"Charles Ingrid - The Sand Wars 06 - Challenge Met" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ingrid Charles)

hesitant stop, aware that she barred Baadluster and the others from entering
the lab behind her. He heard them nevertheless. He put up his right hand,
four-fingered, snapped off the console deck, and removed his ear set. She
saw then that he'd been listening to something.

Before he even swiveled in the chair, she knew. There were lines of
tension across that familiar back. Tension and apprehension. And when he
turned to face her, there was a pleasant blankness across his plain, high
cheekboned face and in his light blue eyes. For a moment, her heart
stuttered in her chest—but then she saw the same keen intelligence in his
eyes that he'd always had and knew he'd at least retained that much.

As he stood, his eyes spoke before the man did. Who are you?

Her knees turned to water. One shoulder touched the portal framing,
bracing her, as she listed slightly. Her ears buzzed.

"You must be Amber," he said, reaching for her.

She slapped his hand away. "I'm fine." Shivering, she pulled herself
upright again and let Baadluster brush past her.

The minister gave Jack a masculine hug. "Let me welcome you back, my
boy."

Amber watched Jack's faintly puzzled expression over the top of
Baadluster's shoulder. Vandover released him. "Back after twenty some
years of exile, one of the emperor's finest."

"Only to find a new emperor and the same enemy," Jack responded.
There was very little warmth in his voice. "Though I understand we've
become allies. I'm ready for debriefing when you are."

"Good. Emperor Pepys would like to see you as soon as possible."
 "I understand." He caught Amber's gaze for a moment, then looked
about him where two techs were still charting monitors. She became aware
that leads still attached him to the lab console. "I'll be ready in about an hour
as soon as the techs are convinced my blood sugar's stabilized and there's
no hypothermia."

"Done." Baadluster signaled the guard, and they about faced and left.

Amber stayed. She ignored the observation monitors as she stepped
closer and shivered at the stranger's expression in the eyes of her lover.
Damn him, he made her break all her rules! "Don't do this to me," she told
him. "I don't care what the advantage is. You're playing right into their
hands. They added an imprint of their own onto your mind loop. God
knows what they've programmed into you."

Anger flashed in his eyes. "God doesn't have to know," he said quietly. "I