Recruits (Keeper of the Water Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

reflexes were anything less than superhuman, we wouldn’t have survived more than a few seconds.
    “It’s not working, there’s too many trees along our side of the road,” Celeste calls out.
    “ What’s not working?” I call back. Whatever it is that’s not working better work soon – I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up.
    “Drive into the sun!” she yells.
    Our side of the highway is shrouded in the shade of trees as far into the distance as I can see. The only area where the sunlight reaches ground is on the other side of the road so I don’t know where Celeste could possibly want me to –
    Uh oh!
    “Are you insane? I yell, realizing exactly what she expects me to do. ‘There’s just as much traffic on that side!”
    “I don’t have time for arguing! The plane is almost out of sight!” Celeste yells.
    She leans back into the van, pushes my hand aside and jerks the wheel to the left. We’re suddenly in the middle of the sunlight – and right in the middle of oncoming traffic. Celeste swerves in and out of the first few cars before ordering me to take the wheel. I just want to close my eyes until this nightmare is over but I grab the wheel as she leans outside. As if dodging speeding oncoming traffic isn’t hard enough, a glint of sunlight reflects off the mirror in Celeste’s hand and shoots an explosion of brightness into my eyes.
    My vision clears just as a huge SUV honks its horn. I spin the wheel at the last second but hear a loud clang as something makes contact with the other vehicle. My heart sinks thinking that we were close enough that Celeste could’ve hit the SUV. But she climbs back inside, holding only a small piece of the mirror.
    “You could’ve warned me it was going to be that close,” she says, taking back control of the wheel. “I wouldn’t have held the mirror out so far. I just hope the pilot spotted my signal.”
    The police sirens behind us transform from a loud wail to a weak whine . I turn around to see that both cars tried following us into oncoming traffic – and now both cars are smashed on the side of the road. If my life wasn’t in such immediate danger, I would feel terrible about putting so many others in mortal danger.
    “Keep your eyes forward,” Celeste tells me. “I can’t drive and look for – ”
    She stops talking as we narrowly avoid several more catastrophes. She finally veers back into the proper lane, driving us back into safety – at least for the moment.
    “ – and look for a signal from the plane,” she finishes.
    I search the sky for the yellow biplane and see it suddenly rock slightly from side to side, like it’s waving a wing. It suddenly banks to the side and veers off in the same general direction we’re headed. When I tell Celeste what I see, she sighs with relief, strange timing considering three more cop cars have joined the chase behind us.
    “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I ask.
    But she still drives so fast that conversation isn’t exactly an option. I’m not sure she heard my question until she gives me a brief explanation – not that she does anything but raise more questions.
    “Help is near,” she says with a smile. “Maybe I should’ve kept help even closer once I became suspicious of John. At least our helper stayed close enough for a moment like this.”
    Help? Stealing and flying an ancient plane? Every time I begin to accept the awful reality of what happened near our cabin, a moment like this pops up and fills me with unrealistic hope.
    “Are you talking about my father?”
    Celeste frowns. “I’m sorry but now that you know more about him, I’m sure you understand this century didn’t suit him very well. He could hardly operate a car let alone fly an airplane. You can tell I’m not the biggest fan of men in general – that’s what happens spending thousands of years protecting the water from them – but your father ended up being very trustworthy. I’m sorry that