Read Online Night Chills by Dean Koontz - Free Book Online Page B

room beside it were adjuncts to the enormous thirtieth-floor presidential suite of the Fortunata Hotel. This afternoon there were only two people using it: a pair of voluptuous young women in skimpy white string bikinis. They were sitting on the edge of the pool, near the deep end, dangling their legs in the water. A squat, powerfully built man in gray slacks and a short-sleeved white silk shirt was hunkered down beside them, talking to them. All three had the perfect nonchalance that, Ogden thought, came only with power or money. They appeared not even to have noticed the arrival of the helicopter.
    Salsbury crossed the roof to them. “General Klinger?”
    The squat man looked up at him.
    The girls didn’t seem to know that he existed. The blonde had begun to lather the brunette with tanning lotion. Her hands lingered on the other girl’s calves and knees, then inched lovingly along her taut brown thighs. Obviously, they were more than just good friends.
    “My name’s Salsbury.”
    Klinger stood up. He didn’t offer to shake hands. “I’ve got one suitcase. Be with you in a minute.” He walked back toward the glass-walled recreation room.
    Salsbury stared at the girls. They had the longest, loveliest legs he had ever seen. He cleared his throat and said, “I’ll bet you’re in show business.”
    Neither of them looked at him. The blonde squeezed lotion into her left hand and massaged the swelling tops of the brunette’s large breasts. Her fingers trailed under the bikini bra, flicked across the hidden nipples.
    Salsbury felt like a fool—as he always had around beautiful women. He was certain that they were making fun of him. You stinking bitches! he thought viciously. Some day I’ll have any of you I want. Some day I’ll tell you what I want, and you’ll do it, and you’ll love it because I’ll tell you to love it.
    Klinger returned, carrying one large suitcase. He had put on a two-hundred-dollar, blue-and-gray-plaid sportcoat.
    Looks like a gorilla dressed up for a circus act, Salsbury thought.
    In the passengers’ compartment of the helicopter, as they lifted away from the pool, Klinger pressed his face to the window and watched the girls dwindle into sexless specks. Then he sighed and sat back and said, “Your boss knows how to arrange a man’s vacation.”
    Salsbury blinked in confusion. “My boss?”
    Glancing at him, Klinger said, “Dawson.” He took a packet of cheroots from an inside coat pocket. He fished one out and lit it for himself without offering one to Salsbury.
    “What did you think of Crystal and Daisy?”
    Salsbury took off his sunglasses. “What?”
    “Crystal and Daisy. The girls at the pool.”
    “Nice. Very nice.”
    Pausing for a long drag of his cheroot, Klinger blew out smoke and said, “You wouldn’t believe what those girls can do.”
    “I thought they were dancers,” Salsbury said.
    Klinger looked at him disbelievingly, and then threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, they are! They dance their little asses off every night in the Fortunata’s main show-room. But they’ve also been performing in the penthouse suite. And let me tell you, dancing is the least of their talents.”
    Salsbury was perspiring even though the cabin of the JetRanger was cool. Women... He feared them—and wanted them desperately. To Dawson, mind control meant unlimited wealth, a financial stranglehold on the entire world. To Klinger it might mean unrestricted power, the satisfaction of unquestioned command. But to Salsbury, it meant having sex as often as he wanted it, in as many ways as he wanted it, with any woman he desired.
    Blowing smoke at the cabin ceiling, Klinger said, “I’ll bet you’d like having those two in your bed, shoving it in them, one after the other. Would you like that?”
    “Who wouldn’t?”
    “They’re hard on a man,” Klinger said, chuckling. “Takes a man with real stamina to keep them happy. You think you could handle both Crystal and Daisy?”
    “I