Unravel Read Online Free Page B

the Spares were on their way out of the facility where they’d been kept. And some of the flyers taking them to the safe houses have been attacked. Not all of them went down, but . . .” He lifted a shoulder, a gesture that would have looked careless if it hadn’t been for the grim cast of his mouth.
    Falling, trapped, safety programming and parachutes and defenses all useless, all of them going down with you. For a moment Elissa had to screw her eyes shut, concentrate on just breathing. It didn’t do any good to let herself think about it.
    â€œIn—” She had to stop, swallow, start again. “Here? In this city?”
    Miguel shook his head. “Attacks, yes. No deaths.” Then, heavily, “Not so far.”
    Not so far. Oh God, and I agreed to Lin coming back. I agreed to her coming back here, where there are people who want to kill her . They’d known there could be danger, they’d known it, but there was a difference between knowing it as a possibility and hearing— oh God —that people were dying.
    â€œWhy?” came Lin’s voice from beside her, her voice holding all the calm Elissa had tried for and hadn’t been able to manage. “Why are people killing Spares? And who are they?”
    Still cold with shock, Elissa turned her head to look at her sister. Lin looked straight-backed and alert, as if she’d just asked a question to which there was sure to be an interesting answer. How does she do that? She’s just heard that people likeher are being murdered, and you’d think she’d found out only that they’re being—oh, given, like, haircuts.
    Out of place though Lin’s reaction seemed, the fact that she, at least, didn’t seem frightened had its effect on Elissa, too. The tightness in her throat eased.
    It was Bryn who answered her. “God knows who they are. Well, God and IPL, we guess, but no one’s telling us. And as for why . . .” He shrugged. “If it weren’t for Spares, we wouldn’t be in this mess, would we?”
    â€œIf it wasn’t for SFI , you wouldn’t be in this mess!” Elissa burst out, but Miguel interrupted. “There’s no time for this now. We have to get underground. Even if you”—he nodded toward Cadan—“get away immediately, if you’ve been tracked, if someone thinks you’ve left the clones with us, thinks we’re harboring them, we’re dead ourselves.”
    His voice was urgent, and something close to panic showed in his face. In that one moment, Elissa saw clearly what she hadn’t picked up on before. She’d gotten it wrong: Miguel wasn’t accustomed to exercising authority. He’d taken authority, maybe because he was the most competent, but he had no practice in it. And now he was trying to handle a situation for which he not only had no experience, but also no skills that had prepared him for dealing with it.
    But he said they had SFI people here. If there are other SFI personnel around, then how come it’s him acting as leader? Okay, so SFI doesn’t exist anymore, but still—where are the officers? Where’s the structure all gone to? If any of these people are SFI, they’ll have been working there for years—all that organization can’t just melt into chaos like that, not this quickly. They need to take responsibility for what’s been done to Spares—they need to make sure it doesn’t happen again!
    Cadan’s voice remained calm. “Okay, so there’re groups—several groups—targeting Spares? Because they blame them for the current situation. And those sheltering them too?”
    Bryn gave him a bitter look. “Should have stayed off-planet, right?”
    When Cadan glanced at him, his eyes were like blue steel. “Cut the posturing. You’re saying we’re in danger here—and we’ve put you in danger too?”