The Covert Academy Read Online Free PDF

apartment block decayed or crumbling, and the staircases leading down were blocked with rubble, impeding his progress at every turn.
    To make matters worse, the second drone had chased him the whole way. Sometimes it flew right past him as he doubled back to try the next floor. By the time Joshua had got to the roof, he suspected the drone had meant to only keep its cold eye on him while the soldiers tried to take him alive. Drones didn’t have any non-lethal weaponry, and it could have killed him long ago.
     
    But he was alive. He yelled at the girl, ‘Get out of here!’ Joshua looked up at where she’d been standing. Gone . He looked around frantically, forgetting for the moment that he thought he had been dead just seconds ago. The icy cold rooftop reminded him where he was, and he snapped his head down to check his body for the bullet wound.
    He came up empty.
    The Confederates have been using stun weapons until now… maybe the bullet wasn’t meant for me , he wondered.
    The drone that had been chasing him flew up out of the alley to hover a couple metres above the roof. It washed the red scanning light over the area in a tight search pattern.
    Joshua didn’t need to move out of the way, since the drone was facing off to his right. He did anyway. The drones were not something to take lightly. And the Confederate soldiers would not be far behind.
    He crawled on his stomach to the corner of the building. A quick glance over the side showed the three soldiers scrambling over to another fire escape further down the alley. They’d be up here in just a few minutes. The one that had scaled the opposite building was looking up at Joshua from two stories below. The soldier was defeated and he knew it. He made an obscene gesture. Joshua just grinned down at him. Of the soldier that had run inside the building there was no sign at all.
    Lost in the labyrinth below with any luck , thought Joshua.
     
    A beep from the drone caused him to whip his head around. There, for a moment, the red light caught a shape in the night, the contour of a female arm pressed to a low wall. The drone opened fire.
    Hundreds of live rounds, modified to illuminate the area of effect, slammed into a blank wall. The firing stopped, and Joshua’s ears twitched at a rustling sound, then soft padding footsteps fading into the night. Whoever she was, she was amazing. Joshua had never seen anyone move so fast, as though she had been born and raised in the dark, with the lightning reflexes and eyesight of a cat.
    But the drone had not run out of tricks yet. Rather than using the tight search beam or waste its ammo firing at shadows, the drone floated higher in the air and pointed down. The red beam expanded into a wide area light, casting the entire rooftop in a soft bloom. A concealed hatch slid open on the side of the drone, and miniaturized flares popped out one after the other, loosely following the direction the girl had run. The drone spun in mid air, scanning the area as it moved along the line of flares.
    No way she could hide forever. Joshua leaped to his feet. Even though the drone seemed fixed on locating the girl, it was sure to be transmitting its imaging to the soldier’s helmets as well.
    No room for hiding now , he thought. As if on cue, the three soldiers clambered up the top of the fire escape on the other end of the building, and ran straight for Joshua’s position.
     
    The best Joshua could do was to break direct line of sight with the soldiers. He spun right to put his back to a tall air conditioner vent, and a low edge-wall to his side. In the tight corner the Confederates would have to close to within arm’s reach to get a shot off using their Stunners. Exactly what he was counting on. Joshua risked a peek around the edge.
    The first soldier almost ran right into his face. He jumped to his left with a yelp to create some space between them, and aimed his Stunner. Joshua anticipated the action and took one long stride toward the