Ordinaries: Shifters Book II (Shifters series 2) by Douglas Pershing, Angelia Pershing Read Free Book Online Page B

shirt, trying to recover my cool. “Ummm . . . Don’t we need passports or something?”
    Clay nods toward a black duffle bag in the back. When Kai opens it, I see that we have each been provided with a false identity. Wow, we could totally be in a 007 movie now.
    “Sweet!” I grin.
    “Yeah, our first pilot is just the other side of the border. His name is Viktor,” Clay says ominously, holding something back.
    “Do you know him?” I ask.
    Clay shrugs. “My dad did. He said that Viktor’s a little . . . eccentric.”
    That is an understatement.

Chapter 6
    Space Talk and a Stuttering Mole Man
    –TANNER–
    So we’re in the command center office, and there are other people I recognize and some I don’t. Ryland is watching the group like she’s in some kind of daydream, totally not paying attention to what is going on. Clay comes back in like he didn’t just have a tantrum a few minutes ago.
    Marcus puts his arm around him and says, “Ah, glad you could join us, my boy.”
    “Alena told me you needed me,” Clay tells him.
    “Good. She always knows what I need,” Marcus says.
    Marcus said Clay would come around. I really didn’t expect it to be in like two minutes.
    Alena and Sol é walk in after him. If I didn’t already know Sol é’ s parents, I’d swear they are related. Not that they look alike. It’s more like how they act around each other, like they have always known each other. I guess Sol é kind of brings that out in people.
    So like Ryland already told you, I sent her, Kai, and Clay to find this Viktor guy—who sounds like a real winner, by the way. But we do need pilots.
    Besides, I think it’s kind of funny to send her on a mission with her two boy crushes. I can’t wait to see how that turns out. Anyway, she deserves it since she was like totally not paying attention.
    The J’s give them some cell phones and Marcus gives them a Jeep and some money. Sol é hugs all of them—even Clay—and they get in the Jeep. I think Kyle is fine with her natural affection except for the Clay part.
    As they drive off, I turn to Marcus and ask, “Why are we really going to Six?”
    His face turns serious. I look at Alena, who now shares this same concern. I don’t get it. Are they afraid to tell me something?
    I ask the J’s, “What is it?”
    They both look like they want to tell me something, but they look to Marcus for permission.
    That does not comfort me at all.
    “What?” I yell at them, throwing my hands up in frustration.
    Sol é appears to be just as lost as I am, which is kind of weird . . . Kyle just shrugs his shoulders.
    Good. It’s not just me who doesn’t know what’s going on.
    “Let’s go back inside,” Marcus says as he begins to walk toward the bunker.
    The J’s and Alena start following Marcus.
    Well . . . I guess we’re going back inside.
    We catch up to them and Marcus begins to talk. “Six is a complicated place,” he starts. “It’s not occupied by many Shifters.”
    “That’s good,” I say, beginning to feel a little better.
    “There are many Ordinaries, but it is more important to know why there aren’t many Shifters on Six.” He stops just outside the bunker door and says, “Chemicals released from the mining operation have proven to be somewhat destructive to our kind.”
    “So it’s dangerous for us . . . I mean, Shifters?” I ask.
    “Let’s just say, with our naturally diminished ability to . . .” He pauses like he’s trying to find the right words. “Procreate,” he finally says.
    I look at him, not really understanding.
    Alena steps in to help explain. “You see,” she says. “We don’t have children at the same rate as . . .” She pauses like she’s explaining to a child—which I am in her eyes. “Ordinary people.”
    When she says ordinary people, I get the sense that she is not making a distinction between Shifters and Ordinaries; instead, it is the difference between us and everybody else. Regular people.
    I look at Kyle,