Swarm by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti Read Free Book Online Page A

slipping through the still-addled mob.
    The crush grew heavy around the entrance, and the two were way ahead of her.
    â€œHey,” Chizara shouted. “Stop those two! They did this!”
    Terrified faces turned to gawk at her.
    The girl turned too, tugged on the guy’s hand.
    â€œWe know what you did!” Chizara cried.
    The guy didn’t look guilty at all, or even nervous, like he’d just been busted for using a superpower. He only rolled his eyes, picked up his girlfriend, and pushed harder for the door. She flopped over his shoulder as if unconscious.
    â€œPlease,” he cried out. “My girlfriend’s hurt—let us through!”
    Calmed and made orderly by Nate, the crowd opened up before them.
    â€œOh, come on,” Chizara cried. “Really?”
    The girl, her open eyes two slits, blew a kiss back to Chizara.
    â€œCraig! Stop those—”
    The kiss hit, and the walls towered and tipped sideways. Since when were all these people a different species from her? And why was the sky covered with that sparkling metal mesh?
    Chizara almost puked at the awful strangeness of it.
    It took a shaky, dreadful moment for the weirdness to pass. No one around her looked confused. The girl had blown her reality-twisting kiss pinpoint-straight at Chizara.
    And the couple were almost out the door, the crowd closing behind them.
    Chizara set her jaw and kept shoving forward.
    Long seconds later, she reached fresh air. It screamed with signals, everyone’s phones springing awake, a cloud of angry wasps storming her.
    Through the pain, a familiar mass of muscle loomed. “Craig! Lift me up!”
    â€œYes, ma’am.” The Craig’s meaty hands clamped her hips and lifted. From two feet above everyone else, she scanned the crowd. Nothing.
    Then some white guy grabbed her arm. “That way, Crash!”
    She stared down at him.
    Right. Flicker’s boyfriend—forgettable guy.
    He pointed across the road. The tall guy and his girlfriend were darting into an alley between the used-car lot and an abandoned tire warehouse.
    â€œOkay, Craig, I got ’em!”
    Chizara’s feet hit the ground. Flicker’s boyfriend was already ahead of her. She overtook him at the corner, and she would overtake those other two as well.
    The crowd and their painful phones fell behind as she ran full tilt, anger powering her on.

CHAPTER 10
SCAM
    SOMEWHERE IN ALL THE CHAOS , Ethan had been shoved into a wall.
    Which was good, because it was the only thing that kept him standing. He leaned there, gasping, trying to remember how to breathe. Wishing his eyeballs would stop rolling around in his skull. He had a nauseous, dizzy sense that his limbs had been rearranged.
    â€œMy freaking hand  !” someone screamed beside him.
    The Dish had been transformed. No music, only shouts and sobs. And instead of Chizara’s light show, the place was lit with the stark white bulbs they used for cleaning up.
    There was a stranger beside him. No, it was Sonia, a magenta streak falling across the center of her face. She was holding her right wrist, and she was trembling.
    Shock. That was what it was. That was why Sonia was shaking. Why he couldn’t focus his eyes.
    Nate was on the stage, telling everyone to calm down, but it was only halfway working. People staggered across the dance floor like they couldn’t understand their own bodies. Elbows and knees everywhere. One guy was crawling, like he didn’t trust himself to walk. His nose was bleeding onto the floor.
    â€œYou okay?” he managed, but he wasn’t sure Sonia could understand him. His voice felt weird and jerky, like he was saying someone else’s words. Like that moment outside the Office-O.
    â€œI think I sprained my wrist.” Sonia’s face was pale. “What the hell just happened?”
    â€œI have no idea!” He looked at the DJ booth. Kelsie was up there, huddled in a corner.
    She