Read Online Ascending the Boneyard by C. G. Watson - Free Book Online Page B

sorry.” She extends her long, slender hand through the open window. “I’m Elan. Of course, that’s not my given name. It’s my taken name.”
    â€œHe’s got a taken name too.” I jab my thumb at Haze, who knocks it out of the way.
    â€œAnd who are the two of you?”
    â€œCaleb Tosh. Nathan Hayes.”
    â€œJust Haze,” he says, and I can tell by his voice that he’s irritable.
    There couldn’t be a more inappropriate time to verify how hot this girl is. Like UnderWorld-hostage babe kind of hot.
    Wait a second . . .
    Did they send her? Did the commandos send this girl to me? Could she be a hostage? I can’t tell if I’m supposed to save her, or if she’s part of my platoon.
    Do not question the mission.
    â€œWell?” she says. “Are you getting in or aren’t you?”
    I answer with a nod and the gut feeling that everything is suddenly, inexplicably right in the world.
    â€œYeah. We’re all in, sure.”
    Haze edges me aside. “Don’t you think we should find out something about her before we get in her car? Something minuscule, like where she’s going?”
    â€œI told you,” I whisper back. “We’re going to New York.”
    â€œ She could be going anywhere,” he says, but I push him around to the passenger’s side of the car and through the open door.
    I let him sit up front with Elan so I can stare at her without being too obvious about it. She looks familiar, but I can’t place her. I may have rescued her before, but in her civvies, it would be hard to tell.
    Elan gives Haze the once-over. I can see it through the rearview mirror.
    â€œSo what’s with the gas mask, potato chip?” she finally asks.
    â€œJust in case.”
    She nods as if this makes perfect sense to her.
    â€œAnd where do you all hail from?”
    Haze and I answer in unison, only I blurt out “Sandusky” and he mumbles “Cincinnati,” and as I shove the butt of my hand against the back of his ski-knit head, Elan goes, “You boys are gonna have to get your story straight.”
    â€œNo kidding,” I mumble.
    She adjusts the mirror, locks sights on me.
    â€œBig city?” she asks.
    Our eyes connect in the mirror, and I start to sweat from a surge of heat blasting in from nowhere.
    Her smile is 100 percent evaporated.
    There’s no way she could know about that note in the gum pack buried in my messenger bag. The list. My mom’s list. She’d scrawled those exact words: “big city.”
    I blink the sting of sweat out of my eyes.
    â€œWhere are you going?” I ask.
    She flips her hair over her shoulders. “Or should I say, Big Apple?”
    Haze’s head pivots in slow motion over his shoulder. Even through his shades, I can tell he’s staring at me, and all I can do is avoid staring back. If he wants to know how she knew that, I don’t have a way to answer him.
    I take out my phone, nervously switch playlists, check and recheck my home screen. There’s got to be another message coming, more info, any little scrap of assistance from the commandos, since it’s their fault we got thrown off course here in the first place, thanks to their little “avoid the toll” debacle.
    Unless this is all part of the mission I’m not supposed to question.
    Still, I can’t shake the preraid sensation of static electricity snap-crackling through my body. Can’t get my foot to stop nervous-bouncing against the floorboard of Elan’s car, which is decomposing to the point that I worry I might bounce a hole straight through the bottom of it.
    I start fake keying the words “save it” over and over again on my phone, but when I look down at the screen, the low-battery icon is flashing in the corner. I shut down all the apps, pop out the earbud, and lean forward in the seat.
    â€œCan I charge up?”
    â€œAnything you