Toys by James Patterson Read Free Book Online Page A

comprehend.
    Did someone think I might harm myself? Why would I do that?
    Faces above me blurred in and out—from dream to reality—until they solidified, glaring down. Not wildcats. One was my partner,
     Owen McGill, and the other my boss, Jax Moore—except there was no mistaking them for old friends now.
    For the first time, I noticed how cold-eyed and thin-lippedJax Moore’s handsome face was, and how McGill’s macho, chiseled jaw could have a brutal, almost mechanical look to it. Elites
     could certainly appear that way, more machine than man.
    “Well, well, our traitorous skunk’s awake,” Moore said, wrinkling his nose as if I were offal he’d accidentally stepped in.
     “How are you feeling, Hays? We haven’t given you anything for the pain. Why should we?”
    McGill glowered with outright hatred. “When I think about how I fucking trusted you all these years. The deceit you showed
     is astonishing.”
    He leaned close—and then Owen McGill spat in my face. That ended any remaining hope that I might still be dreaming. The sentiment
     hurt and the spit shamed, but it also pissed me off, big-time.
    “What the hell are you saying?” I yelled, struggling to break free. “Have you both gone crazy?”
    “There’s nobody crazy here,” Moore said grimly. “Just two honest cops—and a dirty traitor who will soon be facing the slow
     death.”
    “I’ll say it again:
Are you crazy?
I’m the best agent you’ve ever had! How could I be human? How could that possibly make sense to either of you? Somebody’s
     tricked us! This is a setup!”
    “I don’t know who you’re working with,
skunk,
but we’re going to find out in a hurry. You sick bastard.”
    “Lizbeth!” I raised my voice suddenly. Where was she? Were they holding her too? “What have you done with my wife? And my
     girls?”
    Moore very coolly replied, “Lizbeth and the poor girls are in a safe place. She fainted in my arms when she found out the
     truth. Then she went home and tried to scrub her skin off—because she had touched you.
    “And your daughters… they’ll have to go to a new school to try and escape the stigma and shame. Didn’t you ever think about
     what this would do to them? What kind of monster are you?”
    Moore stared coldly at me while his words sank in. My wife, my beloved partner in life, she was going along with this? And
     what would happen to April and Chloe? I didn’t want them hurt by vicious accusations against me, no matter how ridiculous
     and untrue.
    “I don’t know how you managed to pull this extensive masquerade off, Baker, but we’re going to find out.” Moore continued
     his rant. “The doctors want to watch you one more night to make sure you’re strong enough for a full interrogation. Then you’re
     coming with us, and believe me, you’re going to tell us everything you ever did, from the minute you were born.”
    Having said that, Moore lit up one of his famous cigars, his
victory
cigars.
    “And if you make it through the interrogation, you can guess what’s coming next,” McGill sneered. “A very slow death. It could
     take… years.”
    That’s when McGill reared back and punched me hard in the face. The sudden pain made me feel like my skull had been split.
    “That’ll have to do for now,” he growled. “There’s plenty more where that came from. Trust me on it. I can’t wait to break
     every bone in your body, skunk.”
    They turned and stalked out of the room, leaving me rigid with horror, my face aching. I’d seen humans interrogated by Elite
     experts—reduced to lumps of screaming, gibbering flesh. But that was nothing compared to what McGill promised would come next:
slow death,
a fatal interrogation technique first used by humans during their brutal Terrorist Wars and later perfected by Elites.
    I heard Jax Moore bark at some subordinate agents out in the hall: “No mistakes. Keep a close eye on him—he may be human,
     but he’s a slick, dangerous sonofabitch.