Read Online Jade Sky by Patrick Freivald - Free Book Online Page B

with Akash. "Flynn?"
    His smile vanished. "Dead. Very dead. Bonked, did he?"
    Matt gritted his teeth against the millions of needles shredding his thigh. "Yeah. No. He went crazy, but it wasn't . . . normal. He spoke to me."
    He blinked, and Blossom appeared, scowling at him. "Once a bonk snaps, he doesn't talk. Just kills."
    "I know, but he did. It wasn't a psychotic rage. He was downright calm." In his mind's eye, the woman's intestines spilled out on the floor into a circle, cut by a line. Did it happen that way? His enhanced, eidetic memory fuzzed on the detail.
    Her frown deepened. "What he say?" She unbuckled his head strap and pulled the steel-reinforced leather off of him.
    Matt cracked his neck as she worked on his torso restraints. "He said it was an ambush and they were going to kill us."
    "Was it?" Garrett asked.
    Matt thought for a moment. The guards hadn't been tense, nor had Onofre. "No. Even if Garza had augs on standby, there's no way he'd plan an ambush with his daughter serving coffee."
    "Don't sit up yet," Blossom said. "We're keeping your leg secure for a half hour." She looked down at it. "Maybe longer. Don't wiggle."
    He lay back, and tears sprang unbidden to his eyes.
    "I know," Akash said, patting his shoulder. "He was my friend, too."
     
    *   *   *
     
    When they touched down in Texas, Matt could put weight on the leg, but he didn't get off the plane. Instead he brooded out the window, his dark thoughts at odds with the clear blue sky. Conor's psychological break bothered him, but somehow less so than Garza's statement that Dawkins had been an ICAP agent.
    Jeff boarded, and Matt let him get situated before weighing into him. Jeff put his bags in the overhead compartment, then spoke as he flopped down.
    "That was a hell of a thing, huh?"
    Matt looked out the window. "That's one way to put it."
    Jeff patted his shoulder in an odd echo of Akash's gesture. Is that what you do to the traumatized? Pat their shoulder? "Well you just relax, buddy, and we'll deal with the debrief stuff later."
    Akash checked his brace. "You'll be right as rain in no time. We can probably pull the brace off mid-flight." Considering how much his leg itched, Matt figured it had to be healing in record time. That, or it'd fall off any second.
    Garrett tossed a pair of ICAP-issue urban camouflage pants in his lap. "Then you can put these on, and stop showing off to the world." He sat next to Akash.
    "Thanks." Matt rolled his head to the side so he could look at Jeff. "So Garza said something that's got me . . . I don't know." Jeff raised his eyebrows and smirked, so he just blurted it out. "Was Dawkins ICAP?"
    All talk on the plane stopped. Jeff opened his mouth, closed it, then licked his lips. "Uh . . . what makes you ask that?"
    "Was he?" Blossom asked from behind them.
    Jeff's eyes widened. "No, no of course not." He patted Matt on the shoulder again. "Why, did Garza say something like that, buddy?"
    Matt hated it when Jeff patronized him. "Yeah. He said something about us 'bringing him back into the fold.' Just before all hell broke loose."
    Jeff grinned. "He's just messing with you, man. Just because he's willing to cooperate to get his brother back doesn't mean he likes us any. He knows we'll bring him down when the time comes, so he's getting his licks in where he can." He shifted in his seat. "Excuse me, I got to hit the head." Jeff got up and walked to the front of the plane, where he slipped into the bathroom.
    Blossom sat next to him in a flash, her gaze boring holes in his head. "He said that. Garza."
    Matt nodded.
    "Did you believe him?"
    Matt shrugged. "I think he thought it was true."
    "What would make him believe that Dawkins was ICAP?"
    He shrugged again. "I don't have any answers. That's why I asked Jeff."
    Akash half-turned in his seat, and kept his voice low. "Sorry, but anyone else not quite buy Jeff's ignorance act?"
    Garrett scowled. "Why would he lie? He's always got that used-car-salesman smirk, makes