Part 67 (2/2)
”Carfolian h.e.l.l.” Falcone looked around at the group. ”Everybody in the house. Hurry.”
LANCE tossed a s.h.i.+rt and pants to Ross, who wiggled into them.
Logan turned onto a side road so he could climb into his clothing.
”What the h.e.l.l was that thing that grabbed my mind?” Lance asked.
”A trap for a shape-s.h.i.+fter. I guess Falcone figured I'd come after Rinna. Like I told you, I stepped into a trap meant for her, and she came along and got me out of it. She could have run in the other direction,” he added. ”But she didn't.”
”It clamped hold of my mind, and it was reeling me in,” Lance muttered. ”I still feel like my head is full of steel wool.”
”Yeah. I know the sensation. Only, believe me, it's worse if the d.a.m.n thing actually catches you. I gather from what Rinna said that if it grabs you, you can't get out by yourself. And she couldn't touch it.”
”Then how did she get you out?”
”She got me to change, and while my cells were... were in flux, she pulled my leg away.”
”A brave and resourceful woman,” Ross said.
”Yeah. After that, it took me a couple of days to put coherent thoughts together.”
”Is there anything we can use as a s.h.i.+eld? In case we run into another one?”
”Maybe Rinna knows.”
”And they have her in their d.a.m.n camp. The only good news is that the trap is probably close to where they're holding her. But we'll have to be careful when we go back.”
They were debating what to do, when a police siren interrupted the conversation.
One patrol car sped by on the highway. Then another.
The three men exchanged glances.
”It sounds like something big is going down.”
”Yeah,” Logan muttered as he turned on the radio to an all-news station.
”Breaking news,” an announcer said. ”A militia group has taken over a house in the Huntington Woods section of Mount Airy. Eyewitness reports say they've taken a woman hostage.”
Logan felt an electric shock travel along his nerve endings. ”Rinna,” he breathed.
”You don't know that for sure,” Ross cautioned.
”What else could it be?”
Another patrol car sped by and he turned on the engine, then lurched away from the curb. He was on the road and heading for the highway before anyone else could speak. Whipping onto the blacktop, he followed the red and blue flas.h.i.+ng lights.
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