Chameleon Read Online Free PDF Page B

this guy up so bad that he couldn’t come after me. The last one wasn’t looking too likely.
    As we continued circling the desk, the man pulled a knife from his jacket.
    “I’ll carve you into little pieces, girl. I don’t care if Helmann did send you.” Ivanovich’s voice dropped. “He’s not my boss. I serve only her .”
    “You’re Helga’s … creature,” I said, still circling around her desk.
    This seemed to please him. Blue–eyed man stopped circling and grinned, his lips stretching farther and farther until I could see all of his perfect white teeth. It was not a smile. It was feral. Dangerous.
    “I’m the fore–runner of the new generation,” he said, stalking me again.
    I moved towards the door leading to the larger lab room. The door was closed. I yanked it open and then pulled it tight shut behind me. I ran for a door, but disoriented, I chose the small room where Helga liked to pull teeth. Behind me, I heard the office door open.
    “Give me the book and I’ll kill you quickly,” said Ivanovich.
    “You’re crazy,” I said.
    “Crazy is not a designation that has meaning for the übermensch .”
    I dashed for the door that led out of the lab. Maybe I could hide in the ladies room I’d found last time: hide and ripple. As I wrenched the door open, my ankle gave way and I stumbled. A knife whizzed past me, through the space my head had occupied a moment ago.
    A scream escaped me and I flew down the corridor, hurling myself around the corner.
    “You’re making this fun for me,” called my pursuer. “I’ll give you that.” His voice followed me from behind. I heard him pause and imagined him recovering the knife.
    I rounded another corner, hearing feet picking up speed behind me. No escape; no place to hide. I threw myself down a new corridor and felt an icy patch of cold air.
    Will ! I bit my tongue, keeping myself from saying his name aloud. Ahead, I saw a men’s room.
    “In there,” whispered Will as he rippled solid. “I’ll take him off your trail!”
    Quick and silent, I slipped into the men’s restroom. Beyond the door, I heard Will’s footsteps continue down the hall. A moment later my pursuer found him.
    “Another one?” roared Ivanovich.
    My heart pounding, I crossed to the sink and started the water running. Calm. Peaceful. I stared at my hands, but they remained agonizingly solid. Please. And then I realized I didn’t have the black book any more. I’d dropped it! I thought back through the last ninety seconds and realized it must have slipped from my grasp when my ankle tweaked. It was lying back beside Helga’s lab door.
    I almost dashed out the door to retrieve the book, but stopped myself: I needed to ripple first. Returning my gaze to the water, I thought of Will, racing down the hall to save my butt. Again. Like the night he’d drawn the police off my trail by Las ABC. I owed that boy; I was not letting Helga’s thug hurt him. I turned off the water and closed my eyes, remembering Will’s arms around me the day he’d kissed me. His lips on mine, cracked on one side, but soft and warm and … I’d rippled.
    Gliding invisibly from the men’s room, I retraced my steps. The corridors looked so similar to one another and I wasn’t at all sure I was even going the right direction, but then I saw the black book, bent over upon itself half–way down the corridor to my left. I raced toward it and came solid again, leaning down.
    A knife whirred past me for the second time. “Enough with the knives!” I shouted, dashing forward to make sure I got to the dropped weapon first.
    At the far end of the hall, my pursuer paused. “How many of you did Helmann send?” he asked.
    “You’re being tested,” I lied, wildly. “He sent a dozen of us to see how you’d stand up to us.”
    Ivanovich slowed his advance towards me, tilting his head to one side, considering me.
    “And, you’re doing really well,” I said. “But he wants this book back now, so I’ll