutting Penny off.

“Darling, your papa brought out a bit of the wolf in me.  If he’s still living, which I doubt, he won’t be going anywhere except a hospital and months of rehab.”

The Major sounded so sure, Penny instantly let the idea of her father coming to the rescue go.  She closed her eyes and concentrated on her daddy’s mind, but got nothing. She didn’t despair over that. She figured they were too far apart for her to reach him, but she needed help. She tried to scan both men, but got nothing. She looked at the Bluetooth-like devices in their ears and gave up hope of touching their minds.

Closing her eyes, she concentrated and on the edge of her awareness she caught a flicker. It was a mind unlike any she had read before, intoxicated and confused.  It was getting closer, coming directly towards them.

Penny sat back in her seat and secured her seatbelt.

“Driver, stop this car!” she commanded out loud.

The Major turned toward her. His sharp white teeth shone as he smiled. “You’re making a mistake if you think you can reach into the Lieutenant’s head.” He tapped his earpiece. “We’re quite safe from your telepathic influence.”

“You’re the one making mistakes -- two of them.” Penny pulled her belt tighter.

The Major found talking to the girl amusing, kind of like a chase. “Oh, and what was my first mistake, darling?”

“You’re not wearing your seatbelts,” she said, bracing her feet on the back of the Major’s seat.

“Don’t really need it, but okay, and what’s my second mistake.” The Major was smiling while the Lieutenant laughed.

“I wasn’t talking to your driver.”

The Major’s smile slowly faded as he began to comprehend Penny’s words. Just as he turned to warn the Lieutenant, a car coming in the opposite direction left its lane and entered theirs. With reactions quicker than a human’s, the Lieutenant spun the wheel to the right. He avoided a head-on collision but was too late to prevent the other car from slamming into the left end of their car and spinning them like a top off the road.
**********

Standing at the United Airlines kiosk at O’Hare international, Penny used the credit card of a man who wasn’t a man, but was still dead.  Just before he/it died, she yanked the earpiece from him and pulled all the knowledge and skills he possessed. The lieutenant didn’t know much, but Penny did establish that she could never go home again before she used a shard of glass to slit his throat. She silently thanked him for providing the best way to kill him for good. She didn’t see the other man/beast. She figured he was thrown from the car and she hoped he died horribly, but based on what the lieutenant knew, she doubted it.

She purchased tickets to ten different destinations around the world, and then threw the card in the trash. With cash she took from the corpse’s wallet she bought a one-way ticket to Hawaii. She had never been there before, but it was the farthest she could go without a passport.

After buying new clothes, strangely also red, and a good meal, she plugged one of the two neutralizers in her ear. She slept in peace and quiet, in the noisy terminal, until her flight began to board.

“Well, are you flying to paradise alone, honey,” the pretty stewardess said, smiling as Penny boarded.

“Yes, I’m going to Hawaii to see my grandma,” Penny lied.

“If you need anything, you just let me know.”

Penny nodded to the woman and then walked to her seat. My life will never be the same now. She buckled up and tried to recall all the thoughts of her mother she ever glimpsed in her dad’s mind.

The stewardess closed the cabin door and then picked up the phone to the cockpit.

“She’s safely tucked away.”

“Excellent, darling, bring me up a cup of coffee after everyone’s asleep.  I had a rough night.” The Major slipped on his shades and began to whistle the tune to Little Red Riding Hood.