The Dark Remains - Mark Anthony [181]
“Are you certain, Deirdre?”
She gripped the yellowed bear claw hanging at her throat. “I’m certain.”
Farr pressed the button again. “Cancel that last order, Driver. Get us onto Highway 128 to Boulder. Now. And don’t stop for anything.”
Deirdre lurched in the seat as the vehicle made a hard turn. By the time she righted herself, she saw that Farr wore a fierce grin. He looked quite mad.
But maybe he wasn’t. The Desiderata were rules set down in a musty, five-century-old book. What could they possibly have to do with the human heart? She set the gun on the seat beside her and touched the silver ring on her finger.
“So what about Travis and Grace?” she said.
“If you’re right, they should be calling us any minute to tell us Duratek has evacuated the complex. They’re perfectly safe at the moment.”
Deirdre nodded. Duratek was headed north, and she and Farr would intercept them, stop them somehow. That was their choice. Besides, even if Duratek had left a few stragglers behind at the complex, she had little doubt Vani would be able to handle them.
She shot a grin back at Farr, one she knew was every bit as mad as his own.
“Here’s to free will,” Deirdre said.
60.
“You can handle them, right, Vani?” Travis rasped, as they backed toward the open doorway.
Shadows undulated toward them slowly. Wet grunting noises echoed off bare walls. Grace shuddered. What could they possibly be waiting for?
Vani held her hands before her, ready. “As I said once, these gorleths are different than any I have heard of. They are strong. And clever.”
“That didn’t exactly answer my question,” Travis said through clenched teeth.
“Three of them. Perhaps four, if I am fortunate.”
Travis made a strangled sound. “In case you hadn’t noticed, there are something more than four of them.”
Vani kept her gold eyes on the sinuous shadows. “I had noticed, Travis. Surprising as it may seem to you, people from other worlds are indeed able to count.”
Grace pushed clinging bangs from her damp brow. It was hard to keep hold of them with her eyes. The gorleths wove back and forth, vanishing and reappearing, sometimes closer, sometimes farther away.
“Why aren’t they attacking?” she said, because if she didn’t say something she was going to scream instead.
Travis ran a hand over his bald cranium, wiping away fine beads of sweat. “I think they’re playing with us.”
“No,” Vani said. “Gorleths do not play games. I am not certain, but I do not believe their master is here. He must have commanded these gorleths to guard this space. If we leave, I do not believe they will be able to follow us, for that would violate what the sorcerer has ordered them to do.”
Travis groaned. “That’s great. You’re telling me our lives our riding on the fact that these are anal-retentive monsters?”
“I wouldn’t listen to him,” Grace whispered to Vani.
“Do not fear, Grace. I am not.”
They kept backing up. Grace felt a puff of air behind her. They had reached the doorway.
Vani spoke in low, even tones. “You must retreat through the door. But do it slowly, so that they are not aroused.”
“I thought you said they couldn’t leave the room,” Travis whispered.
“That is my hope. But then, in addition to guarding this space, the Scirathi may also have ordered them to attack anything that runs from them. Do you wish to find out?”
Grace gripped his elbow. “Come on.”
Together, Grace and Travis moved back through the doorway into the empty corridor beyond. They waited several heartbeats.
“Vani—” Grace started to call out softly.
At that moment the air melted, then resolidified, and Vani was there. Grace never saw her hand move, but all the same the steel door swung shut behind her, closing with a solid thunk.
Travis pushed his sunglasses up. “So, when are you going to teach us how to do tricks like that?”
Vani snapped her black-leather jacket into place. “I could teach you, Travis, but—”
“Then she’d have to kill you,” Grace finished with a smirk.
Vani cocked her head. “How do you know so much about the ways of the T’gol?”
“Lucky guess,” Grace said, trying not to