Sacrifice the Wicked by Karina Cooper Read Free Book Online Page B

hear.”
    “That’s all I’ve got,” Simon growled. He turned, glared at the coffee machine. It had no answers for him. “How did you learn about it?”
    “You aren’t the only eyes and ears in the Mission.” She sighed behind him. “I assume you’ll track that folder down?”
    “Yeah.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Speaking of, what were you doing in Adams’s office?”
    Kayleigh dropped her gaze to the reader braced on her forearm. Her fingers moved quickly, keying in a sequence for something he couldn’t see. “That’s classified.”
    “Oh, for God’s sake.” Simon raked a hand through his short hair. He didn’t have to check the halls to know they were still alone. People—impressions—pinged across the back of his mind, all tucked in offices along the corridor or in the floors above and beyond.
    When he wasn’t catastrophically bleeding through the nose, his ability worked just fine.
    “Simon—”
    “Look,” he said, cutting her off. “I’ve got a job to do. Give me the tools so I can. Who else is reporting to you?”
    She didn’t bat an eyelash. “Try again.”
    His back teeth ground. “Fine. What did you and Director Adams talk about?”
    She stared at him. Weighed it. He watched the struggle in her face, forced himself not to smile in victory as it gave way. With a small shake of her head, she said, “Operation Domino.”
    Of course. “You’re afraid the Mission might get too close.”
    “Exactly so. The evidence they’re sending our labs is liberally laced with Salem markers, but they’re ours. For obvious reasons. We can’t risk them learning any more of the truth than what Carpenter’s case revealed.”
    Jesus Christ. Kayleigh Lauderdale had no conception of the truth. Simon shook his head. “They won’t.” Not without some help, anyway. He turned back to the hall, his jaw set. “If that’s all, I need—”
    “Why haven’t you checked in, Simon?”
    He hesitated.
    “Your last report was two weeks ago.” The reader chirped in her hands. “And last you reported, you were, let’s see, ‘back to one hundred percent.’ That’s it.”
    A dozen different excuses all filtered through his mind, even as a shape detached itself from the others in his sensory awareness. A body on the move.
    A smile tugged on the corner of his mouth. “It’s true.”
    “You’re not in the Mission for your health,” she snapped, lowering the reader to her side. “The only reason I know you’re doing your job is because of the Domino reports. Simon, you have to keep me apprised.”
    No. No, he didn’t. He shrugged. “You need lab rats killed.” His teeth flashed, a smile he knew wasn’t kind. She flinched. “I kill lab rats.”
    Her knuckles whitened over the reader. “We’ll see how smug you are when—” As his smile widened, as he folded his arms over his chest, she bit off the angry words he knew she couldn’t possibly mean and amended them to, “At least check in with me now. No pain or headaches?”
    No one deserved death by degeneration.
    “None.” He told the lie without so much as a twinge of conscience. She made it so easy.
    “Nausea? Vertigo?”
    “Nope.”
    She hummed the tone that doctors everywhere cultivated. The one that hid her thoughts beneath a mask of intellectual study. “What about your abilities? Are they starting to fluctuate?”
    His smile hardened. “Like Carver?”
    He didn’t have to look at her to know she winced. “David was a unique case. He wasn’t showing any signs of degeneration, molecular or otherwise.”
    Or maybe the witch just didn’t want to report it. Didn’t want to end up lying on some slab while they cataloged every step of the process.
    Yeah. Simon knew the feeling.
    “Domino’s going to be a problem for us if this keeps up,” she continued quietly. “They can’t possibly think witches are taking out their soldiers.”
    “That’s exactly what they think,” Simon countered dryly, turning back. And they