Traitor (Rebel Stars Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

floor. Down the hall, she stood outside her door. Two Red Men spoke to his aunt in low tones. She was crying. One of the Red Men said Ced's name, then his mom's.
    Ced turned and ran down the stairs as fast as he could.

3
    "Son of an orc!" MacAdams said. "Is there anywhere in the System we can not get shot at?"
    "Hang on!" Rada put her hands up high, waving them back and forth. "We're not here to—"
    Webber grabbed her shirt and pulled her back. "Move. Now!"
    Glass glinted from the top of the gates. Webber gestured back at the woman on the wall, two fingers held up in a V. Rada didn't recognize the gesture, but there was no second gunshot. She stumbled behind Webber, MacAdams right beside her.
    "We're going to just turn around?" she said. "Is that what a pilgrim to this place would do?"
    "Yup." Webber strode back up the road. "Because a real pilgrim would know that if you stick around after they've warned you off, you get shot."
    "Why would they want us to go before we had the chance to talk to them?"
    "Maybe because someone in the village saw the car and radioed ahead. Or the city's hit its yearly immigration quota already. Or maybe she just didn't like our faces. Doesn't matter. We have to hit the road."
    "And you know this how?" Rada tore her gaze from the gates and gawked at Webber. "You've been here before, haven't you? That's why Toman needed us here."
    "I did some reading, that's all."
    "Really? And which file was that gesture of yours in?"
    He rolled his eyes. "Back when I was trying to figure out where to start over, I spent a long time looking at Absolution. There's no better place to disappear. But that's because only a crazy person would want to live here."
    They had reentered the trees and the shadows of the boughs were a welcome relief. Out of sight of the walls, Rada stopped, not quite ready to hop back on her bike.
    "Why didn't you tell me this beforehand?" she said. "Do you think preparation is cheating?"
    "It's like the monk said: either they were going to let us in, or they weren't. Nothing we knew could make a difference."
    MacAdams swabbed sweat from his bald head. "So what's the plan now? Happy hour?"
    Webber shrugged. "Sneak in. Find a villager who knows his way around to smuggle us in. There's a lot of factionalism in the city. If we can find a way to help one side, they might help us run down our man."
    Tired, sweat-soaked, and recently chased away at gunpoint, Rada was all set to do a lot of yelling at him. Up the road, though, a man was walking toward them. His wooden walking staff tocked with every other stride.
    Fell came to a stop twenty feet away and leaned on his staff. "Have they turned you away that quickly, Mr. Webber?"
    Rada reached for the pistol she often carried with her, but they'd left their guns with their devices in the car. After the response from the city, she was starting to think that had been an incredibly dumb idea.
    "How do you know his name?" she said.
    Fell smiled, eyes crinkling. "As I told you, I like to know my neighbors."
    MacAdams drifted forward like a musclebound planetoid. "And I like to know who's spying on us."
    "I am just as I appear: a monk. Specifically, a monk of the Ever-Changing Way." Fell favored them with his wise smile. "And if it is true that you work for Toman Benez, then I believe we can help each other."
    "Don't care," Rada said. "Not until you explain how you know who we are."
    "Facial recognition. And when I shook Mr. Webber's hand, I took a DNA sample. When I consulted the net, it informed me you three had recently come under Mr. Benez' employ."
    Webber crossed his arms. "So what do you want with Toman?"
    Rada smirked. "Easy. Fell's a follower of the Way. He wants to tap Toman on info about the Swimmers."
    The monk bowed. "Please, check my credentials. A search will confirm I am exactly as I say. Once you're satisfied, I'll be happy to make my proposal."
    Lacking devices of their own, they had to borrow Fell's to search the net, which Rada wasn't