Stray by Rachael Craw Read Free Book Online Page B

only be the Affinity Project. Who else – what else – could produce multiple competing signals or any goddamn signals at all? This is it: my time is up. It’s over, over for me and Jamie, over for Aiden. They’ll take me in now, they’ll Harvest my secrets, go after my brother and kill him and that’s it. I have done nothing to save him.
    “I’m telling you,” Miriam’s voice cuts in. “This is completely unnecessary!”
    Two men, dressed in black, carrying what look like batons, enter the hall and stare up at me. I back against the wall as their signals pulse in waves and I shake my head, trying to clear it.
    “I told you,” says the tall dark-skinned man, his large almond eyes fixed on me. “This is the Asset.”
    “Relax.” Jamie strides in behind them. “She won’t fight, Benjamin. She knows what she is. She knows everything.”
    “Stay out of it, Jamie.” He points his baton at Jamie’s chest. They are equally matched, size and proportion, squaring off in the narrow space. “This is not your business.”
    “They always fight – or run,” the other man says, steel-blue eyes in a tanned face, stubble on a square jaw. He twists the baton in his hands, a band of orange lights up near the tip. “She won’t get far.”
    “Don’t be an arse, Davis. Put that bloody thing away.” Jamie shoves past them and positions himself at the bottom of the stairs. “Benjamin, think, for God’s sake. I’m here, aren’t I? The Asset knows what I am, what her aunt is. The Affinity Project. Everything. This is not an Extraction Protocol, Ethan said so. Besides, she won’t run. She won’t fight. She’s expecting you.”
    Benjamin’s face hardens. “I don’t understand.”
    “What? You’re in breach, Gallagher?” Davis scowls and looks to Benjamin. “Nelson, this son of a bitch is in breach!”
    “Mr Nelson, Mr Davis, stand down.” It’s another man’s voice, strident, accented. It comes from the kitchen. “I said, stand down. This is not an Extraction.”
    German?
    The back door opens and closes again, a woman murmurs and Miriam replies. Davis stares open-mouthed up the hall. Benjamin lowers his baton, his full lips tightly pursed, his eyes flicking from me to Jamie and back. “Don’t try to run.”
    “I won’t.” My voice sounds steadier than I feel as I grip my towel against my body.
    The third man steps into the hall and his eyes find me on the stairs, bringing him to an abrupt halt. His frowning intensity makes me more anxious than the two men with batons. While not outright hostile, his appraisal is searching and stern. He doesn’t speak at first, though his lips part. “Get dressed, Evangeline,” he finally says, clipped, cool. “We will wait for you in the kitchen.”
    I nod, almost stumbling with a backwards step up the stairs before turning and hurrying to my room. In my panic I know one thing for certain: I can’t let them take me in. I have to run.

FLIGHT
    I fight my legs through the holes of my jeans, a bra onto my damp body, a sweatshirt over my spinning head, my mind shrieks warnings and recriminations.
You need supplies. You’re not ready. Where will you go? They’ll catch you and they’ll know you have something to hide. It’ll make everything worse. You should have done something for Aiden weeks ago. You’ve got no one to blame but yourself. You left it too late. You’re a coward. He’ll die because you’re a coward. You wanted Jamie’s kisses more than you wanted your brother to live. You’re disgusting. You knew this was coming. You knew and you did nothing
.
    I bruise my knuckles on the edge of the wardrobe door scrabbling for sneakers, landing with a thump on my backside as I fumble them onto my feet. I pray no one comes upstairs to check on the noise. The laces are a tangled spaghetti nightmare, my fingers slow and thick. Frenzied with adrenaline, I lock on one idea – cross the Border River and run. I definitely heard another woman’s voice in the