Relic Read Online Free PDF Page B

rolled it into a tube and held it out like a dagger. “Who are you, and why are you following us?” He inched forward, his arm extended, until he positioned himself bravely between us and the ice cream man—or janitor, I supposed.
    With the man on his knees, it actually seemed as though Colin and his rolled-up magazine had the upper hand.
    The man smiled and sat back on his heels. “Wow, that’s a first.” He turned to me. “You have some good friends, Dean. I’m so glad to see that.” His grin widened when he turned back to Colin. “You three shouldn’t be surprised to see me. I did send Dean a card telling him I’d be in touch.”
    Lisa inhaled sharply and looked at Colin and then back at Archer. “You’re from the…”—she dropped her voice to a whisper—“Society?”
    The man nodded and gave a slight bow. “At your service.”
    Colin slapped his paper weapon into his palm. “I knew it!” He pointed at me and then Lisa. “I told you they’d be in touch soon, didn’t I?” He laughed again and then he stopped and his eyebrows nearly touched each other as he turned back to Archer. “Wait, you’re from the Society and what, you sell ice cream and clean hospitals on the side? That doesn’t sound right.”
    â€œNot really,” Archer said. “This…”—he nodded at us—“you three, are a rather unique case for us. How does an adult approach a couple kids and invite them into a millennia-old society? We have pretty strict rules about who knows about us, but those rules kind of fly out the window when we’re talking about kids.” He smiled. “Frankly, we needed to watch you guys. We needed to figure out who you were going to tell and how committed you are to our cause.”
    â€œThen you saw us today?” Colin asked.
    Archer nodded. “Amazing job, guys. Your teamwork was incredible.” He smiled at me. “Good job spotting the nuts. I’m sure I would’ve missed that.”
    Colin dropped into one of the seats and blew out a breath. “So you’re the contact.”
    â€œI’m the contact,” Archer said.
    â€œThis is crazy,” Colin added. “I feel like I’m in a movie.” He glanced over his shoulder and then leaned forward so his face was almost at the same height as Archer’s. “Are there secret handshakes we need to learn?”
    â€œHuh?” Archer shook his head. “No. No secret handshakes, Colin.” He glanced around the room. One of the men who’d been sleeping was awake and eyed the four of us with interest. “You three need to just sit back in your chairs. Don’t make it seem like we’re having a conversation.”
    â€œOh, right,” Colin said excitedly. “I bet there are other secret societies who want to kill you, right?”
    â€œUh, no. But when your mom comes back, if she sees a forty-year-old janitor chatting with her kids, she’s bound to ask what we were talking about. A degree of cloak-and-dagger is probably best until we can work out a better system.” He nodded to me. “Meeting face-to-face is a necessity in our society, though. You’ll be meeting everyone else soon enough.”
    Questions flooded my head and threatened to come charging out of my mouth, but I pressed my lips together. “Excited fear” was the best description for what I was feeling, and I didn’t want to ruin what Archer would think of me by acting like a little kid. Colin and Lisa seemed to have the same thought, and the three of us did as we were told, sitting back in our chairs and looking as normal as we could manage. From our reflections in the window, we resembled criminals trying not to look like criminals.
    Archer laughed and went back to scraping gum from the floor. “That’ll do, I guess. It is good to finally meet you three.