Blood and Stone by C. E. Martin Read Free Book Online

what I had in mind.”
    Phillips wiped his mouth on his sleeve and staggered over to a large recliner and flopped down into it. “Sorry, Mark. I’m used to being able to hold my liquor much better.”
    Kenslir sat down across from his friend. “Really? And when was the last time they did shots at the nursing home?”
    Phillips blushed—or at least he would have if his face wasn’t already bright red. “Okay, okay. It was the girl’s fault.”
    “Which girl?”
    “Keegan—the blonde with the huge knockers.”
    Kenslir sighed and shook his head. “I’m not running a brothel here, Chad.”
    “I know, I know.” At least the embarrassment was helping him to sober up. “But, you know, my wife has been dead-“
    As soon as he said it, Phillips regretted it. Even with his vision blurry he could see the look Kenslir gave him.
    “I’m sorry, Mark, I-”
    “I’ll have Max send a security detachment to wake you up tonight, so you don’t miss your petrification. Go sleep this off for a few hours.”
    “I’m not gonna be like this forever, am I?”
    “No, I suppose we can dunk you in the Fountain one more time.”
    That made Phillips feel a little better. He just hoped that Keegan felt half as bad as he did. Because she couldn’t go in the Fountain.
    “Colonel!” a nearly-breathless Major said, running over.
    Both Phillips and Kenslir looked up. “Yes?” they said in unison.
    Major Campbell snapped a quick salute in his dress uniform. “We’ve got a situation out west.”
    “The shapeshifter?” Kenslir asked.
    “We’re pretty sure.”
    Phillips tried to stand, but his legs were rubbery and the room was spinning a bit.
    “Stay here, Chad—I’ll have security help you to your room.” Kenslir turned back to Campbell. “Where?”
    “Alcatraz.”
     

CHAPTER NINE
     
     
     
     
     
    The exercise yard of Alcatraz was the most horrifying thing Josie had ever seen. Bodies were strewn everywhere, mutilated, their hearts removed. Some had just hand-sized holes ripped in their chests. Others had their whole rib cages exploded open.
    In the midst of all this, several Alcatraz guards stood immobile, turned to stone. One still clutched the radio he had been speaking into.
    Josie glided silently over the scene. Even in astral form, she felt sick to her stomach at the site of the carnage. There were at least thirty corpses—although it was hard to tell with them laying around on top of each other.
    Josie wasn’t an expert on crime scenes, but even she could tell it had been a slaughter, with the inmates putting up no resistance.
    She had seen enough. She broke the telepathic link.
    Josie leaned back in her seat, letting her eyes adjust. She was back in Daisy’s room, holding hands with the elderly woman and a younger, black woman. The pair made an interesting contrast—the aged, gray-haired former hippy, in her tie-dyed clothes, holding hands with the dark-skinned woman in the power suit.
    Daisy’s going to keep checking the island for survivors , Gwendolyn projected into Josie’s mind. The 30-something telepath was a far cry from Josie’s first encounter with a Ghost Walker’s handler. She much preferred Gwen over the lecherous PJ.
    “I’ll be back later,” Josie said. She climbed to her feet from the over-sized beanbag she’d been sitting on, leaving Daisy and Gwen to continue the astral reconnaissance of Alcatraz.
    Josie walked quickly to the telephone built into the wall beside the room’s exit. It was the one thing in all the decor that didn’t look like it had come from 1968.
    “Command Center,” Josie said into the handset, “It’s confirmed. The giant was at Alcatraz.”
    “ONE MOMENT PLEASE,” the mechanical voice on the other end said. Then the phone line clicked and she was patched through to Colonel Kenslir.
    “You’re sure, Josie?” the Colonel asked.
    “Yes, sir—there’re bodies everywhere. Maybe thirty inmates dead just outside. It was horrible.”
    “Okay, Victor and I