BEYOND THE LOOKING-GLASS: Book One in the BEYOND Series by Gordon Rothwell Read Free Book Online

makes everyone shake in their jackboots.”
    “Does it affect you that way, too?”
    “Of course.”
    “Then I must work on looking friendlier in the future.”
    Nikki laughed. “Don’t you dare. That look is truly magical. Those people back in that town were mesmerized by it. They couldn’t help giving us all this food to take with us.”
    She cut some hunks of meat from the spit and handed them to Anton. He took it absently, but he was busy fussing with the chip locator. After giving it several shakes and a few bangs, he cursed and tossed the device into the nearby brush.
    “Damned locator. It got broken somewhere along the way. It’s useless to me now. Don’t worry. We’ll find our perpetrators without it.”
    “I’m not worried, sir.” Nikki stared at him in the flickering light. “Why are we really here, Director? Who’s this Marlowe? And what about his wife?”
    “ Ex- wife,” he snapped. He chewed on a morsel of meat. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at, Rosetti.”
    “I mean no offense. It’s just that…I may be a rookie agent, but I’m no fool, sir. I saw the way you looked at her in the laboratory. You’re in love with her.”
    Anton slowly pulled a pack of cigarettes from his tunic, extracted one, and lit it up. He sat back and blew a single, perfectly formed smoke ring. He offered Nikki one but she waved him off.
    “It’s a long story, Nikki.”
    “So give me the condensed version, sir.”
    He took another long drag on his cigarette. The embers at the end glowed like the red eye of a beast lurking in the forest. He waited a bit then began to speak slowly.
    “This Marlowe used to be a big-shot on TV years ago. He got himself involved with a radical, subversive movement dedicated to toppling the incumbent Government.”
    “The one we have now?”
    “Primarily.”
    “Go on, sir.”
    “Marlowe produced and starred in an anti-regime TV broadcast. He pre-empted regularly scheduled programming and caused a nationwide upheaval. There were riots in the streets, huge demonstrations, massive property damage, and hundreds of casualties.”
    “I never heard about that, sir.”
    “You won’t find any references to it in your Government altered textbooks at the Academy.”
    Nikki moved back from the campfire. She leaned back and propped up on one elbow. “How do you fit into the picture, sir?”
    Anton snubbed out his cigarette. He didn’t look directly at Nikki as he replied. “Marlowe was arrested, tried and found guilty of crimes against the State. He was sentenced to ten years at hard labor in one of our remote Government rehabilitation camps.”
    “That doesn’t tell me about your role in this. Or how you met Aleeta.”
    “I was on the team that prosecuted Marlowe’s case. After he was sentenced, Aleeta came to my office. She said she would do anything to get her husband’s sentence commuted or reduced.”
    “Anything, sir?”
    “Our affair lasted quite a while. And I was able to get Marlowe’s term reduced to three years. But when her husband got out, Aleeta broke it off with me. She decided to resume her married life with Marlowe again. They stayed together for a year or two. But eventually they divorced.”
    Nikki stared into the firelight for a few moments. “But you never stopped loving this woman. And you want her back. Right?”
    “That’s my fervent hope, Nikki.” He stoked up the fire with a long stick. “Now go to sleep. We need to get going early before the trail grows cold.”
    They assembled some loose branches to create makeshift bedding.
    Anton soon lay back with his hands under his head staring up at the blanket of stars overhead. In the darkness, Nikki whispered to him.
    “Anton.”
    “What?”
    “Oh, I was just thinking how free I feel out here in the woods. With no barred windows, stuffy classrooms, or regimented procedures. I’ve never felt like this before. It’s like a dream.”
    “Didn’t you ever daydream, Nikki? Or imagine yourself in