Darwin's Paradox by Nina Munteanu Read Free Book Online

be next.”
    The determination in her eyes frightened him. “Who?” he prompted.
    She pursed her lips. “I’m not sure who’s behind it. There may be several groups with different motives, like before. Some probably want to use my abilities and others just want me dead,” she ended flatly.
    Bile rose in his throat and he swallowed it back, with difficulty. A lot of Icarians had reason to want her dead. It was said that she’d caused the plague that killed millions of people, and if that wasn’t enough, she’d also been accused of terrorist acts and murdering a government official. Daniel had tried to help her escape and instead led them into an inner-city ambush, lead by a Secret Pol.
    Some time before, Julie had been hired to create the personality profile of Dystopians, a terrorist group who hated veemelds and were bent on bringing down the current government. But Julie’s model had been too accurate and implicated the Chief of Secret Pols himself—John Dykstra—and all those under his employ as Dystopians. She sent the info cube containing her findings to the Head Pol, entrusting the cube to Frank Langor, a regular Pol and her former lover. Vadim, one of the Secret Pols, took some regular Pols to intercept the info-cube before it reached the Head Pol, but Vadim never got the cube because an inner-city mob in a frenzy of anti-government rage rushed the Pols and in the ensuing melee, Vadim was beaten and his head crushed.
    The Dystopians had boldly taken the name that described the outlawed scientific movement that promoted the heretical science of Julie’s father, who was ironically a veemeld himself. Although she had trusted Frank Langor at the time, judging from the news shared by Aard when she last saw him, her trust had been misplaced with Frank. Was it possible he, too, was a Dystopian?
    “And the ones following us?” Daniel posed.
    “Could be either. Or both.”
    His mouth went dry. “What can we do?” he whispered hoarsely.
    After a long silence she turned to him. The dark purpose that had fired her eyes now smoldered beneath the cloak she’d drawn around herself and her eyes glistened of unshed tears.
    “Just hold me, Daniel.” Her voice trembled.
    He folded his arms around her and they reclined on the bed. Curled inside his protective arms, face pressed against his chest and silky legs entwined around his, she shuddered with silent tears and clung to him. Wanting to comfort her, he bent to kiss her wet cheeks and wished she would share it all with him.
    As if sensing his disappointment, she lifted her face up to his and looked into his eyes with longing and fear. He was reminded of the first time that they’d made love, when she’d looked at him with almost the same expression. She’d harbored a secret then, too. The secret of who and what she was. He’d thought then that she was just Julie, a bright data handler, but she’d turned out to be a veemeld, one who could talk to machines in her head from anywhere in Icaria.
    She was also Prometheus, the alpha carrier of the deadly Darwin. And she was Angel, his long-ago innercity sweetheart who deserted him suddenly. Now, as he gazed back into her eyes, sparkling like constellations in a black and infinite universe, he sensed that she’d faced yet another dark decision without including him. What had she seen in the willows?
    She startled him by taking his face in her hands and kissing him fiercely. She’d learned over their years together how to please him, hands caressing him in a delightful way from the soft curls on his neck down to his thighs. He threw his doubts aside and let her pour her gift of selfless devotion on him, taking him to a world where only the two of them existed. She seized in halting breaths, soaring alongside his swelling passion. He responded by pleasing her in turn with his fingers. She gasped into a keening wail that roused a pack of wolves in the heath. They made love that night to the echoing bay of the pack as