Read Online Disruption by Steven Whibley - Free Book Online Page A

already been discovered and would probably be dead.”
    I cringed at the second mention of death and slipped through the door. The sound of the bickering vanished when I was a dozen feet away from the cabin. I made it twice that distance before Rylee called my name and jogged up from behind me.
    “Sorry about that,” she said. “I know it’s rough when a challenge doesn’t go as well as you’d hoped.”
    “What would you know about it, Rylee?” I snapped without slowing down. “When were you ever on a Delta team? Huh? Try never.” I wasn’t sure if I was angrier that I’d almost been killed, or that I’d likely made a fool out of myself for not knowing there was more to the challenge than just kicking a ball.
    Rylee kept pace with me and didn’t seem taken aback in the least by my anger. “Don’t worry about it, Matt. If we start out in last place, who cares? We’ll make up for it. I’m telling you, we have a good team.”
    I stopped abruptly and pointed toward the cabin. “ That’s a good team? Them? In what universe are they good? This is the first time any of them have been on a Delta team. If they were so great, why haven’t they been picked before?”
    Rylee eyed me carefully. “You said you’ve never been to one of these camps before, but your scores say you’re a liar.” I opened my mouth to speak, but she continued before I got a word out. “Your body language says you’re not a liar, and your questions make me think you’re really sincere in your ignorance.” She waved her hand. “You’re an enigma, Matt Cambridge. But that’s an asset here, so let me put your mind at ease about your team.” Rylee held up one finger. “Juno is a fighter. A really great fighter. There’s no one in camp who will be able to beat him. I promise. He’s been training since he was crawling.” She lifted another finger. “Amara is an explosives genius. He can make them, and he can disarm them. Trust me, he’ll be useful.” A third finger went up. “Yaakov doesn’t look it, but he’s the best hacker in the camp. Better than any of the instructors, I bet. If we need to hack into something, he’s the one to do it.” She put her hand against her chest. “I am really good at reading people. My friends back home call me Six because they think I have a sixth sense.”
    I rolled my eyes. “A sixth sense? Give me a break.” I gestured back to the cabin. “And don’t get me started on those weirdos. They seem like a bunch of punks.”
    Rylee shrugged. “They are. But they’ll be good in competitions when the time comes. You can trust them.”
    “What about Angie?”
    Rylee’s face scrunched up. “Angie’s a bit . . . different.”
    “Meaning?”
    “She’s a sociopath.” She frowned. “Or maybe a psychopath, depending on who you ask.”
    “I’m asking you.”
    Rylee waved her hand. “Do I look like a psychologist? Just know that when the time comes, she’s the person you want on your team because she’ll do . . . anything. She doesn’t really have a . . . well, a conscience.”
    I shook my head. I wasn’t in the mood to be teased, or played, or whatever it was that Rylee was doing to me. I might not have known a lot about the camp, but I knew Angie was no psychopath. She couldn’t be, because kids can’t be psychopaths. My chest hurt when I breathed, and I could feel the paint drying on my arms and face. “I need a shower.”
    I headed for the bathrooms, and Rylee called out behind me. “Just don’t get bummed out about the preliminary rankings. They don’t usually count for much anyway.”
    Anger flashed inside me. I’d nearly been blown up, and Rylee thought I was bummed out ?I turned around to really give her a piece of my mind, but she was already jogging back to the cabin. I considered hollering after her, but what was the point? I stormed into the showers and slammed the door behind me.
    My face, neck, and forearms were burned pink; scrubbing them wasn’t an option. I put