Shades of Gray by Kay Hooper Page A

them.
    “You should rest,” she told him, anxious.
    He was leaning back against the door, looking down at her. “Lucio is a threat to you, Sara. I have to remove that threat.”
    She was tired and knew she should go to bed, but she lingered, wanting to look at him, talk tohim. “When you do defeat him, what effect will it have on the revolution?”
    “It will be over.”
    Sara was surprised. “Is he so strong a leader?”
    Andres shook his head. “Only partly. He is a strong leader, but the point is, he fights out of hate, Sara. There’s no burning sense of injustice driving him, no all-consuming dream of a better world. It’s said that in every revolution there’s one man with a vision; Lucio isn’t the man.”
    “Then why do his men follow him?”
    “Sheer habit.” Andres sighed tiredly. “They’ve known nothing else, most of them. Only fighting. And he’s the flag they follow into the only life they know.”
    “Then, when he’s gone?”
    “He hasn’t a single lieutenant strong enough to take over as leader. His army will scatter into the jungles and hills. After a time, when they learn that I mean to exact no vengeance, they’ll come out of hiding.”
    “You won’t punish them?” She wasn’t surprised somehow.
    “How could I?” He smiled faintly. “I followed a leader into revolution, became one myself.”
    “But you had a vision,” she said in a soft tone.
    “I thought so.” After a moment Andres said quietly, “In any case, with Lucio gone, the fighting will end. For a while,” he added with faint bitterness. “Until someone else comes along, full of hate. Or seduced by a vision.”
    “Does it have to be that way, Andres?” She was trying to understand. “On and on with no end—just moments of peace and hours of war?”
    “Without change, yes. And change takes time, Sara. If I can keep the peace long enough, if I can show my people there
is
a better way … If. Always
if
.”
    Sara instinctively reached out her hand to him, hearing first the passion of commitment and then a return of the faint bitterness of frustration in his remarkable voice. She reached out her hand and touched his lean cheek, feeling a muscle go tense beneath her touch, seeing his black eyes flare briefly before they were half hidden from her by lowered lashes.
    “If anybody can pull this country together, youcan,” she told him. “Some things are worth fighting for.”
    Andres didn’t move to touch her, but his hooded gaze was a tangible caress. “This is,” he said huskily.
    Sara forced her hand to leave him, nodding half consciously. “I know. Good night, Andres.”
    “Good night, my love.”
    He stood still, watching her move down the hall toward the stairs. When he could no longer see her, he turned, finally, and returned to his office and his colonel.
    In the penthouse office of a gleaming high-rise in New York City, a group of people sat around and talked with the easy camaraderie of those who have been through much together and emerged with close ties. It was late; outside the floor-to-ceiling windows the lights of the city glittered, and inside the building the normal hum of brisk business was muted by night.
    The conversation had been going on for some time, and it had, finally, more or less come downto who would go to Kadeira and how. It had come down to what they knew and what they could do. The “if” had been decided long before.
    Josh Long turned away from the windows and rested a hip on the corner of his desk. “It’s no use calling Rafferty and Sarah back from Australia even though we could use their help,” he said to the others. “I’m guessing that by the time they could get back, it would be finished. Besides, they haven’t been there long enough to get over the jet lag.”
    “We can’t all go to Kadeira, anyway,” Zach pointed out mildly. “That is, if any of us goes at all.”
    Josh looked at him, his flickering smile an indication of the understanding that Zach would