Dark Summer

around them.'

'How?'

He shook his head. 'I don't know. I've been studying the dogs since I rescued them from Danner and I can't come up with an explanation yet. I've had blood tests and biopsies done, but they appear normal except for extreme good health. I've been thinking that maybe the panacea might have affected the gland centers. When you put a flea medicine on an animal, it radiates and repels. It could be that the oil glands are radiating whatever Paco gave them.'

'But you can't tell.'

'No.' His lips thinned, and his dark eyes were suddenly glittering in his taut face. 'And I have no intention of chopping those dogs up and putting them under microscopes to try to find out.'

She shuddered. 'That's what Danner wants to do?'

'Of course. Kill them, autopsy them, and find a way to reproduce the shi'i'go.' He looked straight ahead. 'And he wouldn't be alone. They'd be standing in line to get their hands on Ned and the others. All those billions beckoning on the horizon. Even the animal-rights idealists would probably sanction killing them on the grounds that the scientists might discover some wonderful way to benefit humankind. After all, they're only dogs.' He said fiercely, 'But they're my dogs, and nothing is going to happen to them. Even if I hadn't promised Paco I'd protect them, I couldn't let them die. I'll keep trying to find what's going on with them. I'll give the world what they want or need from those dogs, but no one else is going to touch them.'

'Wait a minute.' She was trying to put all the pieces together. 'If the microchip decoding isn't the formula for this shi'i'go, what is it?'

'The location of all four dogs. For safety's sake, I had to separate them and give them individual guardians. It cut down the danger of having Danner get complete control of the panacea even if he found one dog. I made sure no one knew all the locations but me. I wanted to keep the information always with me, not hidden away where I couldn't control it.'

No, Marrok would always have to be the one in control, she thought. The dominant forcefulness he was exuding in this moment was almost tangible. 'What if something happened to you?'

'If I was killed, I had to make sure there was a way for the person I chose to manage the care of the dogs to find them. Ned is very strong, always with me, so that I can watch over him, and, if a bullet didn't get him, he'd survive. He was the logical dog to carry the microchip.'

'But if Danner didn't know about this microchip, why did he take my computer?'

'That's what I've been asking myself. Perhaps he didn't know; maybe they took the computer just on the chance of finding out more about you and what you knew. But I don't like the odds of that. And how did that shooter on Santa Marina know I was there?' He added softly, 'You can bet I intend to find out.'

Soft-voiced but everything else about him was hard and sleek and lethal. She recalled that moment in the first-aid tent when she'd realized that safety was out of the question where Marrok was concerned.

'The person you chose to oversee the care for the dogs would know about the microchip. It would be logical to start there. Who is it?'

'Bridget.'

That didn't surprise her. 'And?'

'I trust her.' He waved a hand as she opened her lips. 'As much as I trust anyone. I don't have blind faith in anyone these days. Even Bridget doesn't know the locations of all the dogs. I go so far and no farther. But Bridget could have betrayed me a hundred times in the last three years, and it didn't happen.'

'I'm not sure I could trust her. She's a little too violent for my taste.'

He shrugged. 'But then so am I.'

She had a sudden memory of something Marrok had told her. 'You said once that Danner dealt in promises.'

'If he had control of the shi'i'go, do you think he wouldn't sell it to the highest bidder? Health and longevity are commodities that are more valuable than nuclear bombs. Every person, every leader, is vulnerable to the ravages of ill health and death. Whether a dictator lives or dies affects events all over the world. Shi'i'go would be insurance and the ultimate source of power. Danner could at last be God. He was already negotiating under the table with leaders all over the world even before he killed Paco.' He added harshly, 'But he didn't get a chance to reap any benefits. I took the dogs away from him the night Paco died.'

'He already had them?'

He nodded. 'I scouted around and found out he was shipping them to one of his experimental labs in the desert to be killed and autopsied.' His teeth bared in a tiger's smile. 'They never got there. I shot out the tires on the truck and released the dogs. Then I blew up the truck and went after Danner's lab. It was my bad luck that he wasn't there.'

He'd blown up the truck and a laboratory and killed how many men that night? She could see in his expression the ferocity he had felt that night of Paco's death. 'And you took the dogs under your wing.' The phrase was ludicrous when applied to Marrok. It would be like being tucked under the wing of an ea gle with all its power and cruelty. 'How many years ago was that?'

'Four.' He was waving at Walt, who had just set down and was starting to taxi toward them. 'Well, did I give you enough to think about?'

She nodded. 'But some of it is pretty indigestible.'

'Then let it settle. You wanted it all laid out for you, and I did that. I can't make you believe it.' He walked toward the plane. 'That's up to you.'

BRIDGET CALLED MARROK TEN minutes after they took off. 'Addie seems fine. I've set up an observation point outside the walls, and I've been watching her. She's playing with the other dogs and having a good old time. Actually, she's adjusted very well. I didn't think it was a good idea bringing her here, but I was wrong.'

'You, wrong? Good God, an admission of that magnitude stuns the imagination.'

'Shut up, Marrok. You know I like the idea of hired and assigned guardians for all the dogs. This was an experiment that could have gone wrong.'

'I didn't have any doubts. Addie is safer behind those walls than she would be anywhere else. And she does have a guardian.'

'Who you can't order around like you do the rest of us. That could be a problem.'

'I haven't noticed you jumping when I crack the whip.' He paused. 'You said Addie seems okay. No sign of Danner?'

'I've scoured every inch of this place and the surrounding area, and it's clean.'

'And?'

'Okay, I haven't sensed anything either. But you know it doesn't happen all the time. It didn't with Fraser. Not in time.'

'Bridget…'

'I know. I know.' She changed the subject. 'So what am I supposed to expect? Did you manage to do damage control, or does Danner have the decode?'

'He has it.'

'Damn.'

'And it's only a matter of time until he gets a translation. I made sure that it was complicated enough so that he'd have to do it piece by piece. But Addie's location came first, and he won't wait until he gets the rest of the translation. Things are going to go to hell fast. Even Lincoln is on his way to the ranch.'

'Lincoln? That's not good.'

'I'll handle it. Get back to me if there's a problem.' He hung up and turned to Walt. 'No Danner yet. We may get lucky.' He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small notebook and handed it to him. 'Information I got from Sherwood. It's not much. Get to work and see what you can come up with.' He glanced at Devon. 'Bridget is with Addie. She thinks that everything is okay for now.'

Devon tried to remember the description of the dogs Marrok had given her. 'Addie is the golden retriever.'