A Deadly Web by Kay Hooper Read Free Book Online

farther from her apartment.”
    “Yes. Didn’t take the time to dress, even put on shoes, but had her purse and keys. And she had made the bed look as though no one had been sleeping there only minutes before.”
    Duran considered briefly. “But she left her cell phone behind.”
    “Yes, sir. That’s what gave Graves the idea. It was on the nightstand, charging. He used one of the disposable cells to leave her the text.”
    “Not a complete idiot, then.”
    Alastair thought it prudent to remain silent.
    “Did she notify building security afterward?”
    “No, sir. According to the security computer, she did access the lobby security camera as soon as she returned to her condo.”
    “Checking to see if the guards were where they were supposed to be.”
    “I assume so.”
    “And, of course, they were.”
    “Of course, sir.”
    “So now she has reason to doubt or even mistrust the security personnel, the security system—any illusion of safety, in fact.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “And now we know for certain she has some awareness of us. Or at least some awareness of danger.”
    “Yes, sir. But she didn’t run away; the stairwell cameras show that she stood at the door and watched as the team came and went. Climbed up to the fourth floor before they entered the stairwell to exit the building.”
    “So alert and careful, but also curious.”
    “Apparently.”
    “And confident of her ability to escape.”
    “I suppose so, sir, yes.”
    “When she returned to her condo, did she find them?”
    “No, sir.”
    Duran’s smile wasn’t at all a humorous thing. “Good. That’s good.” He returned his gaze to the file before him on his desk, adding almost indifferently, “Send Graves up here.”
    “Yes, sir.” Alastair didn’t waste any time leaving the office, and he didn’t waste much sympathy on Graves.
    Stupid bastard. They all knew it wasn’t wise to cross Duran, and in his eyes any deviation—
any
deviation—from his orders was considered by him a betrayal.
    Everybody knew that.
    Alastair did wonder, briefly, what fate lay in store for Graves, but his mind skittered away from the question before he could really begin to ponder it.
    There were some things it really was best not to know.
    —
    Miranda Bishop watched as her husband cradled the phone in their hotel room. Cell phones were convenient—unless one was a psychic and routinely drained their power. Bishop seldom carried one these days, at least not on or near his body, despite the fact that their bright boys and girls on the technical side of things had designed protective cases that allowed most psychics to at least drain their cell batteries at a slower rate.
    Not that it mattered at the moment.
    “Still no luck?” she asked.
    “No. Katie Swan isn’t answering.” Bishop was frowning, which was rare.
    Normally Miranda would have known every thought and emotion her husband was experiencing because they had a unique and rather remarkable psychic/emotional connection. But that connection had been shut down as much as possible by both of them, because in this particular place and time it could prove a definite and deadly danger.
    “The list is getting longer,” she noted quietly.
    Bishop nodded.
    “And,” she added, “you aren’t content to just report it to your new contact and walk away.”
    “Brodie told me himself that once a psychic goesmissing, they’ve never been able to recover him or her. They become notes in a
Lost
column. Some supposedly turn up as bodies destroyed beyond recognition; some are reported as runaways; some have a backstory in place before they supposedly jaunt off to another country somewhere. And some just vanish.”
    “Never to be heard from again?”
    “The suspicion seems to be that at least some psychics are taken to be used as soldiers in this secretive war. To gather information, to monitor psychics on this side, to look for weaknesses, to . . . label all the players.”
    “You have a problem