Orchid by Jayne Castle Read Free Book Online

job,” he muttered. “I’m the president and chief financial advisor.”
    Strat-talents were supposed to be good businesspeople, she reminded herself. “I see.”
    Who would have guessed, she thought. Stranger and stranger.
    She was aware of Rafe pacing along beside her. If one discounted the subtle aura of power he radiated, there was nothing extraordinary about him. He was of medium height and he appeared to be in excellent physical shape. He looked lean and sleekly muscled in his dark sweater and trousers. His near-black hair was cut a little too short for current fashion.
    It was, perhaps, unfortunate, given the nature of his particular psychic talent, that he had been endowed with the blunt, hard features and the intense eyes of a predator, she thought.
    â€œDo take a look at my wonderful new Inchman, for me, Rafe.” Elvira motioned toward a small volume. “I love it, but I have a nasty suspicion that it may be a forgery. I suppose there would be some ironic justice in that. Nevertheless, I would like to get a second opinion and I can hardly ask a professional—”
    She broke off abruptly, interrupted by a high-pitched, electronic wail that oscillated suddenly through the steel gallery. The sound was not especially loud but it struck Orchid’s nerves with an eerie intensity. She was abruptly dizzy.
    An expression of acute dismay crossed Elvira’s face. “Oh, dear.”
    Rafe winced as if in severe pain. He put his hands over his ears. “Five hells. The new security system, I assume?”
    â€œI’m afraid so.” Elvira closed her eyes and put her hand to her forehead. “The installer said there might be a few false alarms in the beginning. I’m afraid we have a problem.”
    â€œDo something.” Orchid felt as if she were standing on the bow of a ship that was being tossed about by violent waves. She steadied herself with one hand against the wall. “Turn it off.”
    â€œThat’s the problem.” Elvira swayed on her feet and gave Orchid a deeply apologetic look. “I can’t. Not from in here. The lights will go next, unfortunately.”
    Rafe took his hands away from his ears and moved swiftly toward the door at the far end of the gallery. She caught a glimpse of his grim face and knew that he was as uncomfortable as everyone else.
    Perhaps he was actually in more distress she thought, not without a pang of genuine sympathy. He was a strat-talent, after all. His kind were believed to have more acute physical senses than other people, even when they were not employing their psychic energy. She could only imagine what the strange, disorienting wail of the siren was doing to his ears and his equilibrium.
    â€œWhy doesn’t one of your household staff stop it?” Rafe called out to Elvira as he went toward the door.
    â€œI gave them the night off when I heard you would be dropping by for a visit.” Elvira sounded weak. “There’s no one here but us.”
    The lights over the bookcases winked out with startling abruptness, plunging the steel-lined room into Stygian darkness.
    â€œWonderful.” Rafe’s voice echoed eerily in the tomblike chamber. “Just what we needed to make the evening perfect.”
    â€œWhat is it about that siren?” Orchid shook her head, trying to clear it. “For some reason it makes me feel as if I’m about to pass out.”
    â€œIt’s designed to make you do just that. The sound waves it generates interfere with the natural synergy of ear-brain patterns to create a disorienting sensation.” Elvira’s voice was whisper-thin now. “In fact, I believe I’m about to faint, myself.”
    â€œElvira.” Rafe’s voice sharpened. “The door’s locked from the outside. We’re trapped in this damn gallery of yours.”
    â€œThe crypto-talent who installed the system designed it so that any thief who found his way