Vengeance (Twenty-Five Percent Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

Janie’s twenty-three year old son.
    Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sam’s smile disappear.
    Logan held out a plate. “Biscuit?”
    Both Micah and Alex took a bourbon cream. Sam shook his head.
    “Claire?” Logan said.
    From her place on the other side of Sam, Claire looked up from where she’d been talking to Kenny and flashed Logan a smile, taking a digestive from the plate. “Thanks.”
    Alex felt Sam tense next to him.
    Logan winked at her. “Anytime.”
    Sam shifted, dropping his gaze to his lap.
    Alex had assumed from how close they’d been during their time at Omnav that Sam and Claire would have been even closer by now. Apparently, that wasn’t the case. Alex felt for Sam. The young man was obviously crazy about her.
    It made Alex think of Hannah and he carefully pushed her face from his mind. He needed to keep it together.
    The general murmur of conversation in the room came to a sudden halt as a shrill whistle pierced the air.
    “I think Janie might be trying to get our attention,” Micah muttered, nodding towards her where she stood in front of the TV.
    “Welcome to my childhood,” Logan said before going to find a vacant cushion on the floor.
    “Okay people,” Janie said, “we all know why we’re here. The psychotic jerk with the power to control eater hordes is on his way. Basically, we’re up that creek and our paddle has been eaten by a crocodile, so we need ideas. Bates?”
    Bates stepped forward. One of his lackeys - Paul, Peter, Pancake, something like that, Alex couldn’t remember exactly - followed and Blu-tacked a huge map to the wall. It looked very much like the map of the city Alex had seen in Bates’ office weeks ago, although it had lost all the red dots Bates had used to mark out the homes of Survivors.
    “We can’t say for sure what Harvey Boot has planned,” Bates said, “but we can be sure it will involve hordes of eaters. We could be looking at something of a siege situation here before long, so we need to be prepared. MacCallum and Clarke are going to be trying to stop Boot before he gets here, but in the event that fails we need to be prepared to take out large amounts of eaters. So we’re here to brainstorm. Let’s hear your ideas.”
    Alex leaned close to Micah. “We’re doing what?”
    “I’ll tell you later.”
    A plethora of suggestions followed, every one of which was written down, no matter how outlandish. Some of them actually sounded like they had a chance of working. As eaters couldn’t swim water featured heavily, and it was clear the river would be a large part of their defence.
    “Maybe we could dowse them in paraffin and set them on fire,” Logan said after a while.
    “ NO !” Alex and Micah yelled at the same time.
    Bates frowned. “That doesn’t sound like a bad idea to me. With the way they stick close together, the fire would spread quickly.”
    “We’ve seen what happens when you set an eater on fire,” Micah said. “Believe me, all it does is make them even harder to kill.”
    “But...”
    “Imagine an eater in this room right now,” Micah said. Everyone gazed into space as they conjured up the scenario. “Now imagine that eater on fire.”
    Eyes widened. Heads nodded. A few people said, “Ohhh,” as understanding dawned.
    It was universally agreed not to set any eaters on fire.
    Alex was quiet through the whole meeting. The reality of what was coming was weighing increasingly heavily on him, bringing with it an unhealthy dose of guilt. Boot wasn’t coming for his friends and neighbours. He wasn’t even coming for Micah. He was coming for Alex, and everyone here would get caught in the crossfire.
    Just like Hannah had.
    After an hour, he couldn’t take it anymore. Not saying anything, he stood, made his way across the packed room, and left. Heart pounding, he almost ran down the corridor to the street to breathe in the fresh air.
    When the door to Janie’s building opened behind him, he didn’t have to turn around to