Read Online This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman - Free Book Online Page B

you alive.”
    His jaw tightens as he looks at me, and I know I’ve scored a point. But he doesn’t give up, saying quietly, “Orla Cormac no longer leads us. Not all of us want you dead. I want to talk, not fight. I want someone to find out why Avon’s not progressing through the terraforming stages. This is my home, and it’s broken. There has to be a better way.”
    I lean back, the ropes chafing at my skin. I have no quick reply to that—I’d expected him to snap something stupid and noble, like most idealistic young rebels. Logic is harder to dismiss. In some other place, not tied to the floor, I could’ve spent hours debating with this guy. I lift my chin, squaring my jaw. “If you wanted to talk, then kidnapping an officer off the military base probably wasn’t the best way to go about it.”
    “It’s hard to think of a way this ends well,” he admits grudgingly. “You should’ve let me walk out of there.”
    “I let a potential threat walk away, it’s my fault when my soldiers go home to their families in boxes.” Already my throat’s becoming dry again. I can tell I’m dehydrated. “If you weren’t there to hurt anyone, you should have let me take you to HQ. If you weren’t doing anything wrong you had nothing to fear.”
    “Bullshit.” The gentleness in his voice is gone as he pushes up to his feet. Why does he still look so familiar? Where have I seen him before? “I was just talking .”
    “You had a gun!”
    “Which you didn’t know about until you tried to arrest me.”
    “You shot me, Romeo.” I give a savage jerk on the rope, but all it does is send a jolt of pain through my shoulders.
    “You jumped to the conclusion I was up to something.” Romeo glares down at me, jaw tight. “Same way everyone assumes we’re up to something. That’s exactly why we have to hide out here. I’d rather die than trust myself to TerraDyn’s laws or the military’s idea of enforcing them.”
    “I may have assumed, but I wasn’t wrong. And I’d rather die than let you or any of your terrorist friends hurt anyone on my watch.” My mouth twitches to a smile, humorless and cold. “Looks like one of us will get our wish, at least.”
    “I’m not a terrorist.” Romeo steps back, lit once more as he stoops to retrieve his lantern. His handsome face is hard, his voice thick with hostility. The humor, the wry sarcasm—completely gone. “All we want is what belongs to us. I was only after information about that hidden facility. If I wanted to blow up your stupid bar, I wouldn’t have wasted time flirting with you.”
    “For all I knew you were flirting with me because you’d been sent to kill me.”
    He’s silent, breathing hard in and out through his nose. I don’t have much power—I don’t have any power, tied down like this—but at least I can make him angry.
    “This is getting us nowhere,” he says, his voice low.
    I try to lean forward, constrained by my bonds. “All I did was my job. You’re the one who got us into this. And if you stop and think about it, I don’t really think I’m the one you’re mad at.”
    He makes a show of thinking about it, then snaps, “No, I’m pretty sure it’s you.”
    And then he’s gone, stalking back up the tunnel and taking the light with him. I was right—he doesn’t have the stomach to kill me. He’s going to make someone else do it. So much for having some company before I die.
    I should keep trying to work the post free, but I know I’m not going anywhere until they decide I am. I know it like I know the truth: they’re going to kill me. Romeo might not know it yet—he might think the military will give these people something in exchange for my safe return. But Base Commander Towers follows procedure to the letter, and that includes captured soldiers. We don’t work like that. We don’t make deals.
    And they’re not coming for me.
    I’ve just managed to doze a little, chin dropped to my chest, when the scrape of footsteps