"Yeah, that."
"I felt it, too," Lance said. "And I heard some dogs in neighborhood. There must have been a sound wave that was below human awareness."
"Which doesn't answer the question: What the hell happened?" Lance said as he pulled on his sweatpants. "I mean, why did the place blow up?"
Logan's chest was so tight he could barely speak. "My best guess? I think Rinna somehow destroyed the portal so that bastard Falcone couldn't take her back to her world."
"Good for her."
"I hope nobody was inside," Logan muttered.
"It looks like the cops cleared the place out for her."
"Yeah," Logan agreed. "Maybe she even planted that suggestion in the detective's mind."
"So now what?" Lance asked.
"Same as before. We look for her. Maybe that's what she was thinking when she told me to go for help. Maybe she was planning to stall Falcone until I could bring reinforcements."
"Maybe," Ross murmured, although he looked doubtful.
"You don't think so?" Logan demanded.
"If that was her plan, it was pretty risky."
"But what else could she do?"
"Stick with you while you made a couple of phone calls?" Ross suggested.
Logan clenched his hands into fists, once again struggling to keep his temper. "They don't have phones in her world. She wouldn't think of a phone call."
"Let's not argue about it," Ross answered, his voice smooth and even. "The point is she bought us time to find her."
"Right."
FALCONE looked like a small boy who had been told that he had to come inside for dinner when he still wanted to play kickball with his friends. He actually started to stamp his foot, then glanced at her and stopped himself.
"I will not stay in this world now. Not when…" His voice trailed off.
"Now when you're unprepared?" she asked.
When he glared at her, she shrugged. "It's not that easy to open a portal. It takes a lot of energy. I don't have the strength now. And when I try it, you and the others are going to have to lend me your power."
"All right."
Knowing that she was taking a big risk, she told him what she really wanted. "And you're going to have to agree to let me stay here."
"All right," he said at once.
Of course, she didn't trust his answer. She knew he would say anything right now to get her cooperation. But she would let him think that he'd fooled her.
Brusco looked at their surroundings. "What about the tent? She says we can't stay here."
"She could be lying," Falcone snapped.
"Believe that if you want to. But I was in the tent that Logan uses when he was camping. It's nothing like this."
"What's my alternative?" he demanded, watching her carefully.
"We can stay in a house. In this world, people leave their houses unoccupied and go away on trips."
Falcone made a snorting noise. "You expect me to believe that?"
She struggled to keep a satisfied expression off her face. She had come here with Logan, and she had felt like she knew nothing about his environment. However, the little she did know gave her a tremendous advantage over Falcone and his men.
Looking him in the eye, she said, "After Logan and I came through the portal, we found a house where the owners were away. We stayed there overnight."
"How did you know they were not at home?" Avery asked.
"In this world, a newspaper is delivered to houses every day. If there are a lot of them at the end of the driveway, it means the people are away. Also, a… a government service delivers letters and junk mail into a metal box. It fills up if nobody empties it."
"I've heard of newspapers," Falcone answered. "Explain junk mail."
"Advertising circulars," she answered promptly, glad she had remembered the term Logan used.
"It sounds like she knows a lot about this world," Avery said.
She gave him a grateful look.
Falcone scowled at him.
"I can help you look for a suitable place," she said.
Falcone's gaze bore into her. "Why would you help me?"
"So I can get back to Logan as soon as possible."
Falcone continued to stare at her. "Who is this Logan person?" he asked.
"A shape-shifter. He got caught in that trap you left for me. That's how I met him."
"We're wasting time talking about this shape-shifter," Avery interjected. "We should find a place to hide."
Falcone glared at him, but he went outside and gave orders for the men to pack up camp.
When he came back, she raised her head. "Untie me," she said.
JAKE Cooper leaned against his unmarked. It had a few dents in it where chunks of the building had landed, but other than that, it was unharmed.
He was supposed to be on sick leave. But he'd gotten the lieutenant to reassign him back to active duty.
He still had the mother of all headaches from the incident last night. But the good news was that he hadn't been inside the building when it exploded. And neither had anyone else, thanks to his stroke of intuition, or whatever it was.
Earlier in the day, the owner had screamed bloody murder about having his place shut down. Now he was going after his insurance company.
So had he blown the place up himself to collect on the insurance? That was always a possibility.
A team from the Maryland State Police were on their way to determine what had caused the explosion. Someone had suggested a gas leak, and that was one possibility.
Or maybe someone had set a bomb. He repressed a laugh.
Yeah, terrorists
, like he'd told the Lieu.
Or maybe it was someone who wanted to destroy evidence.
And who would have done that?
Marshall? It didn't seem likely, since he was busy searching for his wife. Unless he was lying about that.
Jake had sent a patrol car back to the residence, and the guy wasn't there.
He switched his thoughts from Marshall to his own lucky escape. He would have been pretty close to the explosion, if a large dog hadn't dashed out of the woods and pulled him toward safety.
A large dog wearing a backpack of all things. Make that three large dogs and two backpacks.
It was like the dogs knew something was going to happen moments before the building went up.
Well, he'd heard about animals getting vibrations that people couldn't hear. But that didn't explain why they had wanted to pull a police detective out of harm's way.
Jake made a muffled sound. Last night when he'd come to the Easy Shopper, he'd gotten tangled up with a big white bird who seemed pretty intelligent. This morning it was trained dogs. Or maybe not. Some people who had seen the incident thought the dogs looked more like wolves.
His restless mind kept making leaps from one possibility to the next. He'd wondered if psychic phenomena might be involved. But he hadn't been willing to believe Marshall's nut-ball theory. So where did that leave him?
When a team from the Maryland State Police arrived, he pushed himself away from the unmarked and trotted toward them.
"Let's find out what happened here," he said.
"WHY should I untie you?" Falcone asked Rinna.
"Because I'm not your slave anymore—not here."
"How do I know you won't try to escape?"
"I came to you in the first place."
"But that doesn't make me trust you. Not after you blew up the portal."
"To protect myself," she said.
He looked like he wanted to slap her. Instead, he stepped through the tent door. When he came back, two of his soldiers were with him.
"If she gets away, you will be responsible," he said.
Both men stiffened their posture. She felt sorry for them, although she wasn't going to make a run for it. She was too weak to outrun Falcone at the moment, although she wouldn't share that information with him.
"Let me out of this chair," she said again.
He glared at her, waiting several heartbeats, letting her wonder what he had decided. Finally, he bent and began untying the knots.
When he had freed her, she flexed her arms and legs, restoring circulation to limbs that had been held in one position for too long.
"I'll help you find a house where we can hide," she said.
"I don't want your help."
"Suit yourself."
"I will," he snapped, but she smiled inwardly when she heard the worry below the surface of his bravado.
274 Rebecca York
"If you find a house with newspapers, be sure it doesn't have a security system," she said.
Falcone didn't ask what a security system was. He'd figure that out when he came to it.
Turning away from Rinna, he stepped out of the tent and took a breath of air to calm himself.
It was a struggle not to go back inside and beat the woman. She was a slave, and she had forgotten her place.
But in the end, she would be sorry for what she had done. She she had gotten the better of him, but he knew more about this world than she thought. And she had given him an idea—about neutralizing the man who had been with her.
Swiftly he walked toward his supply officer and gave terse orders.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
TO SHOW THAT he wasn't afraid to venture out into this unfamiliar world, Falcone took two of his best men—Kenner and Shafter—and started through the woods.
He came to a road within five minutes and followed it, looking for the signs that Rinna had mentioned. He marveled at how far apart the houses were. They had no protections, and they were open to invasion from anyone who took a fancy to the contents.
But he didn't just rely on Rinna's judgment that this world was safer than his own. The men who'd reconnoitered here had given him similar reports.
The houses in this area had trees around them. But instead of natural woods, the ground under the trees had been tended by gardeners.
He had strong legs. And he was used to walking. Several automobiles passed by, but he was sure he and his men were not conspicuous since they were dressed just like the inhabitants of this world. They all wore jeans, dress shirts and what were called running shoes. They also had on baseball caps which they had turned around with the bill facing the back. The idea of wearing them that way seemed peculiar, since he would have expected the bill to serve as a sunshade. But his spies had assured him that was the way it was done.
He'd ordered the men to leave their usual weapons back at the camp. Now they were all carrying handguns, which several of his spies had secretly brought back and showed him. The guns were concealed under their shirts.
At home, they'd taken the weapons outside the city to practice. He knew how to fire the gun. And so did Kenner and Shafter.
Every minute or so, a car passed them as they walked along the road. But he stayed out of the way of the vehicles, and he even got used to the wind they generated in their wake.
They had walked about a mile from the campground and passed more than a dozen houses when he saw a pile of newspapers lying on the ground.
According to Rinna, that meant that the owners of the house were away. But he didn't take her word for it, in case she was leading him into a trap. He and the men stepped off the blacktop and into the woods, approaching the house from two different angles. When he looked inside, he saw furnishings that made his eyes pop.
His spies had told him that the people of this world lived well. Through the windows he could see rich fabrics and gleaming wood. And what he took to be a cooking area with shiny appliances that he didn't know how to use. Maybe Rinna understood how they worked. If not, they'd cook over a fire in back of the house, since there was plenty of fuel around.
They broke in through a side door. Immediately, a loud bell began to ring.
The security system.
Rushing to the bell, he used his powers to shut it off.
A minute later, he heard a jangling noise. Before he could figure out where it was, the thing stopped, and he breathed out a sigh. Quickly he and the men searched the premises. No one was home.
He walked through the rooms, picking up objects and carefully setting them down again. His heart was pounding, and he felt a kind of glee gathering inside himself as he swiveled a smooth ball of shimmering glass in his hand. In his world, it would be priceless.
He turned to see Kenner and Shafter looking around with dazed expressions on their faces. This place was probably richer than anything they could imagine.
"No stealing," he ordered.
"Yes, sir."
"You will be searched before you return to our world."
"Yes, sir."
He could have ordered one of them to stay here and guard him, but he felt very secure in this solidly built structure. So he addressed them both.
"Kenner, Shafter, go get the rest of the group—on the double," he ordered. "Have them strike camp and come here as quickly as possible. And I want a chain on Rinna when you lead her through the open."
The two men snapped to attention. "Yes, sir."
When they had left, he did some more exploring. There were comfortable couches in several rooms, one of them facing a box with what looked like a place for a picture in the middle. He ran his hand over the smooth glass, trying to find what made the picture work. Then he saw a button that said power.
Could he work it? Or did it take a certain kind of psychic ability?
No. That wasn't it. They didn't run things by psychic power here.
He pressed. There was a kind of pinging sound.
Then a talking bear appeared in the picture frame.
"Carfolian Hell!" He jumped back, then looked quickly around to make sure nobody had seen him.
When his heart stopped hammering, he caught some of the words. The bear was talking about a certain kind of toilet tissue, saying it would feel good against his bottom.
He gaped at the moving picture. It changed. The bear went away and a very attractive blond woman came on. She was wearing a tailored bluejacket and her hair was carefully fixed. She was sitting in front of a city landscape. A big city. Although as Falcone studied the scene carefully, he thought it was only a picture.
The woman was also talking directly to Falcone in an authoritative voice.
"This afternoon, a bomb or other explosive device destroyed the Easy Shopper on Huntington Road in Mount Airy. The convenience store was robbed earlier in the week, and police were investigating a tip that terrorists had threatened an attack on the store. Because of the tip, the premises had been cleared of employees and patrons before the explosion occurred. Our reporter, Paul Cummings, is standing by with more details."
Falcone gawked. The woman's face went away, and Falcone found himself staring at a man. He was standing in front of a ruined building holding up a stick in front of his mouth.
He had to assume it was the building where he had come through the portal the night before.
The woman's voice asked, "Paul, do the police have any leads?"
"They aren't giving out any information."
The woman and man talked back and forth for several minutes, but it was clear that they had no new information and were just rehashing old reports. And another thing was clear. The woman was the one in charge. And the man was subservient to her.
That would never have happened in his world. Men ran things, and the women stayed home and took care of the house and the children. Unless they had unusual talents. And then they were put to work—but always at the direction of some man.
He sat down on a couch that faced the moving picture, watching and listening. This thing was a good source of information. He could learn what they knew about the Easy Shopper. And he could learn more about this world by watching.
He had come here only half believing what his spies told him. Now he believed. There were wonders in this world that he could never have imagined. And he could use them to his advantage.
He had psychic power. Combined with the new powers he found here, the effect would be enormous. He leaned back, picturing himself in this world. He would bring a few hundred people with him through the portal, people who were loyal to him. They had city-states here, too. They were called gated communities.
The woman on the television went away and a man replaced her, talking about things that didn't interest Falcone. Sporting events in this world. He didn't know the teams and he didn't know the games, so he let his mind drift back to his own plans.
He would have a gated community here and name it after Sun Acres. And he would be the ruler. He would find another woman with powers to bear his children. Not Rinna. It was clear that she was much too dangerous. He'd find a younger one, perhaps from another city-state. Someone who hadn't gone through the excellent school for psychics in Sun Acres. He wanted a woman with potential, but one who hadn't been taught as well as Rinna. Yes, that was the right approach. A woman he could control more easily. A woman who would be thrilled that he'd picked her for his concubine. Or maybe his wife, depending on the status of her family.
He got up and wandered into the cooking area. His men had told him about such places. He ran his hands over the equipment, then looked up and saw circles in the ceiling with curved glass covering the center. He thought they were lights. He could turn them on with a toggle at the wall. He looked for such a device and found one near the sink.
Reaching over, he flipped the switch, and something inside the sink drain began making a horrible, dangerous-sounding racket.
"Shit!"
Flipping the switch the other way, he turned it off quickly.
When Rinna came, he'd make her show him how to turn on the lights. But he'd pretend he hadn't encountered the noisemaker in the sink.
THE wolves spread out, fanning through the woods, looking for Falcone and his men.
They were all carrying the whistles Ross had given them—the ones with fake bird calls. No ordinary wolf could have blown the whistles. But they knew how to shape their muzzles to do it.
If any of them came on anything interesting or urgent, he could sound an alarm. Of course there were real birds in the woods, but they could use a different pattern for the fake calls. Hopefully, the guys they were tracking wouldn't know the local bird songs.
They stayed within a couple of hundred yards of each other, but in the thick underbrush, they weren't always able to see each other.
Logan's frustration grew as he tried to pick up Rinna's scent. He'd thought he just had to head toward home. But so far he hadn't located her.
He was starting to think his theory was wrong when he heard the metallic cheep of a cardinal.
Lance had found something! Finally.
Or had he? The call had sounded strange, like his brother wasn't fully focused on what he was doing.
Hearing the underbrush to his right stir, he stiffened. A gray shape emerged from around a blackberry thicket, and he saw that it was Ross.
His cousin stopped beside him and gave him a questioning look, then fumbled his whistle into his mouth and gave a short toot.
Logan nodded.
Lance's signal came again, more muffled than before. Logan stopped short, trying to fix the direction. The sound had come from his left.
He trotted forward, then saw Lance through the underbrush.
Whistle in his mouth, he blew a short note, expecting to get Lance's attention. But his brother stood stock-still, and he didn't turn.
Ross tipped his head to one side, then pawed the ground—their sign for danger.
Logan nodded, and they both started slowly forward. But when he saw Lance waver on his feet, he sprinted toward his brother, then felt a terrible pull tugging him toward a pile of leaves.
A familiar pull. Instantly he knew it was from one of the traps that had almost killed him before Rinna had gotten him out of the damn thing. But the range was less than last time, as if someone had changed the calibration.
Not bothering with the whistle, he lifted his head and howled. But the wolf call didn't even get his brother's attention.
Rushing forward, he bounded to Lance's side and knocked him to the ground before he could take another step toward the trap.
Now that Logan was so close, the terrible pull tugged at him. But the previous experience gave him some idea how to resist. He set his will against the trap even as he fell on Lance, holding him back when he would have stumbled forward toward his destruction.
His brother turned and snarled at him, his teeth bared. All Logan could do was try to hold him in place. But Lance pawed at the ground, pulling them both toward the deadly device hidden in the leaves.
Then Ross was beside them.
Logan jerked his head toward the trap and snarled, then jerked back hoping he was conveying the message that they had to stay away from the thing.
Ross shivered, but he kept his distance from the pile of leaves where the trap lurked.
Instead, he came up beside Logan, and together they pushed and shoved Lance back.
As soon as they had moved a few yards away, Logan could feel a difference. The mental pull was still there, but as long as he stayed this far away, he thought he could avoid getting ensnared.
Lance lay on the ground panting, and Ross rubbed his nuzzle against him.
Lance lifted his head and looked around, a dazed expression on his face. They had kept him from rushing toward the snare, but he wasn't out of danger yet.
Farther back. Logan thought. We have to get farther back before it pulls us in.
He pushed at Lance again, trying to maneuver him out of harm's way, just as he heard a cry of, "Get them."
Raising his head, he saw two fierce-looking men erupt from the woods and charge at them.