Word and Breath Read Online Free PDF

the most successful Breather on the Union payroll. He was particularly good at extracting information from women.

    Making up his mind, Largan grabbed his phone again and called the capital to inform his superiors of a new development. When he hung up, he was satisfied he had the pieces in play to take advantage of the Cole woman.
     
    Then he dialed Mikel’s personal number. Largan had worked with the Breather on numerous occasions in the past. It would be more efficient to deal with him in person on this matter.

    Mikel picked up on the second ring. After a two minute conversation, Largan hung up again, his interest and excitement intensifying.
     
    There was something he’d wanted to do for years, and maybe Riana Cole would be a step toward achieving it.

    Mikel had said he’d already made a connection with Riana, and he’d sounded quite confident of his ultimate success.
     
    Perhaps Riana would let herself be seduced. She didn’t have a man and maybe she wanted one. Maybe she’d give up the information he needed willingly, without any resistance.

    She might not be so pliable, though. It might take more than Mikel’s charm and charisma.
     
    Mikel might have to use his particular gifts and extract a series of her thoughts or memories.

    It sounded vaguely horrifying. Largan would never allow such a thing to happen to him, but he’d ordered it done to others hundreds of times.
     
    Take a piece of another’s spirit.

    That was what a Soul-Breather did

Two
    Reed Connor stared out through his large windows at the grimy, crowded city street of east Newtown. The roadway and sidewalks were crammed with cars and pedestrians, and the muffled noise made its way up to the third-floor office of the warehouse building he used as headquarters.
     
    He ached for the old city—for everything it had lost—as much as he ached for the losses in his own life.

    It was a fairly quiet evening. No accidents or arrests on the street below him, even though both of them were common events in this part of town. Not much was happening at Headquarters either, giving him a rare chance to do some concentrated planning for the future.
     
    He’d put down his notes a half-hour ago, though, and he couldn’t find the motivation to pick them up again.

    Connor was “the Librarian”—an appellation he’d started to use as a joke but one that had ended up sticking and then collecting a useful amount of exaggerated mythology. He was supposed to have led a mercenary army in the fight for independence of several different free islands. At roughly the same time, he was supposed to have taught two-thousand people to read so they could infiltrate Union offices worldwide. He was also said to have hacked the impenetrable Union database in the capital and liberated two dozen imprisoned members of the Front. Anytime something inexplicable happened, his name would eventually get tossed about.
     
    According to the stories people told, he’d lived a pretty accomplished life for just being twenty-eight. He wondered what would happen to his reputation if people knew he spent most of his time writing out coded communication.

    Not that his efforts at leading the Front appeared to be making all that much difference to the lumbering leviathan of the Union.
     
    Being the Librarian when no one wanted to read was a discouraging job.

    Connor was about to indulge in a rare case of self-pity when a knock at the door distracted him. The man who entered was quiet and competent, but the expression on his face made Connor stiffen in his chair.

    “What is it?”

    “Brook has been arrested.” Kelvin’s freckled face was basically composed, but his forehead was damp and his fists clenched at his sides.

    “Military arrest?”

    “Police. They took him on a regular patrol.”

    “For general suspicious activity? Then what’s the problem?

    Arrests happened all the time to those who supported the Front—just as they happened to everyone else. The police were