Fade Read Online Free PDF Page A

researchers, and other leading minds devoted to research in areas that are, let us say, not entirely normal. We believe that you are very special, Celestra. Specifically, we believe that you have abilities dormant in you that could yet prove to be phenomenal.”
    “Abilities?” It’s hard not to scoff at that. “What am I, some kind of TV psychic?”
    The middle aged man’s face creases into what’s probably a smile. “Something like that.”
    “What is this? Some kind of joke?”
    “It’s no joke, I’m afraid.” Suddenly, he’s serious again. “We have only caught glimpses of what might be possible, Celestra, but until you are able to control what you can do, we will have to be very careful with you. You could potentially be a danger to many people, including yourself.”
    I don’t like the sound of that. “It sounds like you’re planning on locking me away down here.”
    “You already know what we plan,” Sebastian Cook says.
    “You want me to fade?”
    He nods.
    “Why?”
    “Because we’re not the only ones who have noticed your potential, Celestra. And we’re not entirely sure others would want to keep you alive.”
     

FIVE
     
     
     
    W hile I’m still trying to make sense of what Sebastian Cook has just said, up there in his box, the glass walls around me and Jack slide away to allow through a team of men and women in sterile white clothing that makes them look like they’re ready for some kind of medical procedure. I take a step back automatically.
    “There is nothing to worry about, Ms. Caine,” Mr. Cook says. “The people here are merely going to make it easier for you to fade. It is a necessary step to protect you from those people who would harm you for what you are.”
    “Who are they?” I demand, still unwilling to believe most of this ludicrous story of his. Well, who would believe it if someone just told them that they were meant to have some kind of special powers. Only the sheer scale of the place I’m in, and the amount of trouble that Jack has gone to over me so far, keep me from laughing at it outright. From calling it all a joke.
    Because it can’t be a joke. No one would build a whole military base for a joke, or send men after me with guns, or have me do Jack’s “test” back at the diner on the way. I shiver as I realize that no joke would include surveillance on me for so long, or my family disappearing like that, or my phone being cut off. But that leaves only one possibility: that this is real. I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet.
    “Who are they?” I repeat. Even though the people in white look friendly enough, I’m not letting them touch me until I get some more answers. I’m not some little kid to be pushed around. At least, I hope I’m not.
    “We call them the Others,” Sebastian Cook says. “We don’t know much about them, except that they will be looking for you, and that they will not want you to live. When they found out about you… well, given how different you are, we had to act.”
    “That’s not an answer.” I see Sebastian Cook’s expression darken slightly, and I know how I must sound to him. Like some kind of petulant, ungrateful child. “Look, Mr. Cook, I’m sorry. I appreciate you sending Jack to help me escape those men who went after me, but right now, I’m completely confused. Can’t you tell me more about what is going on? You haven’t even told me why you’re so convinced that there’s something odd about me.”
    That seems to please him, and he nods. “I can try,” he says. “Ms. Caine, we have… sensors here. I guess you could think of them as a kind of radar. They detect the unusual, the different. Things that go beyond the normal in some way. Most of those signals are weak. When we intercepted yours, we thought it had to be a mistake, or an indication of some kind of forgotten lake monster. Those are large enough to put out that kind of response.”
    Great, so now I’m the Loch Ness Monster. I look around