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Shadowru
And Drake, their master, was as hard as any of them. But that wasn’t really surprising. He was likely a shark in the corporate world. Drake’s easy expectation that everyone around him would jump at his call told Sam that his toughness was no facade. The dark man showed greater confidence in his own power than even Kansayaku Sato. The man obviously had control over his ru
Other things about the deal bothered him even more. No matter what story Roe gave him, Sam thought it likely that Mr. Drake’s “guest,” the unconscious man in the truck, was leaving Renraku involuntarily the victim of a kidnapping. For their own reasons, the ru
He and Hanae would have to go along, with no questions asked. These ru
The prospect of that sort of violence was frightening enough, but people’s violence didn’t hold the elemental terror of the Dragon. Sam knew too many documented cases of dracoforms making meals of people. The thought of Hanae’s tender body being chewed to a bloody pulp in the serpent’s toothy jaws nearly brought his meal back up.
All he could do now was keep his word to Drake. Interfering with the extraction would only put Hanae in more danger. He would keep his eyes and ears open, and they would escape the ru
Sam moved back to the niche where Hanae slept, assured that he would protect her. How could he betray that trust? He had to see her to safety if he could.
He sat down where he could see her face in the predawn light filtering into the building. She looked so peaceful. He leaned his head back against a crate; it was hours before sleep finally came.
15
Crenshaw stood by the door for a few minutes, watching the activity in the room. Most of the work stations were occupied. A quick glance at the duty board showed that the perso
Despite her personal interest in the case, she had slept. Let others do the groundwork and the backchecking. This one was not going to be a hot pursuit. She didn’t care much for the chase anymore, but she intended to be in on the kill.
She crossed the room to the ops desk, avoiding several collisions with scurrying staff. She would normally have resented that they didn’t watch where they were going. When she had worked in such a room years ago, she bad always been aware of what was going on around her. But today was different. She felt good, knowing that she had been vindicated.
“Told you he was a problem,” she said, coming up to Marushige.
He glanced at her, letting his mouth quirk up in an expression of a
“If you had listened to me, this all could have been avoided.”
“Is that what you’ve told Sato?”
“I haven’t told Sato anything.”
“How considerate,” Marushige snapped.
Crenshaw ignored the sarcasm. She was really feeling expansive today. “He does want a full report, though. He seems concerned that your lack of security will reflect on him. He doesn’t like that sort of thing.”
“So speaks the great Lord Sato’s new mouth. I’ll make a report when I receive a request through cha
“The president has forsaken his computers and taken an interest in this? How fascinating.”
Marushige shot her a sour look. “Look, Crenshaw I don’t need this right now. Huang’s interest is purely routine, just like this extraction. Verner was only a minor researcher and the woman was only an office lady. They are no loss to Renraku.”
Crenshaw chuckled. “All of this interest on your part is hardly routine.”
“As you said, Sato doesn’t like security problems of any kind.”
Crenshaw knew that Marushige was aware of Sato’s power. Hadn’t he assigned her to the Kansayaku, hoping that she would screw up in front of him? Sato’s presence was a two-edged sword. Marushige’s own performance was in the spotlight now. He desperately wanted to keep his job, and Crenshaw was in a position to slant the Kansayaku’s opinion. Sato’s displeasure would be enough to get Marushige sacked, which the security chief knew as well as she did. All he wanted to do was to tie up the loose ends and put this problem to rest. But there were too many co
“The Dragon that scared off our pursuit craft suggests some real muscle behind this run,” Crenshaw said.
Marushige grunted noncommittally as he tried to read a report just handed him by an aide.
“Verner must have lifted something important.”
The security chief slapped the flimsy down. “Don’t you have something better to do?”
“Just trying to understand what has happened, general,” she responded with false i
“I’ll bet you would.”
“I’ve told you before that I don’t want your job.” She was used to his disbelief on that point. “But I do want to see that thief Verner get what’s coming to him.”