Ignition Point Read Online Free PDF

his skin even from a distance. He wasn’t looking around for someone. He was looking around for some where . He ran across the auditorium now, to grab the handle on one of the office doors and twist frantically. He moved down the row, trying each, his head turning back twice to check the wide doors behind him that he’d came in through.
    Was he hiding from someone? Alex ? Who could have Alex hiding?
    “Alex?” Thom called down, half-rising from the bench.
    Alex jumped, and his gaze flashed up, scanning the rows of benches. When he found Thom, his eyes widened, and he shook his head. It was a small movement. Alex was scared.
    Now, so was Thomas.
    “Get down here, Thom.” Alex’s strangled, low shout carried easily to Thom. “Hurry. Hurry!”
    Thom frowned, but he couldn’t help obeying.
    Something was wrong.
    Alex ran to the double doors leading out of the auditorium first, risking a quick peek out the narrow windows before meeting Thom at the base of the final set of stairs. He grabbed Thom’s arm and pulled him along, head turning again as he searched for a new way out. The only other doors were those under the seating. They led into the showers the boys were expected to use after the indoor fitness classes that made use of the huge room behind them.
    “Alex?” Thomas didn’t know why he whispered his friend’s name. The only thought that swirled through his mind was something was very wrong. Alex didn’t hide. Not from anyone. Not even the older Wards. Not even the ones who tried to bully him over class work.
    “Shut up,” Alex hissed. He dragged Thomas across the wide shower room, head still turning, searching. He was looking for somewhere to hide.
    Thomas dug in his heels. “No.” He needed to know what was going on, although he believed Alex’s genuine distress enough to keep his own voice low. “Alex, what’s going on?”
    Alex turned back. His dark eyes were wide. “We don’t have time—”
    “Alex.”
    Alex shook his head. “After you left, Sam told me some things. About what happened to him. A long time ago, the Council—they did stuff to his girlfriend to get him to cooperate. I didn’t want to believe him. I didn’t want to. But afterward, I needed to think, so I snuck out to the garden.”
    The garden was a long, walled area topside, extending back and away from the rear of the entrance to what seemed a nondescript building in the middle of a western wasteland. The building was just the top of their school, burrowed deep into the earth, the remnant of some long-ago military base. An oasis in the desert, it was the exclusive province of the Guardians that ran the school. Before Thomas had a chance to respond, to ask if that violation was why Alex was running, he was stunned by his friend’s next revelation.
    “The WardMaster was out there, with Councilor Five and Guardian Michelsen and some agent I didn’t recognize. And Marreau , standing by waiting on them,” Alex’s voice dripped with contempt. Marreau was one of the worst of the Senior Wards who bullied. “And they were talking about you, Thom. They were—” Alex’s voice cracked. He swallowed.
    Talking about him? Why would the Councilor of Zone Five be interested in Thomas?
    “They were talking about you, and the Scavs, and how the role the Scavs play can’t get out. The role the Scavs play.” Alex’s voice throbbed with betrayal. “They do use them. They have a pact with them.” He shook his head. “But they were mostly concerned with how well you’re reintegrating and whether you know anything, whether you remember anything. They said you could be a danger, and they were quizzing the agent to be sure you were too sick to know what he was. They said—Thom, they said if you remember then you have to be removed. I don’t think they meant to be sent off to some other Zone.”
    Alex shook his head again, the movement nearly constant now. “I tried to sneak away, but I tripped over a rock behind me.” Alex’s face