Read Online Dreams in the Tower Part 2 by Andrew Vrana - Free Book Online

a young woman in her twenties, but her face showed age beyond her years. Her eyes and cheeks were sunken in, and she already had the beginnings of lines forming here and there. A headband held back her chestnut hair, which was crudely chopped off at the shoulder. “That’s your guide,” she said, taking a long drag of what must have been her tenth cigarette since leaving the rendezvous. Amidst a deep exhale, she added, “Keep with plan.”
    When first explained to her, Sabrina thought the plan was simple: get in, get Adelson, get back to the others. But then she saw the assault rifles and the grenades and the bulletproof armor come out of a trunk, felt the weight of the body armor they draped over her shirt, heard the Southern Patrol goons injecting stimulants in the back seat. It became clear to her, then, that there was only one reason those brutish men in the back were here.
    The shiny black handgun they had given her felt cold against the bare skin of her hip. Its icy sting made her shudder.
    Outside of the range, she had never fired the standard-issue pistol she usually kept in the drawer of her desk at the Guardian office. It had always been nothing more than a precaution, something she took with her on investigations but almost always left in the car. In fact, she hadn’t even thought of bringing it with her when she hastened from that temporary office at the Sanon building all those days ago. She wasn’t certain she could kill someone, anyway, even if they were trying to kill her. That uncertainty may soon be put to rest, though; from what she had seen, these people whose paths she had stumbled onto were preparing for a firefight—for violent, bloody death.
    “We’re almost there,” Skexka said hoarsely. She had been taking the car in what seemed like circles for a while, through back alleys and abandoned lots hidden behind weedy chain-link fences. For the last couple of miles though, they had been cruising along straight down a road lined on both sides by large metal buildings.
    The car turned swiftly and suddenly down a side street and then pulled into a dark space under an awning. “This is it,” Skexka said. Sabrina felt as if she was floating inside a frigid cloud, kept in the air by nothing more than a thin belief that she might not die, that there was some option besides moving and plummeting to the unforgiving ground or staying still and freezing to death. “Give me about three minutes to hack it,” Skexka said, pulling out her tablet from the center console. “After that move in. I’ll be ready in case we need to fly out.”
    The three men got out quickly and went around to the back to get their guns. When S abrina climbed out of the car and went around, Guff, the one in the wolf mask, was pouring a glistening clear powder onto his hand, which he proceeded to snort with a loud grunt. He handed a small metal cylinder to the other two, both wearing plain white mannequin masks made of cheap plastic, and they followed suit, making the powder disappear through the little nostril holes in their masks. When the man nearest to her passed her the vial, she shook her head vehemently. He only shrugged and handed it back to Guff, who said, “We all ready? Follow me.”
    Passing through a gate in a metal fence, they crept along a narrow space between two tall buildings, hugging close to the one on the right. She had to jog to keep up with the men’s drug-fueled gaits. In the gloomy alley they were almost invisible in their dark clothing, like three shadows holding their rifles in a way that could only mean they were prepared to shoot wha tever non-shadow appeared before them. An unnerving calm weighed the night down with a silence so absolute she could hear the man in front of her grinding his teeth. To Sabrina, the entire world around them might have disappeared just then for as much as she noticed anything beyond the loping procession before her. Apes in masks with tools of death and she a timid lamb