Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Elias McFeron turned to me. He was in his late forties, with short blond hair that was going grey. His face was harsh, with a square jaw and broad angles. He might have been handsome if he’d led a different life, but the breaches must’ve purged all softness from his soul and his face. Only hard resolve remained. His light blue eyes evaluated me with methodical precision. He saw my face, my expression, my coveralls, Bear at my feet. He missed nothing. Elias McFeron was very dangerous, and he’d decided I was a threat.
I didn’t want to kill anyone. I just wanted to go home, but if I had to cut my way through Cold Chaos to get back to my children, I would do it.
He opened his mouth.
I braced myself.
“Assessor Moore, welcome home. Perhaps we could have a word?”
13
Leo held the library door open. “Please.”
Adaline Moore walked into the library side by side with the dog. If that creature could be called a dog. She strode in and sat in the nearest chair.
Leo followed her.
Jackson approached, his eyes wary.
“London?” Elias asked under his breath.
“Shattered jaw, cracked teeth, torn brachial artery. I put him back together. Krista is watching him. If it wasn’t for the shield, he would be dead.”
Adaline Moore, a consummate noncombatant, punched through a warden forcefield and hit London so hard, he flew twelve feet. And she had held back. He saw her slow the punch halfway through. Had she hit him with everything she had, London would have stopped being a problem. Permanently.
And if Elias was honest with himself, he wouldn’t be shedding any tears over it.
“Did you get a chance to scan her?” Elias asked.
Jackson nodded. “Kid gloves, Elias. Treat her like a nuclear warhead. You want me in for this meeting.”
“Is she human?”
“She seems to be.”
Elias held the door open for Jackson and walked in. He was too large for a chair in his gear, so he just leaned against the nearest desk. Leo took up a similar position to his left and Jackson stood to his right. They had formed a U with Adaline in the center. The significance of being flanked wasn’t lost on her. She noted it but didn’t seem bothered.
Adaline leaned back in the chair. A harsh, familiar stench emanated from her. He’d smelled it on himself hundreds of times – the odor of alien blood and ichor, acrid and tinged with decomp. Layers of brown stains marked her coveralls. Dried blood caked on her scalp. She looked like someone in an assault team’s vanguard after a week of hard fighting in the breach.
The dog at her feet was supposed to be a guild K9, a two-year old German Shepherd, according to the files. He’d seen a picture of her, a typical guild GS with big eyes and a happy dog smile, panting. The picture did not match reality.
For one, Bear was too damn large. She had to be over a hundred pounds, and those teeth were longer than any dog’s cuspids he had seen. More importantly, she watched him with something other than canine intelligence. He knew their German Shepherds, the guild took them on every gate dive, and he’d interacted with them and gave them treats. This creature was something else.
There was an eerie similarity in the way the woman and the dog were looking at him. He had a feeling that if he said the wrong word or moved the wrong way, both would go for his throat.
Kid gloves. Right.
“Do you require medical assistance?” he asked, keeping his tone casual. “Jackson is our best healer, and he will be happy to assist.”
“No.”
No emotion, nothing in the eyes. Unreadable and cold.
“Your children are safe and on their way here,” Elias said.
She focused on him, and it was like having a blade to his throat, pressing against his carotid. “Why do you have my children?”
The challenge in her eyes was so sharp, he had to force himself to speak instead of simply staring. On his left, Leo tensed. A faint gold shimmer rolled over Jackson’s hands.
“You spent a week in the breach. Since you were presumed dead, we brought them to Cold Chaos HQ. They are under the care of Felicia Terrell. She doesn’t work for Cold Chaos. She is representing them directly. The DDC doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to taking care of survivors, and the political infighting between the guilds is vicious.”
“We felt it would be best to shield them from media scrutiny and from being used to influence public sentiment,” Leo said.
“We have the cat as well,” Elias added. “The children insisted on bringing Mellow with them. Although from my interactions with him, I believe the name to be a misnomer.”
The pressure in her eyes eased a little.
“We are not enemies, Ms. Moore,” Elias said. “We mean you no harm. We just want to know if London was honest in his report. He stated there were no survivors.”