[color=f26522][b]Mar 30, 2025 Friday
Thompson Farm[/b][/color] (just south of Pueblo of Sandia Village)
That’s about 5 ish miles north of Albuquerque and along the Rio Grande.
 
It had been three days since Jonna’s assignment in New Orleans had flopped.  Well, not a total flop.  But her chief editor wasn’t exactly thrilled that she hadn’t gotten so much as a No Comment and almost no picture of the superhero.  But she had no problem getting the elderly patients to verify her story.  Not the greatest of witnesses.  But the injured driver had also spoken up.  Her videographer had saved their jobs by supplying the first images of the hero in a dramatic save.  Unfortunately the footage was so bad that the chief almost refused to run the story.
 
Her chief, however, did have a heart and ordered her to take a few days off - in the wake of the near death of her mentor.  That gave her reason to visit her father on his farm.  Despite objections she had taken it upon herself to pick up some of the supplies for the farm.
 
++++++++++
 
Duncan had spent nearly 24 hours assisting rescues.  It had killed him being unable to stop the flooding.  However, his earlier efforts to drain some of the energy of the tornado had kept the surge from breaking the upgraded levee constructed after the first Katrina.  People were calling it a miracle.  Noone yet realized it had been their new hero at work.  But then noone had been able to see what he was doing out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
 
He didn’t get home until the afternoon of the 28th and slept like the dead for the next 12 hours.  The 29th was spent maintaining a presence with his company.  He was seriously starting to rethink this whole superhero gig.  How the hell did they do it in the comics?  He had really just spent the better part of 3 days on one disaster.  True he had likely prevented damages that would have totaled over a billion USD.   But … 
 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MOwkdsGfHcMJhFNFGmKYd305-o-4DqRxUqLdmJYurNc/edit?usp=sharing
 
He needed a break.  He hadn’t seen Patches in three days either.  He had made a quick stop by the grocery store for apples and brown sugar.  He was absolutely horrible about spoiling the horse.  Then he stopped by the Feed store to pick up some other knick knacks.  It wasn’t much.  He lacked a pick up, and so relied heavily on professional horse transport and care.  He had the space at home for a horse.  But as busy as he stayed, he’d have had to hire someone.  And Patches had a bad tendency to bite anyone but him.  And now that Patches was healed up enough to ride he needed to be worked.
 
He had bought his supplies - little more than a small bag that made him look like a small pet owner, as opposed to someone with a horse.  He spotted a blonde woman struggling to lift a sack of feed onto the tailgate of an aging pickup.  It was the first of ten 50 pound sacks.
 
He nodded pleasantly, his eyes crinkled with humor behind his Ray Ban sunglasses.  “Ma’am?  Care for a little help?”  He reached down and picked up a bag with one hand and curled it.  ‘Tell you what.  You stay up there and arrange it.  I’ll toss it up to you.  Catch?” He was clearly joking about actually tossing the sacks.  But he lifted all ten in as rapid a succession as Jonna could manage and hardly broke a sweat.  He didn’t quite stop there.  He tossed up the rest, even though she could have handled that herself.  It did make the job go faster though.
 
He barely stuck around for a thanks - even though he recognized the woman instantly.  He hated to admit it, but he felt just a little paranoid.  He had parked his car on the side of the feed store - out of sight and away from the loading areas.  After all, he’d only come in for a couple items.  By the time he backed out of his spot and took off, Jonna Thompson was already gone.
 
It wasn’t long before he caught up though.  She was heading north in I 25, got off at x234 hwy 556 and made a left.  It was a farming area.  But he didn’t want to make her paranoid, so he backed it off a little so it would look like he was tailing her.  Duncan knew a little about this subject from Gary.  Problem was, Jonna seemed to be heading same place he was.  Yep, she made a right into 313 north.  And as luck would have it she turned into the very farm he was headed to.
 
Crap.
 
He made the last right turn into the farm and followed her on in.  She was going to think he was a creep or stalker if she didn’t recognize who he was….