Tabula Rasa Kristen Lippert Martin Read Online Free PDF Page B

computer-translator thingies. Like
 a voice you’d hear on a GPS. Robotic. Jerky. Not human.
“We are here for Sarah Ramos. She is sixteen years old.
Tell us where she is and we will leave.”
Behind one of the potted palms I see Steve crouched
 down. I make eye contact with him. He mouths, “I’m
 sorry.”  
I shake my head violently because I know what he’s
 about to do.
He stands and points. “She’s there. Behind the desk.”
I stare at him in terrified disbelief. Two hours ago he
 was promising me extra pie, and now he’s betraying me?
He hangs his head, pulls his scarf practically over his face,
 perhaps out of shame. I can see he’s genuinely sorry.
When they shoot him, I can’t say I feel the same way.
36
    CHAPTER 4
 hurricane of hot metal sweeps toward me. The win-
A  dows behind the guard’s desk collapse in on themselves.
Through sheer luck, I’ve crouched down behind a filing
 cabinet and I’m not hit, but the gunfire is so loud I can
 hardly hear anything for a full ten seconds after it stops.
The woman lying next to me is staring up at the ceiling
 with lightless eyes. I hear the sound of boots making their
 way through a field of glass and debris.
Another hail of bullets flies over my head. How many
 bullets do these people need to kill one girl?
I hear a woman’s voice. “Have your people put their
 guns down.” Her voice seems to curl around every word.
It’s soft, southern, sweet.
The computer voice responds, “Hold your fire until my
 signal.”
“My signal, darling. My signal. Let’s not forget who’s in
 charge.”
37
    They take their time coming to check on me. I guess
 they figure that no sound and no movement might be proof
 in itself. I reach across to the dead woman next to me and
 put my hand on her chest. After wiping her blood onto the
 side of my face and neck, I sit as still as I can, open palms
 resting in my lap.
“Is she dead?” the southern woman asks hopefully.
It’s Hodges. I know it is. I’ve never heard her speak
 before, but I hear her bracelets jingling on her wrist.
The guy with the gun leans over the top of the guard’s
 desk. He looks down at me, and I know he can only see the
 top of my bald head.
“I think.”
Hodges sighs dramatically. “We didn’t come all this way
 and spend all this money to think we killed her.”  
The soldier hops over the counter of the guard’s desk
 and lands with one foot on the  body next to me. He’s off-
 balance as he reaches down and tips my chin up with the
 still-smoking muzzle of his rifle. I feel my skin blister but
 force myself to stay limp.
“Yeah,” he says. “Dead.”
“You’re absolutely sure?” Hodges asks.
He pulls his glove off with his teeth and reaches down
 to put his fingers on the side of my neck. When his hand is
 right next to my face, I bite him as hard as I can and bring
 one of my boots up into his crotch.
As he doubles over, I grab the hand that grips his rifle
 and squeeze his finger, firing toward the ceiling directly
 above where his fellow soldiers and Hodges are standing.
38
    She screams as the overhead lights explode. I also hit one
 of the sprinkler heads, or maybe the line that feeds them,
 because water suddenly pours down. I’m soaked within
 seconds.  
I slide on my stomach across the wet, glass-strewn floor
 and dive through the window behind the desk. That’s
 when I realize that I’ve miscalculated. I knew we were on
 the first floor; I just didn’t realize that the first floor wasn’t
 necessarily the ground floor.
I fall fifteen feet and land smack on my chest and face. My
 jaw snaps shut and my teeth close onto my tongue. I spit
 blood and touch my front teeth, shocked that they’re still
 there. I don’t move right away. Not until I look up and see
 a man with a gun leaning out from the window, getting
 ready to fire down at me. Then I move real