Read Online I Am Phantom by Sean Fletcher - Free Book Online Page B

is greatly appreciated. Two days.”
    He
walked to the door marked Rec Yard and easily kicked it down.
    Then
he was gone.
    And
I realized the man who was like me was completely, utterly, bona fide one
hundred percent bonkers.
    Blazes
of light winked over the doorframe. I hurried out of sight to the side of the
door.
    Four
orderlies ran in.
    “Frank?”
One yelled. Two of them looked outside in the Rec Yard while the other two
checked the cell. I didn’t stick around to see when they found Frank.

 
    I
dashed down the corridor, trying to fend off how sick I felt. Sykes was more
monstrous than I could have ever imagined. His demeanor, his nonchalant
attitude when he thanked the orderly he killed, like the man had simply been a
part of some game he was playing, like his life had never really mattered…
    And
I had let him go. I’d had every intention of finding him and getting answers,
but never this. Never letting the killer free.
    I
managed to get almost all the way back to where I’d lost the group before I ran
in to a full blown war between the more violent inmates and the orderlies. The
battle was very one-sided. There were way more orderlies than patients so it
wasn’t fighting so much as roughly getting the patients back under control.
    I
made it out the door to another corridor and ran face first into an orderly.
    “Hey!
Back it up—!” He froze and looked me over. “What are you doing back here?
Aren’t you from that school group?”
    “Yeah,
and you need to go back there! Syk—”
      He roughly grabbed my shoulder and
dragged me behind him.
    “Believe
it or not I was headed this way,” I said before shaking him off. “And I can
walk, thanks.” It didn’t look like there were any more patients around. The
part we were walking through was untouched by the mayhem we were leaving
behind. For a second I forgot about Sykes. “What happened?”
    “The
doors went out. They were linked to the power generator.”
    “Duh.
I mean why did the backup generators go out?”
    Somehow
we had arrived back at the front entrance. The orderly turned on me. “That’s
what I wanted to ask you—”
    “Hey!”
    The
orderly instantly snapped rigid as though turned to stone. Another man had
burst through the front door, police streaming past him. The orderly looked
nervously between the new guy and the mob of police now rushing towards the
back of the facility. “Um…I found him in the back, sir. I was just about to ask
what he was doing.”
    Mr.
New Guy glared at me. “This one’s mine.” He pushed the orderly away. New Guy
was sharp, disturbingly sharp. His mustache was sharp, salt and pepper hair
rigid as syringes, hard, cold eyes, pointed police uniform. You get the idea. I
read his name tag:
    K. Ryans: Police Chief
    “Who
are you?” Ryans snapped.
    Geez,
this guy didn’t screw around. I was still in a little shock but when I opened
my mouth Ryans interrupted.
    “Stuff
it, kid. Do you have any idea what kind of fiasco this is? Escaped patients and
then you, in the middle of it, wandering around like a three-year-old who’s
lost his mommy.”
    Somewhere
under my numbness and guilt, I bristled. “Watch who you’re calling—”
    “What
are you doing here? Why did that orderly find you in the back?”
    “I
was with the school group from Queensbury University. We were touring the
facility.”
    “That
dense group out front?”
    Apparently
this guy was a freaking genius because everyone he talked about was beneath
him.
    “That’s
them,” I said through gritted teeth. “Now if you’re done—”
    Ryans
put a strong hand on my chest and I stumbled back. He didn’t even push but that
brief pressure was the kind from a man who was used to being in complete
control. A dangerous man.
    “In
case you haven’t noticed we had a mass breakout of dangerous patients in a
mental health institute. You are a key witness. You will cooperate and answer
my questions or I will arrest you and haul your sorry butt to jail