Angel Eyes Read Online Free PDF Page A

penetrated the latticework structure, deeper and deeper, darkness and light, revealing layer upon layer of bones, as a spotlight pierces deep water.
    Tori saw a bar of light touch her skin, the flesh white among the white bones, a glare in her eyes, dazzling her, and she closed them, praying that she and Ariel had buried themselves deep enough so the Japanese could not distinguish the living from the dead. At that moment she felt a kinship with these poor, murdered people. If their spirits were still here, she prayed they would reach out to protect her.
    She breathed tidally, shut her mind down, diminished her wa, her inner energy which, if these Japanese had been trained as she had, they might be able to sense even though she was hidden from their sight.
    Beside her, Ariel did not move. He might have been dead. He knew what to do, too.
    "Bah! There's nothing here," one of the Japanese said.
    "The dead are here," the other Japanese said.
    "Mute witnesses. Let's go."
    But they did not move. "Those two saw us," the first Japanese said. ' 'I want them.''
    "Fine. I want them, too. But they're not here."
    Still, they did not leave. The light continued to play over the cairn. Abruptly it increased in brightness, and when the first Japanese spoke again, he was heartstoppingly close to where she and Ariel lay.
    ''Are you certain? What do I hear? Is it breathing? Is it you-or me? Are we the only ones in this room?"
    Tori felt a trickle of sweat make its way down the indentation of her spine. She recognized this man as the philosophical one, the maniac who said he enjoyed living outside the law. He was more dangerous than the other one; his imagination was by far the keener.
    She heard a metallic click, sharp, clear, echoing in the confined space, and she thought of the machine pistols they had been holding.
    "All I have to do to find out," the first Japanese said, "is to spray this pile of bones."
    Tori's heart threatened to burst through her rib cage.
    A loud scrape as of a shoe sole. Then the second Japanese said, "Are you crazy? This is a death site."
    "What do I care?" the first Japanese said harshly.
    "These dead haven't been property buried. Their spirits aren't at rest. To disturb them is a sin even you don't want to commit.'' There was a pause. "Why don't you admit we've lost them. It's a maze down here; they could be anywhere. We don't have the time to shoot up all the dark places in these tunnels. And we don't want to be heard. Come on. If we stay any longer we'll be in danger of missing our pickup. I don't know about you, but I want to get out of this hellhole.''
    "But those two-"
    "What did they see? They can't know what we're up to. Forget them. They were probably tourists who wandered down here for a thrill and a shiver in the dark.''
    "Shit."
    Then the light was gone, replaced by a glow in the tiny chamber, swiftly fading. Darkness descending, Ariel and Tori waited.
    Ariel started to move, but Tori put one hand on his shoulder, a finger pressed gently to his lips.
    Across the littered floor the rat was back, its bright, beady eyes shining, and Tori saw in their depths the possibility of betrayal. If the rat squealed now, and if, as she suspected, the Japanese were waiting with their light off just inside the adjoining chamber, then they would know that they had not been alone with the cairn of skeletons, and spirits or no spirits, the hail of machine-pistol fire would come, the end.
    Tori continued to watch the rat as it made its circuitous way toward them through the maze of bones. It was clear now that the rodent scented them, and it was hungry.
    Tori waited, patient, closing her eyes to slits. Her right hand lay relaxed along the line of Ariel's hip. The rat was very close now, and Tori, without seeming to move any other part of her body, whipped her right hand out to the rat and, in the same motion, neatly snapped its neck.
    Time passed. Tori let her consciousness drift off. Semiawake, but with her senses more alert