Sanctuary Read Online Free PDF Page B

fool. He’s a liar and a coward. And the world wouldn’t like him if they knew who he really was. Maybe I’ll tell you, one of these days. One day soon.”

Chapter Four
Tuesday, August 4. 2018.
    Samantha shook me awake at three in the morning.
    “Get up. We gotta go.”
    “Mmmmmmmrrgppffffooooawaaay,” I said, helpfully.
    “Chase. Now,” she hissed.
    “‘Manthalemmelone,” I groaned. If I had a taser, I would’ve zapped her right in the neck.
    “Carter needs us.”
    “This is your job,” I moaned and I pulled a pillow over my head. “Not mine. I’m a kid. A child. An innocent youth that needs sleep.”
    “I’m going to screw on my silencer and shoot you with wax bullets until you get up.
    “Oh my goooooooosh,” I sat up with a huff in the dark room. The only light came from my red alarm clock. My eyes wouldn’t fully open. “What could Carter possibly want?”
    “Doctors at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical just revived an Infected kid,” she said and she flipped my covers off. “Camera phones caught him throwing motorcycles before he passed out. Carter’s out of town and the kid is unguarded.”
    “So?”
    “ So? ” she snapped and she started throwing clothes at me. “Start thinking like an Infected. We need you. This is a war. A war of accumulation, and right now the Chemist is winning. He’s going to come snatch that kid. We need to get there first.”
    Five minutes later I was howling down the interstate on my bike, peering through sleepy eyes at a blurry world. Samantha was nearby in her truck.
    “How do we bust a kid out of a hospital without being seen?” I asked through my helmet mic. I was cold and tired and grouchy.
    “Leave that to PuckDaddy,” he said in my ear. “Breaking into their systems now.”
    “I’m getting sick of you two.”
    “Thanks!”
    “What do we do with him? Isn’t the kid insane? And freakishly strong?”
    Samantha crackled, “I’m going to steal some tranquilizers. Keep him under until Carter gets back. We can stash the kid at your downtown hideout. Our main objective is to keep him away from the Chemist.”
    “Do either of you know how many Infected soldiers the Chemist has? I have no idea.”
    “PuckDaddy has a guess,” he responded. “I’ve been scanning Compton with facial tracking software. Puck estimates six.”
    “Six dastardly Infected,” I mused.
    “Dastardly?”
    “Yup.”
    “Only nerds say dastardly.”
    “Six plus the Chemist,” Samantha said. “Plus the others he hasn’t hatched yet. Remember, Carter said the Chemist has found a way to keep new Infected comatose for months while their brains heal.”
    “And we have…”
    “You two,” Puck said. “Plus me, kinda. And Carter.”
    “Seven verse four. Seems fair,” I grunted.
    “Carter called in reinforcements,” Puck said. “Arriving soon.”
    “Good! I like reinforcements.”
    Samantha growled, “Not me.”
    “Puck, how many other Infected are there? Outside of Los Angles, I mean. What’s our total number?”
    “Outside of Los Angeles, there are five others. Used to be six, but she died on a mountain recently.”
    “Who are they?”
    “Code names are Australia, Russia, Zealot, China and Pacific. That’s all I can tell you.”
    “I hate them all,” Samantha said. “I bet Carter called in Australia…didn’t he.”
    “You know it, homie. Australia’ll be here in a few days.”
    Samantha said a very bad word.
    PuckDaddy directed us to a sprawling pink hospital on Vermont Avenue. We braked in the rear parking lot, near a loading bay. The silence of the place was deafening. I hated this; neither of us had ever been here and we had no plan, like walking into a skirmish blindfolded.
    My body was thickening due to the stress. My cells carried a disease that interacted strongly with adrenaline, doing bizarre stuff like strengthening my heart, broadening shoulders, and hardening skin. Muscles bulged and the fibers began fast-twitch firing like pistons. The synapses