Sorcerer: A Loveswept Contemporary Classic Romance Read Online Free PDF Page B

fish he was. She turned away, unable to face the cool calculation she knew she’d find in his eyes. “We’d better get moving. We haven’t got much—”
    “Ms. Polanski?”
    “Yes?” she replied, pretending to be fascinated by a stand of trees off to the left.
    The doctor hesitated, then cleared his throat. “Harrumph. Yes, well, I just wanted to make you aware that the simulator’s representations of … certain responses, can be digitally corrupted. You shouldn’t be overly concerned by what happens here. It’s … only a projection.”
    Jill stiffened. Was Sinclair actually trying to make her feel less foolish about what she’d done? Or was he just setting her up for another experiment? She turned back, meeting the doctor’s gaze with open suspicion. But before she could determine his intent, he frowned and looked past her, fixing his gaze on the stand of trees she’d recently pretended to study.
    “There’s something moving behind those poplars.”
    “Do you think it’s Einstein?”
    “Maybe,” he said, walking past her. “But I’d advise you to stay behind me all the same. There’s no telling what might be over there.”
    He started toward the trees, but Jill called him back. “Dr. Sinclair? I just wanted to say … well, thanks. From one projection to another.”
    He glanced over his shoulder, arching his eyebrow in wry amusement. He started to say something, but he never got the opportunity. At that moment the “something” came out from behind the concealing trees.
    It wasn’t Einstein.
    The creature was huge with gray-green skin and arms as thick as tree trunks. It walked upright and wore a dirt-caked leather tunic, but those were itsonly concessions to humanity. Bloodred eyes glowed malevolently from under its jutting brow, and oversize yellow canines curved up from its lantern jaw. Worst of all, the thing smelled as if it hadn’t had a bath since Creation.
    “Good Lord!” Sinclair exclaimed, stopping dead in his tracks. “What is that thing?”
    “I think it’s an orc,” Jillian said as she came to his side. “A small one.”
    “Small?”
Sinclair swung his gaze back to the advancing monster. Slightly stooped, it still stood well over seven feet. It looked as if it could wrestle a baby elephant to the ground—with one arm tied behind its back.
    And it was heading straight for them.
    “Parker!” Sinclair barked. “Get that thing out of here!”
    “I’m trying,” Felix answered, “but the pattern’s imbedded in the topological matrix. I can’t locate it.”
    “Bloody hell,” Sinclair cursed, finding the oath more useful as time went by. The topological program listing for this overlay was easily six inches deep. Unless he knew exactly where to look, Felix wasn’t going to find the creature’s pattern anytime soon.
    Sinclair shook his head, feeling the beginning of a tremendous headache coming on. He glanced back at the giant monstrosity, grateful that the ponderous thing moved slowly. They could easily outrun it. He grabbed Ms. Polanski’s wrist and started back the way they came, intending to do just that.
    Ms. Polanski didn’t budge. “Uh-oh,” she said.
    Uh-oh
proved to be an understatement. Looking back, Sinclair saw that his cybernaut partner had inadvertently stepped right into the middle of another bramble bush. Slow as the monster was, it would reach them before they could free her from the thorns. Sighing, he realized there was only one solution. “Cancel the experiment, Hedges. Bring us out.”
    There was a long silence before Sadie Hedges’s disembodied voice answered him. “I can and I can’t, Doc.”
    “Sadie,” Sinclair breathed, trying to contain his temper, “this isn’t open to debate. Bring us out.
Now!
”
    “Doc,
you
I can bring out, no problem. But look where
she’s
standing.”
    Sinclair peered through the tangle of branches at his partner’s feet, and saw a faint flickering line of cobalt blue. Damn. The thorn bush was