Outlaw Derek Read Online Free PDF

think I’ll need your clout, I’ll let you know. Civatech is a private company with a lot of military contracts: we should keep you out of this, if possible. I’ll protect Shannon while I do some checking. I know a few sources.”
    Reluctantly, Franklin said, “If you say so. But keep me advised. And, if something goes wrong, Derek—”
    “If something goes wrong,” Derek said steadily, “I’ll see to it that Shannon gets to you safely.”
    “All right.” The governor’s voice was somber. “Take care. And take care of her.”
    “I will.” Derek cradled the receiver and then ran a hand around the back of his neck. The first thing he had to do, he acknowledged, was to get some sleep, otherwise he wouldn’t be worth the bullet to shoot him. He looked at his watch, calculating that between the pill and her exhaustion Shannon probably would sleep at least six more hours. Trusting that she had indeed lost her pursuer of the night before, he stretched out on the couch and mentally set his internal clock to wake him up.
    Then he went to sleep. All of him did, except the watchful part that never slept.
    Across the street, a tall man who had stood with utter stillness in the shadows of waning night and the chill of a gray dawn straightened as the street became active with the bustle of day. He stepped out of the alley where he had waited so watchfully for several hours and strolled casually across the street, into the lobbyof the apartment building that had been the focus of his attention.
    There was a row of mailboxes in one wall, and he stood scanning them intently, his peculiarly colorless eyes coming to rest at last on a single name. One brow lifted and he whistled softly, tonelessly. He reached up to tap a knuckle against the nameplate thoughtfully, then glanced toward the stairs. After a silent debate, not one argument of which showed on his expressionless face, he turned away and retraced his steps.
    He didn’t pause at the alley this time, but moved along briskly, nothing setting him apart from other pedestrians … except that those other early-morning people sent the tall man unconsciously wary glances and instinctively gave him plenty of room on the sidewalk. He didn’t notice or, if he did, found nothing unusual in the reaction.
    He hailed a cab at the end of the block, changing taxis three times before finally reaching his destination. And, even then, he waited across thestreet, watching the traffic pass for nearly an hour before he strolled over and entered a second apartment building, this one more shabby than the first. He ignored the elevator, taking the stairs and climbing to the third floor, knocking lightly on the door of a corner apartment. It opened for him almost instantly, and he went inside.
    “Well?” she asked tensely.
    “The girl found sanctuary,” he said a bit dryly.
    “What? With who?”
    “Whom,” he murmured.
    She frowned at him, her thin little face angry. “Stop correcting my grammar!” Like him, she had no accent of any kind, but a perceptive observer would have realized that neither of them had spoken English from childhood. “She got away from them? Where did she go?”
    “To our old friend from Prague.”
    She caught her breath, and a flush came and went quickly on her small face. “Him? But he was out of the country, you said—”
    “It appears he has returned.”
    “How did she know to go to him?”
    “I have no idea. She went directly to his apartment after checking a telephone directory, so I assume she knew who she was going to.” He shrugged out of his coat and went into the kitchen, returning with a cup of coffee. “It is difficult to judge,” he went on thoughtfully, “how much or how little she may know. However, since they destroyed her apartment, it is reasonable to assume she knows something.”
    “And so?”
    “We wait.”
    Shannon was still sleeping when Derek woke exactly six hours later. He checked on her and then went to take a shower. The