She input steadily for over half an hour. She raised her arms above her head, arching her back to work out the kinks in her shoulders. She tried to keep her mind empty, visualizing nothing but the rest of the document
The bedroom door swung open, and her head swiv-eled toward it so quickly she felt a twinge of tendon pain. Immediately, almost instinctively, she swept her hand across the keyboard, hitting the Escape button, clearing the screen of its data.
She stared at a dark-haired, clean-shaved man in a long black overcoat. Though she couldn’t see it, she almost felt the bore of his Sin Eater trained on her naked body.
Sindri waved his hand and walking stick dismissive-ly. “No, no, I don’t need to see this. Mr. Kane retains quite vivid memories of your first meeting. Move further up the line.”
Gray mist enfolded her bedroom, swallowing up her, Kane and her computer. When it cleared, she sat staring across Lakesh’s desk in his small, sparsely furnished office. Grant, Domi and Kane were there, too, listening to the old man’s reedy voice.
“They were called many things over many centuriesangels, demons, visitors, E.T.’s, saucer people, grays. Whatever they actually are, what they are called, even where they come from is unimportant at this juncture. The sinister thread linking all of humankind’s darkest hours leads back to a nonhuman presence that has conspired to control us through political chaos, staged wars, famines, plagues and ‘natural’ disasters. It is a conspiracy that continues to this day, aided and abetted by willing human allies….”
“Good,” whispered Sindri in exultation. “Good. Take a forward baby step, Miss Brigid. We’re almost done.”
She took the step and stood staring at a wall con-structed of glass panes. Behind it she saw a deeply recessed room, dimly lit by a red light strip.
A shape shifted in the ruddy gloom, and for a fraction of a microsecond, she glimpsed a long, pale head and a high, hairless cranium. Then a fog seemed to whirl inside the recessed chamber, blotting the face from view. Then the mist cleared and two eyes flamed out of the blood-hued murk. The eyes were frighten-ingly huge, tip-tilted like a cat’s, completely black with no pupil or iris.
A thready nonvoice said, We are old. When your race was wild and bloody and young, we were already ancient. Your tribe has passed, and we are invincible. All of the achievements of man are dust they are forgotten .
We stand, we know, we are. We stalked above man ere we raised him from the ape. Long was the earth ours, and now we have reclaimed it. We shall still reign when man is reduced to the ape again. We stand, we know, we are.
Sindri tugged her away from the glass wall and the fathomless eyes. “Thank you, Miss Brigid,” he said kindly. “This has been an ordeal for you. Now I can proceed. You may sleep now.”
The memories dimmed and faded out of Brigid’s mind like smoke wraiths, and she slipped gratefully into a warm sepia sea.
Chapter 20
Blackness not as deep as death acquired colors, muted and dim. Brigid felt her body again as she bobbed out of the sepia sea into the world of three dimensions and physicality.
As consciousness came slowly back, she was aware of mechanical sounds, electric motors whirring and humming. She tried to stir, but she was restrained by several hard and flat bindings pressing against her arms and legs. When she attempted to lift her head, she felt a tight pressure against her forehead.
She managed to open her eyes, forcing the lids apart a micromillimeter at a time. Objects, shapes and shadows swam mistily around her. Figures scuttled to, and fro across her limited range of vision. She heard a murmur of voices, metallic clinkings and clackings.
Though she couldn’t turn her head, Brigid shifted her gaze to her right. A naked man lay flat on his back on a padded table only a few feet away. He seemed to be deeply asleep, unaware of the arrangement of canvas straps that stretched across his forehead, his chest, his arms and legs.