Read Online The Purification: Book 3 of the Evaran Chronicles by Adair Hart - Free Book Online Page A

with side walls. It stood about thirty feet tall and extended forward roughly ten feet.
    Two Helians with silver light armor stood at attention in front of the structure. They had a single silver bar on their right arms and a blue circle on their upper left arms. What stood out to Dr. Snowden was the sleek black weapon in their hands. It was medium sized and looked like it packed a punch.
    The Helian that was escorting them tapped a button on his silver forearm guard. He waved for them to go through the structure.
    They walked through the structure, and halfway through, the walls lit up red.
    The Helian scrambled toward them. He interacted with a screen that had appeared above his right forearm band while looking at Evaran. “We can’t detect your internals, although you have mass.”
    Evaran nodded. “That is to be expected. We are not from this planet.”
    “I don’t think so. What are you?” asked the Helian.
    “From your perspective, an Outsider.”
    The Helian looked down at his screen, then looked at Dr. Snowden and Emily. “It appears you two are infected with some disease.”
    Evaran raised a hand. “It is not a disease. They are Wildborn. It is inherent in their makeup.”
    Dr. Snowden grinned. It was odd to see Evaran use deception, but when he did, it was convincing. Dr. Snowden wondered if Evaran had used it on him and Emily before.
    The Helian snorted. “The only normal one is the robot. Go figure.” He exited the structure ahead of them and waved them forward. Once they were through, he said, “You’re registered, as is your ship. An agent is on his way to help you.”
    “Thank you,” said Evaran.
    “Don’t thank me yet. These missing person cases seem to be occurring a lot lately.”
    “How many so far?”
    “Around thirteen this month. Usually get one or two a year.”
    Evaran narrowed his eyes. “That is odd. Thank you for your help.”
    The Helian nodded and exited back toward the landing pad.
    “Seems like whatever is going on has already started,” said Dr. Snowden.
    Evaran looked around. “It would appear that way.”
    Five minutes later, another Helian arrived. He was dressed similarly to the one that registered them, except he had two silver bars on the right side of his mantle and a red square on the left side. The Helian performed a salute while surveying them. “I’m Special Agent Asher. If you’ll follow me to my office, we can file your claim.”
    Dr. Snowden nodded and did a Helian salute in return.
    Asher smiled. “It’s not expected for you to emulate our cultural greeting. We understand that there are a variety of cultures that have different greeting rituals.”
    “Just trying to fit in,” said Dr. Snowden with a half grin.
    “It’s appreciated,” said Asher. He nodded and waved at them to follow him.
    As they walked, Dr. Snowden hustled up alongside Asher. “So … these bars and symbols on your mantles … I’m guessing some type of rank system?”
    Asher grinned. “You got it. Left side symbol represents the branch of the Helian authority that you work for, right side is rank. In my case, the red square represents the investigative branch, and the two silver bars means I’m a special agent. One silver bar would be a general agent. My specialty is investigating missing persons cases.”
    “Huh … how many branches are there?”
    “More than we need,” said Asher, chuckling.
    They reached an interior courtyard where Dr. Snowden saw Helians engaged in discussion. After stepping onto a ramp that moved upward, he studied the Helians. There were various symbols and bars and even outfit differences. If the Helians were this advanced this far back in human history, it was no wonder to him that they represented Earth when the Kreagan Star Empire came knocking. The version of Helians he knew from the future had glowing eyes and wings. Then again, Evaran had mentioned personal hologram emitters, making them look like angels. He suspected that was not by