The Weapon (The Hourglass Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

anything.
    He
reached out and grabbed Sarah’s wrist. She pulled away from him automatically.
Suddenly Switchblade was behind her, the point of his knife digging into the
small of her spine. She could feel his breath on her neck and could hear the
saliva in his mouth as he chewed near her ear. The small hairs on her skin
stood on end and she suppressed a shiver of disgust. This time though, she let
Crewcut take her arm.
    He
scanned her barcode and read the screen. A frown creased his forehead. To her
surprise he scanned her again. The frown deepened.
    “What’d
you do?” he asked, a peculiar look on his face. “Add in a few lines or
something to the barcode?”
    Sarah
stared at him blankly. She had no idea what he was talking about.
    “Says
here you’re not registered,” he said, waving the scanner in front of her face.
“And there ain’t nobody with a barcode who ain’t registered.”
    Sarah
just blinked at him. How could she not be registered?
    Crewcut
shrugged, as if it was a mystery he was happy to leave alone. He flipped open a
different compartment of the scanner. With the other hand he localised his grip
to just one of her fingers. He brought the device down on her finger. She
hardly felt the small prick of the needle. The device sucked up a droplet of
her blood and he released her hand. She hugged it to her chest automatically as
the device read her DNA. This time Crewcut’s eyebrows nearly flew off his face.
    “No
DNA records,” he said, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice. “Now just
who are you, missy?”
    Sarah
felt her own mouth drop open a little bit in surprise. She knew she had a DNA
record. Not only did everyone get their DNA stored on the day of their birth,
but they had used it to confirm her ID on the day she had been caught running
away with a stolen pie.
    A
sudden image of Mr Wall plummeting into the ocean flashed past her eyes. Maybe
he had deleted her from the system. Could he do that though? Surely he didn’t
have that authority? But who else?
    She
was shaken from her thoughts by Crewcut giving up on her and moving over to
Finn. Finn had been staring at her as well but now he watched as Crewcut drew
out a droplet of his own blood. This time he gave a large, self-satisfied smile
as the screen lit-up.
    “This
is more like it. Finn Simmons. Age fifteen. Charged and convicted with forgery.
Sentenced to the prison ship Anoscosa .” Crewcut raised his eyebrows at
that. “Harsh.” He read silently for a little bit. “Says here you volunteered
for an Hourglass Group experiment to shorten your stay but your attendance was
never confirmed. Interesting.”
    Sarah’s
heart sank again, this time to her boots. Crewcut moved back around his desk,
easing himself back into his seat.
    “Now,
I may be a simple man, but I am not a stupid one. I know who you are,” he said,
pointing a thick finger at Finn, “and although I don’t exactly know your name,”
he said, now pointing at Sarah, “I’m betting that if this little device was
working as it should, it would tell me a very similar story to young Finn’s
over there.”
    Sarah
didn’t say anything. She just waited.
    “So
I am going to give you your options. As we all know, this great society of ours
has outlawed drafting,” he said it as if was an unfortunate decision. He was
referring to forcing people into military service. “As such, I am offering you
two a choice. Either I will return you to your prison ship, where they can palm
you back off to the Hourglass Group or stick you in solitary, I don’t really
give a shit, or you can volunteer for the army.” He raised a hand, as if
cutting them off, although they hadn’t said anything. “Short stint, really. Two
years. And don’t pull that face, young man. I know your prison stint was meant
to be shorter, but after you pulled this escape, well,” he chortled to himself,
“two years will seem like a walk in the park after what they will give you.”
    “You
can’t do this