Fear the Dark by Kay Hooper Page A

develop—especially if they’re cops.”
    â€œYou can read Luke and Sam?”
    â€œYeah—probably because both have abilities they generally have to concentrate to use, so neither needs much in the way of shields. I mean, they’re sort of guarded people by nature, both of them, but they have an emotional and psychic link that’s just a bit like neon, to me anyway.”
    â€œLike Bishop and Miranda?”
    â€œNo, not like that. Bishop and Miranda’s link is a link between two telepaths, and exceptionally deep. Luke and Sam haven’t been together as long, and neither one is a telepath, so the link is different. But they’re still connected. Not quite two halves of a whole, but stronger together than they are separately.”
    Dante was still frowning. “What about my shields?”
    With a slightly apologetic gesture, Robbie said, “That’s why I wanted to warn you to give them a rest now and then. They’re slipping, Dante. Not much and not often, but if you’re not completely focused on keeping them up, like you were at the stream, then . . . they slip.”
    â€œAnd when they do, you read my thoughts?”
    â€œIt’s more like catching your thoughts. Or, rather, not catching them. I don’t focus on them or anything; they’re more like whispers kind of slipping past me. And only when I have a window open.”
    He sighed. “Does that help you, to open a window?”
    â€œYeah, usually. I don’t like doing it with lots of people around, so I tend to wait for quieter moments. If I don’t open a window now and then, my shields tend to slip too, and usually when I’m least prepared for that to happen.”
    â€œLike when you’re asleep.”
    â€œWhen I’m asleep. Or when something unexpected happens.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œWell, look at us now. We’re doing ordinary things we tend to do on cases, the usually boring gathering of information and getting it organized so it becomes useful to us. You’ve combed through various files to assemble information, developing a timeline; I’ve set up this laptop to receive more info from Quantico—which is actually scheduled to come through in the next hour, according to a brief e-mail from Bishop.”
    After a moment’s thought, Dante said, “The security footage?”
    â€œHopefully examined and enhanced by the techs at Quantico so it’s useful to us, yeah. And Bishop said he was sending along some aerial views of Serenity as well.”
    â€œHe did? Why?”
    â€œI didn’t ask.”
    â€œBishop never does anything without a reason,” Dante said slowly.
    â€œThat’s what everybody says.”
    â€œSo . . . what? He retasked a satellite to get aerial images of this town?”
    â€œWell, I doubt he went online and used one of those find-your-house-on-a-map sites.”
    â€œRobbie, retasking a satellite is a big deal. As in a national-security-sense big deal. Those birds tend to be busy doing things like watching enemies or potential enemies, tracking storms, facilitating communications, and God knows what else.”
    With a shrug, she said, “I guess he believes it’ll help us, or that we really need it for some reason he suspects or knows and just hasn’t had the chance to tell us yet. I mean, he has to justify doing something like that, right? To the Director, at least?”
    â€œI would think so. But I don’t actually know. Remind me to ask Luke about it. He was part of the earliest group of psychics Bishop found and recruited, so I assume he’d know.”
    Robbie tapped neat pink fingernails on the table beside the laptop. “You know, when I first joined the unit, one of the other agents warned me that I would always be able to trust what Bishop tells me—but that he almost always leaves stuff out. Sometimes fairly important