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

needed help, but he had to ditch Sonia first. He let the voice fly, wishing Sonia would leave him alone.
    â€œYou should get to a hospital.”
    â€œHospital? For a sprain?”
    â€œIf it swells up, you could get permanent nerve damage.”
    â€œSeriously?” She stared at her hand, probing it gingerly.
    The voice got all concerned. “It could ruin your typing forever.”
    â€œThis sucks. First my phone breaks, and now this. I should sue you guys!”
    Ethan swallowed. Maybe the whole permanent-nerve-damage line was overkill. It’d be bad enough if Sonia posted about a crowd freak-out at the Dish. But if she took them all to court  . . .
    The voice picked up his uncertainty and went dumb. But Nate’s spiel was working, and people were moving toward the door in an orderly way. Sonia drifted along with them, glaring at her hand.
    Ethan ducked into the crowd and headed for the light booth. He had to make sure Kelsie was okay.
    The weirdness hadn’t completely gone. Every step Ethan took felt like it was in the wrong direction. As if someone had imposed a completely different floor plan on the building.
    Black spots filled his eyes, swimming in formation every time he moved his head. But he could see Kelsie on the floor of the DJ booth, her arms wrapped around her knees.
    Had she caused this whole crowd disaster with some kind of feedback loop?
    He climbed up to the booth. “You okay, Kels?”
    â€œEthan,” she said slowly, like recognizing him took effort. “Did you see them?”
    â€œSee who?”
    â€œThere were people in here, with powers. They took our crowd away, sucked it dry.”
    Just the words made Ethan feel like he was going to puke again—new powers with evil intent. But at least it hadn’t been Kelsie.
    â€œNate saw them feeding off the crowd,” she said. “It felt like we were being cut to pieces. Crash went after them.”
    For a sudden, awful moment, Ethan felt alone. All the other Zeroes had crowd powers—so they’d seen what had happened, had felt it. But all he’d gotten was motion-sick.
    â€œIs that Sonia Sonic?” Kelsie groaned. “Perfect. We’re screwed.”
    He turned and found Sonia waiting below the DJ booth.
    â€œThe exit’s too crowded,” she called up. “Hey, were you just trying to get rid of me?”
    Ethan turned back to Kelsie. “Gotta deal with this. Glad you’re okay. Hey, later we should . . .”
    He bit down on his words. This mess had clearly wiped their talk off the agenda—the serious talk about major feelings.
    Crap. He was never going to tell her.
    He jumped down from the booth.
    â€œIs she okay?” Sonia asked.
    Ethan nodded. “Come on, let’s get you a cab.”
    â€œShe’s cute,” Sonia said.
    A siren sounded outside, and Ethan groaned. Whether it was cops or an ambulance, the voice was probably needed now. Nate had put him in charge of keeping the authorities off their backs.
    Of course, Nate had probably never imagined a meltdown quite the size of this.
    â€œCrap! Sonia, we have to get out there.”
    â€œWounded coming through!” Sonia called through gritted teeth, holding up her wrist.
    People parted, and soon they were outside. Ethan sucked in brisk December air, and his head finally cleared. Plenty of the crowd had spilled out already, and there was a police car rolling up.
    â€œCrap,” Ethan said. Everything was toast.
    A wall with ears stepped in front of him.
    â€œWhat the hell happened in there?” the Craig asked. “First everyone goes nuts, then Chizara comes pounding out, chasing down some kids!”
    Ethan had never seen Craig’s face this pale before. He put a calming hand on the guy’s massive shoulder.
    â€œDon’t know, Craig. We’ll figure it out. You seen any cabs?”
    â€œI can call one. But first,” Craig said, jerking a thumb over