Delete: Volume 3 (Shifter Series) Read Online Free Page B

smelt like something from a fairground haunted house.
    “I didn’t think she would let you go,” Zac said, stepping out from a shadow. “Last kid I saw had a reality attack, they hooked him up for three days solid. And even then…” He shrugged.
    “I’m not having a reality attack.” I said, looking at the pills Frankie had given me. The label said Tramadol. I didn’t trust her as far as I could throw her, but the pain was a distraction I didn’t need. I popped the lid off with my thumb and dry-swallowed two of the white tablets.
    “Whatever. We’re wanted in the command room.” He nodded to the left and led the way up the tunnel.
    It sloped gently upward, and the damp smell lessened as the tunnel grew wider.
    We passed a few adults dressed in combats with military insignia on their arms. Each person greeted me with a sharp salute and a glowing smile. “Congratulations, sir,” and “good work,” they said, over and over, until I was sick of hearing it. Each of them looked at me like I was something special. A hero, even.
    Zac chattered the whole way about my earlier Shift and what had been going on. About how we’d blown up an enemy base and how I was probably going to get a commendation for it, if they didn’t haul me over the coals for disobeying an order.
    None of it sounded familiar. But unless I wanted to end up in Frankie’s hands, I was going to have to keep my mouth shut. I just needed enough time to find Aubrey again.
    The tunnel opened up into a cathedral-sized space of heavy grey concrete. I stepped out and stared at the roof overhead. Four great pillars standing on a circular floor held up the domed ceiling. The floor itself was covered in black-and-white tiles that created an image of a cartwheel of arrows pointing in all directions. As well as the tunnel we’d exited, two more led off of the central hall, pointing north and west.
    “Welcome to the Hub. Home of the S3.”
    “S3?” I said, my jaw hanging open in wonder. I knew, somehow, that this whole place was deep under the streets of London. How long, I wondered, had this place taken to build? How long had we been at war?
    “The SSS?” Zac hissed, looking around to check no one had heard me. “The Special Shifting Service? You really can’t remember?”
    I shrugged. “Guess not.”
    Green-tinged light illuminated the room, which was filled with bustling people: soldiers dressed in various shades of camo and armour; kids in black jumpsuits; and a host of other personnel, all moving with determined purpose.
    I remembered the handful of NSOs – non-Shifting Officers – we’d had at ARES. Most of them were ex-service specialists brought in for our protection. But this was something else. There had to be two if not three hundred people here. Each of them very much still in service.
    Zac shook his head. “I’d keep that to yourself for now. Come on, they’ll be waiting.” He headed towards a tunnel on the right.
    At the bottom was a metal door with a red light above it. Zac paused and stood aside, letting me go first. I tugged at the handle. It was shut tight. There was an electronic pad on the side of the door.
    “Let me.” Zac pressed his hand against the lock.
    “Captain Black. Access level four,” an electronic voice chirped, and the door opened.
    The room looked like the control of a rocket launch: screens lined the far wall, showing live video feed and streams of data; men and women sat behind desks, wearing headsets and tapping frantically away on keyboards. I recognised a few of the faces from my ARES as I was starting to think of the old reality. I wondered where my friend Jake was. I prayed that somehow he and his sister Rosalie had gotten themselves away from London and out of this mess.
    To the side of the screens was a large circular table where Turner and Cooper stood, looking as confused as I was.
    “What’s going on?” I asked.
    “The Red Hand have pushed deeper into the city,” Turner said, pointing at