Bound by Night(77)

Baddon’s laughter followed Riker until he entered the lab, where he wasn’t surprised to find Grant hard at work. He was, however, surprised to find a teepee in one corner and Hunter talking to Bastien at a table near the bison-skin tent.
His stomach did a few flips. It was both strange and awesome to see the boy Riker had once dreamed of having. The circumstances weren’t perfect, obviously, but he wasn’t going to turn down this amazing second chance.
When Hunter saw Riker, he excused himself and crossed the room.
“It seems,” Hunter said, “that your son is as stubborn as you are.”
Riker peeled his eyes away from the boy. “Why’s that?”
“He refuses to sleep anywhere but here. Morena had to pull an old teepee out of storage for him. The biggest problem is he won’t leave the lab.” Hunter shifted his weight with an awkwardness Riker had never seen from the rock-steady male. “Grant thinks Nicole might be able to persuade Sebastian to get out of here. Seems Bastien trusts her.”
“I seem to recall telling you that.” Riker smiled.
“Looks like she might be useful after all.”
“We’ll see.” Hunter’s mouth became a forbidding slash. “I met with the warriors last night—”
“Without me?” Riker broke in.
“You were . . . busy,” Hunter said, leaving no doubt that he knew where Riker had been for part of the night. “But we didn’t make any decisions without you.”
“I’m guessing you discussed what we’re going to do about ShadowSpawn?”
Hunter nodded. “We think it’ll be best to wait until our deadline to tell ShadowSpawn that Neriya’s dead. We can use the time to develop a battle plan.”
“We’re going to need to outline several strategies.
I assume we’re going to attempt to negotiate first? With Lucy’s life on the line, I don’t want to antagonize them with a forceful opening salvo.” God, he hoped she was okay and that they were treating her well. Somehow he doubted it.
“Agreed.” Hunter’s expression said he didn’t have high hopes for negotiation. “We have to try. We can’t afford a war.”
Riker glanced over at Bastien, who was sucking on a glass of what looked like chocolate milk. Terese had loved the stuff. “Let’s meet again this afternoon and storm some brains.”
“How’s Nicole?” Hunter asked, and hey, it had to mean something that he didn’t say her name the way he might say “Ebola” anymore. “Any signs of the turn?”
Riker tried to keep disappointment out of his voice.
“She should be in the clear.”
“keep me updated.” Hunter gestured to Bastien.#p#分页标题#e#
“Ditto with him. If you need help, everyone is here for you.”
They clasped hands, friendship secured, and then Hunter left Riker with Grant and Bastien.
Riker approached Bastien slowly, letting the boy control their encounter. As Riker got closer to the table Bastien was sitting at with a deck of cards, Bastien gave him a timid smile.
“Hi, Bastien.”
“Hi,” Bastien said. “It’s Riker, right?”
“Yeah.” He tapped the back of a chair. “Mind if I sit?”
“No.” Bastien looked down at the cards, each ofwhich had an image of an animal or object. “ Morena told me to make two piles. One of the images I recognize, and one pile for things I don’t know.”
One pile was twice as large as the other, but Riker didn’t know which was which. “Did the humans teach you things?”
Bastien nodded, still not meeting Riker’s gaze.
“Every night, I got to watch movies and stuff on the
TV across from my kennel. I can read, too. Some of the lab people taught me, but I don’t think they were supposed to. They gave me books.”
“Like what?”
“I’m halfway through The Hobbit.” He finally peered through his long, shaggy hair at Riker, although he kept his head down. So like Terese. “Do you have books here?”
“We do. We have an entire chamber dedicated to them.”
The boy’s crystal eyes lit up. “I—I’d like to see that.”
“I can take you.”
Man, you’d have thought Riker had offered to beat him instead of show him the library. Bastien shrank back, his skinny fingers trembling over the cards.
“That’s all right. I like it here.”
“How about if Nicole takes you?”
He gave a barely discernible nod. “That might be okay. She’ll bring me back here, right?”
“If that’s what you want,” Riker said, but the dubious expression on Bastien’s face said he didn’t believe