Agents of the Glass Read Online Free PDF Page A

There’s a word that scientists use to describe that kind of chaos:
entropy.
”
    “You mean like the TV company?”
    The National Television and Radio Productions building juts sixty-six stories—666 feet, to be precise—into the sky in Midtown Manhattan, where it has stood since ground was first broken on June 6, 1966. Instead of sounding the letters out individually, everyone in New York pronounces NTRP as
Entropy.
    “That name is no accident,” said Silas. “They’re taunting us, just like they’ve been doing for centuries.”
    “But they’re, like, a huge company. How can they be…evil?”
    “Well, not everyone who works there is, obviously. But at its
core,
its leadership, its very reason for existence—that’s another story. And as I said, I’m not going to tell you everything today. More about the Agency and NTRP later, I promise. For now, though, let me tell you why
you
are here. Do you want me to continue?”
    Andy nodded, eyes wide.

Silas powered up his phone for a quick peek at his messages before continuing. “Sorry, need to be sure no one is looking for me. There, it’s off again. Now, where was I? Oh, right, I was about to tell you why we’re interested in you. Sure you don’t want to sit down? All right. The Agency has spent much of the past eight hundred years studying the nature of good and evil. When it comes to how and why some people have little or no resistance to Syngians, we have discovered that there are two distinct factors—the strength of the
lumen
and the resistance level of the person. If the
lumen
is weak, most reasonably intelligent people can resist the temptation to do bad things. But if it is powerful, only someone with a tremendous ‘built-in’ resistance has a chance against it. We don’t understand why some people have more resistance; we only know that they do. And based on what I’ve seen so far and what I’ve been able to find out about you, I believe that you are a very special young man…with an
extraordinary
ability to resist evil. Of course, to our knowledge, you haven’t been up against a strong
lumen
yet, but that doesn’t matter…yet. All this is a long way of telling you that we need you on our side.”
    “Really? Me? I’m not…special. I’m just…a kid.”
    “So was Anne Frank. So
is
Malala Yousafzai. The only difference is that they were put into situations that required them to
act.
Maybe you just haven’t had that opportunity yet.”
    “What do you want me to do? I won’t have to kill anyone, will I?”
    “You’ve seen too many James Bond movies,” Silas said, smiling. “There aren’t a lot of promises I can make you, but I
can
guarantee you right now that we will
never
ask you to kill anyone. That would violate one of our most basic rules. No, what we want from you is quite simple. There’s someone—a girl, about your age—that we need to learn more about, but her circumstances have made it somewhat difficult, because until now we haven’t had an operative young enough to get close to her. On Wednesday, she’ll be returning to school at Wellbourne Academy, and we want you to keep an eye on her and report back to us. And that’s it for now. Later, if you’re comfortable, that assignment may change. You won’t be asked to do anything illegal, I promise. Remember, we’re the
good
guys. There will be more specific instructions later.”
    “I don’t get it. I go to Wagner Middle School. How am I going to—”
    Silas handed him a glossy brochure featuring photos of attractive young people in school uniforms, each face plastered with a huge, contented smile. “Congratulations, Andy. You’ve just been accepted into the first form—that’s the seventh grade—at Wellbourne Academy.”
    “B-but that school is, like, a
million
dollars a year. My parents can’t…My dad won’t—”
    Silas waved off Andy’s financial concerns. “It’s been taken care of. All we need is for you to say yes. Tonight, someone from the