"But he's a Colonist, Lisa. Some girls--"
Lisa grabbed her friend's sleeve. "Any girl who looks like that
trying to pick up Matthew Katzberg is worth checking out! Go!"
With a small shove from her friend, Madison McCormick
returned to a standing position, then walked out of the store to
follow the trail of the mysterious brunette who threatened to
disappear among the crowds thronging the walkways.
Madison gained some distance on the other woman by flitting
down a flight of stairs while the latter stood atop an escalator step.
Then both were headed out of the mall and onto the top level of a
parking lot baking in the Houston afternoon sunshine. The huntress
stopped at the far edge of the mass of vehicles parked in the center,
while the other female kept on walking, in the direction of a silver
Porsche idled by its driver well beyond the edge of the auto crowd.
Madison watched Svetlana lower herself into the passenger
seat revealed by a door that opened for her when it detected her
approach. Then the woman allowed a seat belt to lay itself across her taut bosom
as the door closed automatically, and her head slumped to one side as the vehicle
sped away and down an exit ramp.
############
"Hey, Bettmann!"
Bettmann looked up from the piece of pita bread that he had
spread with humus as part of his usual lunch routine. "What?"
Peters tossed on Bettmann's desk a paper copy of one of the FBI's
countless field reports. "This is something right up your alley!"
|
