Read Online The Orphan Army by Jonathan Maberry - Free Book Online

messing with you.”
    She gave him a smile, but from the look in her eye, Milo knew that she didn’t believe it was a joke any more than he did.

B arnaby did not make them leave after all.
    After warning everyone to stay well clear of the shrine, he gave orders for the pod to do what they came to do. Examine the debris and search for anything useful.
    â€œWonder why he changed his mind,” Shark said quietly.
    Milo shook his head. “I don’t know.”
    â€œMaybe he’s just being annoying.”
    While the pod unpacked their gear in preparation for examining the debris field, Barnaby stood to one side, his right hand resting on the butt of his stun gun, the other on the leather-wrapped handle of his knife. He was sweating, but he kept a smile on his face. It was the most false smile Milo had ever seen. He said as much to Shark.
    â€œHe’s spooked,” agreed Shark. “Lot of that going around.”
    Milo nodded. “Yeah.”
    They began unpacking their gear. Milo dug his pack of microtools of out his jeans pocket, selected a little meter, and attached the leads to a piece of junk. The readout told him that the machine was Dissosterin. Milo used a couple of small tools to remove the cover and isolate undamaged circuits. Then he removed them one by one and put them in his pocket. Shark was doing a similar job, removing booster cells from a communicator. They worked quickly and with great efficiency, using techniques they worked every day to refine. Even at their age, this was something they—and nearly everyone in their pod—could do well. With the tools in their kits, they could dismantle everything from a drop-ship antigrav engine to a complex mechanical door lock.
    While they worked, Milo noticed that no one even glanced in the direction of the broken pyramid.
    They all feel it , he thought.
    He found a clear patch of ground and ran through the standard equipment check they were all required to do. He had his tape measure, portable Geiger counter, digital land surveyor, metallurgic analysis scanner, and a dozen other gizmos. Most of them were secondhand—damaged and refurbished, handed down from soldier-scouts to pod members.
    A shadow fell across him, and he looked up to see Barnaby. The pod-leader was no longer smiling. He glanced around to make sure everyone was busy with their own gear checks, and then he squatted down next to Milo.
    Before he could speak, Milo said, “That was a rotten thing to do to Lizabeth.”
    Barnaby glanced at Lizabeth, shrugged. “Didn’t mean no harm, me. You know dat.”
    â€œStill.”
    â€œ Mo chagren ,” said Barnaby. Then the pod-leader sighed and repeated it in English. “Sorry. I’ll make it up to Tee-Lizzie, me. We’re having ice cream wit’ dinner. She can have my share, her. Tink dat’ll do?”
    â€œBetter if you didn’t do something like that again, man. Lizzie’s got issues. Ever since . . . you know . . .”
    Barnaby nodded and sighed again. A little more than a year ago, Lizabeth’s parents went missing when one of their previous camps was attacked. Later, when they’d found a new, safer spot, a patrol had gone back to look for survivors. All that was ever found of Lizzie’s parents was her mom’s left shoe. It was torn and stained with blood. Lizabeth didn’t get hysterical or anything. Instead she went into her own head and seemed to get a little lost there. It was shortly after that when she started seeing monsters. Most kids would have been treated harshly for telling lies—after all, the whole Earth Alliance survived on the strength of reliable intelligence. Bad or false intel got people killed. Nobody came down too harshly on Lizabeth except once or twice. Mostly people just smiled and nodded and pretended they believed her. Milo was pretty sure that Lizabeth wasn’t lying. He thought she believed that she was seeing these