Learning to Spy Read Online Free PDF Page A

she apologized again.
    Yolanda nodded. “You think it’s true, then.”
    “Dammit, I don’t know,” I confessed. “You know what I think? I think it’s a big lie. I think it’s all lies. But how do I know?”
    We were quiet until D’Lo finally spoke. “These people... aren’t people,” he said. “They’re not like us, I’m telling you. This is some weird-assed shit going on right here.”
    The girls looked at him, but I just exhaled loudly.
    “What does that mean?” Roxie’s eyes were wide again.
    “Means we gotta sit and wait. No trying to escape, and no funny business. Just lay low and see what happens next.” He got up and walked away like he wasn’t going to talk about it anymore. Like he was going to keep dropping crazy bombs and walking away.
    “Braxton’s got some wild ideas in his head, too,” I said. “Their guard’s talking a lot of smack. He’s slick. I’ve seen him. I can also imagine he’s laughing at us behind our backs for being scared, gullible hicks.”
    Yolanda’s eyes cut to mine. “So what do you think?”
    “That woman Cato’s in charge, I’m sure of it. Now that I’m working with her little brother, I might be able to get some answers. He didn’t get here til later, but he oughta know something.”
    “How you gonna get him to talk?” Roxie was tying off my braid as she asked.
    “Just, you know. Being friendly and stuff.” I couldn’t tell her I had no idea how. “If this chip thing’s true, maybe there’s a main control I can shut off or disable. If it’s a lie—”
    “Maybe he’ll tell you?”
    “I don’t know.”
    * * *
    T hat night as I headed to the barn I thought about my conversation with Roxie. How long would it take before this guy would talk to me? And what if he wouldn’t? He was one of the scariest things I’d seen yet with those wild scars and wilder eyes, and he didn’t seem too happy to be here or too intent on making friends. But I had to do something, and it seemed like this opportunity dropped in my lap. I had to make the most of it. Or at least try.
    I’d just walked through the open door when I froze. Voices were speaking in one of the stalls, and they sounded like they were arguing. Maybe this was another opportunity. I slipped behind a door, hoping I’d learn something.
    “So I’m a prisoner now, too?” It was Gallatin, and his low voice was angry.
    “Of course not,” Cato soothed. “It’s simply not safe for you to be running through the woods alone. What if you were injured?”
    “I hate it here. It’s boring as hell, the people are dull, and it’s unbearably hot.”
    “Hotter than the desert?”
    “I feel like I’m drowning in this air.”
    “You’ll adapt,” Cato’s voice was motherly. “And some people actually like it here.”
    “Water signs like you. Protectors.”
    “It’s true we had different fathers, but we shared a mother. You could still learn to appreciate the quiet beauty of the forest.”
    “There’s quiet beauty in the desert.”
    They didn’t speak, and I heard movements. I was just about to peek around when suddenly he spoke in a pleading voice. “Let me go back, Cato. I don’t want to be here.”
    She let out a sigh. “No.”
    He made a frustrated growl that was followed a loud Bang! I must’ve jumped two inches. A few of the cows bellowed. I leaned forward on shaky legs to see what had happened. Gallatin had his back to her. His hands clutched the top of a stall, and it looked like he’d kicked a hole in the bottom of it. I jerked back.
    “You’re going to repair that.” Her voice was calm, undisturbed.
    He didn’t answer, and for a moment, I didn’t know what would happen. I heard movement and peeked again to see her going to him and putting her hand on his shoulder. She rubbed it back and forth until finally he softened.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “I think that board was rotten.”
    “Hm. Perhaps we don’t know our own strength these days.”
    “I know I’m strong