Dream thief by Stephen R. Lawhead

Author:Stephen R. Lawhead [Lawhead, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sf_space

19

… STAY IN HERE AND don't move," whispered Adjani. "I'll see who it is and get rid of them."

Adjani had changed the access code to the door of his quarters and someone trying to punch in the old code had set off its signal. Spence, going through the drill, stepped inside the sanibooth and closed the panel to a crack so he could hear who it was.

In a moment he heard Adjani sing out, "It's all clear. You can come out."

Feeling like a burglar who had been discovered, he opened the door and crept out. The first thing he saw was Packer's fiery head bobbing excitedly.

"I don't like it," the big scientist was saying. "It's getting out of hand."

"What's up?"

"All we need is a little more time," Adjani explained.

Packer addressed Spence. "I had a visitor today. An inquisitive fellow from the insurance company. You were high on his agenda." "Oh?"

"He was nosing around and found out about your disappearance; thought he'd check it out while he was in the neighborhood."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him you'd joined a monastery-what do you think I told him?" Packer's jaw thrust forward angrily; his face was flushed and red.

"Hold on. I know you've stretched your neck out as far as it'll go on this. But don't go turtle on us now. A few days more is all we need."

"We're making great progress," Adjani offered.

The scowl on the big man's face dwindled away, soon to be replaced by a slight, impish smirk. "You know, I do believe I twisted the old boy's tail just a bit. It wasn't really necessary, but the guy acted like I'd made off with his precious Dr. Reston. He tried to give me a real professional cross-examination, but I cut him off pretty quick."

Adjani and Spence looked at each other.

"Besides," Packer continued, "this guy gave me the willies. Him in that pneumochair and all shrunken up like that. He looked like a skeleton!"

Packer stared at his listeners. "Hey, what's the matter?-I say something wrong?" …

Two GREAT CURVING HEMISPHERES, blue in the light of a silvery moon, rose up like incandescent mountains-smooth, pale, and surrounded by a zigzagging wall which fell around them in a seamless black barrier. Spence looked and saw a tower, a thin heaven-poised finger, between the two domes shimmering darkly in the moonlight.

He sat on a stone ledge separated from the palace by a deep gorge. Between him and the palace, swinging in the wind rushing out of the chasm, hung an ancient bridge made of twisted rope and wood. He could hear the wind singing through the ropes and saw the frayed ends blowing on the breezes like an old woman's hair. The frail structure creaked as it danced, and the sound was a ghostly falling laughter which echoed away into the inky depths below. In Spence's ears the sound became the voice of his enemy jeering at him, daring him to cross the crevice on that bridge and come to the palace to face him.

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