Read Online Xenofreak Nation, Book Three: XIA by Melissa Conway - Free Book Online Page A

the hood and windows. Scott kept his head down and his hands out of sight.
    There was no police presence, of course, and the one security guard behind the gate was unprepared to handle the situation. He shook his head to indicate he wasn’t opening the gate, then held a hand up to his head to show them he’d called for backup.
    Several tense minutes later, two armed guards arrived, dressed in tactical gear. One of them shouted a warning before lobbing a tear gas grenade over the fence. The crowd scattered to a safe distance as Lo drove through the gate and checked in with the guard. She parked in the underground lot on the nearly empty first floor.
    They still hadn’t heard from Shasta, so Scott talked it over briefly with Lo and they decided to put Nicola and Savvy in separate interview rooms for the time being. Technically, Savvy was being detained for questioning and would have had a date with an interview room anyway, but Nicola was a juvenile runaway. They wouldn’t be able to hold her long before they had to turn her over to Children’s Services – unless, as he suspected would happen, Shasta made her a protected witness.
    Scott got out of the car and let Savvy and Nicola out. They all headed for the elevator, but before they got there, it opened and three of the XIA techs, who normally never left the control room, hurried to intercept them.
    “Hold on,” one of them said, panting a little as if trotting across the parking lot was too much for him. He was pale and flabby with thinning brown hair. Scott caught a glimpse of his ID badge: Bob.
    “We got a loud ping when you drove in,” Bob said.
    Scott didn’t know what that meant exactly, but he looked at Savvy, who as usual wouldn’t meet his eyes. “What’s in the backpack?”
    Savvy tightened his fingers around the straps. “My stuff.”
    “We’re going to have to confiscate it,” Bob said.
    “No.” Savvy took a step back, as if he was prepared to run away to keep them from taking it.
    Nicola, who had her arms wrapped around the covered bird cage, said, “Felson, just let them have it, okay? You’ll get it back.”
    “I highly doubt that,” Savvy replied, but he removed the backpack from his narrow shoulders and handed it to Bob.
    Bob gestured to the bird cage. “That, too.”
    Nicola gasped and turned to Scott with pleading eyes. “Don’t take Perky.”
    “Nobody’s going to hurt him,” Scott said.
    “Her.” Nicola sniffed like she was about to cry, but reluctantly held the cage out to one of the techs. He took it by the handle and Nicola said, “Careful! Hold it level or you’ll spill her water all over the paper.”
    Bob frowned at her, lifted the cover to look inside and was immediately rewarded with an indignant, ear-piercing chirp. He gave Nicola an unreadable look, then turned and waved for the other techs to follow him. As they headed for the elevator, he unzipped Savvy’s backpack and looked inside, saying, “Test everything for everything. Standalone equipment only.”
    Nicola sniffed again and glowered at Scott. “Are you happy now?”
    Scott wasn’t, actually. He and Lo hadn’t bothered to frisk Savvy back at the Warehouse, and there was a distinct possibility that whatever the tech guys thought had set off their alarms was still on him. He caught Lo’s eye and jerked his head in the direction of the door that led to the main lobby. She lifted her eyebrows in silent inquiry, and he said simply, “Scanner.” She nodded and waved for Nicola and Savvy to precede her.
    Nicola turned to Savvy and asked, “What was that all about?”
    “They want to scan us for weapons.”
    “Oh.” Nicola pouted, but said nothing further.
    There was only one guard in the main lobby, which made sense, since the other two had just dispersed the crowd so Lo could drive in. The guard greeted them with, “And I thought today was going to be boring with the building shut down.”
    Scott looked out at the crowd, which seemed to have grown