Evolution

Prologue-3

Aamani fished a memory chip out of her purse, caressing it with her thumb before she tossed it casually. Slade caught the chip with a grunt, then paused for a moment to inspect it. “It's all right there,” she told him. “They think they have a lead on the Key.”

“Where?”

Aamani felt her mouth twist, then turned her head so that he wouldn't get a good look at her expression. “Northern Oregon,” she muttered, her voice dripping with disdain. “Some Willapa legends about spirits that made Jack say, 'Oh, that sound like Overseers.' ”

The site she was sending him to was one that Jack and Anna had investigated just last week, and – as usual – they had found nothing of substance. Still, if a false trail could keep Slade's people busy, it was worth it.

As usual, she kept her composure, but she would be lying if she said she didn't feel a growing tension in her chest. The knowledge that some telepath had been tweaking her emotions was unsettling, to say the least. Raynar had trained her in the art of resisting such influence, had taught her how to dissect, analyze and root out foreign influence, but they were still no closer to identifying the culprit. Did Slade know? What if his telepath had told him everything that Aamani was thinking? The other shoe could drop at any time. She had to be ready.

A vicious grin spread on Slade's face, and he lowered his eyes almost respectfully. “Excellent,” he said with a curt nod. “You've done well, Aamani. Very soon now, we will free your world from my people's influence.”

“I look forward to it.”

The man turned on his heel and marched back to the stairwell door, halting there for just a moment. “Keep them off balance,” he said almost as an afterthought. “I'm going to be rather busy over the next few weeks, and I'd rather not find myself tripping over Anna Lenai or Jack Hunter.”

“Whatever you say,” Aamani hissed. “Let's just conclude this business as soon as possible.”

Through the cockpit window, Keli saw a clear blue sky stretching from horizon to horizon above an endless desert of hard-packed clay. The engines powered down, their whine slowly fading away to nothingness.

Keli sat in the co-pilot's seat with hands in her lap, frowning down at her own shoes. “This is the place?” she asked, arching one dark eyebrow. “You're sure this is where they discovered it?”

Skoro, the tall man with a scraggly beard of salt-and-pepper hair – was on her left, baring his teeth as he stared through the window. “This is it,” he said, gesticulating with one hand. “If you've lost interest, we'll go now, but if you must see it…”

Keli rose from her seat.

Hunching over, she twisted around and made her way to the back of the cockpit. “I must see it,” she said, bracing one hand against the air-lock in the port-side wall. “If you wish, you may remain here.”

“i***t woman.”

The air-lock slid open with a hiss, revealing a ruined landscape that seemed to go on forever without a trace of green to be found. Just rocks and stones, clay and dust. No one in their right mind would live here.

Keli descended the steps, pulling the hood of the cloak up to shield her face from the sun. A hot breeze assaulted her the instant she was out in the open, but she managed to ignore it with some effort.

She rounded the nose of the small cargo hauler only to sense Skoro coming out behind her. The man was still a few paces away, and he had no hostile intentions – she would have picked up on that very quickly – but she didn't like anyone walking where she couldn't see.

Keli froze, doubling over with her arms folded, a hiss escaping her. “Hurry up if you're coming,” she said through her teeth. “I would rather not have to stand here until I pass out from dehydration.”

Her companion said nothing and chose instead to make his way up the rising slope in front of the ship. He stopped halfway up and let out a grunt. “Complain all you want,” Keli muttered, following him. “But you'll stay in front of me.”

At the top of the hill, she found a steep cliff that dropped some twenty meters to a wide-open expanse of where a strange rock formation clawed at the sky like the fingers of a grasping hand. Her heart was pounding. That was it. She knew it. Even if the rocks had not been a clear indication, she could feel it lurking beneath.

“There it is,” Skoro said.

Shutting her eyes, Keli ignored the hot sun on her skin. She wiped sweat off her forehead with the back of one hand. “So the legends are true. Have either of your tried taking a scan of it?”

Skoro's face twisted, and he tossed his head about. “You must be joking, b***h,” he growled before spitting over the edge of the cliff. “That thing slips into my dreams at night. You think I should go antagonize it?”

It slipped into his dreams?

They had traveled over five thousand kilometers from the small listening post these two criminals had commandeered. Which meant her suspicions were true. That creature down there was a very powerful telepath.

She leaned forward to get a better look at the rocks. She wasn't willing to risk using her talent until she became absolutely certain that the creature would not retaliate. After what she'd seen on Alios…A shiver went through her, and she had to fight off the memory of a headache that had nearly killed her. The pain. Such terrible pain.

She remembered the hooded woman's mad cackling while the creature she served lashed out at Keli. The horror as it ripped through her best mental defenses. That shriek in her mind…She had survived its attacks, of course, but only just. Fleeing through a dense patch of palm trees, masking her mental presence so that it would not find her. The shock as she realized what it was she faced.

A part of her didn't want to believe it, but somehow, she knew it was true. She had seen an Overseer. She had touched its mind with her own, and if the legends were true, then another one lurked beneath those stones. She had to know. “I'm going down there,” she began. “Wait for me at the-”

A high-pitched whistle cut her off, and she looked up to see something traveling through the clear blue sky. It was a ship, but not one she had ever seen before. This one was thin, tube-like, with spines that protruded from its body and curved inward toward the front. Could that possibly be?

“Yes,” Skoro said, guessing her thoughts. “It is them.”

He stood with one hand raised to shield his eyes, peering into the sky with wonder on his face. “They have been coming frequently in the last few months,” he went on. “We have seen two, sometimes three ships at a time. If they notice our presence, they do not care. We've learned to stay out from underfoot.”

“You mean…”

“Yes. Their visits become more and more frequent, and it is clear they are preparing for something. The Overseers have returned, woman. And I do not believe they are very happy with their children.”

PART I