Extraction Read Online Free PDF Page B

rooms was Rudi’s. And Josh’s. The place had come down on top of them.
    For one brief moment, I screamed mentally (if not out loud), falling to my knees in anguish.
    RUDI!!!!
    My empathic senses exploded outwards, searching for something – anything – that might indicate she was alive.
    RUDI!!!!
    I was about to mentally call her a third time when I felt it – a brash attitude and youthful boldness covering a protective and nurturing spirit – like a rose decked out in a suit of armor. I reached for her telepathically.
     she said in exasperation.
     I answered defensively.
    
    
    
    
    
    
     she answered, mentally rolling her eyes.
    
     she said with a mental wink, clearly proud of the way she had pulled the wool over the eyes of some grown-up.
    I smiled – same old Rudi. I looked at Electra. “They’re alive.”

 
    Part III
     
    It only took us a few minutes to locate Rudi and Josh. Being precognitive, she’d seen what was going to happen. Thus, she had dragged the mattresses from both their beds into the bathroom, and they had gotten into the bathtub with the mattresses on top. Some of the rubble had fallen on top of them, but they were essentially unharmed.
    I looked Rudi over. She was a spunky ten-year-old with an olive complexion, green eyes, and curly brown hair. I’d gotten an image of her in my mind when she helped me before, but this was the first time we’d met in the flesh. Her brother Josh was basically a younger male version of his sister, although he had brown eyes instead of green.
    While I checked to make sure Rudi and Josh were okay, Electra took Smokey’s stealth suit from my backpack and placed it behind one of the few still-standing walls in the immediate vicinity. Smokey, in mist form, billowed in that direction and disappeared.
    A few minutes later he reappeared, human and in his stealth suit. Now came the part of my plan that was a little crazy.
    “Rudi,” I said, turning to her, “we were able to get in on our own, but we need you to get us out. Can you handle it?”
    “Piece of cake,” she said, snapping her fingers.
    I breathed a sigh of relief, as did Smokey and Electra. This had been the part of the plan they considered insane. I had seen Rudi in action before, and her precognitive abilities were first-rate – even for a ten-year-old. Thus, it had seemed like genius to me when – trying to formulate a plan – I had latched on to the notion of letting Rudi do the heavy lifting with respect to getting out. That said, I hadn’t realized how much I was dreading asking her about it – how fearful I was of the response – until Rudi actually said she could do it.
    And she was true to her word. With Rudi leading the way, we suddenly became will-o’-the-wisps; we either slipped past guards or avoided them altogether. Again, I was simply amazed at her ability to not just see the future, but to use it to her advantage. She kept the directions simple as we traveled:
    Stop.
    Go.
    Turn.
    Duck.
    Crawl.
    Since my job at this point was to simply be a mindless automaton, I turned back to listening to what was being said via the earpiece.
    “–n’t you found them yet?” Spence was asking.
    “Because you’ve