Rescue From Planet Pleasure Read Online Free PDF Page A

kicked dirt from the base and exposed a concrete footing. These towers were here to stay.
    I circled the tower and discovered a postcard-sized placard attached at eye level. The placard listed a serial number, followed by what I figured were technical specs, and this: Property of Cress Tech International.
    “The plot thickens.”
    “What do you mean?” Jolie read the placard over my shoulder.
    “Remember Hilton Head?”
    “How could I forget?”
    That was where we had lost Carmen to the aliens. The hotel complex on the island disguised a safe room for Clayborn. “The alien facility on Hilton Head was built and operated by Cress Tech International.” I pointed to what was written on the placard. “The same people who erected these.”
    Jolie backtracked from the tower. “Fuck me.”
    “Hold that thought.” I also stepped back and kept my eyes fixed to the box mounted on the tower. The box had a transparent prism on top.
    My kundalini noir tingled and not in a good way.
    “Now what?” Jolie had been watching me, sunglasses raised to read my aura. I’m sure it sparked with plenty of dismay.
    “I know what that box is. A psychotronic diviner.”
    “How is that different from the projector those bastards had on the truck?”
    “This one only detects psychic energy transmissions. The Araneum gave me a copy that I had used to home in on Phaedra back before I turned her.”
    Jolie lowered her shades. She spread her arms to encompass the tower array. “So this was built to detect psychic energy?”
    “I’m guessing more.” I stared at the diviner and paged through my memory for details. “Here’s what I remember. The Roswell UFO had been taken to Rocky Flats for study. The Araneum built a psychotronic diviner from plans sketched by a Doctor Milan Blavatsky, one of the Rocky Flats scientists assigned to reverse engineer the alien technology.”
    “The government knows about psychic energy?”
    “For decades, I’m sure. Mostly to experiment with one crackpot scheme after another. Remote viewing. Mind reading.”
    “But these work?” Jolie jabbed at the psychotronic diviner. “Right?”
    “They do.”
    “Can they detect us?”
    “Not unless they found a way to improve them. And even if they did, their surveillance would be cluttered with signals. Everything with an aura transmits psychic energy. Me. You. The rabbits. The birds. Even plants. What the diviners detect are bursts of concentrated psychic energy.”
    “Felix, the closer we get to Fajada Butte, the clearer the answers are supposed to get. But look at what we have in this crazy-ass bitch of a mystery.” Jolie counted on her fingers. “Psychic energy. That murderous wench, Phaedra. Vampire assassins. A super-secret government contractor.”
    “And Carmen in outer space.”
    “Yeah, that.” Visibly exasperated, she brandished one hand, all five fingers extended. “Is there anything else?”
    “ Chale locita , don’t forget me.” The voice surprised us from behind.
    Talons and fangs extending, Jolie and I whipped about.
    “Hey, vatos . ’Bout time you showed up.” It was Coyote.
    ***

Chapter Five
    Imagine a scrawny, mangy coyote. Imagine the tricky, thieving look in its eyes. Now turn that coyote into a human form.
    That’s Coyote.
    The last time I saw him, back in Los Angeles, he had cleaned up his act—literally. With a haircut and a shave, a tailored dress shirt with pearl snaps, pressed jeans, Mexican cowboy boots. No surprise the reason for that transformation was an ex-porn star with J-cup breasts.
    Now he appeared as I remembered him best, dressed like he’d stolen clothes from the Salvation Army and then scrambled through a barbed wire fence. A stained and tattered denim jacket over a threadbare plaid shirt, a pair of jeans even more ragged than his jacket, dirty cross trainers with his toes pushing through the sides. I’d have to ask him what had happened to his girlfriend with the big hooters.
    A wispy mustache darkened his