The Island Deception by Dan Koboldt

Author:Dan Koboldt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

They took their positions again before the courier regained consciousness. Kiara put her horse to where it had been, and backed the roan mare to a few paces behind it. Logan’s was another ten paces back, as if he’d come upon this scene and stopped to help.

Then he and Kiara knelt beside the courier and pulled him up to a sitting position. The man was slow to come around. Too slow.

“Maybe we should speed this along.” Logan uncapped a snifter tube and waved it near the man’s nose.

He jerked upright, gasped, and looked at them wild-eyed.

“You all right there, fella?” Logan asked. “You took a nasty fall.”

“Wha-what happened?”

“My horse had just thrown me, and you were kind enough to help,” Kiara said.

She spoke so quietly, with such softness to her voice, that Logan about did a double take. She’s going for a goddamn Oscar today.

“I remember that. I got . . . stung or something.”

“Must have been one of these biting blood flies,” Logan said. The tranquilizer darts underwent a conformational change upon impact to resemble the little insects that plagued the Alissian south. Most people would smack a blood fly on sight, since the bites sometimes caused unconsciousness. Smashing the darts made them unrecognizable. Yet another stroke of genius by the eggheads back home. “Damn things are merciless. I’d just come around the bend in the road, and saw you fall.”

“How long was I out?” asked the courier.

“Not more than a few minutes,” Kiara said.

“Gods!” The man remembered his message bag and clutched at it. He fumbled the clasps open, looked inside, and sagged with obvious relief.

“It was a noble thing you did, stopping to help me,” Kiara said.

“Doesn’t sound like it,” the man muttered.

“Oh, hush.” She tucked an emerald broach into the courier’s open satchel. “A little token of my affection.”

“I’m not allowed to take—” the courier started.

“I insist.”

“Take it, my good man,” Logan said. “My stepsister can afford it, I promise you.”

“Even so.” But he saw the size of the emerald, and his mouth fell open.

He just needs a little push. Logan leaned over and whispered, “It’s not the first time she’s given a man her token, if you know what I mean.”

“I’m sure I do not.” He stood, and rubbed the back of his neck in askance. The dart hadn’t left so much as a scratch on him, and he’d have needed two mirrors to see it in any case. “Happy to be of assistance.” He still looked a little shaken as he mounted and rode off.

“I think he bought it,” Logan said. “Good call on the tracking pin.”

The broach had a tiny microchip that would ping any of the comm network’s towers as it passed. Not nearly as good as GPS, but it would give them a rough idea of where he went. The lieutenant had called an audible on that play, but a good one.

“So, I’m your stepsister now?” she asked.

“I thought it would help sell it. With you more a damsel in distress.”

“What about the part where you called me a floozy?”

Logan winced.

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