Judgment Day (Templar Chronicles Book 5) Read Online Free PDF

direction, then in the other.
    The hallway was clear.
    He slipped the mirror into his pocket. Holding the doors open with one hand, he looked back and nodded at the men behind him. One by one they slipped out of the elevator, with Davis and Simmons taking up position across the hall and Martinez waiting for Riley on the elevator side. Then, as a group, they advanced on their target, weapons at the ready.
    As they drew closer, Riley could see that the door to room 14o7 was slightly ajar. He stopped just shy of the entrance, signaling his men to do the same, and then he listened for a moment.
    Nothing but silence.
    He glanced at each of his men and got three nods in return, signaling their readiness for action. Riley nodded back and then counted down with one raised fist.
    One...
    Two...
    On three Riley rushed forward, shouldering the door open and bursting into the room, the other Templars at his heels.
    The smell hit him first, the thick coppery stench of spilled blood unmistakable and nearly overwhelming, and then Riley got his first good look at the room in front of him.
    The place resembled a slaughterhouse.
    Blood as black as pitch had pooled on the bed and been splashed across three of the room’s four walls. Some of it had even reached the ceiling. Small pieces of flesh – none large enough to be identified as anything specific – were scattered throughout the room. Riley had the sinking feeling that if you added them all up you would end up with a whole corpse, but given the color of the blood he was pretty sure it wouldn’t have been a human one.
    A second body, this one of a naked human male, lay on the floor next to the bed. His head was at such an unusual angle that it was clear that his neck had been broken. Riley noted the way the blood that had dripped down from the bed had pooled against the sole of the man’s bare foot and concluded that he’d died before his companion, whoever that had been.
    Clearing the room was his number one priority, so Riley didn’t stop to examine either the corpse or the other remains scattered throughout the room but headed straight for the partially open bathroom door instead.
    He could see that the light was on inside so he didn’t hesitate, just kicked the door open and followed it inward, swiveling to check the shower stall and the space behind the door.
    Both were empty; the room was clear.
    “Clear!” he called, and seconds later received an answering call from the main chamber behind him.
    Lowering his weapon, he moved to rejoin his men in the other room and only then heard the crunch of glass underfoot and noted what was left of the bathroom mirror strewn over the sink and floor tiles.
    Riley had seen a similar tableau too many times not to know what it meant.
    Cade had been here. He’d used the Beyond to avoid Riley’s squad and escape the room without being seen. Heaven only knew where he was now.
    Damn it, Cade! You’re not making this easy, now are you?
    The fact that they’d probably only missed him by moments did nothing to assuage Riley’s frustration. He needed to find Cade before Gamma did or who knew what disaster would result?
    With Cade having already fled the scene, there wasn’t much more that Riley could do aside from figuring out what had drawn Cade here in the first place.
    He knew that it had something to do with the Adversary, for finding the creature was Cade’s sole focus right now. He would hunt the abomination to the ends of the earth in an effort to rescue his beloved wife, Gabrielle, and Riley knew Cade would be utterly relentless in doing so.
    Utterly ruthless, too, if the scene in the other room was any indication. So who, or what, had Cade encountered here that led him to such extremes?
    Riley didn’t know.
    But he knew if he was going to be of any help to his old friend, he was going to have to figure it out.
    Quickly, too.
    He stepped back into the main room where his men were waiting.
    “Simmons get on the horn and get an