Talons of the Falcon Read Online Free PDF

not at the words but at the visage of the man who had finally raised his head to stare up at her from his mobile prison. Neither Gordon’s report nor her own imagination could have really prepared her for this moment. Would she have recognized him as Mark Bradley if she’d encountered him in a private psychiatric hospital? She couldn’t honestly say.
    Her mind struggled to cope with the details of his ravaged appearance. Underneath the loose clothing he had lost considerable weight—as well as muscle tone. The dark hair was now a vivid contrast to the whiteness of his skin.
    It struck her suddenly that he looked like someone who had spent long months shut away in a dungeon. The lines at the corners of his eyes no longer suggested laughter but an experience so devastating that laughter might never be possible again.
    Apart from the effects of the injuries, this was not quite the face she remembered. But then the plastic surgeons might not have had a good photograph to work from.
    Anxiously, Eden sought some sign of recognition in his eyes. For a second she thought she saw a flash of pain in their obsidian depths. Then the eyes seemed to go flat. She had the feeling she was looking into an empty, pitch-dark room. And the knowledge that Mark Bradley lived in there was chilling.
    The male nurse studied her speculatively. “Colonel Bradley looks a lot better than he did a month ago. But that isn’t saying much. I was hoping to fix him up a bit before you met him this afternoon.” The whole speech completely ignored the presence of the patient himself, who in turn seemed oblivious to the exchange.
    Eden struggled to get a grip on her composure. “Thank you, Sergeant Marshall,” she said. As soon as the name was out of her mouth, she realized she’d made her first slip. She shot Marshall a glance, but the fact that she knew his name before he’d introduced himself didn’t seem to have registered.
    Her next words were for the man in the chair. Since they were also supposed to be strangers, she’d have to be more careful in carrying out the charade. “Colonel Bradley, I’m Dr. Sommers. I’ll be working with you from now on.”
    The patient didn’t acknowledge her words.
    “Well, I’ll be looking forward to seeing you later,” she added warmly.
    With that, she turned back to Marshall. “I was trying to find Major Downing.”
    “His office is at the other end of the hall. He’s usually down there at the crack of dawn.”
    “Thank you.”
    Before moving away, she risked one more look at the man in the wheelchair. The Mark Bradley she had known had been in superb mental and physical condition. Oh, God, what have they done to him?

Chapter Three
    E den was suddenly aware that she was standing on the front porch of the main house staring blindly out at the breakers washing against the deserted beach. Her mind kept replaying that brief encounter with Mark. The emotional impact was as strong as the relentless force of the surf pounding the shore.
    Finally the rhythm of the waves helped calm her. As her pulse steadied she found herself watching a piece of driftwood tumbling up the sandy slope, only to be pulled back into the green water by the force of the undertow.
    In a way she was like that piece of flotsam. She’d been tossed into a troubled sea by Amherst Gordon—and he’d left her to sink or swim by herself.
    But she wasn’t going to be swept under, and she wasn’t going to let Mark down, either. Turning, she pulled open the heavy wooden doors and strode briskly through the foyer and down the hall in the direction that Marshall had indicated.
    When she reached a door with a polished brass nameplate that said “Major Ross Downing,” she hesitated. Inside, a chair squeaked. Before she had a chance to reconsider her course of action, the door was flung open and she was standing face-to-face with the island’s security chief.
    He looked momentarily surprised. “Dr. Sommers. I didn’t expect to see you quite