The Darkness of God: Book Three of the Shadow Warrior Trilogy by Chris Bunch Read Free Book Online Page B

carpet. The wheel spun, the ball bounced wildly about.
    Red/black/red/black flicker, slowing, the ball rattling from compartment to compartment, rolling, dropping into a red compartment …
    Wolfe
reached
out,
felt
white smoothness,
pushed …
    The ivory ball clicked to rest.
    “Vingt-quatre,”
the
tourneur
said.
“Rouge.”
    • • •
    “Did you do that?” Kristin demanded.
    “I’m not sure,” Wolfe lied. “I sure wanted that ball to jump a little bit.”
    “Without a Lumina.”
    “I was probably just lucky.”
    “Joshua,” Kristin said. “I’m not a fool. I know probabilities, and there’s no way you could have won that many times with so few losses.”
    “Sure there is,” Wolfe said. “Igraine had to win that many times to get the club, didn’t he?”
    “Not proven and an example of illogical thinking,” Kristin said. “So now we own a gambling club. That’ll be the trap for Aubyn?”
    “No,” Wolfe said. “It’s just the beginning.”
    Kristin yawned. “Tell me about it in the — oh my. It
is
morning.”
    “Gamblers, raiders, and lovers keep late hours, remember?”
    “Not this raider. I’m beat.”
    “Are you sure?” Joshua asked, running a tongue in and out of her navel.
    “I am. Go to sleep. You’ve got too much nervous energy.”
    • • •
    Wolfe woke suddenly. His sheets were sweat-soaked. He blinked around, then remembered where he was.
    It was past midday, and the suite was silent. Kristin lay next to him, breathing steadily, regularly.
    Red … creeping from star to star, fingers, tentacles reaching toward him …
    Wolfe shuddered.
    Can it sense me?
    Impossible.
    He lay back, tried to blank his mind, but
felt
the invader, pulsing like a bloody tumor, out there in the blackness.
    Quite suddenly something else came.
    It was almost as foreign, almost as alien.
    But it comforted.
    Light-years away, beyond the Federation, he
felt
them.
    The Guardians, truly the last of the Al’ar, hidden in the depths of the nameless world they’d tunneled deep into. Waiting. Waiting for Wolfe, waiting for him to return with the Lumina.
    Waiting for the “virus.”
    Waiting for death. Hoping it would be welcome.
    • • •
    He was awakened a second time by soft warmth around him, moving, caressing.
    Joshua looked down, and Kristin lifted her head.
    “I didn’t want you to think I don’t like doing it with you,” she said.
    “Never crossed my mind,” Joshua said.
    “Good,” she said, sitting up, bestriding him, her hands guiding, then she gasped as she sank down, enveloped him. “Oh good.”
    • • •
    “Preposterous,” the well-dressed man said.
    “Not at all,” Wolfe said calmly. He walked to the end of the conference table, looking at each of the ten men in the room, trying to feel their response. “I’ve owned the Oasis for two weeks now and have managed to almost double my receipts. I think it would be logical for you gentlemen to allow me to take a minority position in Nakamura’s. Both clubs attract much the same clientele, and it’s senseless to compete.
    “You’d not only see improved profits, but you wouldn’t have any of the problems of running a casino — which none of you, I’ve observed, had any experience doing prior to Mister Nakamura’s death.”
    “Why should we let you muscle in?” a fat, mean-faced man said. “We’ve done very damned well for ourselves in the past year.”
    “We have indeed,” the first man said. “We’ve learned the peculiarities of the trade, and are familiar with who to — deal with, and who to ignore.”
    “Matter of fact,” the fat man said, “whyn’t you let us buy
you
out? Seems more logical.”
    He laughed.
    “That’s very amusing,” Wolfe said. “And I do admire a logical man.”
    His smile was thin.
    • • •
    Wolfe’s fingers crept up the doorframe, found the sensor. Violet light flashed. His hand continued feeling the doorway. He found another alarm, neutralized it.
    He was one of two dark spots