Frozen Fire by Bill Evans, Marianna Jameson Read Free Book Online Page A

down the concrete steps leading to the trash-strewn parking lot of the slummy apartment complex. It wasn’t her knife-creased pilot’s uniform that made her look so out of place, it was just her. She was one of those people who had never and would never fit in anywhere.
    Lucky, that
.
    He watched her cross the lot, musing not for the first time that her stride was the farthest thing from feminine, from natural, that he’d ever witnessed. And her posture so erect one could easily infer she had a steel rod running from her flat, boyish ass to her socially calcified brain.
    She didn’t turn around to see if he was there, which was a good sign. She only glanced up briefly after she had opened her car door. Her grim, tight smile told him everything he needed to know.
    She was going to follow through.
    He returned her look with a warm, encouraging smile buttressed with an abbreviated nod, and watched her start the car. When she had driven out of sight, his smile disappeared and was replaced with a cold sneer.
    What a clueless, miserable whore
.
    Closing the door, Garner narrowly avoided stepping on a two-inch-long palmetto bug that skittered across his path. He waited until the creature was safely out of his way before he headed to the cheap apartment’s puny bathroom, stripping off his worn T-shirt and shorts as he walked.
    Killing helpless creatures, even those despised by most people, was something he avoided. Those creatures simply lived and each in its own way kept the world working as smoothly, as elegantly as it should. They ate what Nature intended them to eat, functioned the way Nature intended them to function, and met their fate with grace.
    Garner had realized long ago that the dominance of the so-called highest-order species was evidence that evolution had exceeded its utility. Humans had the most evolved cognitive abilities, but wasted them on pursuits that ranged from stupid to criminal, and which extended in scope to the outer edges of horror. Only humans chose to use their so-called intelligence to thwart Nature or harm the helpless; only humans killed in cold blood. Only humans needed weapons; only humans started wars; only humans could destroy the Earth.
    Those were just a few reasons Garner held his species in such low regard. Certain groups, such as politicians, financiers, industrialists—and people like Lieutenant Colonel Wendy Watson, who was a willing stand-in for all of them—deserved even greater scorn. Wendy was a child of disgusting privilege who had no imagination; a hard-bodied, androgynous athlete with no curves and no body fat; an uptight, emotionless, military automaton masquerading as woman. Her flawed veneer of conscience had developed too late. Spending the last twelve hours trying to fuck her boneless had nearly killed him. He needed a shower.
    No, I need a bloody vacation
.
    Stalking into the grimy bathroom, he didn’t bother to flick the switch for the overhead lights. The dim sunlight beyond the filthy window provided enough dim illumination. He stepped into the scum-slicked shower and wrenched the tap, bracing himself for the barrage of icy bullets.
    Sleeping with the enemy, or doing anything else to the enemy, had never caused Garner a second’s guilt or regret. He’d known since the first bright flame of cognition lit his brain that the Earth and Her creatures were to be honored, that following Her dictates and serving Her needs was the most important thing he could do.
    His earliest memory was of the soft tickle of roaches scuttling over his skin as he lay still and silent in his crowded cot. The stinking bodies of theother children curled around him in the bed were what kept him warm during those early, harsh Bucharest winters, but providing warmth was all the other children had been good for. None of them had been as fascinating as the other creatures living in the orphanage. He’d spent every day studying the huge and thriving colonies of roaches that swarmed in the broken