Jade Sky Read Online Free PDF

heroin.
    A middle-aged man wandered away from the group, toward the desert. Conor put a hand on his chest. "Sir, you need to stop." The group dropped to their knees, vacant eyes forward, mouths open. As one they groaned.
    Garrett clucked his tongue. "Recommend neutraliz—"
    "Belay that," Matt interrupted. "Civilians are cooperating and docile."
    "Proceed, Sergeant Rowley," Jeff said.
    Garrett gave him a flat, unblinking stare, then turned away to light up a landing site with phosphorous flares. Even in the broadening daylight, the UV signature would pop on the pilots' heads-up displays.
    Akash raised an eyebrow at Matt. "Kill them all? When did that become okay?"
    Conor clapped him on the shoulder. "Guy's a bit shook up is all, and their little zombie act freaked him out a bit." He followed Akash's look to Matt. "Well?"
    Matt gave the order, and his team zip-tied the wrists and ankles of every man and woman. They didn't have enough for the children, but that didn't matter. Not one person protested, resisted, or spoke. As Conor and Blossom led the shuffling civilians toward the LZ, Matt and Garrett approached the mine entrance.
    Worm holes pitted the crumbling, bone-dry wood of the entranceway. Beyond, a narrow tunnel of rough-hewn rock reached no more than ten feet before ending in a cave-in of boulders and rubble. Dusty footprints littered the rock floor, leading right up to it.
    "Sorry about the mess," Garrett said. "That thing wouldn't take 'die' for an answer."
    Matt reached down and picked up a scarf's length of leather from in front of the cave-in. As his eyes passed over the tattooed glyphs and sigils, his augmented mind connected them to those on the boy kneeling in front of the altar. The whispers tittered in bloodthirsty glee. He dropped the leather strip and took a sharp step back, wiping his fingers on his shirt.
    "Yeah," Garrett said. "That sucks."
    Matt couldn't shake his confusion. "What the hell happened here? I mean, to us?"
    Garrett shrugged, grabbed a wooden beam, and heaved it out of the way. "Don't know, but I want to find out."
    Rotors thrummed in the distance. By the time the team made it through the rubble, every civilian had been evacuated by government helicopter. Matt stepped deeper into the cave, careful to avoid the leather strip— skin —he'd dropped. He ran his hands along the walls, and the white he first mistook for marble came off on his fingertips, revealing wood and gray stone beneath. He smelled it and wiped the chalk on his pants.
    Once inside, he turned on his flashlight and looked around. A kitchen table served as the dais, with chipped white paint showing cheap wood underneath, and instead of obsidian braziers, cast-iron frying pans held piles of Jade over wood coals. A pile of black, cold ash smeared across the floor in front of the table, and in it were chunks of burnt bone. He put a hand over them. Cold.
    He looked at Garrett sidelong. "Is it just me—"
    "Nope," Garrett said. "I saw it, too. This place was a lot fancier a few minutes ago."
    "Hours," Matt muttered. "It's past dawn. We were in here for hours."
    They didn't say anything. Nothing they could say would make sense. They stepped back outside and waited for the forensics team. As the civilians did their work, they set up an ambush for the winged bonk, just in case it came back.
    They waited three days and filed an action report that nobody would believe. Jeff sure didn't, though he said he'd sign off on their account of events anyway. The winged shadow didn't return.
     
    *   *   *
     
    Matt carried the overfilled tumbler of whiskey to their booth, careful not to spill any. Conor took it with a nod, downed the alcohol in three massive gulps, upended the glass on the table, and belched. Akash rolled his eyes. Garrett chuckled. Second-generation regenerates had to drink fast to get a buzz, and even so, it wouldn't last more than a couple minutes.
    Conor had dominated the conversation thus far, and it contented Matt to