Enemy of Gideon by Melissa McGovern Taylor Read Free Book Online

where a CE officer has her pinned against the wall, holding the end of a taser wand against her throat.
    “Stop!” I scream, running to them.
    “Back off!” the officer yells, pointing the wand at me. His accusing eyes jab at me through the helmet’s shield.
    “Tell us where your other daughter is!” he yells in Mom’s face, placing a gloved hand on her throat.
    “I don’t know,” she says, tears filling her wide eyes.
    “Officer, stand down!” a booming voice yells from the apartment door.
    It’s Chief Penski. As he approaches us, the officer releases Mom and backs away, dropping his arms to his side. “Yes, sir!”
    “I’ll handle interrogation,” Penski says.
    The officer retreats from the living room as I embrace Mom. She wraps her arm around me, like I’m a nervous preschooler again.
    “When was the last time you saw Petra?” Penski asks, shifting his attention between us.
    This isn’t Og’s friendly dad having a spur-of-the-moment chat. He’s in full chief mode, looking at us with accusing eyes I don’t recognize.
    “Weeks ago. What is this? What’s going on?” Mom asks.
    “She’s has been involved in illegal activity,” he says.
    “That’s impossible! Petra is a loyal citizen.”
    “We’ve been hunting her for two weeks,” he says. “We almost apprehended her one hour ago on the university campus, but she managed to escape.”
    “She’s not here!” I shout, hoping all the other officers will hear me and stop their chaotic search. They press on, undisturbed by my cry.
    “You know this offense is serious, Mrs. Santos,” the chief says. “We have—”
    The sudden beeping of the officer’s wristband interrupts his words. He presses the screen.
    “Penski here.”
    “Chief, we have Santos in custody,” a female voice says from his wrist.
    Mom puts a hand to her mouth, and her knees buckle. I hold her up with all of my strength. She leans against the wall to steady herself and releases a quivering cry like a wounded animal.
    “Not again,” she mumbles between sobs.
    For a moment, the effort to keep Mom up distracts me from my own reaction to the news. Petra is going to prison, I thought, my knees shaking. My thoughts dart in every direction like houseflies in search of food. What does she mean, ‘not again’?
    The other officers hear the news from the hall and head out of the apartment, leaving behind scattered papers and overturned furniture.
    “You can come to headquarters and speak to her if you choose to,” Chief Penski says, following the other officers to the apartment door.
    Still in her slippers and bathrobe, Mom grabs her wool coat beside the door and flings it on. I follow, stopping to slip my boots on bare feet. She turns to me with that look I know all too well.
    “Stay here and wait for me,” she says, her face red and tear-stained.
    “Mom !”
    “I don’t want you to go! Stay here!”
    She closes the door. I drop down on the sofa with the room spinning.
    This can’t be happening.
     
    ►▼◄
     
    “Arrested,” a voice echoes through my mind in a whisper. The word repeats like a gliche on the school intercom.
    Petra sits beside me, eight years old, skinny and frail with a wide-eyed stare. Mom cries on the other side of me, her tears splashing. Then rain pounds all over us, soaking the apartment—the old apartment from my childhood. The three of us sit on the leather sofa in chilly water up to our knees.
    “Where’s Daddy?” I ask. “Where’s Daddy?”
    “He’s been arrested,” Petra whispers. “They took him away.”
    Young Petra’s words vibrate across the water as Mom sobs. The water crawls up my body, cold and suffocating. I try to get up, but my arms and legs are frozen in place. My heart thuds in my ears. The water climbs higher and higher, reaching my chest, my neck, my chin.
    “Mom!” I scream.
    I sit up from the sofa with a jolt, the scream still fresh on my lips.
    “Bug, are you okay?”
    The chill of the water fades, and the