Uprising Read Online Free PDF

them entirely. He didn’t have the look of a killer; his eyes were gray and indifferent, almost bored. He was short and athletic, younger than Christoph, but still had shades of silver laced through his head of brown hair. The woman was Amber. Kara only knew of her by description—tall, thin, blonde, and beautiful. Since The Council used both Kara and her for essentially the same purpose, they had never worked together. She was used to extract information by deciphering the truth of a person’s words. In an interrogation, there was no use lying.
    “Hello, Kara,” Christoph greeted her with a smile. His voice was surprisingly smooth, almost too kind.
    “Christoph.” She nodded briefly, returning his greeting. “No doubt you know of Dimitri and Amber,” he added. He had eyes like a snake, ready to strike.
    “Of course,” she answered with a polite smile, but despite their etiquette, I could feel the tension in the atmosphere and in the quick pulse of Kara’s heart. “Please, make yourselves at home.”
    The four of them took their seats in silence, Amber choosing to sit beside Kara on the love seat, while Christoph and Dimitri chose the couch directly across from them.
    “Let’s not play coy, Kara,” Christoph said pointedly. The tone in his voice sent a chill down Kara’s spine, and I shivered from the feeling. “You know why we’re here.”
    “Do I?” she answered calmly, though her fear was so immense it was almost painful. The question was the best response she could think of. It wasn’t a lie, and it wouldn’t give away the fact that she knew exactly why they were there.
    Christoph glanced at Amber, clearly noticing how Kara had evaded his question.
    “You are quite clever,” he laughed, but the sound was menacing, not joyful. He leaned forward before he continued. “Where is Elyse?”
    My heart stopped dead in my chest as he spoke my name, but Kara’s slowed with relief.
    “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. Only Dr. Nickel knew of our location, and he hadn’t entrusted it to Kara.
    Amber gave a subtle nod, letting him know her words were true, and he continued.
    “So she is alive?” he pursued the topic with a disturbing grin.
    “I have no way of knowing that for sure.” Amber nodded again, but Christoph didn’t need her to tell him that Kara was avoiding straight answers.
    “Do-not-mess-with-me,” he hissed each word slowly and clearly with black anger in his eyes. “Are you hiding something from us, Kara? Yes or no?”
    “What could I be hiding?”
    He shook his head in disapproval. “Dimitri, take away 100 years the next time she does not give me a yes or no.” He tilted his head and came back to Kara. “Would you like to try again?”
    This time it was Kara’s heart that throbbed frantically. “Please don’t,” she begged. “It won’t help you find her.”
    Christoph smiled with indifference as he gave Dimitri a slight nod. “Do it.”
    “Please,” she cried, but Dimitri obeyed, locking his gaze on her.
    I felt it, as she began to weaken, and her skin began to itch as it aged.
    “Wait,” she screamed frantically, her body nearly paralyzed with shock.
    Christoph held up a hand, and Dimitri looked away, ending the torture.
    The panic began to grow in me as her thoughts became clear in my head. She was afraid, and she had no other choice. It was her life or theirs. I felt the tickle of her tears as they slid down her cheeks, the pain in her chest when she knew she couldn’t win, and the guilt that spread throughher like an unwelcome disease as she answered with a heartsinking: “I’ll tell you.”
    “The human she healed and her daughter. They’re in the basement,” she confessed, overwrought with distress. “Under the bedroom floor.”
    No , I cried out into the empty space of the memory, but nobody heard, and Christoph’s pleased expression made me sick with anger.
    Kara refused to look, but I heard the latch lift and the hinges of the hatch door open.