The Guard Read Online Free

careful I was. That leaves me with one clear goal.
    I’m going to Dulce to get that ship.
    “I’m taking this with me,” I say, staring down at the white tablet.
    “What?” Malcolm asks. “No. Why? You can’t.”
    “You don’t have a choice,” I say. The tablet is Loric. It belongs with me.
    “Pittacus told me to protect it. He said it would prove to be useful.”
    “Exactly. I’m going to use it.”
    “No.” Malcolm curls his fingers into fists and plants his feet in front of me. “It’s my responsibility. I’ve put everything on the line to help your people. My life. My family . Pittacus told me to keep this tablet safe for the Garde, and that’s what I’m going to do. One of the Cêpan—I believe his Loric name is Brandon—said he’d be back for it if there was trouble, or when his charge was at the age when he would start developing powers or whatever you know them as.”
    My hand moves towards my weapon. I don’t want to threaten Malcolm with violence—he’s right when he says he’s sacrificed much to help my people, after all—but I’m not leaving this piece of technology in the hands of someone who doesn’t even know how to use it properly.
    There’s a clattering from the hallway. I turn and see Malcolm’s kid standing there. A plastic robot is on the floor in front of him. He’s wearing a shirt with an image of Saturn on it, the sixth planet from this solar system’s sun. I recognize its rings; I’ve seen them up close, on my journey to this world. The boy is pale and thin and has sandy-blond hair, and even though physically he looks nothing like Zane, there’s something in his expression—full of wonder—that immediately makes me think of my brother. It hurts a place inside me I thought had finally begun to heal.
    “Sam,” Malcolm says, letting his posture slacken.“Go outside, would you?”
    Sam just stares up at me. Malcolm looks back and forth between us a few times before crossing the room and pushing Sam out of my sight.
    I think about the fact that this family in a small town in Ohio has perhaps saved the last of my people. And about how I was considering taking out my blaster and forcing Malcolm to let me have the tablet. What would Zophie say? What would Zane say?
    I’m not some Mogadorian thug. I’m not going to threaten this man and his son. That’s not who I am.
    Besides, if the Cêpans are counting on the white tablet being in Paradise, I can’t very well take it back to Alabama.
    “Your son can stay,” I say, setting the tracking device down on Malcolm’s desk and packing up my gear. “I should be on my way.”
    Malcolm looks confused but nods.
    “Tell whoever comes for the tablet that the ship in Egypt is wrecked,” I say, moving past Malcolm and his son towards the front door.
    “Wait,” he says. “Who are you? How did you get here? You haven’t even told me your name. Where are you going?”
    “New Mexico.” I stop on the porch, turning to him. “Malcolm. Take my visit as a warning. I found you. It took me a while, but I did. And that means the Mog—”I glance at Sam, hiding behind his father’s legs. “That others might be able to as well. Others who aren’t as friendly as I am.”
    Malcolm stares hard at me, nodding a little bit.
    “Keep your family safe,” I say, stepping down onto the Goodes’ yard. “And the tablet too. At least hide the damned thing. The last thing we need is for that to fall into the enemy’s hands.”
    Malcolm is still on the porch when I back out of his driveway. Sam lingers in the doorframe. As I start down the road, he waves to me.
    The drive from Paradise to Dulce is a long one. Lush green fields eventually give way to flat plains that seem to stretch on past the horizon. I rest at a motel in Kansas for a few hours, hardly sleeping because, for the first time since I arrived on Earth, I know exactly where Janus’s ship is. And because I’m worried about how I’m going to get to it. I run through what