Fifth Quarter Read Online Free PDF Page B

her heart racing. "I don't care a crow's ass about how easy it is or isn't going to be! I want my body!"
     
    "We'll never be able to go back." The silence in her head was the loudest sound she'd ever heard. "Bannon?"
     
    "It's me or the army, Vree. Your choice."
     
    An assassin has no family but the army. But it wasn't a choice and he knew it.
     
    They crossed the South Road, east to west, on the Ghoti side of the embankment—the sentries patrolling along the top unaware of the enemy slipping through the darkness behind them—and getting out of town was as easy as getting in. Driven by Bannon's uncompromising need, Vree stayed as close to the road as she dared, stealing from one bit of shadow to the next, using the night as cover. How, she wondered, had Aralt managed? While he had Bannon's body, he wouldn't have the skill to manipulate it. At least we didn't find him pinned to the road by arrow fire from the top of the embankment .
     
    "Shut up , Vree."
     
    Just for a moment, she'd forgotten whathe meant and had, for the same moment, forgotten that her thoughts were no longer her own. "Sorry."
     
    The terrain began to climb and the road with it.
     
    "There'll be a squad where the road crests the ridge."
     
    "I know." She kept moving toward the dim glow of the banked watchfire.
     
    "What are you doing, Vree?"
     
    "Aralt is going to have to swing wide around; if we cut close, we'll gain on him."
     
    "And if you cut in too close, you'll be seen." His tone bordered on the edge of accusation.
     
    Vree stopped, crouched in the shadow of a thorn tree. Her teeth were clenched so tightly together that a muscle jumped in her jaw. "And just what's that supposed to mean?"
     
    "You don't want to leave…"
     
    "So I'll allow myself to be seen?" She spat the thought at him. "So I'll have to go back to camp or be shot as I cross the perimeter? Do you think for an instant that I want you in my head for the rest of my life?"
     
    "Do you think I want to be here?" Bannon snapped back.
     
    Panting slightly, Vree stared at a thorn, four inches long and silver-gray in the starlight. When they were children, armed with thorn daggers, they'd saved the Empire from a thousand rebels, winning honor and glory and the notice of the Emperor himself. Together. Always together. She forced her fingers to uncurl. Who was she going to hit? "We'll get your body back. I promise."
     
    Bannon remained silent as she moved closer to the watchfire, but she could feel him holding back, in no way adding his skill to hers, allowing her to prove her commitment. Black shapes stood around the fire that had been lit in the middle of the road; kilts and sandals and tunics, round helms and shields and pikes imposing uniformity on the silhouettes. Vree could hear the quiet murmur of voices, then a loud laugh, then…
     
    "Slaughtering bugs!"
     
    "Not lice again ."
     
    "Bugger you. Something just bit me."
     
    "Good," muttered someone else. "Now it'll die and not bite us."
     
    She knew those voices. All of them. The Fourth Squad, Second Unit, First Company, First Division, Sixth Army had provided the soldiers who were watching the road. Knowing what to look for, she began to pick out individual shapes. Nub had a way of wearing his helm that made his head look as though it sloped straight from crown to nose. Wora slapped the shaft of her pike constantly from palm to palm. They said she'd be corporal when Emo finally took his wineskin into one battle too many. The slim figure pacing nervously around the perimeter of the light could only be Tic, his youth radiating off him.
     
    Her squad. Their squad. Hers and Bannon's.
     
    "Vree?"
     
    "No."
     
    "But I…"
     
    "Just no , okay? Be quiet."
     
    They'd be easier to pass than strangers because she knew their habits. Harder because she knew them and there was no way to even say good-bye. She had no idea why that should matter, but it did.
     
    As she drew even with the fire, a burly shadow shambled off the