Broken Quill [2] Read Online Free Page A

under cover
just as another shot pinged off the metal rim of the table and ricocheted into
the wall. Chunks of red brick stung my cheek.
    “Stay down!” Brie ordered.
    “Yes, ma’am.” I finished the bottle
of cider in one long slug and noticed the Polaroid picture of the detective and
I had fluttered to the floor by my knee. I picked it up and shoved it into my
pocket.
    “Declan!” Sophie called from inside.
“Shield’s up. You can make a run for it now!”
    “Grand. Come along, Detective.”
    I stood up and saw a strange thing.
The air shimmered across the center of the courtyard. Sophie’s shield was
near-invisible, which was for the best, as I could only explain so much so
quickly, and Brie was going to have a hard enough time believing me innocent of
anything after all this.
    “Are you mad? Get down!” She grabbed
at my arm and pulled me a staggering step to the side. She was surprisingly
strong.
    Another shot cracked through the air
and hit Sophie’s shield. Her Will held strong, and a dozen concentric ripples
spread out from the impact, shining ever-so-briefly silver in midair. A
high-caliber pebble, traveling at the speed of sound, cast on still waters.
    I turned my arm in Brie’s hand and
grasped her forearm. She was strong, but I was stronger. I pulled her inside
and out of any and all lines of sight.
    Inside the bar most of the patrons
were making a quick and mad exit out the rear door on the other side of the
building. Sophie kneeled next to the pool table, her hand pressed against the
beer-soaked green carpet. A faint, luminescent glow spread between her fingers.
    “Ethan?” I asked.
    “He went out the front,” Sophie
said, maintaining her shield to protect those still out in the courtyard. “If I
know him, he’s circling round the back of the lake to find this bastard.”
    To hear Sophie curse was rare. I
offered her a crooked smile. “Better get after him then.”
    “Yes, please. Don’t let him die.”
    “Hold on a minute—” Brie began,
reaching for my arm again.
    I stepped back and turned to run.
    “Hale, stop!”
    Her gun came up, but I didn’t
believe for a second that she would shoot me in the back. I set off at a quick
jog out the front of the pub, darting past the pizza shop and a hairdresser’s
and along the outer rim of buildings that led down to the lake.
    The tick-tick of flat heels clipped
the path behind me. Annie Brie was keeping me in her sights.
    A heavy crowd moved around the lake.
Some of the people were running from the tavern while others were just looking
around curiously—they knew something was wrong, that something in the air felt
off, but were oblivious to the danger. A crowd was good. I could get lost in a
crowd.
    Brie caught up with me—she was in a
lot better shape and a lot less hung-over—and cast a quick, worried glance in
my direction.
    “Shooter has to be in this
building,” I said, pointing at the one I’d picked out at the tavern directly
across the small lake. We were about fifty meters away and closing. “If he
hasn’t already fled, then he’d have to come down through the interior, don’t
you think? There are no adjoining buildings, and I can’t see external access.”
    “Who are you?” Brie asked.
She had holstered her weapon, which was smart—for now. “Tell me again how you
manage a small bookshop.”
    “Later. Let’s go bag ourselves a
perp.”
    “You know the police don’t actually
say that,” she said between steady, deep breaths.
    “No? Fuckin’ Hollywood.”

Chapter Three
First Blood
     
    Brie and I ran up the steps of
Engineering Building 23, according to the frosted letters on the double glass
doors. We’d outpaced the crowds around the lake, and things were quiet this
side of the university.
    A few people stood on the steps, shielding
their eyes against the sun and staring at the tavern. Of Ethan there was no
sign, but this building had the right feel to it. The man who had shot me was
here—I knew it. Call