Spirits in the Park Read Online Free PDF

down, Rory spied a gigantic cockroach by his feet, trying to hide behind his ankle. A shiver ran down his spine, even as he recognized the battle roach. A huge insect will do that to you.
    â€œSergeant Kiffer?” Rory bent over to give the battle roach a hand to escape into. He had to resist his instinctual urge to fling the roach into the bushes. Tucket tried to leap up and lick the roach, and Rory had to fight to keep the spirit dog down. “Have you been following me?”
    â€œWhat did you think, we’d let the last Light on Manhattan Island run around willy-nilly?” The roach’s voice dripped with disdain. “What kind of protectors of the future of Mannahatta would we be if did that? We know that you’ve been hiding in Central Park. I don’t know why Fritz allows it. I tell him over and over that you’ll be a spoiled brat with no discipline if he keeps babying you like this. But he never listens . . .”
    â€œBabying me?” Rory didn’t know what the large roach was talking about. He’d met Sergeant Kiffer and the other members of Fritz’s patrol a few times over the last month, but he didn’t know any of them particularly well. “What do you mean?”
    â€œLook, once you’re safe, then we can gab all night long like two schoolgirls if you want,” Kiffer said. “But right now I’m gonna take you to McCool’s.”
    Rory shook his head. “No, I’ve got to go home and check on my sister and my mom.”
    â€œAnd how will you get home? The subways must be closed. And look at the streets. No bus or cab will be running for a while, trust me.”
    â€œThen I’ll walk.”
    â€œIt’s too dangerous. We have to get you off the streets and MacCool’s is the closest friendly place. I don’t know why the world almost shook itself to death, but chances are it has something to do with you, and I won’t be the roach who lets you get killed on his watch, you hear me? We need to get you to a safe place, right now.”
    â€œI know they’re looking for me,” Rory said. “But is it really that bad? They haven’t gotten close yet, right?”
    â€œWe’ve taken down at least ten assassins in the past month,” Sergeant Kiffer replied. “The last few came a hairbreadth from doing their jobs. If not for the M’Garoth patrol boys, you’d be dead right now.”
    Rory was shocked. He’d really been that close to death? And he’d thought he was so clever, hiding in the park. He was shaken, badly, and Sergeant Kiffer seemed to notice.
    â€œCome on, kid,” Kiffer said, softer this time. “Let’s get you inside.”

    The earthquake shocked Manhattan from its heat-induced daze. Frightened people wandered the streets, taking in the fallen masonry and downed lampposts with bewilderment. Sirens rang throughout the streets as fires sprang up all over the city. There were people pinned under fallen rubble and people trapped in unstable old buildings and people just terrified because the shifting ground had destroyed the illusion of permanence they’d enjoyed all their lives.
    On one street corner, a five-car pileup had attracted a large, frightened crowd. The fire trucks were on their way, the people were told, though the damage across the city had spread the firefighters far too thin to rely on them for a prompt response. Most of the victims had been pulled away from the crash, but the car on the bottom was compressed so much that no one could get the doors open. A woman and her young child pressed against the car window, frantically beating against their jammed door, desperate for rescue. The people around the car tried to help, but they were running out of time; it would take only one spark to light the gas currently dripping from four gas tanks. A small fire had already sprung up; it was only a matter of time before the pool of gas forming beneath lit up