Free Last Light (Novella) by Dean Koontz

lesser men when they were foiled by his power.
    Clearly, Makani had told the not-Ollie that someone wished to do her harm.
    He had chosen to be her guardian.
    Hooray for the hero.
    Perhaps Makani had broken her own rule of secrecy. Perhaps she had also told not-Ollie about her power.
    And about Rainer’s as well.
    The guardian’s behavior suggested a suspicion of things not seen.
    Yet the fool had convinced himself of Makani’s safety.
    In Rainer’s immediate presence, the dog could not see or hear or smell him. His power shrouded him completely.
    Elsewhere in the house, however, Rainer had left spoor.
    Spoor. The tiny particles of skin that people continuously shed. Loose hairs. Microdrops of perspiration. Atomized skin oil. With every breath were expelled particles of sinus secretions so minute as to be visible only under the highest magnification.
    Each thing that spalled from Rainer bore his DNA signature.
    Every dog’s sense of smell was thousands of times greater than that of any human being. In some breeds—tens of thousands of times greater.
    Retrievers, like Labradors and goldens, had a highly refined olfactory sense.
    Out of Rainer’s line of sight, beyond his power’s sphere of influence, the dog could smell the spoor.
    This had never before exposed Rainer to danger.
    It would not be a problem this time, either.
    Bob was not smart enough to matter.
    Although the dog might have been smarter than not-Ollie.
    On the bed, in sleep, Makani groaned softly.
    Rainer whispered a promise to her. “
I’ll
make you groan, little bitch, when you’re under me. And then I’ll make you scream.”
    Gazing down on her, he wanted to cut off her face and feed it to her.
    But this was only Round Two. The face-off would have to wait until Round Three.
    Perhaps his whisper found its way into the world of her dream. She opened her eyes.
    * * *
    The moment that Bob left the bedroom, he was again electrified by some scent. He set off in urgent pursuit of its source, his paws digging frantically at the carpet runner, displacing it, so that it slid out from under him, curling against one wall, and sent him skidding along the hardwood floor.
    As Pogo quietly closed the door behind him and saw the dog launch across the T intersection where the two hallways met, he thought he had made a grave mistake earlier. He’d been sure that Bob was following the scent to Makani’s room, and he’d raced ahead of him, leading the way. But there were two lengths to the bedroom wing, with guest quarters in one and the master suite in the other. Now it appeared that, left to his own devices, the dog would have turned left at the intersection, not right toward the guest bedrooms.
    As Bob disappeared into the master suite, through a door that should have been closed but was not, Pogo followed, the pistol in a two-hand grip.
    * * *
    Makani did not see Rainer standing bedside.
    He did not allow her to see him.
    She yawned.
    She turned her head to look at the digital clock in the fall of buttery light from the nightstand lamp.
    How tender she was. How succulent.
    She sat up. Swung her legs off the bed. Perched on the edge.
    Such a lithe girl. Yet full-figured. Provocative.
    Those vivid blue eyes. Blind to him.
    As she stood up, he Tasered her.
    All grace abandoned the maiden. Her body jerked, arms flailed, head tossed back to expose her throat, which he Tasered, triggering one shock, two.
    Palsied, wild-eyed, teeth clacking together, hands scrabbling uselessly at herself, as if to peel off and throw away the alien current that jigged along her nerve paths, she tried to scream, but gagged out only a throttled sound.
    Pocketing the stun gun with his left hand, Rainer seized her dark hair with his right, twisted it in his fist, turned her, and pressed her down onto the bed.
    When he fell upon her, twice her weight, she was as effectively pinned as a dead butterfly to a specimen board.
    He forced her face into the pillows. Familiarized her with the fear of