Read Online Criminal Destiny by Gordon Korman - Free Book Online Page A

It’s not the softest impact, but it’s a lot softer than the pavement. I lurch to a stop with my face in a half-eaten pizza,disturbing a squadron of feasting flies.
    There was definitely a moment when I was in free fall, not knowing if I’d survive it, where I’d have traded my situation for a return to Serenity. I’ll never admit it to the others, but it was definitely there.
    I get up, battered but not broken, to see Tori headed down the hose, moving with an ease and skill that I could never match. In no time at all, she’s at the bottom, swinging like a pendulum out over the Dumpster. She lands on her feet beside me. High above, Malik throws a leg out the window and begins his descent. That means Amber will be last, probably because her police escort is getting antsy and needs to hear her voice through the door.
    â€œHow’s that cop?” I ask.
    â€œMad.” Tori’s nervous. “And getting madder. The minute he doesn’t hear Amber’s voice anymore he’s going to barge into the bathroom and see the fire hose going out the window.”
    â€œWe’ll have to run for it. We should have a little head start while he leaves the building. But the minute he gets in his car, the advantage is all his.”
    Malik is the strongest of us, but he’s also carrying the most weight. He’s climbing cautiously, his style closer to mine than Tori’s.
    â€œWhy’s he going so slow?” Tori murmurs under her breath.
    â€œMaybe he’s afraid of breaking every bone in his body,” I tell her. “I know I was.”
    And then he’s crashing into the Dumpster beside us, practically bowling us over, landing flat on his face.
    He rolls over in the trash, groaning. “It stinks in here!”
    â€œWhat do you expect the garbage to smell like?” I retort. “Roses?”
    Now Amber is on the way down, moving almost as quickly as Tori, her arms working like pistons. Her expression is wild as she mouths an urgent message without making any sound.
    â€œYou’re doing fine,” Tori calls.
    A minute later, the cause of her distress becomes clear. The big cop is leaning out the window. He takes in the sight of Amber on the hose and us in the Dumpster and bellows, “Freeze!”
    And when we don’t freeze, he does something even Tori hasn’t anticipated. He grips ham-like hands on the fire hose and begins yanking Amber up. Panicking, she descends faster. But the cop is strong as an ox, and she actually starts to rise.
    â€œJump!” yells Tori.
    Amber is petrified. “It’s too high!”
    You’d better believe it’s too high, but we can’t let her be hauled back into custody.
    â€œWe’ll catch you,” I promise.
    Malik casts me a look that plainly says nobody’s going to be able to catch anybody. But he’s holding out his arms. For Amber, jumping is a bad option, but also the only one there is.
    She’s at least twenty feet up when she kicks toward us.
    The cop stops pulling. “Don’t do it, kid!”
    It’s too late. Amber lets go. It’s almost a swan dive. We scramble to guess the point of impact, because she’s going to snap her neck if we don’t catch her. I have an awful flashback to my last sight of poor Hector, clinging to the back of the cone truck right before it plunged off the road and down into the steep valley.
    Please don’t let us lose anybody else.
    Despite her toughness, Amber is screaming all the way. We all know we’ll be crushed like bugs if she lands on us, but she’ll be crushed if we just let her drop. We reach up, and suddenly she’s there, coming down between us. We each get a hand on her before the force of her fall slams the four of us into the refuse of the Dumpster.
    â€œAmber!” Tori is frantic. “Are you okay?”
    â€œI—I think so.” Amber sits up in the trash, moving all her limbs, taking