Moon - New Moon Part 65

"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 gla.s.s, trying to find what made the picture work. Then he saw a b.u.t.ton 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 h.e.l.l!" He jumped back, then looked quickly around to make sure n.o.body 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 c.u.mmings, 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 a.s.sume 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 rehas.h.i.+ng 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 gla.s.s 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.

"s.h.i.+t!"

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 m.u.f.fled 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 d.a.m.n 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.

Rus.h.i.+ng 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.