Slave Empire III - The Shrike Read Online Free PDF

her room, she had a dangerous psychological condition, an
imbalance in her brain’s electrical structure. The only explanation
was that her brain was badly scarred, and the matrix of her mind
had shifted. The experts Vidan had consulted had told him that a
shock could trigger the condition.
    The Envoy’s
scars went deep, and she teetered on the brink of an abyss that
could swallow her reason and put her into a permanent coma. That
prospect terrified him. The thought of losing her made him shake
with unfocussed anger and dread. The mere sight of his scars had
been enough to send her into a blank spell; learning the truth
about him and ending her dreams of a proper marriage might prove
too much.
    For the same
reason, he could never tell her how he felt, or allow her to get
too close to him. Her touch made him shudder, but how could he ever
explain why? How could he tell her that no one had touched his skin
for over fifty years, until she had so briefly held his hand? She
would never understand how uncomfortable that had made him, even
though it had not been as bad as it should have. Since she had come
to the base, her attempts to hold his hand had discomfited him on
several occasions. She had no idea of the depravities he had
suffered, and he did not think she would be able to deal with it.
He cursed and headed for the bathroom to take the shower he had
been planning.
    When Rayne did
not join him for dinner, he went to her apartment. Finding it
empty, he headed for the station’s command centre, using his cyber
implant to send a query ahead to Vidan. The Atlantean was clearly
surprised that Tarke contacted him via the base’s cyber-linked
communications system, since he rarely used it. He replied that
Rayne had left the base two hours before to visit her brother on
Darmon, and she had told him Tarke knew about it.
    “She lied,”
Tarke said as he entered the command centre. “She didn’t tell me
anything.”
    Vidan regarded
him with deep alarm. “What’s happened?”
    “She’s upset.
She asked a bunch of questions I couldn’t answer.”
    “Couldn’t or
wouldn’t?”
    “One more shock
could push her over the edge. You said it.” Tarke loomed over the
short man.
    “That’s true,
but this might be worse. She might not find the truth all that bad,
you know.”
    “What escort
does she have?”
    “She didn’t
want one. I told her she had no choice and assigned two cruisers,
but she didn’t wait for them.”
    Tarke thumped a
console, making the holograms flicker. “Damn it!”
    “Darmon should
be safe. The Atlanteans don’t own it.”
    “No, the damned
Yasmarians do, and they’re Atlan’s allies. If Tallyn’s got any
brains at all, he’ll have set a trap at her brother’s house, won’t
he?”
    Vidan looked
aghast. “You really think they’d do that?”
    “You tell me;
they’re your people. How low would they stoop to capture me, huh?
To put an end to what they think is the biggest slaver empire in
the galaxy.”
    “Pretty low,”
Vidan muttered. “But the Golden Child? They wouldn’t dare.”
    “Maybe they
would, if they thought they could keep it quiet. What the public
don’t know, they won’t complain about. By the time they release her
they’ll be celebrating my capture, won’t they?”
    Vidan groaned.
“Why didn’t you just tell her the truth?”
    “She’s not
ready for it. She may never be. I won’t risk it.”
    “You haven’t
even told her how you feel.”
    “How the hell
do you know that?” Tarke demanded.
    “She told me.
She asked me why you married her.”
    “And what did
you say?”
    “I told her to
ask you.”
    Tarke cursed.
“That’s only made the situation worse. Now she thinks we’re all in
on the conspiracy, ganging up on her because she’s an empath.”
    “Why would she
think that?”
    “Because she is an empath! You want paranoia by the ship load? Find an
empath who’s been around a lot of people, and you’ll find enough
paranoia to infect the populations