The Belial Ring (The Belial Series 3) Read Online Free PDF

cards on the desk.
    Laney took one of the cards. It was a plain white business card with only a phone number and email. No identifying name, no affiliation, no insignia. “How long have you known about the Fallen?”
    “ Me? Personally?” Clark shrugged. “For quite some time. The SIA, however, has been around since 1776.”
    Laney started at the date. Since the beginning of the United States . The government, or at least a part of the government, knew that the Fallen were out there. And had known for over two hundred years. Laney wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad one.
    H ow had the SIA managed to keep their existence a secret all this time, as well as their objectives? With oversight and computer leaks, how had information on this agency not been leaked? And what exactly had the SIA been doing with that knowledge?
    A chill ran through her. She watched Clark, who was still seemingly at ease.
    “ So when you find one of these Fallen,” Jake said, “what do you do?”
    Clark leaned back in his chair. “Well, that depends. Some live normal lives, and no one knows anything about their abilities.”
    “ How do you find them then?” Henry asked. “If they don’t reveal what they can do, they’d be unremarkable. They’d look like everybody else.”
    Clark nodded. “True. But occasionally people slip. And when they do, we pay attention. Even your Dr. Velasquez has a method of tracking them down. His method is very similar to ours.”
    Laney tried to look surprised , but she knew she failed. Too many surprises were coming at her too fast. Dr. Velasquez, or Dom, was a brilliant agoraphobic who lived in a bomb shelter about a half-mile from where they now sat.
    Dom was notoriously suspicious of the government. He would not be happy to know the government was aware of his data collection on the Fallen.              
    And Laney was awfully curious as to how they knew about that. The only way they could have that knowledge was if they had been monitoring their communications. And the Chandler Group’s email had some pretty heavy security protocols in place.
    “ So what you’re saying,” Jake said, interrupting Laney’s thoughts, “is that some of the Fallen live their lives without causing any problems?”
    “ Yes.” Clark turned to Laney. “You’re a criminologist, Dr. McPhearson. And from what I’ve read on you, your specialization is genetics and crime.”
    Laney nodded.
    “So, you tell me: what’s more important, a person’s biology or their environment?”
    Laney paused. It was tricky question. People were born with biological predispositions for different personality characteristics. A penchant for risky behavior in the right environment could make for a great athlete. But in the wrong environment, it made a criminal. So it was the interaction between the two that was most critical. And according to recent discoveries, that interaction was proving to be more and more critical.
    The research ran through Laney ’s head, along with all the explanations and caveats. But as she looked around the room, she realized that no one was interested in a lecture on genetics.
    She shrugged. “That’s a rather big question. To simplify the answer, I’d say people are born with biological predispositions, but the environment determines how those predispositions are realized. From that view, the environment is more important, because it’s mutable. Biology is not.”
    Clark nodded. “Believe it or not, that applies to the Fallen as well. Some are actually good people trying to help.”
    Henry looked over the desk. “You have Fallen working with you.”
    Henry ’s words hadn’t been a question, but Clark treated them like they were. He nodded. “Yes. They recognize their own kind. You are aware of that?”
    Laney, Henry , and Jake all nodded. Over the course of the last year, they had learned that the Fallen feel an automatic connection to other Fallen when they are near one another.