Girl Takes The Oath (An Emily Kane Adventure Book 5) by Jacques Antoine Read Free Book Online Page A

reflections she noticed a dark sedan idling against the curb, some fifty yards or so behind her. Tinted windows and an overcast day concealed the occupants, and their intentions remained inscrutable. With Gate Two a mere two blocks ahead, even in the fading twilight of the evening she doubted an attempt would be made on her, when a quick sprint would bring her (and them) into full view of the guardhouse. But why wait to find out who they might be, or what they wanted?
    Emily crossed Prince George Street and, searching in the side-view mirrors of cars parked along the avenue, caught a glimpse of the sedan, drifting furtively forward at roughly walking pace. Midway down the next block, at Cumberland Court, she turned to look directly at the car, smiled innocently and bolted into the side street, which was too narrow for a pursuit by car. Having explored the alleys back here after a garden party, she knew to take two quick turns and a two-step hurdle over a brick wall and a trio of trash bins—still able to hear the commotion unfolding behind her—ultimately popping out again on Maryland Avenue, a few yards behind the now empty sedan.
    She stood quietly beneath the reaching branch of an elm that had not yet lost its foliage. A short distance away, a man in a gray suit scratched his head, cursing as his partner scoured the cul-de-sac she had disappeared into. Without a clear sign of her, he would not lightly invade the private gardens of this part of town. The suit said government official of some kind, but maybe not federal, and the license plate suggested city police, though Emily knew not to trust that. When the partner returned empty-handed, the two of them conferred by the front fender of the car. Still within sight of the gate, she decided to risk approaching them.
    “Lose something, fellas?” she asked, as innocently as possible, and stepped toward them.
    “That’s her, right, Ed?” the second man whispered, a little too loudly.
    “Shut up, you dumbass,” the first man hissed. Then turning to Emily he continued in a more settled, professional tone. “Do you have some ID, Miss,” he asked.
    “I do if you do,” she replied. “Otherwise, I’m headed back to the Yard,” she added after his initial hesitation.
    “We need you to come with us, Miss,” he said, extending his hand toward her.
    “Show me some ID, or I’m moving on.” Emily glowered at him as she said this. After a moment’s deliberation, he pulled out a badge-wallet and flipped it open and shut, too quickly for her to examine. “Not so fast, Mister. Let me have a closer look at that.”
    He held his ID out again and, when she reached for it, surreptitiously brought his handcuffs around from behind his back to slap on her wrist. Meanwhile, his partner circled around behind her. But in a sudden reversal, she seized the first man’s hand across the back and gave it a sharp twist, spinning him around so she could apply his cuffs to his own wrist. The second man lunged for her from behind with a telescoping baton, not expecting to find himself shackled to his partner in the very same movement. She stepped down on the chain connecting the two men, forcing them to kneel on the pavement, and reached down to pick up the ID that had fallen in the confusion.
    “Assaulting an officer, this is only making things worse,” the first man groaned.
    “An officer, you say,” Emily replied, perusing the ID she’d picked up from the ground. “Edwin Braswell, it says here, but it doesn’t say APD, or even FBI. I’m pretty sure this gives you no legal authority to detain me.”
    The second man reached awkwardly for his gun with his left hand, but before he could bring it around, Emily twisted the cuffed wrist, forcing his free hand down into the pavement, and then kicked the gun into the gutter.
    “That’s a dangerous toy you have there, young man,” she sneered at him.” You could hurt someone with that.”
    “Lemme go, damn it,” he howled.
    “Now,