Read Online The Gifted by Aaron K. Redshaw - Free Book Online Page B

snuck
myself in as far as I dared. No one may notice me by looking, but
if someone had bumped into me, all bets are off!”
    “Get to the point, Guido!” said Tracy,
impatiently.
    “It was a whole military compound. While kids
are being trained here, adults are training for combat over there.
They were practicing with guns and heavy artillery. Not firing
anything really heavy at the time or we would have heard them over
here. I’m not sure what the general thought he was sending us to,
but there’s more going on here than they told us. More than they
probably even know themselves!”
    Now I was interested. “Can you show me where
you found it?” I asked.
    “Sure, but don’t let anyone catch you there.
I’m not sure what they would do, but it can’t be good.”
    Tracy chimed in. “Come on, Guido. It’ll be
fun!”

Chapter 12: A tempting offer
    Once out of the room, Han and I followed
Guido and Tracy. We made sure no one saw us leave, then we headed
down some hallways until we came to a door labeled “LTF-Keep
Out!”
    “I wonder what that means,” I said.
    “I wondered that too,” said Guido from
somewhere ahead of me. “I found out and it scared me so bad I came
right back out.”
    “Okay,” I said. “What is it?”
    “Lethal Training Facility,” he said. “It’s
where they train with all kinds of weapons for killing. These guys
are playing for keeps!”
    “Oooh,” said Tracy, “that just means they
have the best toys!” Tracy approached the door and tried the
handle. “Locked,” she said.
    “Of course it is,” said Guido. “It was locked
for me too, remember?”
    “Then how did you get in?” I asked.
    I heard a laugh. “I waited until someone came
out and then waved at the guy as I walked inside. He didn’t see a
thing.”
    “You’re so lucky,” said Tracy. “I wish I had
that gift.”
    “Hey, you could have lit him up like a
torch,” said Guido. “Mine is downright boring compared to
yours.”
    “Okay guys,” I said. “It looks like there is
no way inside unless your name’s Guido, so let’s give it up.”
    “Oh, can’t we just take a peek?” asked
Tracy.
    “Too risky,” I said. “If I heard right, we
were sent to gather information without getting killed. I
distinctly remember that being important.”
    “I’m with him,” said Guido.
    “Me too,” said Han.
    I turned to leave and Tracy gave up and
followed us.
***
    When we got back to the cafeteria it was
mostly empty. I walked up to some kid I didn’t know and tapped him
on the shoulder. “Where is everyone? Isn’t it dinner yet?”
    “Not yet, they’re at Conditioning and
Sports,” he said, like I was dumber than rock. He pointed to the
south section, so we headed that way. Following the noise, we found
a hallway to the right that led to an enormous gym. I say gym, but
it was probably as large as five gyms put together. There was a
ropes course, an obstacle course, and a weight lifting area on one
side of the room. On the other there were various sports going on.
I saw basketball, soccer, and what looked to be capture the flag,
all happening at once. All of these had one thing in common. They
were used to condition and train the kids. There were no video
games, bean bag chairs, or vending machines. This place was a
training facility from beginning to end.
    “Oh well,” I said. “What do you want to
do?”
    At that moment someone blew a loud whistle
and everyone dropped what they were doing and headed for the doors.
I asked one of the kids what was going on. “Dinner!” he said as if
I was a few marbles short of a full collection.
    We followed them.
***
    Dinner was mostly uneventful. I ate rice,
fish, and some kind of cooked leafy greens while trying to piece
together what we had learned so far. As it turns out, we hadn’t
learned much. We were trapped on this island with no way to
communicate with the base we came from. We were here to get
information about what they were planning, but we didn’t