The Gift by James Patterson Read Free Book Online

pushes through double doors at the end of the hallway.
    At first we’re almost blinded by the bright blue-white light bombarding us, but when our eyes adjust we find ourselves in
     what looks like it might have once been a school auditorium but is now something very different, and sinister.
    All the theater seats have been removed, and the large room, including the stage, is now occupied by machines, chemical vats,
     and dozens of sick-looking kids in numbered shirts, working like diamond-mine slaves. Some of the kids in here are carrying
     sacks, some are stirring vats, some are pushing around technical equipment.
    Our eyes are stinging as if there’s something poisonous in the air. The whole place stinks like burning rubber, ozone, and,
     weirdly—
Could it be?
—chocolate.
Toxic
chocolate. Is there such a thing?
    Then there’s a weird flutelike note, a middle C if I’m not mistaken, and I look over to see a squad of kids—all wearing the
     number twelve—suddenly stop working.
    And then I see the one adult in the room, a stiff-backed man in a white lab coat with a silver pitch-pipe thingy on a cord
     dropping out of his mouth.
    “Attention squad twelve!”
he screams. He waits a moment, and the veins in his neck slowly subside while his eyes roll.
“Does anyone remember? You may
not
—under any circumstances—drop the pods!”
    He blows a different note on the pipe, and they all nod robotically.
    “Since these two sacks contain damaged specimens,”
he says, hoisting a couple of bags over his head,
“you are all hereby required to work through the night without sleep!”
    “Bu —,” a sunken-eyed girl starts to say before catching herself.
    “But?”
screams the man. “
Did you just say ‘but’ to me?
Need I remind you that the penalty for arguing with a senior scientist requires
level two corporal punishment?
” The man rushes forward to heave the girl—who is probably only a quarter of his size—against the wall.
    I want to charge in and sack the guy myself, and I have to reach out and grab Whit’s arm to keep him from doing the same.
     We can’t go down in a blaze of glory. Not just yet.
    The girl begins to sob, the first glimmer of emotion I’ve seen in this place so far. A look of small-minded disgust seizes
     the “senior scientist’s” face, and he blows a harsh F-sharp on his whistle.
    As if in immediate response, the girl bangs her head against the wall.
    He laughs and blows the whistle again.
Bang
goes the girl’s head.
    Whistle.
Bang.
Whistle.
Bang.
It’s sickening, and I can’t help myself any longer. I can’t hold back.
    “Sir!”
I yell indignantly.
Oh cripes. Oh crud. Oh kill me now.
    Of course he immediately spins and sends a daggerlike glare across the room.
“You two, come here!”

Chapter 19

    Whit
    I LOVE MY SISTER, but she sure doesn’t have the, um,
emotional DNA
of a spy. She’s 99 percent passion, 1 percent plan. But before I have a chance to step up and fix this situation, the crazed
     senior scientist starts lurching toward us like a zombie on meth.
    “
Don’t you know getting caught without the proper squad uniform is grounds for solitary confinement?
I’ll give you
three seconds
to tell me what you’re doing here before I set off the alarm and have you
jailed!
”
    I pull Wisty forward confidently. “
Sir!
Stephen and Sydney Harmon, reporting to squad twelve for pod duty,
sir!
” I salute him for effect, and Wisty follows my lead.
    Suddenly the Lab Boss’s popping, pulsing veins soften into a more easygoing throb. “Ah! The famous Harmons! I wasn’t expecting
     you so soon, but I’m delighted you’re here.”
    He turns to his “students.” “Squads! The Harmons aretriple-A-grade pupils from Facility #625. They’re leaders in their category, awarded triple Sector Leader’s Stars of Honor,
     and will serve as role models for all of you. This is good! This is excellent!”
    Score!
It looks like Byron’s intel was good—these Harmon kids were