Rebel by Amy Tintera Read Free Book Online Page B

them.
    “The hunting team should have been back by now,” Micah murmured as he stared at the sky. “They were scheduled to return this morning.”
    “Are they usually back on time?”
    “Yes, when Riley goes. You know him. He doesn’t deviate from the plan.”
    That was true. He’d been an even stricter trainer than I was. He probably would have let Officer Mayer kill Callum without protest.
    “Where are they?” I asked. “Can you go look for them?”
    “Let’s go see if they got one of the shuttles running,” he said. “They went pretty far, about a hundred and thirty miles north, but it won’t take us long in a shuttle.”
    I raised my eyebrows in surprise. They went that far tohunt? They must have stripped the land clean in this area. Or did people always have to cover that much ground to hunt? I’d never hunted, so maybe that was normal.
    We walked into the reservation and down the dirt roads toward the front gate. Reboots around us were busy erecting tents and cleaning away debris. They’d made huge progress in just the couple of hours I’d been with Micah. It was starting to look like nothing had happened at all.
    Two shuttles were outside the front of the reservation. Reboots surrounded both of them, and a few others walked around picking up trash. One of the shuttles was in bad shape, its side completely smashed in, but the other one could have been worse. It was dented and dirty, and missing a small corner on the back pilot’s side, but otherwise wasn’t bad.
    We walked closer to the good shuttle and I spotted Callum in the pilot’s seat, his brow furrowed as he fiddled with something on the dash. He had grease on his hands and arms, like he’d been working on other parts as well.
    “Does this one work?” Micah asked.
    Callum lifted his head, smiling when he caught sight of me. “Yeah. We replaced a couple parts with stuff from the more destroyed shuttles. And I just finished fixing the navigation system.”
    Micah gave him a surprised look and leaned over him to examine the dash. “Thank you. Good work. Not that I know how to use the navigation system.” He chuckled.
    Callum hopped out of the shuttle. “No problem. I can teach you sometime if you want.” He wiped his hands on his pants. “You going somewhere?”
    “Our hunting party didn’t come back. I’m getting a little worried.” He turned to me. “Would you want to come? If there’s trouble I could use your help.”
    I hesitated, taking a glance at Callum. I wasn’t exactly pumped at the idea of hopping onto a shuttle to charge into trouble again.
    “We shouldn’t be long. Back tonight at the latest. And hey, if they’re all right maybe we can do some hunting ourselves.” Micah punched me lightly on the shoulder. “The hunt is pretty awesome. I think you’d enjoy it.”
    He might have been right about that. It was probably sort of like hunting down the assignments in Rosa, except deer and rabbits could run faster. More challenging, with no humans barking orders in my ear.
    “Yeah, all right,” I said.
    “You can come, too, if you want,” Micah said to Callum.
    He made a face at me like he’d rather not and I almost laughed. I couldn’t imagine Callum enjoying shooting animals. He didn’t even enjoy eating them.
    “I think I’ll pass,” he said. He pointed at the other shuttle. “We were going to work on that one next.”
    Micah nodded. “I’m going to grab Jules and Kyle then.” He touched my arm. “You want to wait here for a minute?I’ll get you some weapons.”
    I nodded and he jogged back through the gates and disappeared around the corner.
    “Everything all right?” Callum asked, taking a step closer to me.
    I nodded, a smile spreading across my face as I glanced down at his grease-covered arms. He looked happy and relaxed. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen that particular expression on his face before. “Good,” I said. I decided not to tell him about Addie and the birth-control chips. It was an