Override (Glitch) Read Online Free PDF Page B

you’d already ripped. The underlayer is still safe. That was too close,” Adrien said, his eyes wide. He reached up and wiped my faceplate clean with the sleeve of his tunic. His hair dripped with water.
    “It’s okay,” I said, my heart still thrumming in my chest. “I’m fine. Let’s keep going and get you out of the rain.”
    He let out a slow breath and nodded. He interlocked his fingers tight in mine as we started forward again.
    After a few more minutes, Jilia announced that we’d arrived.
    I looked ahead and frowned. I didn’t see a building. Just more green. “Where?”
    Jilia laughed. “Right here.” She reached toward one of the trees, but when she touched it, it rippled and moved like a cloth surface. What had looked like a three-dimensional forest was actually a painted curtain.
    “It doesn’t work close up, but we’re deep enough in the forest that it’s camouflaged from any random flyovers. The material’s like the tarp I used on the duo, it covers heat signatures so thermosatellite scans don’t detect us.”
    She gestured for us to step in, and I nudged Adrien ahead of me. I was kept dry by my suit, but he was drenched. I followed him inside to a softly lit, small interior room. Rain spattered loudly on the roof and the walls.
    Adrien’s wet tunic clung to him. His shoulders seemed wider than when I’d last seen him and his wiry arm muscles more sharply cut. But he looked thinner too, and when he turned I could see just how ripped-up his back was from the chute.
    “Your back!” I said. His tunic hung in tatters and blood had dried from a couple of deep gashes below his shoulder blades. Deep bruises were already starting to bloom.
    “Oh right, I forgot about it,” he said. He turned around so Jilia could see. She immediately reached out a hand.
    I winced when she touched him, placing her hand on the worst of his injuries. Then as I watched, the lacerations wove themselves shut under her touch. I looked back and forth between the now smoothed skin and Jilia’s face, feeling my eyes widen. “You’re a glitcher?”
    “Yep,” she said. “First generation, like Adrien’s mom.”
    “Can you heal anything?” I asked.
    “I can only heal minor wounds, knit tissue and sometimes bones back together, that kind of thing.” She saw my face drop and smiled apologetically. “I can’t deal with anything at the systemic cellular level, like allergies.”
    I moved closer. Within a few minutes, the skin of Adrien’s back was completely smooth. Even the bruises were gone. His muscles rippled under his skin as he rotated his shoulders and breathed out a sigh of relief. “Good as new. Thanks, Doc.”
    “That’s amazing,” I whispered, still staring.
    “Have you had a lot of traffic lately?” Adrien asked.
    “Busier than ever,” Jilia said. “A whole safe house got cracked last week, so our beds were full up. Most of them have moved on.”
    Adrien must have seen my questioning glance. “The Resistance uses mobile tent compounds like this one for way stations.”
    “We try to set them up outside all the major cities for travelers,” Jilia said. “Or so Rez operatives heading into the city on raids have a base station, or if a situation gets too hot for our people living in the city and they have to run.” She looked at Adrien. “But I can’t remember when it’s ever been this bad.”
    Adrien’s face darkened. “It’s gotta be because of Underchancellor Bright. She’s got access to Rez prisoners now, and she can force them to tell her anything she wants. Safe house locations, encryption codes, anything.”
    Something passed between them, a quiet communication of dread, before Jilia turned to me and smiled. “Come on, let’s get you inside. Tyryn was cooking up something that smelled delicious when I saw the duo beacon and came to meet you.”
    “Tyryn’s here?” Adrien asked, his face breaking into a smile.
    Jilia nodded. “And his sister Xona. You remember her?”
    “She