Sterling Squadron

Sterling Squadron by Eric Nylund Read Free Book Online Page B

Book: Sterling Squadron by Eric Nylund Read Free Book Online
Authors: Eric Nylund
do
you
know about
that
place?”
    Ethan took an involuntary step back. He couldn’t help but take a long look at the ivory-handled pistol strapped to her hip.
    He took a deep breath and reminded the colonel how exactly he knew about Sterling Reform School.
    Ethan had been shipped off to the place. After he discovered the truth about the Ch’zar (that his neighborhood wasn’t the safe, happy place he’d thought), the mind-controlled adults of Santa Blanca captured him and put him on a bus for Sterling.
    Before that, he’d heard rumors about the school growing up. He explained to the colonel that Sterling was where they sent the rule breakers and troublemakers. Some said it was where they sent kids who were mentally unstable and couldn’t be treated.
    On the bus ride, he’d seen a welcome video about Sterling. If the video could be believed, the kids there fought mock battles with padded sticks, exploded things in chemistry lab, and were actually
encouraged
to be out of control.
    If it hadn’t been for a last-minute rescue by Felix and Madison, that’s where Ethan would be right now.
    “It seems to me,” Ethan said, “those are exactly the type of kids who could pilot I.C.E. suits. Why not rescue and recruit them?”
    He very carefully left out that he knew that the Resister’s star pilot, Paul Hicks (also apparently their star troublemaker), had come from Sterling.
    The colonel punched the elevator’s STOP button.
    She stepped even closer to Ethan and told him, “Mr. Blackwood, I want to make myself perfectly, one hundred percent understandable on this. So if there’s something you’re not absolutely clear on, please ask.”
    Ethan gulped. Her fake nice tone made his spine crawl.
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Good,” she said. “I’m giving you a direct order. You are not to mention the Sterling School to anyone else.” She cast a glance at Madison. “That goes for you, too, Corporal Irving.”
    Colonel Winter hit the GO button. The elevator lurched ahead.
    “In fact, Mr. Blackwood,” she said, “I don’t want you
thinking
about Sterling. Consider it a Class-A restricted site for all Resisters—especially Resister pilots, and especially Resister pilot trainees.”
    “I understand,” Ethan managed to whisper.
    He understood the order, but not the
reason
behind it.
    What was so terrible about Sterling?
    The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Cold air washed into the space. Outside was the landing hangar, busy with technicians working on I.C.E. suits and pilots clambering into and out of the cockpits.
    Ethan wished he were out there.
    The colonel stepped out and gestured to Madison. “I believe you have duties here, Corporal?”
    “Yes, ma’am!” Madison scurried out after her, her spiked hair bobbing wildly. Madison shot Ethan a half-pleading look that warned him,
DON’T DO ANYTHING STUPID!
    Or, it might have been,
DON’T DO ANYTHING, STUPID!
    The doors closed.
    Ethan slumped against the wall, feeling like he was going to pass out or throw up … maybe both.
    That hadn’t gone as he’d hoped with Colonel Winter.
    From her reaction, though, he knew there
was
something special about Sterling.
    But what?
    How could she just ignore it when in a few months this base could very well be overrun by Ch’zar?
    There was only one person here who had answers.
    Ethan reached for the elevator’s buttons but hesitated. Was this the right thing? Or was it like Madison had written in her assessment—that Ethan Blackwood was reckless and out to prove he was the best, no matter who it hurt?
    No.
    His instincts screamed at him that this was the
right
thing to do, the only thing.
    If no one else was going to take action and save the Seed Bank and the Resisters, Ethan
had
to.
    Even if it meant helping a person who wanted to kill him.

  9  
THE BREAK-IN
    ETHAN PUSHED A CART FULL OF PLUNGERS , spools of steel cable that snaked through pipes, clog-dissolving chemicals, and cleaners to make everything

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