Dark River by John Twelve Hawks Read Free Book Online

beneath sunglasses, and a wig covered her hair. But the Harlequin couldn’t disguise how she moved her body. She walked into a grocery store and stood in a subway car with the balanced posture of a fighter who could take the first punch and not be knocked off her feet.
    When they first encountered each other in Los Angeles, he thought Maya was the most unusual person he had ever met in his life. The Harlequin was a modern woman in many ways— an expert in all aspects of surveillance technology. But she also had carried the weight of hundreds of years of tradition on her shoulders. Maya’s father, Thorn, had taught his little girl that Harlequins were Damned by the flesh. Saved by the blood. Maya seemed to believe that she was guilty of some fundamental error that could only be corrected by risking her life.
    Maya saw the world clearly— any foolishness and clutter in her perceptions had been destroyed years ago. Gabriel knew that she would never break the rules and fall in love with a Traveler. And right now, his own future was so unclear that he felt that it was equally irresponsible for him to change their relationship.
    He and Maya had their defined roles as Traveler and Harlequin, and yet he was drawn to her physically. When she was recovering from the bullet wound, he had picked her up and carried her from the cot to the couch, feeling the weight of her body and smelling her skin and hair. Sometimes the tarp wasn’t fully closed and he saw her talking to Vicki as she pulled on her clothes. There was nothing between them— but there was everything. Even sitting beside her on the couch felt both pleasant and uncomfortable.
    “You should get some sleep,” he said gently.
    “I can’t close my eyes.” When Maya was tired, her British accent became stronger. “The brain won’t stop.”
    “I can understand that. Sometimes it feels like I’ve got too many thoughts and not enough places to put them.”
    There was another moment of silence and he listened to her breathing. Gabriel reminded himself that Maya had lied about his father. Were there other secrets? What else did he need to know? The Harlequin moved a few inches away from Gabriel so they weren’t so close. Maya’s body tensed and he heard her take a deep breath, as if she were about to do something dangerous.
    “I’ve also been thinking about the argument we had last night.”
    “You should have told me about my father,” Gabriel said.
    “I was trying to protect you. Don’t you believe that?”
    “I’m still not satisfied.” Gabriel leaned toward her. “Okay— so my father sent a letter to the people at New Harmony. Are you sure you don’t know where the letter came from?”
    “I told you about Carnivore. The government is constantly monitoring e-mail. Martin would never have sent crucial information through the Internet.”
    “How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”
    “You’re a Traveler, Gabriel. You can look at my face and see that I’m not lying.”
    “I didn’t think I needed to do that. Not with you.” Gabriel got up from the couch and walked back to his cot. He lay down, but it was difficult to sleep. Gabriel knew Maya cared about him, but she didn’t seem to understand how much he wanted to find his father. Only his father could tell him what he was supposed to do now that he was a Traveler. He knew that he was changing, becoming a different person, but he didn’t know why.
    Closing his eyes, he dreamed of his father walking down a dark street in New York City. Gabriel shouted and ran after him, but his father was too far away to hear. Matthew Corrigan turned a corner, and when Gabriel reached it his father had disappeared.
    Within the dream, Gabriel stood beneath a streetlight on pavement dark and glistening from the rain. He glanced around him and saw a surveillance camera mounted on the roof of a building. There was another camera on the lamppost and a half dozen others at various points on the empty street. That