The Extinction Switch: Book three of the Kato's War series Read Online Free PDF Page A

wonder if international flights are affected. Hopefully I will still be able to get home.”
    Annabelle looked at Kassandra, on her right, and mouthed the words “I hope so, for our sake!” Kassandra grinned. On landing, the trio shuffled along the jetway out into the terminal. “Oh f… crap,” Antonio said, as they stood halfway down a shallow ramp to the building’s floor and looked out over a moving mass of people, yelling and shouting. Some broke down in tears. Other threw possessions to the ground in fits of rage.
    “Crap!” Annabelle said. “Now what?”
    Kassandra’s tiredness showed. “I honestly don’t know.” A cigar-sized display unit, like the one they had seen on the plane, went spinning across the floor between the forest of legs, and came to rest five meters away.
    Antonio looked around for its owner. “I think that is surplus to someone’s requirements,” he said, pointing at it. He then jumped nimbly over the railing to the floor, and pocketed the device. He re-joined the girls on the ramp, pushing against the current of tired, agitated passengers going down in order to reach them.
    “We have no other clothes, nowhere to stay, and no transport,” Kassandra said. “This is getting worse by the hour. I still can’t get a hold of my dad either. I’m still getting ‘no bandwidth available’.”
    “I expect there are shops in the airport, where we can at least buy clothes,” Annabelle said.
    “Possibly. Let’s have a look.” The tired trio took an escalator and a long moving walkway to a shopping mall.
    “Let’s stick together, since I’m not sure we’ll be able to call each other if we get separated,” Annabelle said.
    An hour later, Kassandra held up a pair of cargo pants, a blue and white checked shirt, and a green sweater. “I guess I’m dressing like a guy,” she said. “The women’s stores have already been picked over, like a bunch of piranhas went clothes shopping.”
    “Me too,” Annabelle said, holding up a pair of men’s jeans and a similar shirt to Kassandra’s.
    “I get the classiest end of the deal,” Antonio, holding a pair of beige slacks and a long-sleeved black shirt with a collar.
    “We also need to ditch the heels,” Annabelle said. “Practical is the new sexy.”
    “Good point,” Kassandra said. “We may be doing a lot of walking.” Having equipped themselves with flat-soled brown fake leather shoes, Kassandra said: “Now let’s try and figure out a hotel. Let’s each take a few letters of the alphabet, and call… never mind. Try online…”
    “No bandwidth,” Antonio said, frowning.
    Annabelle sighed. “I just want to get home.” Kassandra put her arms around her. “It’ll be okay, you’ll see. Things will get back to normal.”
    “How can you say things will ever be normal again?” Antonio said. Kassandra glared at him, and shook her head almost imperceptibly, as if to say shut up , from over Annabelle’s shoulder as she hugged her.
    “I guess we'd better figure out somewhere to sleep,” Annabelle said.
    “Yeah…” Kassandra sighed. She looked around. “There must be a terminal somewhere that doesn’t have people sleeping on all the seats.”
    “Good luck,” Antonio said. “Still, we should look.” His face brightened. “Let’s go to the space terminal. Since there are no flights leaving from there any time soon, it’s probably empty.”
    “Best idea you’ve had all night,” Kassandra said. He smiled. Once they reached the space terminal, it was indeed almost empty. “Nothing but those awful hard plastic seats,” Annabelle said. “Still, it’s all we’ve got.”
    “3:10 in the morning,” Kassandra said. “About ten hours since our lives, and everyone else’s, changed.” She laid down across five seats, which were joined together. “Goodnight.”
    “Goodnight.”
    In what seemed like no time at all, when the sky was still only half lit, a rough voice was heard: “You can’t sleep here! This