The Ark Plan Read Online Free PDF Page A

wouldn’t take the help,” Shawn said, “but if I don’t get my grades up, I’m going to be stuck with a work assignment in sewer detail.” He was right. Our grades weighed heavily in the final decision of work assignments when we turned fifteen. It wasn’t like better jobs got better pay. We all worked for free because it was our responsibility to do so, and because if you didn’t work, you didn’t eat. But the better your grades, the better job you were likely to be assigned. Shawn really had nothing to worry about. With an aunt as high up the chain as his was, I doubted sewer detail was in his future. However, even with my good grades, I was disliked enough that it was a possibility for mine.
    â€œIt’s fine,” I said, turning to smile at him. “It’s not your fault everyone likes to suck up to your aunt.”
    â€œI wish your aunt had transferred to North Compound instead of mine.”
    â€œShawn Reilly,” I said. “Stop wishing fictional relatives on me. I’m fine.”
    â€œI asked her again last night about getting you out of there, but she brushed me off and gave me the same old story about rules and regulations. It’s not fair.” I agreed, but telling Shawn that would just make him feel worse than he already did.
    â€œIt’s okay,” I said. “You deserve good things.” I’dnever met anyone with a bigger heart than Shawn Reilly, and without his friendship, my life in the compound would be worse than miserable.
    â€œSo do you.” He scowled, and the way it wrinkled his forehead and made his mouth pull down at the corners was so familiar that I had to smile.
    â€œI can think of a way you could make it up to me,” I said slyly, glancing at him from the corner of my eye, “if the guilt is really eating you up inside.”
    â€œSo I take it your mail run this morning was a success?” he asked drily, putting his port screen away. Shawn knew the purpose of my mail runs, and he knew full well what I needed him to do for me. But he liked to be asked. It was small payment for asking him to break the law for me on a routine basis.
    I grinned wickedly. “My best friend gave me this great scan plug, and I put it to good use.”
    â€œHow long did it take to upload?” Shawn asked.
    â€œAbout five seconds,” I said.
    He nodded. “Not bad.”
    â€œAny longer and you might have had to send the body crew out after me,” I admitted.
    Shawn froze. “What happened?”
    â€œA deinonychus herd.”
    â€œWhat kind are those again?” he asked, his forehead wrinkling in confusion.
    I groaned in exasperation. For someone who lived in an underground compound because of the millions of dinosaurs stomping around overhead, Shawn knew next to nothing about them. He preferred to spend his time tinkering with everything and anything mechanical.
    â€œThey travel in herds, and have huge claws on their hind feet for ripping their prey open.”
    â€œThey sound like loads of fun,” Shawn drawled. “I can see why you’d want to go running around with them.”
    I rolled my eyes. “You’re impossible.”
    â€œNo,” Shawn countered. “I’m just not obsessive about researching the ugly things like some people I know. Let me guess, you already updated your journal?”
    I kicked him hard in the shin, glancing around the library shelves to make sure they were deserted.
    â€œYouch.” He grimaced, rubbing his shin. “That wasn’t really necessary.”
    â€œI disagree,” I snapped. Shawn knew I had a strict rule about never mentioning my journal where we could be overheard. “Now are you going to help me or not?”
    â€œOf course,” he grumbled, standing up. “I can’t come tonight, though; my aunt needs my help with the new baby while she goes to a meeting.”
    â€œTomorrow, then?” I