Twilight Hunger by MAGGIE SHAYNE Read Free Book Online

was. But probably not. He’d been inside that burning building. That much was obvious.
    He limped past her, never even looking down at her as she sat there fighting not to shiver in fear. He moved so close she could smell his charred flesh, and it made her stomach clench reflexively.
    Something fell from his jacket. Something—no, two some things —dropped to the hot, rubble-strewn groundright at her feet. He never noticed, just kept going, dragging one leg, lunging with the other, until he vanished in the smoke.
    Swallowing hard, Maxine reached for the items. One was a CD-ROM. The other, some kind of ID badge. She swore every nerve ending in her body tingled with electricity as she tucked the two still-warm items carefully into her pocket and, turning, ran back the way she had come. She refused to look again at the carnage. Refused to look behind her, even when she swore she felt the disfigured man’s gaze burning into her back. She just hurried as fast as she could back to where she’d left her friends and fell to her knees near the shrub where they waited.
    â€œGod, thank God, you’re back!” Storm said. She bent over Max, stroking her back. “Are you all right? What happened back there?”
    â€œDid you find anything? What did you see?” Jason asked.
    Maxine lifted her head, looked at them. “It’s…there were…bodies.”
    â€œOh, God,” Storm said, closing her eyes.
    Max gripped Jason’s forearm, and he helped her to her feet. “Let’s get the hell out of here, okay?” he suggested.
    She nodded. They fell into step together, with Max in the center, her two friends flanking her almost protectively. They had made it almost all the way to the front gate when the sounds of rumbling motors flooded the night and vehicles came roaring along the street and into the drive. They ducked into the nearby pines, watching as camo-painted trucks and Jeeps with spotlights mounted on them bounded past. At least one vehiclehad a machine gun mounted on a tripod in the back. Soldiers armed with weapons came spilling out of the trucks and fanned out onto the grounds.
    Ten feet ahead of Max, a cop stood with his back to them, looking at the commotion with his head tilted to one side. Her cop, Maxine realized with a rush of relief.
    Jason saw him at the same time, squeezed Max’s arm, whispered, “Cop.”
    â€œIt’s okay. It’s Lou Malone.”
    Jason sent her a frown.
    â€œHe teaches that women’s self-defense course I take.”
    â€œYou remember him, Jay,” Storm put in. “He used to work our high school dances. He’s the one Maxie always had a crush on.”
    â€œOh, yeah. That one.” He sent Max a look that asked if she still did, but she just rolled her eyes and looked away.
    Someone spoke into a bullhorn, startling her so much that she jerked her gaze away from the back of Lou’s head. “This is a government facility and therefore, a military operation. Local firefighters are to cease all activity at once. No one is to leave this site without clearance. Line up in an orderly fashion near the front gate and you’ll be escorted off the premises. That is all.”
    â€œWhat the hell is going on, Max?” Storm whispered, clutching Maxine’s arm. “They’ve got guns. ”
    â€œThey’re not going to use them.” Jason tried to sound confident and sure of himself but missed that goal by about a mile. “I mean, they’re soldiers. They have to carry guns. Right?”
    They watched from their pine-scented blind as thesoldiers tugged firemen away from their hoses. Some of the firefighters obeyed, moving to form a straggling line by the gate. Those who didn’t move fast enough were searched where they were, then escorted to the front gate and through it. More soldiers searched the fire trucks, and the vehicles in the street, as well.
    â€œWell, I’ll be