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

things.
    Shark thought so too. It scared him.
    It made Milo sad and a little frightened. Not of her, but of the world. He had vivid dreams—nightmares, really—and sometimes things he dreamed about came true. He’d dreamed of his father disappearing the night before he went missing when his patrol tried to raid a hive ship. So, if Lizabeth said she was seeing monsters, maybe she was. Real ones or ones that were coming their way.
    It was tough living like they did.
    Fingers snapped in front of him, and he jerked his head back—and dragged his thoughts back to the moment.
    â€œTalkin’ to you’s like talking to a fencepost sometimes, you know dat?” said Barnaby.
    â€œYeah, yeah,” muttered Milo.
    â€œLook,” said the pod-leader, “about what you saw. You tellin’ the trut’, or is you messin’? I mean, maybe you playin’ a joke on us?”
    â€œNo. You’re the comedian around here,” said Milo.
    â€œI’m being serious, me. You really see dat wolf?”
    â€œI really did.”
    â€œAnd dat girl?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œWho had eyes just like da wolf?”
    â€œWell . . . same color, but yeah.”
    Barnaby chewed a crumb of skin off the corner of his thumb. “You told me everyting she said, you?”
    â€œAll I could remember,” lied Milo. In truth, he’d told Barnaby only parts of it. Much less than he’d told Shark.
    â€œWhat she said,” persisted Barnaby, “about conjurin’? She said dat?”
    â€œYeah. You know what it means?”
    Barnaby took a bright red cloth from his pocket and mopped the sweat on his face. “Dat’s old stuff. Hoodoo and black magic.”
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œPeople used to believe dat names—people’s true names—have power. If you knew someone’s true name, you could stir it up like ingredients in a gumbo pot. Dat’s how dey make a spell. Dat’s how dem bad people control you. Dat’s how wizards used to control demons.”
    Milo narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Are you making this up?”
    â€œHand to God,” said Barnaby, no trace of a smile on his face. “All dat hoodoo magic was like dat. Dat’s why I wear my dime.”
    He pulled up his pant leg. There was a sturdy piece of string tied around Barnaby’s ankle. It passed through a hole cut into an old dime. Milo had seen it a thousand times but always took it for a simple good luck charm. His scavenger eye noted that this was an old mercury dime, not one of the dimes made after 1965, which meant it was mostly silver. That precious metal was highly prized by the tech teams because it had a lot of uses in their weapons labs. Dimes made after 1965 were composites that had no silver at all. He didn’t comment on it even though no one was allowed to have silver or gold. Maybe there was an extra rule for good luck charms.
    â€œThis protect me from da gris-gris ,” said Barnaby. “Him keep the rougarou away.”
    Milo could never quite get straight if gris-gris referred to the actual evil or the things used to protect against it. Barnaby seemed to use it both ways, but this didn’t seem like the time to ask for clarification.
    â€œI thought you were only joking about that,” said Milo.
    Barnaby shrugged. “I’m not talkin’ about dat right now, me. I’m talkin’ about da wolf and da girl who ran with da wolf.”
    â€œI don’t know that she was even connected with the wolf. I just saw her around the same time. They weren’t together.”
    â€œBut you saw dem at the same time, din’ you?”
    â€œNo. I saw the wolf first, kind of. Just the eyes, I mean. Then I saw the girl. Then I saw the wolf.”
    â€œNot together?”
    Milo thought about it, shook his head. “No.”
    Barnaby started to say something, but then looked away. Milo watched the muscles at the corners of his jaw