Doctor Who Dragons' Wrath Justin Richards

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.But there was only one thing inside.She tilted the bag to try to let more light in, then pulled out the thing inside, staring at it in disbelief.The bag dropped to the floor.Somewhere, a door slammed.The sound brought Benny back to reality, and she looked round quickly and guiltily.Not that she needed to feel guilty.Whoever the strange man was, he would be certain to report it missing.And even the vaguest description would establish the owner’s creden-tials.Benny stuffed the strange item back into the bag, and set off for home.Rappare was gasping by the time he reached the building.He allowed himself a moment’s rest outside the main door, bent over, hands on knees as he struggled to draw the cold air into his lungs.He staggered towards the glass doors.The department’s symbol, a stylized mask of a human face, was etched across them.One side of the face was happy, the mouth curled into a smile.The other half was sad, a teardrop falling from the eye and trailing down the cheek.The doors remained closed, even when Rappare leant his forehead against them and peered through the glass.The inside of the building was in darkness.But this was just what Rappare needed.If he could find the right office, he could wait for the man he wanted to see to arrive in the morning.He looked round, but there was no sight or sound of pursuit.He doubted his pursuer had given up, but it seemed that he had thrown the assassin off his trail for the moment.The card-reader glowed as he swiped the plastic through it.There was a pause, and Rappare pushed tentatively on the door.Come on! What was the delay? A tiny light flashed red on the top of the badge-reader, and Rappare swiped the card again.The same result.He held the card up to check he was holding it the right way up, though he knew the reader should be able to detect the on-board chip whichever way.It was the wrong card.A movement.Rappare saw something, a flash of motion blurred in reflection on the glass doors.He scrabbled for his university identification, pushing the transaction card back into his pocket.This time the reader flashed green, and with a quiet click, the doors swung open for him.Rappare jumped inside, willing the doors to close again quickly.He crossed the atrium at a clumsy run, looking back over his shoulder expecting to see a figure detach from the shadows and race for the doors as they swung shut.But there was nothing.He turned and walked slowly backward away from the doors, watching carefully for any movement.His artist’s eye subconsciously noted the lighting outside, the way the shadows were cast and images on the glass reflected.And with a sudden certain stab of fear, Rappare realized his mistake.He had not caught a glimpse of movement reflected in the glass doors.The angles were all wrong.There was nothing outside.What he had seen was the movement of someone inside the building.In the atrium.He braced himself ready to run back towards the main doors, hoping they would open to let him out.And a hand clamped down on his shoulder.‘I think you and I have some business to conclude,’ a voice said quietly.It was the smell that struck her first.It was a too-fresh odour, artificially overscented, which reminded her of air-freshener, wet floors and hospital.Benny had woken late, sworn at her chronometer and at Joseph, her small spherical porter, then leapt for the ultrasound shower.Pausing just long enough to accept a mug of coffee from Joseph to deaden the fogginess inside her head, she grabbed the pile of books by the door, waved to her cat Wolsey and let herself out of her apartment.She always left the books ready for the next day before she went out in the evening.It took her a few minutes between the end of the day and the start of the evening, but they were minutes she could better spare then than in the blind panic of the morning rush.Most mornings this had the effect of keeping her almost on time for her first seminar.It did not seem to matter what time the day started, Benny was late before she got going.And after cycling for all she was worth across the campus to make up the time, she would arrive out of breath.But today was different [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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