Bound to Ashes (The Altered Sequence Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

water frogs—”
    “Pere,” I breathe, setting the dropper down and trying not to crush it in my fist, “Tell me this is going to work.”
    Her voice cracks and she says, “Aless, it’ll work. Listen. She told me they had to stop selling it because some lady bought a bottle and killed her husband with it.” Her soft eyes linger on me.
    My exhale feels cleaner than the last, relaxing my whole body. “Sorry. This just... has to work.” I hate getting cross with Peregrine.
    Peregrine smiles softly and says, “Yeah. I know.”
    The little brown bottles standing on the brushed metal lab table catch the fluorescent lighting and gleam like gold. A little pile of brown bottles with peeling labels represents almost an entire year of searching. It seems so insignificant. One brush of an elbow and they could all go careening to the floor, shattering, promising another year of waiting. Only we might not have a year left. Time’s wasting. An opportunity like this doesn’t come around every day.
    It was like clockwork. The error messages telling us we had about six months left in our dome before the artificial sun burns out and the crops die. And Heydrich hears everything. My attendance on this mission isn’t by luck of the draw, he’s hoping something will happen. The supersoldiers, drawn out, will kill us on sight. Now that the dome is dying, I’m expendable.
    I love how wrong he is.
    “Alright, let’s go through it one more time,” I say, zipping the last plastic bag and setting it on the table.
    She knows what to say. “Tomorrow morning, first light. Heydrich will take you, James, and two of his guys on skimmers for the search party. You’ll do,” she fumbles her words, “You’ll do your thing and James will take out Heydrich and the other two.”
    “Did we get anything for James to use...?”
    Peregrine sighs and says, “Just the tranquilizer guns. They were the only things we could get.”
    “We’re gonna need to save the ammunition, anyway. He won’t need anything more. Just the Detomidine.”
    Peregrine nods and works on tucking her hair back under her bandana. “Yep. Thankfully, he’ll have a lot to work with.”
    “And you and Vinder?”
    “As soon as you leave,” she smiles, “we’re on lunch lady duty.”
    “Perfect.” That means she changed the names on the chore lists. “You sure Vinder is up for this?”
    Peregrine closes her eyes and says smugly, “I’m confident.”
    “Then I trust you.”
    “Well I’d hope so, we’ve been through all this shit together! If you can’t trust me by now, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” She grins and I can’t help but laugh.
     
    [Vinder]
    Oh man. Oh crap. This is really happening. Peregrine’s sharp elbow in my ribs makes me jump and she hisses, “Focus, dude.”
    “Huh, yup, focusing,” my own voice sounds stupid and jittery.
    I dip the ladle in the giant pot full of sloppy stew. Behind the pot, I plop it in one of the bowls. I swear the guy, one of Heydrich’s guys, is like eight feet tall and staring down at me like I’m going to screw up putting stew in a bowl. “Extra spices today,” I choke out, reaching to the left for the little container of chopped green onions. I spoon in a pile of onions and— don’t screw it up Vinder, don’t screw it up—with the same hand, squirt the dropper in. He didn’t see. Maybe my hand won’t shake like a leaf handing it to him.
    He grabs it, gives me one last glare, and walks away.
    There’s never a lot of people in here when Heydrich’s men come in for food. A few stragglers. A couple walks in, holding hands, watching the backs of Heydrich’s men carefully. It’s like they’re walking between sleeping guard dogs. They pull closer to one another as they walk. Peregrine has their bowls ready, filled a little extra. She holds her finger to her lips. They bow their heads and smile in silent thanks.
    Heydrich’s guys are almost all bent over their stew, shoveling it in. I pat my pocket