"Jeanie London - Retrieval" - читать интересную книгу автора (London Jeanie)

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intel to form an opinion, needed more information about this woman he'd been sent to retrieve.
A glance told him that Gray and Damian were still locked in debate, likely weighing the pros and the cons of trusting a stranger. Gray Talbot appeared the more reasonable and urbane of the two, while Damian's irreverence mirrored his appearance. The Scot wore his hair long, his stare bold, his posture defensive. Though he was now dressed in modem clothing as opposed to the period costume of the portrait, Damian Hart had obviously had centuries to hone his attitude to a sharp edge.
Both these men were so long dead that if Roman touched either, he'd have expected to feel warm skina testimony to the strength a soul could gather while lingering inside the passage.
Strength Roman hoped to put to good use.
These men would be formidable assets to his teamif he could convince them to sign on. He'd been told Gray Talbot and Damian Hart's cooperation would depend on Ms. de Lacy's: a package deal as it was.
Gray surveyed the park as if looking for where among these living souls his missing companion might be hiding. He'd guessed that Roman had arranged their meeting here for a reason.
Roman wondered how long it would take for them to accept that they didn't have another choice but to trust him. Not if they wanted to retrieve their lost companion.
No question there. If nothing else Roman liked what that sort of loyalty said about all of them. The same kind of loyalty he'd always demanded from his operatives.
"What we need from you is a show of faith, Barrymore." Damian reappeared beside Roman.


20

JEANIE LONDON

Gray followed.
Good. Roman had convinced them of his identity at least, another step in the right direction. "What sort of show?" "Tell us where Nina is so we can confirm her identity." Gray met Roman's gaze, the knowledge of what the request implied passing between them in a glance.
Stalemate.
Roman's respect for these men .upped another notch.
To confirm Nina's identity, Gray and Damian would need to shift into the living world, and shifting was a neat trick, from what Roman had heard.
Angels could shift between the realms. So could demons. Roman wasn't clear on how souls managed the shift, but he knew the process could only take place from inside the passage, where lingering souls still retained an echo of their humanity. Precisely why the passage had become such hot real estate and he was assembling a team to defend it.
''All right, gentlemen. You may have your show of faith." He turned. ''That woman sitting on the bench with the dog. Her name is Katie McGuire. Ms. de Lacy is crowding her." He might have shouted an obscenity. Damian bristled. Gray let his eyes flutter shut for an instant before declaring, "You must be mistaken. Nina would never crowd a soul."
Roman shrugged. "That was the intel I received."
"From whom?" Damian demanded. "A demon?"
"Not a demon, Mr. Hart," was all he said, but he understood his guests' desire to shoot the messenger. In the afterlife, crowding a living soul was tantamount to conviction of murdering a child and a terrorist act rolled into one. Unpardonable to souls who'd

RETRIEVAL

already repented, no matter how long they might choose to linger in the passage.
"Confirm Ms. de Lacy's identity, gentlemen," he said. "Then we'll discuss exchanging information." Damian and Gray disappeared.
Roman blinked and found himself staring at the empty place they'd been. From this vantage, the shift seemed deceptively simple. He turned his attention to Katie McGuire, a living soul hosting a dead one. Were Gray Talbot and Damian Hart with her right now? Roman couldn't see them from the afterlife. Seeing dead souls that harbored among the living wasn't possible.
Except for Nina de Lacy.
From his vantage in the afterlife with no clue whether or not Gray and Damian were extricating her in the living world, Roman could see how her ability to see dead souls in the living world might. come in handy.
Especially as he no longer had Sanctus's extensive network of satellites to give him the ability to see around the globe. .
Now he was blind. If Gray and Damian retrieved their lost companion and returned to the afterlife with her, they could all easily disappear and cost Roman time he didn't have tracking them down again.
Unbeknownst to either of the men, Roman's resources in the passage were limited. He might look as if he'd been dead awhile, but he'd needed the weeks since his arrival just to familiarize himself with the rudiments of death enough to track them down. That was also need-to-know information.
But Roman didn't think retrieval would be so easily achieved. Why else would he have been advised to make Nina mission priority? He'd been told that she was in trouble--how much trouble was the question.

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22

JEANIE LONDON

He didn't have enough intel to evaluate. Nor did he have a strong enough grasp on existence within the passage to guess. Quite simply, there was too much he didn't know, and he'd never liked being in the dark.
Death hadn't changed that.