Nightworld (Adversary Cycle/Repairman Jack) Read Free Page A

life, maybe she needed the structure, stability, and predictability a man like Nelson offered. If he made her happy and secure, more power to him.
    But that didn’t make Bill want Carol any less.
    “How can I tell him what we know?” she said. “He’ll never accept it. He’ll think I’m crazy. He’ll have me going to psychiatrists. I wouldn’t blame him. I’d probably be doing the same if positions were reversed.”
    “But now with the sun playing tricks, we’ve got an indisputable fact on our side. Carol, he’s got to know sooner or later. I mean, if you’re going to be involved—”
    “Maybe if he met Glaeken. You know how persuasive he is. Maybe he could convince Nelson.”
    “It’s worth a try. I’ll talk to him about it. Maybe tonight—”
    “Maybe not tonight. He’s been away on a trip.”
    “Since when does he travel?”
    “Just the past month or so. The company’s been sending him. And when he comes back he crashes. I don’t think he’s built for travel. It … changes him.”
    What was she saying? Or rather, what was she not saying?
    “I’m not following.”
    A shrug and a shy smile. “It’s nothing. Just stress.”
    Bill glanced at his watch. “When’s he due in?”
    “Any minute. His flight from Denver should have landed about an hour ago.”
    “I’d better go.”
    “No, Bill.” She took his hand and squeezed it. “Stay. Please.”
    Her touch shot a bolus of tingling warmth up his arm.
    “I can’t. I’ve got a bunch of errands to run for Glaeken. Now that Rasalom’s made his first move, the old guy’s looking for countermoves. He needs me to be his legs.”
    Bill gave her a quick hug and fled the apartment.
    He hated lying to Carol. But how could he tell her that it ripped his heart out to see Nelson Treece stroll in the door and give her his usual casual hello kiss? Didn’t Nelson realize what he had? Did he have any idea what Bill would give— do —to take his place?
    He had another reason for wanting to leave. He was afraid to get too close to Carol, afraid to care too much. First and most obvious: She was married. But, more important, terrible things seemed to happen to people he cared about. All his emotional investments crashed.
    Bill began looking for a place where he could have a quiet beer and sit alone in the dark.

     
    Repairman Jack
     
    Jack sat at his back-against-the-rear-wall table in Julio’s, apart from the evening regulars, nursing a Stella and fuming.
    Some low-rent scumbag had tried to put the moves on Gia this morning while she was waiting with Vicky for the school bus. At seven in the morning. Right in front of Vicky.
    He couldn’t get it out of his mind. Hoped the creep tried it again tomorrow. He planned to be across the street. Watching. Waiting.
    Everything seemed to be going to hell. After a long period of relative peace, the city was becoming unmanageable again. Same all over the world. During the past year or so he’d witnessed a slow unraveling of the social fabric. He had a pretty good idea what was behind it. Or rather, who.
    It had started last year with the advent of the Kickers, but had spread from there, going into overdrive since March. As if the worst sensed that something was coming and they’d better grab what they could while they still had time.
    Too many people had begun acting as if nothing was beneath them. Rip off an old lady’s handbag or a toddler’s candy bar. No item too small, no deed too low. Everything up for grabs, anything okay if you got away with it—that was the operating ethic.
    Mine was anything I could take and keep. If you put something down and left it unguarded, it became mine if I could snatch it and make off with it. Civilized folk were on the run. Those who could afford to were leaving, others were withdrawing, tightening their range of activities, limiting their hours in public. And those unfortunates who had to be out on the streets and down in the subways were fodder. And they knew it.
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