Read Online Delete: Volume 3 (Shifter Series) by Kim Curran - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Kim Curran
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wrapped his foot around the rope and hung there, one hand free.
He pulled out a small blue hammer and laid his head and a hand against the glass, like a safe cracker listening for the telltale clicks, moved a few times till he found a place he was happy with, then hit the spot above his fingers with the hammer. At first, he only succeeded in smashing a hole in the glass. Cooper sighed into his helmet. Then there was that strange, jolting sensation when someone makes a Shift. The glass shattered, falling like rain around us in a shower of diamonds. It was kind of beautiful to watch.
Cooper stood on the window ledge and waved Turner up. She clambered up the rope after him, and Zac and I quickly followed.
We were in an empty flat. It reeked of dead animals, and a stained mattress lay on the floor. All the interior walls had been knocked through, creating one large, unliveable space. Graffiti covered every surface, including that word I’d seen earlier. “Shine.”
Cooper had his head out of the window, gathering up the rope, when an explosion shook the building. I watched him fall, his hands clawing at the air. Then suddenly, he was hanging half in, half out of the window. Turner had Shifted and grabbed him by his flak jacket.
“Thanks,” he said as she pulled him through.
“You owe me,” she said, dusting her hand on her leg.
“Consider it payback from when I warned you about Matt.”
“You didn’t warn me,” Turner said. “You set me up with him!”
“Oh, yeah. But only because I was hoping he’d make me look–”
Their banter was cut off by the cracking of gunfire.
“I guess the Red Hand know we’re here,” I said. “We’d better move fast.”
Without needing direction, my team spread out to cover both the window we’d come in and the door I was about to exit through. I was poised to open the door when I felt a hand on my arm. Cooper held up a thin, black tube, about eight inches long – a fibre-optic camera. He attached one end of the tube to his tablet and slid the other end through the small gap under the door. A moment later, a grey image appeared on his screen. The corridor outside. The camera moved to the left, revealing the way was clear. To the right, two large figures stood with their backs to the camera. Behind them, I was pretty sure despite the grainy image, was a sentry gun.
I patted my pockets and found what I knew would be there. A quantum grenade.
“A cat?” Zac said. “Good thinking.”
We called the grenades the “cat in the box”, after our lessons about Schrödinger. It was designed to go off in a variety of ways. Sometimes it would explode like a normal grenade, other times it gave off a flash of blinding light, depending on which button on the clip we pressed. The random nature gave Shifters the advantage, as we were able to Shift through the various options till the one most advantageous to us worked. I clicked the dial on the clip with my thumb, thinking about all the options open to me. And then settled on flash.
The door creaked open so loudly, I expected the men to turn around to investigate. But looking at them in the screen, they were still facing the opposite way. I’d have to get their attention for the flash grenade to work.
I threw open the door and stepped out. “Oi!” I shouted, at the same time throwing the grenade in a small arc so it came bouncing to a stop next to their feet.
They turned around and looked from me to the grenade, just as it erupted in white light.
Only then did I realise the men were wearing helmets, stolen from the army by the looks of things, which included visors that protected against flash grenades. Before they had a chance to run at me, I Shifted, this time going for the sleeping gas.
With that weird flipping in the stomach I’d missed so much, I was standing in front of two men who were slowly sinking to the ground, the Morphothane gas taking them down before they even had a chance to turn around. I waited for the
He pulled out a small blue hammer and laid his head and a hand against the glass, like a safe cracker listening for the telltale clicks, moved a few times till he found a place he was happy with, then hit the spot above his fingers with the hammer. At first, he only succeeded in smashing a hole in the glass. Cooper sighed into his helmet. Then there was that strange, jolting sensation when someone makes a Shift. The glass shattered, falling like rain around us in a shower of diamonds. It was kind of beautiful to watch.
Cooper stood on the window ledge and waved Turner up. She clambered up the rope after him, and Zac and I quickly followed.
We were in an empty flat. It reeked of dead animals, and a stained mattress lay on the floor. All the interior walls had been knocked through, creating one large, unliveable space. Graffiti covered every surface, including that word I’d seen earlier. “Shine.”
Cooper had his head out of the window, gathering up the rope, when an explosion shook the building. I watched him fall, his hands clawing at the air. Then suddenly, he was hanging half in, half out of the window. Turner had Shifted and grabbed him by his flak jacket.
“Thanks,” he said as she pulled him through.
“You owe me,” she said, dusting her hand on her leg.
“Consider it payback from when I warned you about Matt.”
“You didn’t warn me,” Turner said. “You set me up with him!”
“Oh, yeah. But only because I was hoping he’d make me look–”
Their banter was cut off by the cracking of gunfire.
“I guess the Red Hand know we’re here,” I said. “We’d better move fast.”
Without needing direction, my team spread out to cover both the window we’d come in and the door I was about to exit through. I was poised to open the door when I felt a hand on my arm. Cooper held up a thin, black tube, about eight inches long – a fibre-optic camera. He attached one end of the tube to his tablet and slid the other end through the small gap under the door. A moment later, a grey image appeared on his screen. The corridor outside. The camera moved to the left, revealing the way was clear. To the right, two large figures stood with their backs to the camera. Behind them, I was pretty sure despite the grainy image, was a sentry gun.
I patted my pockets and found what I knew would be there. A quantum grenade.
“A cat?” Zac said. “Good thinking.”
We called the grenades the “cat in the box”, after our lessons about Schrödinger. It was designed to go off in a variety of ways. Sometimes it would explode like a normal grenade, other times it gave off a flash of blinding light, depending on which button on the clip we pressed. The random nature gave Shifters the advantage, as we were able to Shift through the various options till the one most advantageous to us worked. I clicked the dial on the clip with my thumb, thinking about all the options open to me. And then settled on flash.
The door creaked open so loudly, I expected the men to turn around to investigate. But looking at them in the screen, they were still facing the opposite way. I’d have to get their attention for the flash grenade to work.
I threw open the door and stepped out. “Oi!” I shouted, at the same time throwing the grenade in a small arc so it came bouncing to a stop next to their feet.
They turned around and looked from me to the grenade, just as it erupted in white light.
Only then did I realise the men were wearing helmets, stolen from the army by the looks of things, which included visors that protected against flash grenades. Before they had a chance to run at me, I Shifted, this time going for the sleeping gas.
With that weird flipping in the stomach I’d missed so much, I was standing in front of two men who were slowly sinking to the ground, the Morphothane gas taking them down before they even had a chance to turn around. I waited for the
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