Hollowgirl Read Online Free PDF Page A

“You’re going to put your gun down, and then you’re going to tell me everything you know about the Yard and how to get out.”
    He didn’t flinch. His gaze remained coolly superior.
    â€œI’m not afraid of you, Clair. You won’t shoot.”
    â€œThen you don’t know me.” She didn’t want to shoot anyone, but a progression of mental images undermined any reservations she had in his case: dupes dying in droves outside the muster, the failure of Devin and Trevin’s plan on the seastead, the endless threats issued from the mouth of a child whose mind was no longer his own . . . All that and more could be laid at Drader’s feet.
    The third door opened. PK Drader’s lips tightened. She could see him tensing, getting ready to move.
    â€œDon’t,” Clair said, taking a step forward, pointing the pistol as steadily as she could at the bridge of his nose.She had seen enough dramas to know how PKs spoke in such moments, and she did her best to keep her voice steady too. “Gun on the floor. Now.”
    Drader’s pistol dipped. To Clair’s right, Kari knocked his third accomplice down with one blow to the back of the neck. PK Drader turned, saw her, and straightened. It was clear he recognized her. For an instant, the two peacekeepers faced each other.
    â€œTraitor,” he said, snapping his gun back up and shooting Kari square in the chest.
    The big PK staggered and fell to the ground.
    â€œNo!” Clair’s trigger finger tightened. Her pistol went off with a loud bang and kicked back in her hands. PK Drader dropped like a stone, his neck spraying blood in a crimson fan. Clair reeled, horrified by what he had done—and what she had done to him.
    â€œOh my God.” Tash rushed past her, to Kari’s side. “He shot PK Sargent!”
    â€œAnd he’s dead now too.” Zep was staring at the blood, looking like he might be about to throw up. “Oh hell.”
    Clair didn’t want to look. She wanted Zep to be the strong one, to enfold her in his arms and allow her to close her eyes, just for a moment. But that was the past, before Jesse. This was the present and it was bloody and complicated. PK Drader had fired the first shot inside the Yard, and she had responded.
    â€œWatch out!” she said, blocking Clair One from coming any closer to PK Drader’s body. “They might still be dangerous.”
    â€œSeriously?”
    â€œYou haven’t seen what they can do.”
    â€œAnd I don’t want to.” Her eyes shifted from the body to Clair’s face. Pinched and wary, her body language was conflicted. “But did you have to shoot him?”
    â€œHe shot Kari.”
    â€œShe attacked them first.”
    â€œDo they look like PKs to you?”
    Ronnie was checking PK Drader’s three fallen companions, loosening their tight black collars so they could breathe freely. Libby hovered at her shoulder, hands clasped tightly to her chest. They had no identifying marks or patches.
    â€œWhoever you spoke to couldn’t have been a PK,” Clair went on. “Not a good one, anyway. Wallace would only copy the PKs he can trust. We can’t afford to— Stop, don’t open their eyelids!” Clair added hastily as Ronnie went to check the pupils of the first PK Kari had dropped. “Don’t let whoever’s at the other end of their lenses get a look at you.”
    â€œWhy does it matter if they see us?” asked Clair One.
    â€œThey might not know there are two of me in here.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œSee what they did when they found out there was one of me here? Imagine what they’d do if they knew there were two.”
    â€œMaybe we should plug their ears, then,” said Clair One, which was a good suggestion that Ronnie put into immediate effect, tearing strips off her party dress and wadding them into balls.
    â€œI have cut the power to the booths,”