Running Hot

said. “I saw the same thing in Mr. Crocker’s aura after the dark energy appeared, although I didn’t know what it meant at the time.”
    “We need more information on Eubanks. I want to see just how he’s connected to Nightshade.”
    “What do you suggest?”
    He put his sparkling water down on the table. “I’m going to pay a visit to his room while he’s occupied down here.”
    A shiver went through her. “I don’t like that idea.”
    “What’s the problem? We know where he is. You can keep an eye on him while I take a look around his suite.”
    “How am I supposed to warn you if he leaves the bar?”
    “You call my cell. From here it’s a five-, maybe eight-minute walk back through the lobby, up the elevators and down the hall to number six-oh-four. Plenty of time for me to get out before he sees me.”
    “Luther, I know this is going to sound wimpy, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
    “You’re right, that sounds wimpy.” He got leisurely to his feet. “Call me if he makes a move to head back to the room.”
    She swallowed her next argument, which wasn’t any more convincing than the first. She watched carefully but none of the executives or their bodyguards appeared to notice Luther leaving the bar.
    She settled down to wait, the cell phone cradled in one hand.

NINETEEN
    He got the door open with the useful little J&J gadget that Fallon issued to all his agents. Automatically he heightened his senses and moved inside.
    The only warning he got that he was not the only one in the room was the hot flash of a seriously jacked-up aura. Hunter.
    He spun around to face the threat. The cane went out from under him. He went down hard on the carpet. The fall saved him.
    The hunter’s thwarted rush carried him straight into the bed. He recovered with the lightning-swift reflexes that were the hallmark of his talent, seeming to bounce off the comforter and back onto his feet.
    Luther didn’t even try to rise. No one without a similar talent could hope to defeat a hunter in hand-to-hand combat. Instead he focused quickly and slammed everything he had at the attacker’s pattern, dousing the fiery energy with a tsunami wave of crushing ennui.
    The hunter staggered and reeled back, disoriented. He sank onto the bed.
    “Shit,” he muttered. “How the hell do you do that?”
    “Who are you?” Luther kept the suppressing energy flowing at full power while he got to his feet. “What are you doing here?”
    The room was in near total darkness but that wouldn’t bother the hunter. With his talent powered, he had excellent night vision. Luther couldn’t see a thing except the other man’s aura. That was enough.
    “I think it’s a good bet that we’re both here for the same reason,” the hunter said. “To get some information on Eubanks.”
    “You sure you aren’t here to take him out?”
    “Plans have changed.”
    The hunter started to come up off the bed. He made no sound but his aura shifted a split second before he did.
    “Don’t move,” Luther said. He accompanied the warning with an extra shot of energy.
    The hunter sank back down onto the bed, literally too weary to get to his feet.
    “That really is a nifty trick,” he said. “How long can you keep it up? Must be a hell of an energy drain.”
    It was true that he was using an enormous amount of energy to immobilize the hunter. He saw no reason to admit that, however. But the casual manner in which the other man had used the term “energy drain” was interesting. Few people outside the Society, even those comfortable with their psychic natures, would have phrased it quite that way.
    “Are you Arcane?” the hunter asked.
    “You could say it’s in the blood. You?”
    “J&J.”
    “Of course you are. No wonder she had a bad feeling about this job.”
    “Who?”
    “My scheduler. Last night she informed me that she was having doubts about the client and the whole damn situation. This morning she canceled the contract and told me to go home. But I just had to have a look at Eubanks’s room. After all these years, you’d think I’d know enough to pay attention to her intuition.”
    “Who is the client?”
    “Called herself Winthrup. That’s the code name for our Number Two client. Her story checked out.”
    “She identified herself as female?”
    “No. The real Winthrup is male. Like I said, my scheduler is a strong intuitive. She had a hunch that whoever contacted us was not the real deal.”
    “Any idea why