Kirev's Door by JC Andrijeski Read Free Book Online Page A

hair back over her shoulder.
    The female seer wore a blue dress, one more like what the human women wore, Kirev noticed, not like the seer he’d seen downstairs.
    “…How do you expect us to find it, brother?” she said, her voice holding scorn. “Or did you think they would have a map to their illegal experiments in the front of the building?”
    “Find what?” Kirev said, genuinely puzzled. “What experiments?”
    “Shut up, Ute,” Wreg said, giving her a hard look.
    Kirev fought with the questions rising in his light.
    Seconds later, he decided to remain silent.
    He wanted to come with them.
    If he didn’t anger them or ask stupid questions or otherwise make himself a liability, they might still bring him, even injured. He was left-handed, after all; the gray-haired sadist hadn’t even gotten his gun hand.
    Still, his mind turned over the female hunter’s words. He’d assumed the point would be to get rid of the lab as a whole, to destroy all of the biological agents and weapons they designed there, as well as the experiments they conducted. He’d thought the point was to hit them where it hurt…financially, at the very least…that it was more about Black Arrow being one of the largest defense contractors in all of the Americas, possibly even the world.
    But that female seer made it sound like they were looking for something more specific than that. Biting his lip, Kirev remained silent as he thought about what that might be.
    Illegal experiments. Could they be experimenting on seers?
    The thought made him sick, but it also felt plausible.
    The three seers continued to scan the blue-eyed human’s light as Kirev lay there.
    He noticed they pulled information off his human mind without being particularly gentle about it. Kirev even winced involuntarily a few times as they forced their way through blocks on his light, things that his seer security teams likely put on him in an attempt to hide information. He knew some of those breakages would likely be permanent.
    Even so, Kirev could feel that Wreg and the others could not get past all of those blockages either, no matter what they broke.
    His security team must be very good. But then, of course they would be. Bilford was one of the richest men in the United States.
    “Did you find it?” Ute asked, apparently as impatient as Kirev felt.
    “We have narrowed down possibilities,” Wreg said, frowning over his shoulder at her.
    “Is it what the Father said?” she pressed, rearranging her grip on the gun as she took a step closer to them. “Is it really from seer bodies they are doing this?”
    Kirev tensed, looking to Wreg to hear his answer.
    Wreg didn’t answer her, though.
    Kirev went back to watching Ute’s face, still half-lying on the carpet. For the first time, he saw the anxiety in her light, just as he’d heard it in her voice. Whatever this thing was, or whatever she thought it was, it bothered her. It bothered her a lot.
    Kirev was tempted to ask again, but remained silent when he felt the harder, warning pulse on Wreg’s light.
    Turning back towards Ute, he held out a hand, motioning a question in seer sign language. He repeated the request aloud when she didn’t look over.
    “Sister, could you help me up?” he said politely.
    She looked at him that time, the frown still etched in her face.
    Then, seeming to see something in his light or perhaps his expression, she exhaled, walking up to him. Grabbing the hand he’d extended to her, she yanked him unceremoniously to his feet, ignoring his groan when it jarred his injured arm. Her light remained focused on what Wreg and the others were doing when he looked at her next.
    He could feel her frustration as she stared at Wreg’s broad back.
    More than that, though, he could feel her fear.
    The two of them only stood there though, not speaking again as they watched the other three work.

    THEY LEFT THE building altogether approximately thirty minutes later.
    It was dark downstairs as they