"Charles L. Grant - Black Oak 04 - Hunting Ground" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Charles L)

T
o all those who apply for a position at Black Oak Inves-tigations, Ethan Proctor eventually asks: "Do you believe in
ghosts?"

Taylor Blaine, a wealthy businessman living in Connecti-cut, has hired Black Oak to find his daughter, Celeste.

She has been missing for thirteen years.

Blaine promises Proctor all the money he needs to find even one small hint that she's still alive. However, his other
children, the twins Frederick and Alicia, are opposed to the idea.

"He doesn't like you," Lana Kelaleha tells her boss. "I think he thinks you're just in it for the money."

"He's a snob," Proctor answers. "I can handle it. Don't worry."

"You'd better handle it soon. Frederick has just taken over the company and fired us."

Proctor has a dream:

A vast obsidian plain under a huge faceless moon. Obsid-ian trees whose stiff sharp leaves clack and clatter in the
wake of a swift dark wind. The ground's surface smooth and even, reflected moonlight giving the surface a depth that
makes crossing it seem like crossing clear ice over still black water. Winged creatures in the sky, silent, gliding, leaving
faint trails of gray smoke that twisted and tore and soon vanished.

Proctor knows it's a dream.

He has been here before.



** *



Ellen Proctor hasn't said a word in almost seven years.

While in England, Proctor receives a telephone call from his mother's physician:

"Proctor? It's Paul Browning."

Proctor can't speak, can barely breathe.

"Proctor, you there?"

"Tell me quick," he says, tries to swallow, and can't. , A pause before Browning laughs. "No, Proctor, it's all right.
Honest to God, it's all right. Your mom's okay."

He doesn't know whether to be angry or relieved. "Then what's—"