A Question of Will Read Online Free PDF Page B

time. She could call Will and warn him, but he couldn’t get here any faster, and she’d simply try to talk him out of coming. It wouldn’t work; he’d come no matter what. She could try to run, but the men who had entered the community earlier in the dream would undoubtedly be making sure she couldn’t run far, and having a six-year-old boy with her would slow her progress.
    She was on her own. She needed to protect Josh at all costs, and defend herself as best she could.
    One woman. One six-year-old boy. A dog. One semi-automatic pistol. Against four psychotic professional killers armed with knives. Or swords, if her dream were as accurate as it now seemed.
    It just didn’t seem fair.
     
     
     
    Mark hung up the phone. “She’s convinced everything is fine.”
    “I disagree.” The words reminded Mark of the fear the man instilled in him, fear multiplied by the mangled body of his friend and coworker lying only a few feet away.
    “What are you talking about? I told her she was imagining things, that calling the police wasn’t necessary...”
    “You told her exactly the situation. She knows.”
    Thank God. “You have no way of knowing that.”
    “I know quite a lot. Mrs. Stark has a gun which she is retrieving now, and which she will attempt to fire at me. I thank you for uncovering that detail with your coded conversation.”
    Mark’s head bowed. He’d tried. He prayed that somehow, Hope Stark could survive these monsters, perhaps even kill them first in self-defense. The killers’ demise would certainly bode well for Gena. He had done the best he could for Mrs. Stark. He hoped he’d done all he could for his fiancée.
    “I will not be the one to inflict Gena’s punishment for your lack of cooperation.”
    Mark’s head snapped back up. Was he actually saying...?
    “I will leave that detail to one of my colleagues. They are far less skilled than I. She will suffer more for it. Your lack of cooperation has made her suffering a necessity.”
    Sanity lost, Mark sprang to his feet to charge the man, but the killer moved his arm, and Mark felt something sting him. He glanced down, his anger replaced once again by terror. Somehow, his skin was on fire, literal flames burning through him. He opened his mouth to scream, but the killer’s sword flashed. “I tire of your noise,” he said. Mark fell to the ground, and the race was on to see whether the gaping wound in his neck or the flames would kill him first.
    The Assassin sheathed his weapon without cleaning it, and he walked with supreme calm through the guard door on the inside of the property. He then turned and began his march to the Stark’s home.
    The death toll for the day was nearly complete. Two down. One to go.
    It was time to visit Hope Stark.
     

 
     
     
     
    III
    Discovery
     
     
    Myra VanderPoole felt fatigued.
    She’d spent the entire day shopping, interrupted only by an early lunch and a light dinner. Years earlier, she’d spent time enjoying the night life as well, but that was before Jim had died twenty years ago. She still retained her old spending habits, though, enjoying the finer things in life with the money she’d received from the sale of the business she and Jim had built. Let the young Starks spread their wealth around like fools. She had earned hers, and she intended to spend every penny of it before she died, all on her own interests and pleasure.
    The Starks, despite their propensity to lavish prosperity upon the unworthy, had proved useful. The plan they’d devised for this private, gated community was brilliant. It provided isolation from the general public and total privacy from neighbors. And they had an exterior security system for the community that was so advanced that even an elderly woman like her could walk about in the evening without concern for her well-being. It was as it should be. The annual dues for the community were excessive, used to pay for upkeep of the fortress walls, security systems, and