Dragonstar Destiny Read Online Free PDF Page A

don’t look like an A-rab spy,” said Linden, affecting a southern twang.
    “Funny, you don’t, either,” responded Marshall. “And you TWC people ain’t supposed to have a sense of humor, either!”
    Alexandra Linden shrugged. “Allah chuckles from time to time, I suppose.”
    “If Allah truly exists, I suppose indeed he does.”
    “Oh, come off those stupid doubts of yours!” she said, suddenly harsh. “You really can’t afford them, Timothy,”
    ”I don’t know. I suppose it was a perverse luxury back a couple of years ago ... enjoying the luxury and life-style of the West, while nurturing a big secret in your heart. But after getting called up—” He gestured expansively at his surroundings. “And certainly after all this—one begins to wonder.”
    “Too true. But there are too many oaths, too many duties and obligations ... too much inside us that is of the Old Lands to allow doubts to have any effect. Who is to say, my Hasan”—which was her secret name for him— “we may have truly been swallowed by a djinn, and we walk in some desert mirage ... This perhaps is some test of our faith!”
    Linden looked at her skeptically. “Stow it, daughter of the desert. We do what we do because we’ve been trained to. I don’t need to hear the damned theology.”
    She shrugged, her face all business again. “All right. Now, I think that if we take that pathway up there, we can get to the source of these readings.”
    “Okay. I’ll go first.”
    They threaded through a couple boulders, then found the narrow stony pathway that Marshall had indicated.
    “I figure only about fifty meters,” she said, looking up from her board.
    “Yeah, but with this kind of zigzag path, it will take a little while.”
    Which it did.
    Nor was it truly a pathway. They found themselves often having to climb and crawl over considerable obstacles, from rocks to boulders.
    “I hope that Jakes is damned grateful,” said Linden, sweat dripping down his face. “This is work!”
    “And let’s hope the TWC is grateful!”
    “l didn’t know they got grateful.”
    “If we ever get back, we’ll get our reward, I’m sure.”
    “I’ll just settle for staying alive right now, thank you.”
    Finally the pathway opened up into a large clearing, perhaps forty meters in diameter. Marshall’s readings indicated that the radiation emanated from the other side. But what lay between them and it was of much more obvious interest.
    It seemed, at first sight, to be an allosaurus, stretched out on its side. It appeared also to be dead. But no scavengers were present, feasting on its flesh ... and upon further inspection, it proved to be still breathing, its thick sides rising and falling regularly .
    “Be careful,” said Linden, holding up a warning hand after clicking off the safety of his rifle. “What do you make of it? Think this radiation has affected it?”
    “Nothing indicates the radiation is harmful ...”
    “Doesn’t have to be harmful to affect something ... Damn! Do you see that?”
    The allosaurus spasmed a little, twitching as it rolled over, revealing its true nature.
    It was an allosaurus, all right ... both Marshall and Linden had seen them before.
    But it was an allosaurus with two heads.
    Two heads, to say nothing of the extra limb that grew from its side, and the rudimentary tail that sprouted midway from its original tail.
    “Some kind of freak?” wondered Linden.
    “I don’t know,” said Marshall. “But whatever it is, I’m getting a picture of it.” She pulled out her special Leica for a shot. “Mikaela Lindstrom will certainly want to see this!” The device clicked twice. Alexandra Marshall adjusted it, and then moved closer to get better shots of the creature’s extreme abnormalities.
    “Alexandra, you don’t have to get too close.”
    “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll be careful. Fascinating, isn’t it? Like something in a horror movie!”
    “This whole month has been like something