Ignition Point Read Online Free PDF Page A

couldn’t tell, because Alex wouldn’t meet his eyes.
    Alex reached down and pulled the Taser apart, ripping the delicate welding instead of using the Dust to melt it back. He tossed the parts into the box they’d been using to carry the gun components.
    Thom watched him in silence. He knew Sam did the same. If the old man didn’t know how to get through to Alex, what hope did Thomas have? He was just a kid.
    He looked down at his own Taser, completed and cradled in his lap. He lifted it, considered taking it apart, and then decided he didn’t want to risk damaging his weapon the way Alex had just done with his own.
    Thom wanted to go, yeah. But the reality was….
    The reality sucked. And he’d just made it worse. He wasn’t going anywhere, and he’d just pissed off the only friend he had.
    He ducked his head and rose quickly to his feet. “I’m gonna go. See you back at the dorm.”
    He didn’t wait for Alex’s answer, simply nodded at Sam without meeting the man’s eyes and scrambled out of the room.
    He didn’t go straight back to the dorm, though. He wandered the halls, fingers clutching the Taser. He did want to go, didn’t he? It made the most sense. He didn’t belong here. He didn’t fit.
    He didn’t belong anywhere.
    Even if he was good at it? Because he was good at it. He was good at it all: the studying, the Sparking, the projects, and training. Well, not the physical stuff. But he’d passed that exam, and he didn’t have to be a field agent. That would be Alex’s thing.
    Thomas jumped at the hollow boom of a door closing behind him. He turned a circle. How had he gotten to the auditorium? How long had he wandered the halls?
    He should go back to the room, like he’d said he would. Except Thomas didn’t want to go back. He didn’t want to deal with Alex’s disbelief any more than he wanted to deal with the questioning looks of the other boys in their unit.
    He glanced around the auditorium, and his gaze caught on the uppermost row of seats, far above the floor he stood on. He’d be safe up there—he could sit and think without anyone seeing him.
    He crossed the big, empty floor to the stairs off to the side, and then crossed again to the closest of the three sets of stairs leading all the way up to the back wall, far above. Once he’d made it to the top, he turned down the row and walked all the way to the end.
    In the corner of the top-most row, he sank down onto the hard bench, looking back at the floor below. He felt a pang of loneliness. This was it, exactly. This was his life. A huge room, meant to hold thousands, the space echoing around him as he sat alone. Rolling damp eyes at the thought, Thom turned and settled back, laying himself out on the bench. No one would see him.
    As soon as he’d settled back, though, his thoughts returned again to the day the agents had come to the Scav camp. They’d come for him. They’d known he was there, and he was the one they’d demanded to see as soon as they arrived.
    Alex was wrong. The Council did deal with Scavs. And they did it often enough that the Scavs had some way to get them word they’d found a Spark with the Neo-barbs they’d taken. They did it often enough that those agents had arrived days after Thomas had been taken. They hadn’t questioned. They’d arrived in the Scav camp and demanded to see the Spark. His mind worked every angle of the fragmented, feverish memory, trying to fit together what had been said until the puzzle pieces fell away into darkness.
    Thom woke to a boom echoing off the wall above him. His heart pounded at the unexpected noise, and the sound of running footsteps below him.
    Squinting, Thom peered down the rows of benches to the floor below.
    Alex had stopped in the middle of the room, his box of Taser pieces still cradled in his arms. His head swung as he searched for Thom.
    No. Not Thom. What was he doing?
    Alex’s chest rose and fell, and he was sweating enough that Thomas could see the sheen on