Read Online The Keeper by David Baldacci - Free Book Online

Thorne kills ’em.”
    “He kills them?” I exclaimed.
    “Slaughters ’em, more like it. Least he did.”
    “Why is the skin so important to Thorne?” Delph asked.
    “For the bladder,” answered Luc.
    “The bladder, on the aero ship?” I said. Then I realized what he meant. “He uses the grubb’s skin to make the bladder?” I added, horrified.
    Luc nodded. “Has ’em stitched together. And the grubb’s blood? It hardens good and stout when you mix it with a few other ingredients. Where the needle holes are in the bladder when they stitch the hides together? Thorne uses the blood concoction to seal ’em so no air leaks out.”
    I turned to look at the grubb. While I knew it probably could not understand us, I sensed a deep misery in its eyes. Her eyes.
    Why did there have to be Wugs like Thorne? Whose only interest was furthering their own goals and not caring a whit about the effect on others? I whispered this thought to Delph.
    He nodded and said quietly, “ ’Tis a good lesson for us all, Vega Jane.”
    Luc said, “But he hasn’t caught a grubb in a long time now.”
    “Why?”
    Luc said his next words in a low voice. “ ’Cause I come and warn ’em and they go hide.” He shook his head sadly. “They might not be much to look at, I know. But underneath that hide, they’ve a heart as big as any you’re likely to ever see.”
    I looked back at the grubb and could see that her yellow eyes were filled with moisture. When I shot a glance at Luc, he had anticipated my question.
    “A grubb can sense things like we never can. They can feel what we’re feeling. I don’t know if we give off a scent or what, but they know. They just know. She understands that we’re sad. And so she’s sad too. And with that sadness, it also tells her that we’re, well, that we’re good creatures, not bad.”
    I had never been referred to as a creature before. But then again, a Wug was just one thing among many other living things, I reckoned.
    I turned to look at the grubb and gently rubbed her face.
    I said, “I think you’re very beautiful.” And I smiled.
    The purring sound filled the passageway again.
    I smiled even more broadly, and though I couldn’t be sure, it seemed that she was smiling back at me.
    “Now she senses happiness,” explained Luc.
    I said, “Thorne said they’ve tried to kill him, many times. How?”
    “They can tunnel through anything. Never know where they might pop out. Only thing gives ’em away is the sound of their tunneling.”
    “So I’m sure Thorne, being as cunning as he is, takes precautions?”
    “Patrols down the passageways and has things on the wall that measure the smallest of vibrations. Gives him early warning when and where they might be coming. And his sleeping chamber is lined with iron. Grubbs can work their way through iron, but it takes a while. Plenty of time for Thorne to get away, but even so, early on, they came close to getting him.”
    He looked at the grubb, and his face became embarrassed. “Right more courage than I got.”
    “But you warned them against Thorne,” Delph pointed out. “That takes courage.”
    “Not the same, is it?” said Luc. “No, not the same.”
    “It’s Cere and Kori, isn’t it?” I said. This statement made Luc glance at me. I continued. “He’d hurt them, right? If you turned against him? She was worried that you were showing us these places. She’s afraid Thorne will find out.”
    Luc slowly nodded. “He has ekos fiercely loyal to him. They’d kill their own flesh and blood. I think he’s done something to their minds, but I have no proof of that.”
    A great many thoughts were swirling through my head. I turned to Luc, my determination resolute. “How long did it take Thorne to build the aero ship?”
    “Ten or more sessions, close as I remember. Lot of work.”
    “Ten sessions,” I repeated, and then smiled. That was a good thing, I thought. “And if he can’t catch any more grubbs, he can’t build