This Mortal Coil Read Online Free PDF Page B

decrypt those coordinates. Figured if either of them had it, it’d be the older one.”
    Lucas shook his head, trying to speak through the gag.
    Willem eyed the young man with a raised brow. “Something to add?” he asked, yanking the gag from the young man’s mouth.
    “No book,” he gasped. “We memorized.”
    “How do we know you’re telling the truth?”
    “Hey, man, I’m new. I barely know these people. Right now I’m just trying to stay alive. You think I want to end up like him? Tell me what you need and I swear I’ll do what I can. Just please don’t shoot me with those things.”
    Pitching a glance to Theresa, Willem asked, “Think we should see what he can tell us?”
    “Why not? It’s early yet. We’ve got time.”

    Willem watched anxiously as Theresa, wearing Oswald’s ill-fitting uniform, rounded a corner several blocks away.  
    “Two—no, three blocks up ahead from your current position. Left and then right, then left again, over.”
    “ Got it. Left, right, left, over .”
    He switched frequencies, calling out conflicting directions to the team of hunters stalking the same target. A moment later he watched them trek off obliviously from the safety of his perch. Theresa, meanwhile, navigated the urban labyrinth according to his directions in search of their first rescue. She cornered the figure in the orange jumpsuit at the end of a blind alley.
    “ Do it if you’re going to do it ,” he heard a woman’s voice say through Theresa’s earpiece as he switched back to her frequency. “ Just make it quick already .”
    “ I’m not a hunter .”
    The woman had closed her eyes tightly in anticipation of her fate. At the sound of Theresa’s words, she chanced to open them. With each passing second they widened just so. She said nothing, regarding Theresa with a mix of clouded emotions. Even from a quarter-mile away Willem could clearly see the confusion wrinkling her brow, the guarded relief behind the mask of disbelief she wore across her face.
    “ I’m not a hunter ,” Theresa repeated. “ I’m not one of them .”
    “ What—what are you then ?”
    “ A friend. My name is Theresa. If you want to live you need to come with me, now .”
    “ I do ,” the woman said, collecting herself off the pavement with a determined nod. “ I want to live .”
    Theresa touched the device hugging the curve of her ear. “ I got her, Will. Bring us home, over .”
    “Okay, here goes.”
    Repeating the same directions backwards, Willem led Theresa and her charge back to the building they had made camp in the day before. It was only the first of a handful of ad hoc rescue missions they ran that day. Even under duress—or perhaps because of it—Lucas was an invaluable asset. He gave them unrivaled insight into the communications system governing the exchanges between spotters and hunters. He deciphered the code book from memory and explained the gridded, color-coded map. He even brewed Willem a cup of his favorite tea using the ration water and packets of sugar and dried hibiscus leaves from his own personal stores. It proved surprisingly energizing, giving him the focus he needed to continue directing Theresa and the hunters away from each other.
    Still, none of that made it any easier for Willem to explain why the hunting party’s prey kept outsmarting them despite the benefit of his all-seeing eye. He played it off at first by saying Oswald was feeling under the weather, but that only held water for so long. Soon, they were on the verge of becoming less than forgiving, if not downright suspicious. Finally, Theresa made the obvious, if less than savory, call.
    “ We have to throw them a bone, Will .”
    Try as he might to think of an alternative, Willem knew she was right. In just three runs they brought five others back to Theresa’s rooftop refugee camp. If he didn’t let the hunters bag at least one of the runners they would almost certainly send someone up to replace the deficient