The Bones of Valhalla (Purge of Babylon, Book 9) Read Online Free Page B

not sure if you even eat anymore. Or is it just a liquid diet these days? Food through a straw?”
    This time he was sure he must have smiled. Maybe.
    “She’ll be down here to talk to you soon. I don’t know when, so don’t ask. She just needs time. Can’t say as I blame her. The first time you dropped in on me… Well, you’re not exactly your old self anymore, are you?”
    No, he wasn’t. He wasn’t sure how much of his “old self” was even still left after the transformation. He had done things that he wouldn’t have before, things that would have turned his stomach back when he was…still human.
    “Something’s come up, too. Our mutual buddy Mercer? He’s either dead or dead-ish. Or, at least, that’s the going theory.”
    Mercer . The name hung like a sword over the hive and made the blue eyes frantic. Mercer was the human who had brought death and destruction to the food supply, and in doing so, introduced doubt about the future. Just a sliver, but it was there.
    “The food!” the ghouls shouted day and night. “Save the food!”
    “I’m of two minds on the guy myself,” Danny was saying. “While on the one hand he’s a murdering sociopath, but we might not have made it out of Gallant without that little Hog of his showing up. So there’s that.”
    Mercer’s warplane had saved them, though not on purpose. He was sure of it. It had come there to burn the town down, wasting its armament in what amounted to a revenge attack. Even if there were ten of them—or a hundred—it wouldn’t have mattered. The ghouls were endless, and there was only one way to defeat them…
    “You said we were going to need a hell of a lot of luck to make this plan of yours work. Maybe this little revelation can help with that. What do you think?”
    Yes. Yes, it could. He hadn’t considered it because it wasn’t something he had any control over, but if Mercer was gone, if there was an army out there…
    “The more the merrier, right?”
    Yes. The more the merrier. The more, the better the chances of success. He was ready to do with less, but if there was a choice...
    His mind churned, processing the new information.
    “Anyways, thought you’d want to know. Maybe you can do something with it.” A slight grunt and tired knee joints popped as Danny stood up. “I hate to chat and run, but the redhead’s expecting me topside. Nice talking to ya as usual, buddy. I don’t suppose I should call you Will anymore, huh? You got a new name you prefer?”
    Frank. Someone had once called him Frank.
    Who was it? It hadn’t been that long ago since he saw him, but the man’s face was starting to fade from his memory, pushed into the background to make room for the here and now.
    “Sit tight; I’ll be back when I can.”
    Footsteps, then a door opening and closing. The scent of two additional people outside, mingling with the oil and grease from the machines. A man and woman.
    Silence again, except for the sloshing of the ocean under him, the roar of the engines. Footsteps moving around above him, men and women and children talking, laughing. He listened for Lara, but she wasn’t among them.
    “What’d he say?” a voice asked in the hallway. Young, but familiar.
    “Is he still inside that thing?” another voice asked. This one was female and she spoke haltingly, quietly, as if afraid he would hear.
    “Nothing, and yes,” Danny said. “Eyes open, kids. No one goes in there that isn’t me or Lara, understand? When in doubt, buzz the radio. That’s what they’re for.”
    “But it’s him?” the young man asked. “For sure?”
    “It ain’t Santa Claus.”
    “Nate said it could bust through that door if it wants to,” the woman said. “So what are we doing down here exactly?”
    “What, you got something else better to do?”
    “That’s not what I’m saying…”
    “Stay frosty,” Danny said.
    Footsteps, as Danny left, leaving the boy and woman behind to shuffle their feet. Nerves, but steely