A Hero Rising Read Online Free

sir.” She checked the holoscreen above their heads and noted the time.
    He grunted. “You and the girl may pass.”
    As the guards moved aside, Skye slipped into a corridor with bright, fluorescent lights and a plush carpet that crushed under her feet, releasing the smell of lilacs. Soft, synthesized tones floated into her ears. Ignoring the vases of plastic hyacinths and the holopaintings shimmering on the walls, she reached a working elevator with a panel lit in green light. She placed Carly down, pressed the panel, and stretched her sore arms.
    The elevator door slid away and they stepped in. The floor surged underneath their feet and Carly’s eyes widened.
    Skye grabbed her hand, anxious to reach the roof before it was too late.
    Not that I can do anything to change the outcome. I’ll just be staring like a puppet with no strings.
    Carly put her other hand on the floor, her moist fingers making halos of condensation on the chrome.
    The elevator beeped and they stepped onto a cement walkway with greenhouses stacked in rows. The sky opened in an infinite ceiling above their heads and the sun blazed, brighter than any light they’d ever seen. Carly jumped out. “Cyber beans!”
    “Be careful.” Skye noticed Carly’s pale arms, white as bone. “Pull your sleeves down and don’t take off your coat.”
    She took the girl’s hand and they weaved through the greenhouses. A heavy security system armed each structure, lasers glowing neon blue across the glass doors. The plants looked so withered and fragile; Skye wondered how they could produce any food at all. Especially with Utopia gone, the rations would get even smaller.
    “Can I go inside and touch the plants?”
    “No, Carls. I’m sorry. The buildings are locked.”
    They reached the edge of the rooftop with a panoramic view across the New York skyline. Blocks of high-rises cluttered the horizon like a jar of pencils all sticking up. It appeared city planners heaped each building next to the other, so close she could jump from one to another. On the right, smoke plumed from the broken glass of Utopia. Architects and bioengineers designed the structure to catch and magnify the sun’s rays for five levels of accelerated growth. The single building produced more food than all the others in the city combined.
    Skye avoided looking over there, not wanting to see the devastation. In the center of the city, a tower topped with a golden dome structure stood out like a crystal.
    The State Building. Home of the richest woman in the city. The woman Grease wanted dead.
    Her stomach sickened as she thought of him working his way through the underground and emerging at the top of the State Building’s marble stairs with the rest of the Razornecks carrying armfuls of lasers and knives. The building looked so serene and impenetrable. Didn’t the governor have a family? Children of her own around Carly’s age?
    Collapsing against the side of a greenhouse, Skye didn’t want him to succeed. If the Razornecks gained control of the city, they’d have endless food and power. She and Carly would never go hungry again. But would it be right to take out the people in charge? Starve the rest of the city? Give the Razornecks unlimited amounts of a drug that would turn them violent against civilians?
    All I want is for Grease to come home.
    She sighed, watching Carly play with a beetle as it scurried around real grass growing at the base of the greenhouse. She wished she could give her so much more than a one-day field trip to a dwindling food resource.
    Eruptions boomed, echoing between the buildings, making it difficult for Skye to discern the source. She scrambled to her feet and leaned against the railing. Her fingers shook as she gripped the rusty rail.
    Carly ran up beside her and grabbed onto her arm. “What was that?”
    “Bombs.” She hadn’t seen Grease take anything explosive with him, but that didn’t mean the other members of the gang didn’t carry hypergrenades.