Alternities Read Online Free PDF Page B

wall. He ran toward it, knowing that Chambers was close behind him, showing Chambers his fleeing silhouette. He plunged through the doorway just as the barking report of the revolver sounded in the corridor.
    The gate was there, shimmering, open. But Wallace balled himself in a back corner of the closet, out of sight of the door, and waited.
    He did not have to wait long. Chambers had to be sensing the end of the chase, confident beyond certainty that his quarry was unarmed, believing that his perseverance was about to be rewarded. Suddenly he was there in the doorway, revolver secured in its holster as a precaution. He was ready to finish the job with his powerful hands.
    But he could not have known what he would see, could not have guessed that the source of the cold yellow light would be an oval of bare wall wider than his outstretched arms. Forgetting Wallace for a moment, he stepped toward the gate uncertainly, raised a hand to try to touch it.
    And as he did, Wallace rose up from where he crouched and flung himself at Chambers from behind. As he wrapped his arms around the bewildered officer, the force of the collision and Wallace’s driving legs carried them both forward—toward the wall and through the gate.
    Once through, Wallace barely had time to release his grip before the white fire lashed out. A wave of pressure drove him inexorably away as, in silence but with terrifying intensity, the energies inside the gate discharged through the dozens of metal objects which Chambers wore and carried.
    One second crawled into the next. Chambers became the heart of a man-sized ball of dancing lightning. The dazzle was so intense that Wallace had to look away, and for one long moment he felt regret, empathy. He had lost friends between the gates, and dreamed at times of dying there, and in neither case had he conceived of a death this cold and final.
    Then the light was extinguished, and Chambers was gone, consumed. The seething energies of the gate quieted, and Wallace suppressed his qualms. He had done what was necessary. He was a member of the Tower Guard, and he had protected his Home. His victim had only been a shadow, an unreality from an unreal world.
    Except that it was the first time he had killed for the Guard, and the shadow had worn the face of a man.

Downham House
Knight’s Bridge Road
Essex
    November 14, 1978
    Dear Gregory,
    … There is a bit of a chill here already, and once again this year we are facing a terrible problem with rodents looking to come inside. After much persuasion, the landlord has agreed to release some weasels—or to look the other way while I do—in the hope that the rodent invasion can be blunted. The problem is that weasels are proscribed and it may be difficult, tho not impossible, to bring them into the country. Please ask your father if he knows any dealers, or whether any trappers there might be willing to take on the job. The expense and responsibility on this end will be mine…
    With affection,
    Robbie
    GLAVNOYE RAZVEDYVATELNOYE
UPRAVLENIYE INTERCEPT
    Sender identity: Robert Halcomb Taskins. United States Ambassador to Great Britain
Recipient identity: Gregory O’Neill. United States Secretary of Defense
Evaluation: Imputed relationship verified, files. Complaint verified, local interviews. GRU New England verifies that John O’Neill, father of Gregory, owns small farm outside Derry, Massachusetts.
Conclusion: Personal communication.
Delete from alert list: WEASEL, LANDLORD.
    Vladimir Orens , GRU London

CHAPTER 2
----
Wolf May Come, Sky May Fall
Essex, England, The Home Alternity
    That was the damnable thing about dealing with parliamentary governments, Robert Taskins thought as he hurriedly dressed. You never could be sure whom you would be dealing with one year to the next.
    The summons had come early, delivered in person by a fresh-faced aide from the new Prime Minister’s office. And summons was the only word for it: “I wish to speak with you at once. Come to the