Bleak History Read Free Page B

I mean, it's only fair.” He smiled. Hoped it was a disarming smile. “If I had a creepy little device pointed at you, I'd tell you why.”
    She stared at the energy bullet cupped in his hand, fascinated, her eyes widening fractionally. Her voice surprisingly husky, she said, “Okay. You're the real thing. Gabriel Bleak, you are required to come with me—and right now. The federal government requires your presence.”
    He looked closely at her. When she'd said, The federal government requires your presence, he'd sensed ambivalence. She was a strong woman, and she could make an arrest. But she didn't quite believe in the job. She wasn't completely one of them. She'd do her job. But he could hear the doubt in her voice; see it in her eyes. Too bad he had no time to persuade her to let him go. Other agents would be not far away. And they'd be here soon.
    Bleak shook his head. “Like to help you out. But last time the government 'required' me, things kinda...didn't work out.”
    He tossed the energy bullet from his right hand to his left, as if one hand were playing catch with the other. The flaring, hissing passage of it startled her—she took half a step back. He grinned.
    “Easy with that thing,” she snapped. “Just—get rid of it. Trust us and it'll be all right. I can't guarantee your safety if you don't surrender.”
    “Mind telling me, for starts, what happens if I go with you?”
    “I was just told to get a...a confirmation on you. Then I bring you in. I don't know any more than that.”
    She delivered the disclaimer believably. But Bleak could feel dishonesty the way someone else might feel a sudden cold breeze. She'd been honest right up to I don't know any more than that. He looked into her eyes—and felt himself held there. An indefinable familiarity hummed between their interlocked gazes, in that long moment. As if he knew...not her face—but something inside her.
    She glanced over her shoulder, showing a flicker of irritation—and not irritation with him.
    He tossed the energy bullet back to his other hand. It made a sizzling sound passing through the air. “Expecting someone?”
    She looked at the glow of power nestled in his hand. “Put that thing out and just... come along.  We'll talk, Mr. Bleak. All right?”
    “Love to have a drink with you, if you had a different profession, miss. I might even have gone with 'just come along.' But.. just 'come along' with a government agent?” He shook his head. “I've got work to do, for one thing.”
    “You're a skip tracer, from what I've heard. You can do that anytime. We don't need to be in any kind of...of confrontation, here.”
    “Sure, okay, but—come to think of it...” He tossed the energy bullet up so it hissed and spiraled, caught it in his right hand. “You haven't even shown me ID. They make up badges for your department yet?” He smiled. There was something about her...
    She grimaced, glanced over her shoulder again.
    “Someone slow to back you up?” Bleak added thoughtfully, “You're not NYPD or FBI. I'd have had their badges stuck in my face till I was blind...so that leaves CCA, right?”
    She looked at him flatly, then tilted her purse so he could see the badge clipped to the inside flap: HOMELAND SECURITY, CENTRAL CONTAINMENT AUTHORITY. “CCA agent Loraine Sarikosca. So you know about CCA. Not many are aware it exists. Lot of you people know?”
    “I think I read about it on the Internet somewhere.” Truth was, all the ShadowComm knew. A few had escaped and told their stories. And the Hidden disclosed a good many secrets.
    She gave a small shake of her head. “The Internet. I don't think so.”
    “Way it is now, anybody can be detained. So I guess I won't ask what authority you have. But”— he tossed the energy bullet from his right hand to his left—”what excuse do you have?” “What?” She seemed startled. As if she'd been wondering herself. “What rationale? What excuse? To just take people away.”
    Her