Secret Value of Zero, The Read Online Free PDF

frozen once again. The man lay at her feet, eyes open and unseeing. She would have hit him again, but she doubted that she would have been as efficient.  
    She could feel Trove’s eyes on her. His black eyes had a strange glint in them, a mixture of surprise, worry and, the strangest of them all, fear. The look disappeared as he glanced up at the cameras and waved her on.  
    She followed.

CHAPTER FOUR

    NO LONGER was their journey hindered by concern for the cameras. Trove and Meke sprinted past these black holes, their images flickering on a screen somewhere. It no longer mattered since their diversion had alerted security. There was no point in hiding. They ran in the hallways that descended deep into the institution’s underbelly. They left behind neat, shiny white hallways, entering dank hallways that stretched out seemingly for miles.  
    Meke panted, she had no time to wonder where she was going. Surely they had already travelled beyond the institution’s high walls.  
    They skidded to a halt when they came to a dead end. Meke’s heart beat even faster. They were trapped, but Trove didn’t seem concerned.
    Trove looked up and waved his handheld over a small box. A hatch slid open overhead.
    Meke could feel the world beyond that small opening. She hadn’t been out there in eight years. For a few moments, she stood there, staring at the blank wall. The world beyond overhead felt too large and unwieldy.  
    Trove nudged her toward the overhead hole. Meke looked up and saw the stars’ faint glimmer. She exhaled and jumped, grabbing the edges. Trove pushed her feet upward, propelling Meke into the world.
    The moonless night submerged Meke in pitch blackness. The stars glowed too dimly to illuminate anything. As her eyes adjusted, a new world emerged.
    A world filled only with sensations.
    Instead of the night’s darkness, Meke could feel every contour, every dip of the earth below her. She blinked, trying to erase the feelings from her mind. She could feel Trove’s bulk lifting itself out of the hole. Stumbling a bit on a rock behind her, she tried to make sense of the world. The distance between her, the ground, Trove and the trees no longer made sense. Up felt the same as down. Left was indistinguishable from right.  
    As Trove landed on his feet, he retrieved a pair of glasses from his chest pocket and placed them on his face. He grabbed Meke’s hand and ran. Meke’s feet stumbled over each other, her brain trying to navigate a new sensory world as she moved. Trove pulled her up a sharp incline full of small rocks that gave way under her.  
    Meke’s head whirled with the deluge of sensory information pouring into her head. The world beneath and around her expanded too large, too vivid and too inconstant. Meke could feel every rock, tree and piece of ice around them. Without sight, she couldn’t make sense of the tactile world around her.
    Meke squeezed her eyes shut, but that didn’t stop her dizziness or her staggering. The new world was too inconstant for her to walk, let alone run.
    Trove stopped. His mouth moved, but Meke could hardly know what he said. All she felt was an arm snaking around her waist and lifting her onto a hard shoulder. She twisted and turned, trying to loosen herself from his grip. I’m not a child, Meke thought. Then she thought that she was slowing things down. She still hated it. Her head ached so much, her resistance grew too tiresome for her.  
    The world steadied only slightly as Trove carried her through the tall trees, weaving in and out of the thin trunks. The wind and cold numbed Meke’s face and hands and she waited for when she could walk again.
    ◆     ◆     ◆
    Meke could see a faint light illuminating several bodies in the distance. Trove sped up , bouncing Meke painfully on his shoulder. The impeding sanctuary made Meke fidget, wanting to be free of interfering hands and arms.  
    Trove finally released her, placing her on the ground without as much as