Henderson waited another few moments, as if gauging his silence.“Well, if she’s that fragile, the Sigs would have broken her in less than a day.Probably best this way, though we still have faulty telem rigs.Goddammit.We’ll leave in twenty-four hours.Have her ready to go by then.”
Delgado nodded again.“Thank you, sir.”
Cath sniggered.Del looked at her steadily, and after a moment she shut up and looked away, the chains on her leather pants clicking again as she shifted uneasily.
The General swept for the door.Halfway there, he paused.“Delgado?”
“Yessir?”
“I had no idea you were so patient.”
Left alone with Rowan, he paced to the side of the bed.It took a moment to peel the plasilica off her wrist, but the sedation meant she couldn’t feel him.It also meant he couldn’t feelher, but that was a good thing.He paused, looking down at her sleeping face.She looked as if she was barely breathing.When she woke up, she was likely to be disoriented from the drug and shock, not to mention mistrustful of him.
“I’m sorry,” he said to her weary, sleeping face.“I’ll take care of you.”
CHAPTERTWELVE
“Good morning,”he said quietly.
Rowan blinked.She had been dreaming of something very important—a green hill?No, something else.
“There’s breakfast.And coffee.”He ran his hand back through his short dark hair.The light was brighter and showed a scar on his chin, white against his dark stubble.
Rowan jerked up to sitting, bracing her hands on the mattress.The quilt slid off her shoulders.Her mouth tasted dry and odd, and her head felt fuzzy.Her throat ached, and her arm too.She hitched in a breath, as if she was going to scream again.
Delgado held out a coffee cup.The familiar electric prickles ran over her skin.He was looking at her.Really looking at her.“Here, have some.It will help you feel better.”
That made her laugh, a dry, awful sound.Her throat was on fire.
The room was small, and the curious dead quality to the air told her she was in the same place he’d brought her to last night.Wood paneling, a bed, two chairs, a small table, and a rug—no plants, no bookcases, not even a painting on the walls.Rowan took this in, and then she looked at the fireplace, which was merrily burning a cement log.
Gas.It was a gas fireplace.The place was like a tomb.
“It feels funny in here,” she said huskily, and took the coffee cup with trembling hands.Her bruised arm twinged.
“That’s the dampers and the shielding.Keeps us safe from the Sigs and also blocks out all the noise of so many people thinking.”He hadn’t shaved, but he was wearing a fresh T-shirt and a pair of dark jeans.His coat was gone, and so was the gun.
Daddy,she thought automatically, and the memory of her father’s heavy body, the last chilling gurgle as he died in her arms, rose again.
She stared down into the coffee cup, her hands trembling even more.The terrible feeling of nakedness was still there, too.“I don’t feel good,” she whispered.“I want to go home.”
“It takes a little while to get used to the dampers.And if I could take you home I would.I don’t like this.But if you went home, or back to your job, or even stayed in this city for very long, Sigma would pick you up.They use people like you as weapons.”
“People like me?”She managed a scalding gulp of coffee.Even though it burned her throat, it did help her feel a little better.Daddy’s dead.The rising wave of unreality swamped her.“But I’m not anything special.”
“You’re psionic, Rowan.We don’t know what you can do yet, but you’re so powerful Sigma probably doesn’t care.”He picked up another cup of coffee.The mugs were blue lacquer, and very pretty.He carefully settled down in one of the chairs.“The bathroom’s through there, if you need it.Want some breakfast?”
“Whoareyou?”Now was as good a time as any to find out.“You’ve been following me.”
“I was trying to find a good way to make contact with you.Then the Sigs moved in.I’m sorry.”
She watched him over the rim of the cup.“So youspiedon me.”
“Would you have preferred me abducting you in a parking lot?Or shooting your family?I didn’t want to frighten you.I still don’t.”His eyes were narrow and flat.The electricity humming over Rowan’s skin had settled into a steady, prickling buzz.Why was he looking at her like that?
“Who do you work for?”she demanded, wincing as her throat reminded her she’d been screaming last night.
“The Society.”Patiently, very calm.“We won’t force you.You can work with us if you want, but you don’t have to.I’m going to be your mentor.Teach you how to control what you do.”
