Piercing the Darkness (52 page)

“We are
all
killers at heart, Professor Lynch.”

“Well, I hope you just do it quickly, and spare me the details!”

“It’s too bad you let her go.”

“Don’t be silly. I don’t want it happening anywhere near here. I can’t let anyone in this office suspect I had anything to do with it.”

“Well, maybe you thought she was weak and helpless, but it looks like she was still clever enough to rip you off.”

Lynch looked toward Khull, then followed his gaze to the bookshelf behind the desk.

Khull announced even as Lynch noticed it, “Looks like she took your rosters.”

The four volumes that bore the strange symbol of the snarling gargoyle were gone, leaving a distressing gap.

“DESTROYER!” SAID TAL,
and all the warriors looked. Yes, there he was, swooping over the campus like a huge, black hawk. “He’ll take her this time!”

Guilo pointed with his sword to a huge, black shape rising from the Administration Building. “Corrupter! He’s slow, but he sees well!”

“Keep him busy and out of our business!” Then Tal started barking orders as warriors shot into the sky in all directions. “Scion, decoys! Chimon, stay with her. Signa, back him up! Nathan, Armoth, block the bus stop! Cree and Si, set screens!”

LYNCH GRABBED KHULL’S
arm. He was desperate. “Khull, make sure your men succeed! They must succeed!”

Khull looked at Lynch, then at the gap in the bookshelf, and smiled
a wicked smile. “Hm. You must be pretty scared.”

DESTROYER COULD SEE
a tiny, frightened figure bursting out of Whitcombe Hall. “Hmm. So how strong are you now, Captain Tal? We will make you show us.” He called to his captains, “Take her!”

“There she is!” said one thug to his partner. He’d spotted Sally running from Whitcombe Hall, heading south toward the nearest bus stop. It was dark. They could take her into any of the gardens, alleyways, or groves and finish her instantly.

They were large, burly men, heavily tattooed; one had a deep scar on his left cheek; both wore a large earring in one ear. Beneath their dark leather coats, they carried the shining silver tools of ritual death.

The second one put a portable radio to his jaw and muttered, “She’s—”

He was about to say which direction she was going, but suddenly she was gone.

Both men bolted from their hiding-place and stood in the middle of the walkway. Sally Roe had vanished.

CREE AND SI
stood directly in front of them, wings outstretched. Behind them, Sally continued to run south.

A shriek from the sky! The two warriors shot a glance south. Sally was dashing down some steps, dropping out of sight. Above them, four demon warriors dropped like falcons. Cree and Si bolted, one this way, one that, disappearing in a flash of light into the buildings on either side of the walkway. The demons went after them.

“The woman!” screamed Destroyer from the sky. “Get the woman!”

The demons spun in tight circles, their red blades streaming fire, and kicked the two men in their backs.
Move! This way!
Then they shot down the campus, the walls, windows, and walkways a blur on either side, their black wings screaming.

The two thugs ran after them.

“She was heading south,” the man barked into his radio.

CORRUPTER ROSE ABOVE
the campus with the agility of a hot air balloon, watching the incredible spectacle on every side. He spotted Sally and pointed. “There! There—do you see her?”

A bolt of light came from somewhere, delivering such a blow to his head that he tumbled backward, end over end, like a helpless, spinning beach ball, wailing and howling.

Guilo knew he’d be out of the way for a while. He darted away with other things to do.

Sally took only a few seconds to duck into some shrubs and retrieve her hidden duffel bag. She jammed her carry bag into it and continued running.

She rounded a corner near the Psych Library, saw the bus stop illuminated by an amber street lamp, dashed that way, slipped and stumbled to a stop, and dashed back the other way.

The bus stop was covered. Somehow she knew who those two men were.

Run!
said Nathan.
The other way!

Armoth took the blows from the two demons guarding the bus stop just long enough to slow them down. They didn’t want him—they wanted Sally Roe.

TWO MORE NORMAL-LOOKING
killers were at their post by the Memorial Fountain. One saw through the vertical jets of water and spotted the woman running north toward the Sculpture Garden.

“Heading north!” he barked into his radio. “The Sculpture Garden!”

SALLY WAS HEADING
west—not north—toward the Physical Sciences Building when she ducked behind a tree to hide from four fierce-looking characters running north toward the Sculpture Garden. As soon as they had passed, she headed west again.

“WHERE’D SHE GO?”
a killer asked, looking this way and that.

The Sculpture Garden contained plenty of weird sculptures in stone and steel, but no fleeing woman.