Read Online Unleashing the Storm by Sydney Croft - Free Book Online Page A

anyway. A few hours of REM would do, and the ability to achieve
that state quickly, and with maximum effectiveness, had been drilled into him
from his first days of Delta training.
    He
flipped open his cell phone, brought up the feed of Derek’s room and Derek’s
image, splayed across the bed in the same position Ender left him in hours
earlier.
    Derek’s
strength might top his, a fact he grudgingly admitted to, but Ender’s
metabolism allowed him to drink the same amount of the drug as both Derek and
Kira with minimal effects. He’d get a brief, mild high, the same as he would
with double or triple the dose of what he’d used, or even stronger drugs. And
the good people at ACRO had certainly tried them all with him when he’d been
brought in, freshly released from the brig and hating the entire fucking world.
    That
hadn’t really changed.
    He
slid on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, left his feet bare as he padded to
Kira’s room, opened the door quietly and slid inside.
    The
various animals lifted their heads in greeting, a few wagged their tails at him
and looked back at Kira, like they were worried.
    She’d
shifted in her sleep, was facing the door, lying on her side, her head resting
on her arm. Totally freakin’ naked.
    He
hadn’t been able to get a good look at her in the barn or earlier when all the
animals were jumping around. But now, with the moonlight through the windows,
he was able to take it all in—the fact that she was tanned golden all over, the
dark pink of her nipples framing two of the best-looking breasts he’d ever
seen, the slim waist and the curved hips leading to long, shapely legs.
    What
time is it? Should I be horny yet? Because I don’t think I am. Maybe you could
touch me and find out.
    He
approached the bed, put two fingers to the pulse on her neck and counted.
Again, a little faster than he’d expected, faster than it should have been. He
used the light from his cell phone to check her color—pink in her cheeks and
lips, breathing wasn’t labored and there were no signs of distress.
    I
don’t catch human diseases. No colds. No flu. I got Parvo once. I have to go to
the vet.
    He
made a mental note for ACRO to check out her metabolism and realized his own
pulses were now running too high. He turned to leave the room and got
distracted by the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, something he hadn’t given
himself a chance to check out earlier. On the middle shelves, the most easily
reachable, was a collection of Shakespeare plays that rivaled his own. He
pulled out Macbeth, his favorite, saw that her copy was also well-worn.
Written in too, with passages underlined.
    It
didn’t mean anything. He shoved the book back to the shelf and left the room
without a backwards look, headed down the steps to the outside. Because
something was up.
    Once
his feet hit cool grass, he expected to feel better. When he didn’t, he knew
something else was wrong.
    He’d
never wanted psychic abilities, but sometimes they’d sure come in handy.
    He
moved swiftly toward the back of the barn, letting his instinct guide him.
Something threw a shadow across the back wall and he moved in a way he’d never
been able to describe, not until the people at ACRO taped him in action and he
realized that he moved so fast, he was barely a blur on the screen.
    Whoever
it was wouldn’t know what hit him, and Ender didn’t hesitate for one second to
get the guy into his death grip. He looked him in the eye for one second and
was reminded again about who he was and why he was here.
    With
a snap, the neck broke and he let the guy’s body slump to the ground. He
searched the pockets, knew he’d find nothing except the gun that was going to
be used on him, and on Kira.
    He’d
made Derek nervous enough to call in backup. A nervous operative always made
mistakes, stupid ones too, but this could work in Ender’s favor.
    This
was also going to move things along much more quickly than Dev had predicted,
but between Kira’s