THE 4400® WELCOME TO PROMISE CITY by Greg Cox Read Free Book Online Page B

guards were enduring; the echoes pounded against his eardrums. He clamped his own palms over his ears.

    The other team members joined the attack. What few guards had managed to hang on to their weapons suddenlyfound them as hot as blazing coals. The woman cricked her neck again and a handful of guards collapsed onto the ground, like marionettes whose strings had been cut. Adams hurled the glowing marble at the flailing guards. Another blinding flash of light preceded the abrupt reappearance of the massive steel door as it crashed down between the escapees and their pursuers. The uprooted door formed an impromptu roadblock in the narrow corridor.

    These people are good,
Richard realized, impressed by their obvious skills and teamwork.
The guards didn’t know what hit them.

    To his ears’ relief, Billy’s sonic scream trailed off. The boy turned back toward his teammates. His pride and excitement were visible even through his ski mask. “You see that? What I did to them?”

    “Way to go, Billy,” Sanchez encouraged him. The team leader hadn’t displayed any ability of his own yet; no doubt he had been dosed with the inhibitor, too. He pointed to a corridor on the right. “Now move it, everyone!”

    They ran through the prison, past the laundry and exercise rooms. Sanchez definitely seemed to know where he was going, which gave Richard hope that this whole escape attempt had been planned out in detail. But even with his new allies’ remarkable gifts, he wasn’t sure how they were going to get away from the prison. Blaring alarms chased them down the halls. Emergency lights strobed crimson. By now, Richard figured, every guard on the premises had been mobilized, with reinforcements already en route. If they didn’t get past the outer walls soon, he’d be back in his cell in no time.

    If I don’t get gunned down first …

    To his surprise, they didn’t head for the front gates, but toward the rear of the prison. Still groggy from his beating, he lost track of where exactly they were until Adams warped another locked door out of existence. A cold winter breeze chilled his face as they burst out into the prison’s sprawling exercise yard. High concrete walls, topped with razor wire, girded the open area. Watchtowers surveyed the scene from above. The rough pavement made him wish that he had thought to snag his shoes before leaving his cell.
What are we doing here?
He knew every inch of the yard by heart. There was nowhere to go but up.

    Floodlights targeted the fugitives. Richard threw up his hands to shield his eyes. “Now what?” he asked Sanchez.

    “Wait.”

    The woman did her neck trick again and the sentries on the walls fainted. Exhausted, she steadied herself against the nearest wall. The rest of the strike team was looking fatigued as well. Billy screamed at the watchtowers, but his voice sounded hoarser than before. Richard wondered what their limits were.

    “Look!” Sanchez shouted. “Right on schedule!”

    A sleek black helicopter descended from the heavens. Richard was surprised by just how silent the copter’s rotors and motor were, and by the total absence of any headlights. He had ridden copters back in Korea, but this kind of stealth technology struck him as astounding even by twenty-first-century standards. If not for the evidence of his own eyes, he wouldn’t have even known the copter was approaching.

    Who are these people?
he wondered again.
And what exactly am I getting into?

    The spinning rotors stirred up wind and dust as the copter touched down in the middle of the yard. An automated door slid open, revealing the passenger compartment, which looked just large enough to transport the entire team plus Richard. He understood why liberating the other inmates hadn’t been an option. They would have needed an entire fleet of copters to rescue all the prisoners.

    “Our flight is boarding!” Sanchez shouted. “Scramble!” He shoved Richard ahead of him. “We’re almost out