The Orphan Uprising (The Orphan Trilogy, #3) by James Morcan, Lance Morcan Read Free Book Online Page A

advanced osteoporosis. The former had rendered his memory almost useless and the latter had left him permanently stooped and confined to a wheelchair. With each passing week, his symptoms worsened and his quality of life waned.
    Despite all that, prescription drugs kept him largely pain-free, and Seventeen imagined that deep down, on some level, he enjoyed his granddaughter’s company and the comforts of home, though he couldn’t articulate that: his utterances were monosyllabic these days.
    The bungalow they shared was at least half a century old and small, but it was comfortable and all either of them needed or desired. For Seventeen, it was a refuge from a world that frightened her – a world she no longer felt part of.
    Over the past four years, Seventeen had largely gotten herself together with the help of her grandfather in the first couple of years. Physically, she was almost back to her old self: her icy, blue eyes were clear, her blonde hair shone and her body was still toned and athletic. Mentally, she had somehow pulled herself out of the abyss she’d fallen into, and had managed to retain her sanity.
    She had never regained her old confidence, however, and seldom ventured out of the house except to shop for essentials or take Sebastian to the doctor. Occasionally, she’d work out at a local gym or go to a movie, but such outings were becoming less frequent.
    Seventeen had often tried to make sense of what happened to her before she’d landed on her grandfather. She remembered snippets of her years as an elite operative with the Omega Agency, and prior to that as an orphan at the Pedemont Orphanage, but the memories were hazy.
    The memories, and the nightmares, were also disturbing. Flashes came to her at the oddest of times: in the shower, watching television, baking, gardening. They included assassinations – shootings, knifings, strangulation, poisoning – she’d carried out for Omega. She could remember the victims’ faces, and occasionally their names, but couldn’t recall why she’d killed them.
    Seventeen had given up trying to banish the ugly memories. She accepted they were part of who she was, and had decided to get on with life as best she could.
    For some reason, memories of her years at the orphanage over on Chicago’s South Side were clearer. She could recall nearly every one of her fellow orphans and much of the relentless training regime they were forced to follow in order to graduate as Omega operatives.
    One orphan in particular stood out whenever she thought of them: Number Nine. Seventeen also knew him as Sebastian, for Nine had confided in her that their mentor, Special Agent Kentbridge, had advised him of the Christian name his mother had given him before she’d had to give him up to Omega.
    What Seventeen couldn’t remember was that Nine’s mother was also hers. While they came from the sperm of numerous fathers as part of The Pedemont Project , they shared the same mother, Annette Hannar, which meant they were siblings. Nine was aware of that as Kentbridge had told him. That meant Annette’s father, Sebastian Senior, was grandfather to both Seventeen and Nine, though the latter had no idea of his existence.
    How Seventeen had learned of Sebastian Senior’s existence, or where he lived, she couldn’t recall. What she could recall was how grateful she’d been to be taken in by him. He’d nursed her back to health and, she truly believed, had saved her from going completely insane.
    Seventeen had obviously registered that her grandfather and Nine shared the same Christian name, but had considered that nothing more than one of life’s coincidences.
    Looking at him now, as he slept in his wheelchair, Seventeen felt she’d burst with love and devotion for him. Sebastian was the only real family she’d ever known. Before he’d developed Alzheimer’s, he told Seventeen about her mother, about how fun-loving she’d been as a girl and what a beautiful young woman she’d