Free Legend of the Ir'Indicti 5 - Destroyer by Connie Suttle Page A

delivered tomorrow, and I'll put the dart gun and darts inside it, then ask Ashe to do his thing and leave it inside the closet in the hidden room. Nobody but you, Trace and I have to know anything about it."
    "Sounds like a plan. If you don't have anything else for me, I'll head toward bed." Trajan stood and stretched. With his arms held up, Trajan filled a lot of space. "We have to get to that board meeting in Dallas by ten," Winkler said before covering a yawn. "Jet will be ready at six-thirty."
    "Don't remind me." Trajan walked out of Winkler's study.
    * * *
    "Salidar, please explain where you've been most of the day, and why you're coming home at midnight. I left three messages on your cell and you failed to reply." Marcus' voice was a low growl. Sali sat at the kitchen table, a rebellious expression on his face. "Are you going to answer me?" Marcus went on when Sali failed to reply.
    "Dad, I was out. My cell ran down. I'm sorry." Sali's tone indicated he was far from sorry.
    "Grounded," Marcus announced flatly. "Give me your keys and go to bed, Salidar. You are not to leave the house outside school hours for two weeks."
    "Fine." Sali slapped his car keys on the table. "Car was out of gas, anyway," he muttered, rising and stalking away.
    "Three weeks," Marcus called out. Sali kept walking.
    * * *
    Wildrif's cell battery was almost drained, and there were few options in the Arizona desert to recharge it. He had calls to make, and hoped the battery would last at least that long.
    "Don't stray too far," Rumble, the last of Baltis' new Destroyers growled at Wildrif as he walked past the guards posted on the eastern edge of the Dark King's encampment.
    "Just getting a bit of exercise," Wildrif replied meekly, his head down. Rumble snorted and let the quarter-blood seer go. There wasn't anything for miles, Rumble knew, and the seer would find nothing but death should he stray too far. Rumble felt it might be a fitting end for the unwelcome misfit, but Baltis did seem to find him useful at times.
    Wildrif walked for perhaps a quarter mile before pulling the precious cell from his pocket and making his first call—the most important one. The call was answered on the second ring.
    "Master Tanner?" Wildrif spoke after Zeke's gruff "hello."
    "Wildrif? What do you have for me?"
    "A suggestion, Master Tanner. And a request."
    "What's the suggestion?"
    "Do you still have your contact in the U.S. capital?"
    "I do."
    "I will send a message containing vital information. You should forward it to him. He will take appropriate action."
    "I'll do that. What's the request?"
    "Might I be removed from the Dark King's loving embrace? He has become more than tiresome."
    "I can have somebody at your current location in two days."
    "I will be waiting."
    "Good. Here's what I want you to do."

Chapter 6  
    Curtis Roberts, Director of the U.S. Intelligence and Foreign Communications Division, toyed with a printout of information he'd received from his source in Mexico. The title of Curt's division sounded completely benign. It wasn't. He had authority even the CIA couldn't claim. He'd held his position for nine years, after the division had been created by an outgoing President during a lame-duck session. As yet, the current President, still in the first year of his term, hadn't been notified of the IFC's actual role in national security.
    "This is more than interesting," Curt handed the printout back to his personal assistant, Calhoun. "With this information, we can make arrests before the day's over."
    "Who should I notify?"
    "Matt Michaels. His people can move the fastest."
    "What about the last paragraph here?" Calhoun dangled the paper by a corner. "It says there may be more coming, to prove we can trust the source."
    "I'll wait to see what more coming actually means. These three names are good, but I'd need something better than that to make the source unimpeachable, in my opinion. Get with Matt Michaels, hand him the names and see if he can