Nemesis: Book Six Read Free

sir?"
    "You sent that soldier in there. Will. Didn't you?"
    "I did," Kenneth Marks said.
    "And what was that about?"
    "Gaining information."
    The president smiled. "What information did you gain, Marks?"
    "Well, we're going to win aren't we?" he said.
    Trone laughed and looked back down to his drink. "I'm not going to pretend like I can read you, Marks, or really have any idea what's going on in your head. To be honest, I don't have any desire to. I'll tell you, though. The moment I think you're veering from what I want, I'll have you killed."

    * * *
    E verything was going swimmingly .
    Even the walls seemed to sing that tune, the one saying over and over that all would be okay.
    Knox wasn't in the room with Trone or Marks, nor did he want to be at this moment. The rest of the leaders, all the delegates from around the world, appeared like they could break into song and dance—so happy with the earlier results.
    The war was over.
    Even though California was about to fall off the map.
    Even though the man who set everything into motion this morning had long ago passed from the realm of sanity.
    None of those things mattered, because they all watched Marks kick some dust into the air.
    Knox opened the door to his room and stood in the doorway for a few seconds. He looked at the made bed, the small faucet with the smaller mirror hanging over it. He lived like a rat, and had for how many years? Scurrying to and fro, always in the name of America. Always for her benefit. And now, in his fifties, he looked at his cage and felt all the miles his tiny rat legs had scurried.
    As if those miles appeared from nowhere, finally laying out in front of him, all of them somehow mashed into this room.
    He closed the door behind him, stepping a bit further in. His room, though he had only stayed here a week and wouldn't ever see it again after next week. So many of his rooms were like that—transient places to rest his rat legs.
    "Shut up," he said. His voice died a small death against the walls surrounding him.
    Self-pitying nonsense because the psycho outside has everyone walking on clouds. That's what these thoughts were about. Rat legs didn't hold the fucking world up, and that's what Knox was doing right now, even if no one else knew it. Trone may or may not be on board the crazy train Marks revved up, and if he was, then Knox stood alone in this.
    He moved across the room to his bed, sitting down and pulling out the cell phone underneath his pillow. He knew any call would be monitored, but he had nothing to hide. The president knew about Will, and regardless of how much leeway he gave Marks, Knox didn't think the president would kill the line they had with Will. Knox understood what Marks wanted to do, even if he didn't understand how. Will arriving in Grayson was their best chance of stopping him.
    He hit the redial button and put the phone to his ear, listening to it ring once before Will's voice came over the line.
    "Yeah?"
    "Where are you?" Knox said.
    "A hundred miles out," Will said.
    "Are you seeing anything different than what the satellites have shown?"
    "No, just white fields ... endless white fields."
    "Won't be for long," Knox said. "It looks like whatever Marks created is working. The cake is dying up here, moving down toward you."
    A pause came over the line. "What's it mean?"
    "I don't know. It means that we're beating back those white fields."
    "There's more. He's not done with her. This is the knife he's twisting in her side, trying to force her to do as he wants."
    "A hundred miles?" Knox said.
    "A little less now."
    "Get there and let me know what you find."

3
    Present Day
    D o you see her ? Michael said.
    See who? Bryan asked.
    Michael needed no other answer. Only Michael saw the white creature, the one who looked so much like Morena.
    Do you see anything having to do with me? Michael said, wondering if Bryan saw him sitting in this desert.
    No. I can just feel you.
    Michael was balancing the world inside Bryan's