Page 106 of Into Darkness (Night Prowler 6)
Lu fell motionless on the table. Everything became perfectly clear.
She felt Dieter’s fingers, fumbling with the knot on the blindfold near the back of her head. She felt the fabric slide away. She opened her eyes and saw Dieter standing there above her, looking down, his own eyes widening as he looked into hers. He wore the white bio suit, but the shield on his helmet was flipped up, his face exposed.
Not brown—green, he thought to himself, distracted. Lucent. Like an emerald held up to the light.
Show me where I am, Dieter. That’s all you have to do. I’ll take care of everything else.
They stared at each other. The voice on the speaker interrupted again.
“Lieutenant, are you experiencing any kind of discomfort?”
Dieter’s mouth pinched. “No, sir. None at all. It appears the subject is quite weak, sir. I don’t believe it poses any immediate threat. The collar, in combination with the drug, seems to have rendered it quite harmless.”
So she was wearing a collar. Lu shouted into his mind, Dieter, show me!
His eyes fluttered closed. Lu received a mental picture, startlingly clear, of her exact location.
She began, weakly, to laugh.
“Thank you, lieutenant. Return to command.”
Dieter thought hurriedly, The Peace Guard don’t have access into the main facility; you’re in processing. You’re to be transferred as soon as Thorne arrives. Once you’re in, I won’t be able to get you out—
Thank you, Dieter, Lu thought, smiling up at him calmly. Thank you for everything. You’ve been a good friend. In fact, you might be the best friend I ever had.
Dieter’s expression registered confusion, surprise, but most of all, gratitude. To cover his emotions, he blustered, I’m not all that great; I didn’t do such a good job of keeping my eyes on your face on my way in the room. He glanced down at her bare chest, then reddening, looked away.
“Lieutenant,” repeated the
disembodied voice, harder, “return to command.”
“Yes, sir.”
He tried to tell her something else, but Lu had withdrawn. All was silent. With a final, pleading look, Dieter turned and left the room.
THIRTY-THREE
Sebastian Thorne hadn’t felt this much excitement since the day of the Flash, when all his plans had finally come to fruition, and he’d taken over the world.
Watching the thing that called itself Lumina Bohn through the one-way glass of the interrogation room where she sat calmly with crossed legs in a metal chair, reading, he admitted to himself that she was beautiful. It was beautiful. Whatever; the monster was attractive. Perhaps more so than any other living thing he’d ever seen.
Which was saying a lot. Thorne had been everywhere, seen everything. God’s own miracle, he thought, allowing himself an uncharacteristic moment of sarcasm. Thorne knew God had nothing to do with anything, and never had.
“I don’t recommend it, sir. It’s far too dangerous.”
Three, glowering beside him at the glass, stared at Lumina. In the room around him, murmurs of assent came from the gathering of his top people who’d come to witness the event.
“She’s perfectly docile,” countered Thorne, pointing out with his usual impeccable logic that she’d been compliant since awakening, she hadn’t harmed anyone who’d come into contact with her so far, and had even expressed the quite charming desire to read a book while her vitals were recorded, her blood drawn, her body examined. From her attitude, Thorne felt almost certain that she was relieved to have been finally apprehended. He couldn’t imagine what she’d been doing since fleeing, but it surely was unpleasant. Running, hiding . . . what kind of life was that?
Better to be here, safe with her own kind. Or unsafe, as it were, seeing how they were all scheduled to be exterminated. But she didn’t have to know that.
“Its mother was perfectly docile for years, and look what that one recently did to her doctor,” said Three.
“The mother is insane,” said Thorne flatly. “I’m told just a few hours ago it leapt from its bed and began screaming bloody murder for no apparent reason.”
No one had a good answer for that.
“I’m going in,” he announced, and went to the door, ignoring the howls of protest his decision produced. “Open it!” he ordered into the ceiling camera. Obediently, the door slid open, and he stepped into the room. The door slid closed behind him, and Thorne felt the collective held breath.
