Chet Williamson [The Searcher Empire of Dust (retail) (epub)

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.It drifted up and up, higher and higher, until it was gone.Then I looked down and saw what they had done."It was.an animal in profile.Crude, almost like a cave drawing, you know? I couldn't tell what it was supposed to be.Maybe a bear, or something.But the weird part was that there was a line from its mouth to its chest or stomach; again, I couldn't really tell.But at the place where the line touched its body, it looked like an arrowhead.""An arrowhead?" Tony said."So was this line like a.a curved arrow?""I don't think so.I don't really know.""What frightened you so badly then? Just the dream itself?""At the end, the animal.it started to move.The whole desert began to shift, like this gigantic beast was starting to rise right out of the sand." She pressed against him again."That was what frightened me awake."Tony put his arm around her and held her closely."Well, you're not the only one with bad dreams," he whispered."You?""No.Dr.Tompkins.He's gotten what seem to be prophetic dreams now and then.""What are his about? Monsters in the sand?""No.A prisoner.A man in.in a cell who wants to speak to him." Tony stopped himself from saying more."It's okay.They're just dreams, whatever they're about.You're here with me now, and there's nothing that can hurt you.No animals, nothing." He kissed her forehead gently."Just go back to sleep."For a moment she looked up at him, and her eyes gleamed in the dim light."I'm so glad I'm here with you," she said, then closed her eyes and nestled her head back against him.It had been 1:30 in the morning when Miriam had awakened Tony.An hour later, Tony was still awake, looking at the glowing red numerals on the clock radio bolted to the bed table.Next to him Miriam was sleeping soundly, a soft snore coming from her slightly open mouth.Far from being disturbing, it was a rhythmic, soothing little sound that would have lulled him to sleep had his mind not been so busy.He had not comforted her with the old saw that it was only a dream, because he did not believe that it was.With the other evidence of the girl's power of prophecy or out of body experiences, he thought it very possible that her dream had been another vision of reality.If another sand drawing was found that matched her dream, even Joseph would have to admit there was certainly something going on here that was inexplicable to science.However, there was something else besides Miriam's psychic abilities that was keeping Tony awake, and that was the realization that he had fallen in love with her.Miriam Dominick seemed to be everything he had ever wanted in a woman.She was self-reliant and independent, yet also devout and compassionate.She was one of the easiest people to talk to that he had ever met, and to add to the mix, she was very lovely.She is a lovely person, he thought, as he lay in the dark with her.He wanted the night to go on forever, thought that he would be content to hold this woman in his arms every night, as the years passed and they grew old together.Then he remembered what he had never really forgotten, that he was an operative with a job to do, and another to do tomorrow, and another next year, and so on down the years, and that there was a good chance that one of those jobs could kill him and leave Miriam alone.How could he ask a woman to lead a life like that?But then he realized it was her decision to make, if she felt or would someday feel about him the way he did about her.Another thought occurred to him then, a less generous one.The fact that he was an operative with a team affected and possibly endangered by his actions and his contacts made it imperative that he know as much about those contacts as possible.And Miriam Dominick was one of them.There was always the chance she was not what she seemed.With Skye at the controls, nothing might be what it seemed.She seemed to be sleeping soundly, and he slowly slid his arm from beneath her neck and got out of bed, thankful it was one of those commercial motel beds that wouldn't have made a squeak if elephants had been mating on it.He stood for a moment, listening to her breathing as it continued undisturbed.Her backpack lay just inside the door, and he picked it up and took it into the bathroom.He closed the door behind him and turned on the heat lamp.By its reddish glow, he examined the contents of the backpack.Two cameras were on top, a Pentax K1000, which Tony knew to be a good but older model, and a newer Nikon.There was also an assortment of five lenses, a lead film packet with four rolls of exposed film, and a dozen unexposed loose rolls.Tony examined the wallet next.There was a Visa card, a social security card, and an Arizona driver's license with Miriam's photo and the address of an apartment in Kingman.The date of birth told Tony that Miriam was twenty-seven.He also found a library card, a prayer card to St.Jude, and several photos of a younger Miriam and a cheerful-looking older couple Tony figured were her parents.Further down in the backpack was a clean, rolled-up T-shirt and a pair of panties, which made him happily think that she had come intending to spend the night with him.There were also several letters from her mother.They had been addressed to general delivery at different northern Arizona and New Mexico towns, and the envelopes had a Tucson return address and postmark.They were mostly news about family and the neighborhood, with frequent admonitions to be careful when she was "out in the middle of nowhere," and assurances that Father Andrew and all her mother's friends would offer up prayers for her safety.At the very bottom were three books, a worn Bible, a thick Maeve Binchy paperback novel, and a paperback edition of My Partnership with Christ, by Michael LaPierre.Tony examined them all.The small black leather-bound Bible had an inscription from Miriam's grandparents, and the other two books had been stamped by a used bookstore in Flagstaff.Tony looked more closely at the LaPierre autobiography.Although Tony had not read the book, he had heard a lot about LaPierre.The man was a right-wing populist hero who had contributed millions over the years to a wide assortment of religious-right causes.On the rare occasions when Tony channel surfed, he had come across the man as a guest on various programs on ChristNet, the Reverend Richard O'Brien's cable network.LaPierre had heavily funded O'Brien's unsuccessful presidential bid back in 1992, and the LaPierre Foundation now financed a series of anti-abortion ads that made the DeMoss commercials look positively liberal in comparison.Though Tony disapproved of abortion personally, he felt that it ought to be left up to the individual.He had seen enough of the effects of tyranny in some of the countries in which he had operated.Though he knew he should obey the church in every way, he still had difficulties resolving some of the tenets of Catholicism with his own fairly liberal social views.Despite his faith, he disliked pronouncements and any language that smacked of self-righteousness, and Michael LaPierre had created a public image founded on those.Still, there was no denying the man's charisma.He had aged handsomely and was an articulate and persuasive speaker, and his book had sold in the millions over the five years it had been in print.It was the usual rags-to-riches story.LaPierre's father had been a poor fisherman on the Gulf, but his son, through smarts and hard work and, most important, LaPieffe claimed, a close association with Christ, was able to get a scholarship to Tulane [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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