Don't Look Now by Michelle Gagnon Read Free Book Online Page A

there. So either Pike & Dolan only shared some information with their mercenaries, or he was still holding out.
    Or Peter was wrong about the Phoenix lab. Although if he was, it would be a first.
    Noa still didn’t know the guy’s name, and frankly preferred it that way. Maybe Peter was right, and taking him had been a really bad idea. But she’d become increasingly frustrated. Peter was able to provide some information, but it came slowly, which left her group with a lot of time to sit around doing nothing. And these kids weren’t easy to handle unless they were occupied by a mission.
    Zeke yawned. Noticing, Noa said, “Why don’t you get some more sleep?”
    “In a bit. You already crashed?”
    Noa nodded. She’d gone down hard around five a.m. and had slept like the dead for twelve hours. That was pretty much all the rest she needed; now she’d be up and alert for days. Which was weird, but helpful given the circumstances.
    “Hungry?”
    “Not today.” She’d gorged herself the day before last, eating several thousand calories in one sitting. That usually held her for a few days, too; in between what she’d started to think of as “feedings,” Noa could only tolerate liquids. “Anyway,” she continued, ignoring the small twinge she got whenever her physical quirks were being discussed, “I still think we should head to Phoenix.”
    “Right. Did Peter send any more details?”
    “He’s sending the blueprints today. If we start driving tonight, we could get there by the day after tomorrow.”
    “It’s fourteen hours away, right?” Zeke rubbed his forehead. “We could make that in a day.”
    “But then we’d be tired when we arrived. This way we’ll have time to set up a base.”
    “That should be easy. Lots of foreclosures in Arizona.”
    “Yeah, but more nosy neighbors, too, I’m guessing.” Through a slit in the curtains, Noa could see a young boy on a BMX bike winding slow circles on the street in front of the house. He was the only person she’d seen on the block all day.
    “Anything from the other groups?” Zeke asked.
    “All quiet,” Noa said.
    “Feels like it’s been a little too quiet lately, huh?”
    Noa met his eyes. They were dark brown, like his hair. She was pretty sure he was Latino, but during all these months together, he’d never talked about who he was or where he came from. She knew only that he’d been trapped in the Boston foster care system, same as her, and that he’d escaped from one of the labs before they experimented on him.
    Right after she’d gone on the run with Zeke, she’d sent out a kind of call to arms on wikigroups and memes. The response had been overwhelming. Chapters of “Persefone’s Army” started cropping up across the country, faster than they could keep up with them. Unfortunately, most turned out to be kids looking for an excuse to raise hell: a coffee shop chain was vandalized, their PA logo spray painted across the windows; a car dealership was set on fire. Throughout the media there were scattered reports about this new, terrifying “teen army.”
    It all calmed down pretty quickly, though; the vandals either lost interest or were caught and arrested. Meanwhile, Noa and Zeke had assembled their own core group, filled with kids they trusted. Some were teens that Zeke had been working with before he met Noa; others were kids they’d set free together.
    Now the official Persefone’s Army was composed of four units, each based in a different quadrant of the country: the Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, and their own, the Southwest contingent. Each group was tasked with tracking the activities of Project Persephone in their area, trying to save targeted teens, and infiltrating facilities whenever possible. There was minimal contact between the units; Noa preferred to have them operate as individual cells, each with its own leader.
    That way, if one group was captured, they wouldn’t be able to bring the entire network down. It was