Are You Afraid Of The Dark

When they were seated, she said, "Let's start over, shall we? I have no sister." Ta

This is going to be an easy home run. Ta

"You're really something." He stroked her arm. "You're very special. We're going to have a good time together tonight." She smiled. "Are you feeling horny, darling?" Ta

Strike one. The bitch is out.

CHAPTER 15

THE WORLD HEADQUARTERS of Kingsley International Group was located in lower Manhattan, two blocks from the East River. The compound occupied five acres of land and consisted of four large concrete buildings, along with two small staff houses, fenced in and guarded electronically.

At ten o'clock in the morning, Detectives Earl Greenburg and Robert Praegitzer entered the lobby of the main building. It was spacious and modern, furnished with couches and tables, and half a dozen chairs.

Detective Greenburg glanced at the assortment of magazines on a table: Virtual Reality, Nuclear and Radiological Terrorism, Robotics World… He held up a copy of Genetic Engineering News and turned to Praegitzer. "Don't you get tired of reading these in your dentist's office?" Praegitzer gri

"These gentlemen have an appointment with Mr. Ta

At the end of the corridor was Ta

In Ta

"Good morning, gentlemen. You can go right in." She got up and opened the door to Ta

The huge office was crammed with arcane electronic equipment, and the soundproof walls were lined with wafer-thin television sets displaying live scenes from cities around the world. Some of the views were of busy conference rooms, offices, and laboratories, while others showed hotel suites where meetings were taking place. Each set had its own audio system, and even though the volume was barely audible, it was eerie to hear snippets of sentences spoken simultaneously in a dozen different languages.

A caption appeared at the bottom of each screen identifying the cities: Milan.

.. Joha

Zurich… Madrid… Athens… At the far wall was an eight-tier bookshelf filled with leather-bound volumes.

Ta

Ta

"Sit down, please."

The detectives took seats.

Praegitzer was staring at the swiftly changing, worldwide pictures on the profusion of television sets.

He shook his head in admiration. "Talk about today's state of the art! This is-" Ta

We deal in national security, communications, microbiology, environmental issues. KIG functions as an independent analyst and critic of long-range global consequences for various governments." "Interesting," said Praegitzer.

"Eighty-five percent of our research staff hold advanced degrees, and more than sixty-five percent have Ph.D.s." "That's impressive." "My brother, Andrew, founded this company to assist Third World countries, so we're also heavily involved in start-up projects there." There was a sudden rumble of thunder and a flash of lightning from one of the television sets. They all turned to look.

Detective Greenburg said, "Didn't I read something about a weather experiment you were doing?" Ta

The Southern Hemisphere is about eighty percent ocean, while the Northern Hemisphere is sixty percent ocean, causing another imbalance. In addition to that, the jet stream determines the path of storms, and there is no way to control that." Greenburg nodded, then hesitated. "Do you know why we're here, Mr. Kingsley?" Ta