INVISIBLE FATE BOOK THREE: ALEX NOZIAK (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) Read Online Free Page B

and punched a button on her cell phone. The knock on the hotel room door came immediately, as if someone had waited in the hall for the summons.
    Stone crossed to open the door, but only after acknowledging Ling Mai’s nod. Only years of compartmentalizing his emotions kept his face straight as he swung the door wide to a gangly young man who had barely hit puberty. The kid stood almost eye-to-eye with Stone, but a weak breeze could topple him. He had that whole nerd air about him, dandelion blond hair, a large Adam’s apple, hunched shoulders that might someday fill out, and limbs that looked barely attached. Human? Or something else?
    “Come in , Hercules,” Ling Mai called, waving the newcomer forward.
    Hercules? The kid had been damned from the start with that kind of moniker.
    The boy-man edged closer to the door jam, squeezing himself past as if Stone had bared his teeth. On second thought, a well-developed sense of self-preservation was probably the only thing the kid had going for him.
    Stone gave him a what’s-up chin nod, having no idea what Ling Mai had hidden up her well-tailored sleeve. But if this was going to be the team’s deep, dark secret, they were all in a worse level of hurt than he’d imagined.
    “Miss Mai,” the kid stammered, scuttling across the floor, putting as much distance as possible between him and the biggest predator in the room—Stone.
    First mistake. Stone was a badass and was okay with that. But Ling Mai played in a league of her own, way above Stone’s pay grade.
    “Mr. Stone —” Ling Mai did the introductions.
    “Stone?” A shit-eating grin bloomed on the kid’s scrawny face. “As in Stoner?”
    “No, kid, not like that. More like rock hard and not budging.” Stone’s expression wiped that look off the nerd’s face in less than a second.
    Ling Mai continued, “This is Hercules. He’s —”
    “Herc,” the kid stammered, his gaze ping-ponging between the director and Stone. “Everybody calls me Herc. It’s easier.”
    Was this kid for real?
    Ling Mai canted her head as if being interrupted by a snot-nosed kid was an every day occurrence.
    “As you wish, Herc.” Ling Mai sounded like she was at the Queen of England’s court, and Stone found his first glimmer of a smile since … well, since Vaughn had been hurt and Alex killed. Ling Mai continued in her formal, prissy tones. “Herc has been tasked with creating tools to help the team against preternaturals.”
    Stone snorted. “He makes gadgets?”
    “Technically, no .” Herc focused on Ling Mai. “According to design critic Reyner Banham, a gadget is a small self-contained unit of high performance in relation to its size and cost, whose function is to transform some undifferentiated set of circumstances to a condition nearer human desires. Whereas what I develop are offensive and defensive tools designed to increase the life expectancy of a weaker being against a stronger being.” He ducked his head before adding, “I specialize in human-preternatural interactions.”
    Stone unclasped his arms. “Fine , kid, whatever. You make shit that kills the bad guys.” As if this punk would know a preternatural if he tripped over one. This was the best Ling Mai could find?
    “Well, technically–– ”
    “Forget it, kid.” Stone wiggled one finger between himself and Ling Mai. “The grownups have to talk. Why don’t you disappear for a moment.” It wasn’t phrased as a question.
    The kid’s eyes tightened before he looked to Ling Mai. At her slight nod, he didn’t cross to the door he’d come in, but turned on his heel and headed to the spare bedroom. Stone didn’t know who or what this kid was, or if he could hear through walls, but it didn’t matter. Protecting his team was Stone’s responsibility and trusting that to a wet-behind-the-ears punk was not in the plans.
    As soon as the door closed , Stone marched to where Ling Mai sat, her back straight, her expression closed. She raised one hand to