Fury and the Power by John Farris Read Free Book Online Page A

mattered. Down two flights of iron stairs then, using both hands to keep Betts from falling.
    "I'm with the airline. We're trained for emergencies. Had to get you out of there."
    Betts, desperately sucking cleaner air, didn't argue or resist him. He opened a door at field level. Two tugs and a van with a bar of yellow lights on the roof were parked beneath a metal canopy. Rain lashed them as he pulled Betts to the van and seated her inside. She was rubbing at her eyes, still choking. He went around, got in behind the wheel, took a syringe from his shirt pocket. Betts's distress had lessened, but she didn't see it coming. Jumped and tried to pull away from him at the sting of the needle in the neck muscle. Looked at him, momentary fear in her eyes because of the syringe; and he was holding her very tight. Then she lost focus, went slack in his grip. Thirty seconds, and Betts was out.
    Solicitously he cleaned vomit from her chin with a baby wipe and sprayed scent in the cab of the van so he wouldn't smell her until he had the opportunity to clean her more thoroughly. He drove at a leisurely pace beneath the belly of a parked 747, seeing the lights of emergency vehicles heading toward him. He used an exit gate near the freight terminal. Four minutes later he lifted Betts from the airport van and put her into a rental car he'd left behind the Dumpsters of a fast-food place on route 82 in Burlingame.
    The rain had let up some. The Assassin smiled at Betts, who snored mildly in the seat beside him. He noticed then that she'd lost a shoe somewhere. No matter. He already was anticipating home-cooked meals in their hideaway. Waiting for Eden Waring to come to Betts's rescue, and at last reveal her secrets to him. For months (with the ardor of a stifled romantic who had conceived his unobtainable woman and kept her in a hollow of the heart, consumed her in a lifetime of longing) the Assassin had yearned for the return of Eden.
    But the question remained:   how did one lay a ghost for good?

Chapter 5
     
    LAKE NAWASHA,KENYA
    OCTOBER 13
    1145 HOURS ZULU
     
    S ix of them made the short trip from Shungwaya to the Naivasha Country Club for Sunday brunch:   Tom Sherard, Bertie, Eden, and Jean-Baptiste, her date for the afternoon, in Tom's Discovery, with Etan Culver and his model wife Pegeen following in a Land Cruiser.
    Sunday brunch at the club was always an event in their neighborhood. From the terrace, past pink clouds of bougainvillea and pastel jacaranda, there was a view of the lake and water-skiers raising graceful plumes in the afternoon sun. Celebrity-spotting on the terrace was a discreet but popular sport. Movie and rock stars, the occasional crowned head. Today they had a junketing U.S. Senator and his entourage, the old boy half drunk and loud and oblivious of the excellent food and calm beauty of their surroundings. There were also a Swedish ballerina and a magician, with whom Eden made unintentional eye contact. He smiled, seemed to wonder momentarily where he knew her from; then his attention was engaged by a member of his party.
    "Illusionist," Bertie said. "Name's Lincoln Grayle." She was alert to something in Eden's expression. Bertie leaned over and whispered in Eden's ear while Jean-Baptiste was looking the other way, talking to Pegeen. "Want to meet him?"
    "You know him?"
    "I know everybody," the globe-trotting Bertie said. She excused herself and walked toward the table for eight where Lincoln Grayle was the centerpiece. Attracting wide attention with her stature, the toned fluency of movement, happily aware of herself, pride in the wealth of a young flawless body.
    Eden knew she had seen Grayle before, although she wasn't much interested in magicians and their art. TV, probably. One of the women at his table was wearing a light windbreaker with the stylized NBC peacock logo.
    Grayle stood up at Bertie's insouciant approach. Well, hello ! Air kisses. Never know who you're going to run into. Habari gani , darling.