Read Stackpole, Michael A - Dark Conspiracy 02 for Free Online Page B

her approach. The banks only rose up about three feet above the sandy bed.
    Tumbleweeds and some small prickly-pear cactus grew up along the edges, which helped shield her, but she still had to crouch. Working forward slowly, her night vision allowing her to avoid stepping on anything that might make a sound, she reached the outskirts of a small campsite.
    Huddled in the darkness, she studied the situation using all her senses. She saw two children clinging to each other, and a mutt of a dog with them. The larger one spoke softly to the smaller, but her words did nothing to dull the terror radiating from the boy like heat from a blast furnace. Both wore rags, and dust caked them except where it had smeared across their cheeks from wiping away tears.
    Though the larger one did her bestto hide herfeelings, she became the minor star in a binary system of fear.
    Like the mongrel beside them, the children had both been chained to a metal stake driven into the ground just beyond a small fire. Rajani sensed a connection—an alliance—between them and the dog. Beyond them, almost eclipsed by the strength of the young boy’s terror, she picked up the random emotional patterns of two other individuals. She could not determine age or sex because of the degree of interference caused by the boy, but the steady level of their feelings told her they were unconscious.
    Like a shadow, Rajani moved into the camp. The sheer shock of the surprise exploding from the girl when she saw her nearly made Rajani cry out. She raised a hand in caution to the girl, then held it out to the left so the dog could get a noseful of her. Yes, brother mine, I have come to strengthen your pack. I will free you and your companions.
    The hair on the dog’s spine, which had risen abruptly, slowly settled back down. The dog licked her hand, which made the girl less anxious. The boy, who Rajani knew was her brother, peeked out at her with one eye. Rajani smiled at him and his sister, then took another step forward and grasped the metal stake.
    The girl waved her hands. “No, no. Go away. You have to go away!” Her harsh whisper barely carried the six-foot length of the chain, but the fear backing it slammed into Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    Rajani like a pile driver. The little boy’s anxieties spiked upon hearing his sister’s words. His hopes for rescue had been raised then shattered. Panic pulsed from him like blood from an arterial gash.
    His panic was the empathic equivalent of staring at the sun with a telescope. She tucked her head down and raised her fists to her temples. Immediately, the shields she had once relied upon to keep her sane amid a world of emotions dropped into place, shutting everything out.
    Looking up, she could see the fear in the children’s eyes, but it no longer assaulted her.
    She twisted the stake to the left, then back to the right, and yanked it out of the ground. The chains rattled a bit, but no more than they did when the children moved. She stood and slipped the ends of the chains off the stake. “You are free.”
    A hand grabbed her right shoulder and spun her around. A huge man whose belly stretched a dirty plaid shirt to the point where it gapped open between the buttons looked down at her. “Whadda we got here?” He tried to bat her hat off, but the chinstrap held, leaving it to hang at her back.
    The flood of golden hair clearly surprised the man.
    ”Boxer, check this out. We got us a night-thrill.” He reached inside her jacket and grasped the lapels of her fatigue shirt. Pulling left and right, he popped buttons and exposed her breasts to the night air. “Oh, yeah, fine. She’s mine first.”
    Rajani, stunned and surprised by the man’s appearance and the malignancy of his lust, could think of nothing as his big calloused hands brushed across her breasts and around to her back. He started to pull her forward, then he jerked sharply and screamed. Reeling