Enders by Lissa Price Read Free Book Online Page A

have.”
    I squared my jaw. “I’m not going to leave them.”
    “Your mountain cabin would be safe for them,” he said.
    He reached in his pocket and pulled out a package of mint strips. He popped one in his mouth and then looked embarrassed. “Sorry, would you like one?”
    I took the mint strip and it melted quickly on my tongue.
    “But he accessed me there, at the cabin.”
    Hyden squinted. “He knew your chip identification number, which makes it easier to access you. It’s a unique number. But he lost the other chip numbers when Prime was shut down.”
    “So how did he hijack Reece?”
    “He found her on a scan.”
    “Just a random scan?” I said.
    “He’s looking for Metal. I can do that, but it takes time.”
    “A Metal detector?” I pictured something I’d seen in an old movie.
    “A very sophisticated one,” he said. “So now that you believe what I’m saying, that the Old Man is really my father, and you understand more about how this all works, you’re ready to hear the next part.”
    I waited to see what could possibly be next. “Tell me.”
    “I’ve already arranged for Michael and Tyler to be delivered to the mountain chalet.”
    “You what?”
    “And Eugenia.” He looked at his watch. “They should be there now.”
    I was about to ask him more, when I started to feel sleepy. I leaned against his SUV.
    “You okay?”
    I nodded. “I’m fine. Just really tired.”
    He opened the passenger door and I climbed in. I settled back in the seat and felt like I could sleep for a … hundred … years.…

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER FIVE
 
    I was having a dream: I was in our house. It was before Tyler was born. My dad and I were huddling on the couch with a blanket over our legs. I could smell the buttery popcorn my mom was making in the kitchen. We’d ordered up a vintage movie on the airscreen, an old Western.
    My dad laughed his warm laugh at how the gunslingers were mishandling their guns.
    “That’s all wrong,” he said.
    All of a sudden, a gun appeared in his hand. He wrapped my hands around the gun and pointed it at the airscreen.
    “Hold it like that, see?” he said.
    I wrapped my tiny fingers around the big, heavy gun. When I pulled on the trigger, the airscreen actor fell back, shot.
    “I killed him, Daddy!” I cried. “I killed him.”
    My father laughed.

    I woke up with a dry mouth, in the SUV, rocking to the movement as Hyden drove the freeway. Below us, in the distance, the city lights sparkled.
    “Hey, have a good nap?” Hyden asked, taking his eyes off the road for only a second.
    “I was so sleepy,” I murmured, stretching my arms.
    “All the excitement must’ve gotten to you.”
    He exited the freeway. I didn’t recognize the area. Industrial. Seas of empty asphalt surrounded silent warehouse buildings. We entered the driveway of one of them.
    “Where are we?” I asked, still groggy.
    “My lab.”
    I felt so tired. What had we been talking about before I dozed off?
    Hyden drove behind a boxlike, windowless building, then pulled up close to a metal panel. A red laser beam scanned his license plate. Then the panel rose, revealing an orderly garage. No bikes or toys stored there, just some strange tools and a few metal containers. He drove in, and the panel shut behind us.
    Hyden turned off the engine and I reached for my door handle.
    “Wait,” he said. “Don’t move.”
    “Why?”
    “Let me check it out first.”
    “But this is your lab, your home, right?” I asked.
    “My safe house.”
    Hyden got out and examined every corner of the garage, holding a device and running it over the walls and behind each container. I figured he was looking for electronic bugs. I noticed a heat sensor panel on the wall showing Hyden’sbody as a moving red blotch. His was the only one, but still he checked everywhere, looking up, down. He couldn’t have been more thorough.
    He went to an old-fashioned communication system on the wall