Free Unmasked by Kate Douglas Page A

day
     
    Zianne? Is he the one? Is he strong enough? Smart enough?
    I think so. He’s very strong—I heard his voice over such a great distance, but I don’t know. We’ve waited so long. How can I be certain?
    We’re dying, Zianne. All of us. There’s no time to hesitate. There are hardly enough of us left to matter.
    No. Don’t say that. We matter. We must.
    Then go. Even I sense this one. His world will nurture us for now, but this man . . . this one man will be our salvation.
     
    * * *
     
    Silicon Valley—April 1992
     
    “Fucking chicken scratch.” Mac Dugan wadded up yet another lined yellow page covered in pointless doodles, equations and code. He reached overhead, aiming for the Sloan’s Bar and Grill sign over the trash can.
    Powerful fingers closed around his wrist.
    Jerking his arm free, he spun around, prepared to take a swing at whatever idiot had interrupted his mini-tirade. When he saw who it was, he laughed. “Christ, Dink. Haven’t seen you in ages. You trying to get yourself killed?”
    “Nope. Just trying to save your stupid ass.”
    Mac grabbed the beer Dink handed to him. “Who says my ass needs saving?”
    Dink grinned. His wide smile, along with the collar-length blond hair and thick dark lashes framing light blue eyes, made him almost too pretty for a man. “I do,” he said. “That redhead, Jen? The one who was with you last month? She’s all cozied up to the bar with your nemesis.”
    “You mean Bennett? Crap.” Mac took a sip of his beer and fought the compulsion to glance over his shoulder. “I didn’t know he was here. With her? Shit. Why’d I ever go out with her?”
    “Because you were horny?” Dink snorted. “She keeps looking this way. Maybe she wants to get laid again.”
    Mac shook his head. “Not by me. What about Bennett? Is he watching us?”
    Dink chuckled. “Nah. He’s too busy staring at her cleavage.”
    “Fucking jerk. Weird, she’d be here with him after . . . well, shit. Maybe I’m just paranoid.” He avoided turning in his seat to stare at Phil Bennett. Even if the guy was responsible for totally fucking over his life, Bennett was more than welcome to the redhead. Except . . . It was like that stupid cartoon lightbulb flashed on in his mind. What if Jen and Phil had been an item before she came on to Mac? What if she’d been using him to get stuff—like his project notes?
    “Of course you’re paranoid.” Dink was obviously reading his mind. He took a swallow of his beer and cocked one eyebrow. “You have a right to be, after what happened.” He glanced once again at the couple. “On the other hand, you sure you don’t want to get laid? She looks interested, and she’s hot.”
    Mac laughed. “How do you know? You like guys.”
    Dink flipped him off, but he didn’t deny it. At least his sexual preferences had never gotten in the way of their friendship. “I know gorgeous when I see it, male or female. She definitely fits the description.”
    Mac shrugged. “I know the red hair’s not natural.”
    “It didn’t seem to matter at the time.”
    It hadn’t. He’d met her just a couple of days before the shit hit the fan. She’d come on to him, made it patently obvious she wanted to get laid, and it had been too damned long since he’d gotten a piece of anything but his right hand. “What can I say? She caught me in a weak moment.” He waved his hand at the pile of discarded notes in the trash. “That’s what counts. I know what I want, how it should look and what it needs to do, but I can’t get the damned program to work.”
    Dink held up both hands and shook his head. “Hell, don’t look at me. Starving grad student, future TV news guy here, not developer of weird software. You’re so far past me on all this computer shit I wouldn’t know where to start. What about the guys in the lab? I hear they’re doing amazing stuff.”
    “I’m barred from the lab after what happened.” He practically snarled. “Bennett’s lies