The Last Hero (Book 2): Rise of the Ultras Read Online Free

industry.
    I mean, hell. I didn’t know what a spanner looked like. Doesn’t that tell you something?
    I listened to my dad whistling away while he worked under the car. I walked around the garage, which smelled like rusty metal and oil. There always used to be a dustiness to this place, a dampness lingering in the air since it closed down. But Dad had been working at getting it up to scratch all over again. He wasn’t quite ready for opening again, he said. But he wanted me to help him fix up this red Escort so it was in working shape. Truth be told, I didn’t believe it was possible. The thing didn’t look functional. But then, what did I know about fixing cars?
    And I didn’t want to disrupt my dad. He’d been positive lately. Way more positive than I’d ever seen him.
    “To think how different all this could’ve been,” he mumbled.
    I looked around. He was still under the car. “What d’you mean?”
    “Well, Nycto. If he’d got his way. We wouldn’t be in here right now. Working together. Or… well, you watching me work, anyway.”
    “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
    Dad rolled from under the car and glared in my direction. I raised my hands and smiled, showed I was only joking. He slid back under again. I enjoyed the time with my dad, to be honest. Didn’t enjoy working on a car, standing around like a lemon. But just seeing him with a sense of purpose in his life again. It made me feel good.
    It made me feel less guilty about Cassie’s death.
    And it made me feel less like an ULTRA and more like a normal teenage kid.
    “If Glacies hadn’t stopped him then… hell, I dunno where we’d be right now.”
    I scratched the back of my neck. It was strange hearing my dad talk about Glacies in front of me. Kind of like he was chatting about someone he’d seen in the street without realizing they were a best friend of mine or something. Besides, he never spoke about the ULTRAs anyway. Neither of my parents did. They were still a sore spot for them after what happened to Cassie.
    “We never really spoke,” Dad continued, as if reading my mind.
    “About what?”
    “You know. The ULTRAs. The fight…”
    He left it hanging there. And I swore I must be dreaming because Dad never, ever discussed this kind of thing.
    “Well, what is there to say?” I asked.
    He rolled back out from under the car. His hands were covered in oil, as were his blue overalls. “I dunno. I guess I’m saying I kinda respect Glacies. For what he did. The sacrifice he made.”
    He glanced at me just for a split second, but I felt something in that look. Something I couldn’t explain. Something that made me feel uneasy.
    “Yeah, well,” I said, feeling my cheeks blush. “I feel a lot safer now both of those ULTRAs are long gone.”
    “Hmm,” Dad said.
    “Hmm, what?”
    He shook his head. “Nothing.”
    “Go on, Dad. We never talk about this, like you said.”
    He stood by the side of the car wiping his hands. “It’s just I keep thinking about Orion. About what he did. The Great Blast.”
    The taste in my mouth soured. Uh oh. I could see where this was going.
    “Dad, we don’t have to—”
    “No,” he said. “No, we do. I’m sick of dancing around the past like it never happened. What happened was horrible. Crazy. For so many people. So many lives lost. But after what happened with Glacies and Nycto, I guess I’m startin’ to wonder whether Orion wasn’t so bad after all. Whether he was… just tryin’ to do the right thing. To take down Saint.”
    I felt stunned by my dad’s admission. It was the first time he’d said anything of the kind in… well, ever.
    “Maybe he was different after all,” Dad said.
    I thought about nodding. Thought about agreeing. In the end, I just cleared my throat and shook my head. “I’m not sure what to think.”
    Dad and I held eye contact for a while. I saw that glimmer in his eye again, that unplaceable look.
    And then he looked away. “Anyway.” He leaned into