Five's Betrayal Read Online Free PDF Page B

freak. Right before she tried to bash my brains in.
    I turn to Deltoch, who is emerging from the trees now. When Emma sees him, she cowers a little and takes a few steps back. Obviously she’s had a bad experience with Mogs over the last day or so.
    “Good. We did find the right girl,” he says. “You’d be surprised how difficult she was to track down. After that unfortunate night at the warehouse, she and most of her family practically disappeared.”
    “What’s going on?” I ask.
    “Before you are able to begin your new life as a champion of the Mogadorian cause, you’ll have to put everything from your past behind you.”
    I don’t say anything. Just turn to Emma and stare at her. She still looks scared, but her hands are clenched in fists at her sides. I know her well enough to guess that right now she’s trying to figure out how to escape from this situation. She’s a fighter. Hell, the last time I saw her she gave me a concussion.
    “How do you even know about her?” I ask.
    “Ethan’s reports on you have been incredibly thorough, even now,” Deltoch says. I must look surprised by this, because he lets out a snort of a laugh. “The two of you may have a close relationship, but the reason that Ethan found you in the first place is thanks to our Beloved Leader’s guidance and enthusiasm to recruit you. You would be incorrect if you thought for one moment that your future was given to you by Ethan and not the all-powerful Setrákus Ra. Ethan is your friend because he was ordered to be.”
    I know Ethan works for the Mogs, but I guess I never really think of him as reporting back to them about me. At least not about nonessential stuff like who I hung out with back in Miami. But I’ve read the files the Mogs have on Nine, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
    Still, it somehow seems like a betrayal of trust, and I wish Ethan were here to tell me that it wasn’t true. I know he lied to me back when we first met, but that was for my benefit. I guess I’d assumed he wouldn’t still be reporting on me now that I’m at the base.
    The thought pisses me off.
    “At the end of the day,” Deltoch continues, “Ethan is only human. That’s his greatest weakness. The humans don’t have our discipline or sense of loyalty. It will do you well to remember that. The humans are here to serve us, but he is holding you back.”
    “How?”
    “He doesn’t think you’re ready to become an officer.”
    My mouth drops open a little—Ethan doesn’t believe in me? That can’t be true.
    “Why is she here?” I ask, turning back to Emma. I still don’t understand what’s going on.
    “Please,” Emma says, “I just want to go back home. I don’t want to be here. I’ll give you whatever you want.”
    “For you to have closure and to focus completely on your future as an officer of Mogadore,” Deltoch says with a grin. “Ethan said this girl was the only other person in the world who you had any sort of friendly relationship with.”
    “I guess so,” I say quietly. When he puts it like that, it makes me sound like a total loser.
    “Well then, what happened?”
    The memories course through my head. A bunch of thugs trapped me in a warehouse on a job for Ethan. The only way out had been using my telekinesis. I’d never used it on other people before, and it felt so good to slam them into shelves and walls after they’d been beating up on me. But Emma had seen—one of the guys had been her brother. And she’d turned on me in an instant.
    “She called me a freak,” I say, staring at Emma in the forest clearing. “She asked me if I was possessed when she saw what I could do.”
    “Please,” Emma says. She just keeps shaking her head, her eyes darting around to the edges of the tree line. She was standing there alone when we came out, but I’m guessing there are Mog soldiers in the woods around us, making sure she doesn’t escape.
    “She scoffed at your abilities?” Deltoch asks. “Even though