Z 2136 (Z 2134 Series Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

pulled his long hair aside, though, she saw the blood pouring out of his left eye socket.
    His body jerked at her touch. He spun onto his back, hands clenched, good eye wild, as if being attacked. He finally focused on Ana and tried to relax, but it was then that he seemed to notice that something was very wrong. He reached up, felt the ridge just below his damaged eye, and with a confused expression pulled away blood-tipped fingers.
    “There was a bomb in the truck,” she explained.
    “What?”
    Ana repeated herself, pained to see realization color his face.
    “I can’t hear,” he said. “I can’t hear.”
    She reached out for his hands, “You’ll be okay.” Ana mouthed her words carefully so that Liam could use the skill learned while spying for The Underground and read her lips. She could only hope his damaged eye didn’t hamper this ability too much.
    Katrina stepped toward them. “Is he okay?”
    Her face had a few bloody scratches, but her eyes (and ears) seemed fine.
    Ana gestured toward Liam. “The explosion got his eye. I don’t know if it’s really bad or just really bloody. He can’t hear me, though. Don’t react too badly, until we know more. How are your ears?”
    Katrina made a conscious effort not to meet Liam’s eyes—or, specifically, his eye. “Aside from the ringing, they’re good. I just checked the other van. Your brother’s not there.”
    “Do you think he was in—?” Ana looked back at the bombed truck’s burning remains.
    “No,” Katrina said. “I don’t think so. You were right. It was a fucking trap.”
    Ana heard a mechanical sound behind her and turned. A hunter orb was hovering above them, cannon muzzle surrounded by crackling bright blue light. From the speakers, a man’s voice said, “Enemies of The State, lay down your arms and surrender at once.”
    This was it. No way they could take out an armed hunter orb without one of them—or all three—dying.
    Ana was first to lower her weapon. Katrina immediately followed. Liam’s rifle lay on the road, lost when he was knocked back by the blast.
    The orb descended, crackles and hums escalating in volume and menace the closer it came. The monitor showed a City Watcher’s visored helmet in a command station somewhere. The orb went to Ana’s right, then left.
    The man on-screen spoke. “Ana Lovecraft,” the man identified her. Then, “Liam Harrow.” He studied Katrina. After a moment, “Citizen, state your name.”
    “My name is . . . Fuck You!” Katrina spit at the orb.
    The orb pulled back, darted up about five feet above them, then took aim at Katrina, cannon belching with a whistling cry as it prepared to fire.
    Ana expected Katrina to make a move, to grab her blaster, or something. But she stood defiant, seemingly ready to die—or perhaps give up.
    Ana was braced for death from above, when the orb’s screen went suddenly dark.
    A moment later, it went silent and plunged to the snow with a crash but nary a dent.
    “What the hell was that?” Ana reached down for her rifle.
    Katrina retrieved her blaster, taking advantage of the moment, not seeming to care about how or why the machine had stopped working. She was about to finish off the orb when a girl’s voice cried out from behind them.
    “Don’t!”
    Katrina turned along with Ana, then Liam, and saw the figures emerging from the woods: five, all wrapped in thick layers of winter clothing, faces concealed by wraps and masks. They were dirty and armed with blasters and swords. One held something that looked like a small box with a glowing red ball at the end.
    Ana thought bandits , but as the group moved closer and out of the shadows, she realized they were children, all but one. The closest child removed the wrap from her face, revealing a girl with bright blue eyes and short brown hair. She couldn’t have been older than twelve.
    “Ana Lovecraft?”
    Ana, not quite sure if the girl was friend or foe, didn’t know how to answer. But if these