Sleeping With the Enemy Read Online Free PDF

were.”
        Sarcasm laced the comment, sparking another flicker of surprise and the realization that he’d already made the comment once.
        “Yes,” she said finally, then added, “orbiting Venus.”
        “Why are you here?”
        Sybil chewed the inside of her cheek, trying to decide whether to answer that or not or, more specifically, what would be best to say. “Taking readings of Venus’ atmosphere,” she replied finally, realizing that it was pointless to try to lie. She was pretty sure they would be able to tell what the instruments on the ship were for.
        “To what purpose?”
        Sybil felt her first flicker of resentment. “Scientific curiosity,” she said, an edge to her voice that stilled the quaver of fear that had laced it before.
        Annoyance, she thought, flickered in his eyes briefly, and then suspicion. “You’re a scientist?”
        Sybil nodded a little jerkily, relieved that that wasn’t a lie. “Yes.”
        “The suit you were wearing looked amazingly military.”
        She felt her cheeks flush with a combination of irritation and embarrassment that he’d caught her in a lie-one of omission, but still a lie. “I am, but I’m attached to the space program.” How much, she wondered, did he/they know about them?
        Probably pretty much everything, she realized in dismay. No one worried too much about security breaches in space… mostly because there was no way to prevent anyone from picking up chatter between the ships and control but also because they hadn’t actually expected anyone to be listening.
        “But this is not a military operation? This scientific expedition to study the atmosphere of Venus?”
        Sybil swallowed convulsively several times. “It wasn’t intended as one-no,” she lied.
        “But that is subject to change very swiftly, yes?”
        She blanched. She certainly wasn’t in any position to be throwing threats around. “I didn’t say that.”
        “You didn’t have to. The ship carries the emblem of the U.S. and you are human. Your species is aggressive and war-like as a whole, and few of the nations of Earth more so than the U.S.”
        Indignation swelled within Sybil despite her fear. “That’s not true! We defend ourselves-ferociously, but we don’t start the wars-hardly ever, anyway! And we certainly didn’t come here with the intention of starting one! We just came to see what was going on!”
        “We?”
        Sybil felt like she might faint for a moment. She’d let her emotions run away with her and given away the others! “I mean they sent me to take some readings.”
        “And the others we captured on the surface?”
        Bastard! He’d just wanted to see if she would lie, damn him! He’d known about the others all along! She swallowed with an effort. “They’re here?”
        Instead of responding, he turned. A hole opened in the wall, he stepped through, and it closed. Feeling abruptly weak after his departure, Sybil slid down the wall and drew her knees up to her chest. She discovered it was impossible to think, though. Her mind kept running back over the interrogation like a hamster on an exercise wheel, examining her responses and his questions until she’d convinced herself that every word out of her mouth had been more damning than the last.
        She should’ve simply refused to answer, but then she hadn’t been able to wrap her mind around the fact that she truly was a captive of hostiles! * * * *
        The woman had almost managed to convince Anka that he’d made a mistake in taking the humans captive-almost. It wouldn’t have mattered, though, if the ship they’d taken had been sent merely out of scientific curiosity. The odds were that they still would’ve seen more than they should and they would’ve raced back to tell their people-and then a military operation would’ve been launched.
        There seemed no solution to their dilemma. It might have bought them