Soulless The Girl in the Box - By Robert J. Crane Page 0,17
or more. Any questions?” She waited for us to ask anything, but none of us did. “Keep your cell phones on you at all times. I expect progress reports every three hours while you’re awake, even if it’s only something as mundane as ‘We stopped to pee at a gas station’. If we suffer from anything on this excursion, it will be overcommunication, not under.” She glared at each of us in turn. “And no fighting amongst yourselves.”
“It’s been like...months, since any of us fought,” I said.
“And keep your temper in check.” Ariadne looked daggers at me. “Are we clear?”
“Like Saran wrap, but without the flexibility.” I smiled at her.
“You are being entrusted with a responsibility that is most serious.” Old Man Winter finally broke his silence, leaving behind the role of set piece that he so often cultivated during meetings and gracing us with his deep, thickly accented voice. It was so smooth he could have been on the radio, but it was intimidating too, the way it spilled out, with more authority than anyone else I’d met. “This is your first step out of training. Agent Parks has assured us that the three of you are ready, but remember that you are still being tested, that you are not yet agents. Succeed and follow the rules and this can be a significant mark in your favor; fail and we will have to evaluate how effective your training has been.”
His ice cold gaze fell on Kat first, causing her to shudder, then on Scott. “Be careful and achieve your objective. This is your chance.” His eyes fell on me last of all, and I felt a freezing chill as he looked through me. “Do not fail us.”
Chapter 6
“Can you believe this?” Scott slapped the steering wheel as we cruised out the front gate of the Directorate an hour or so later. “This is it! Finally, the big time!”
Kat gave him a weak smile from the passenger seat, but she didn’t say anything. I was stretched out across the seat behind them, supposed to sleep first so I could drive later if need be. It had been a long day, filled with more emotion than I had wanted it to contain. I checked my phone for the thousandth time since Zack had left. Still not a word, a text message, anything. We’d had fights before, but this one was different. He’d never not talked to me afterward. I chalked it up to him catching a flight and hoped he’d call me when he landed.
“Isn’t anybody else as excited about this as I am?” Scott’s disbelief was edging into his enthusiasm. He looked at Kat, who shrugged, then turned to me. “What about you?”
I yawned. “It’s a hell of an opportunity. Let’s not screw it up, lest we get six more months of running around the woods, trying to subdue members of M-Squad without hurting them badly.”
“About that,” Kat said, turning to face me. “You got your head on straight? Not gonna go crazy and flatten this meta we’re chasing, are you?”
“Let’s catch him first,” I said, “then I’ll worry about whether I’m gonna put the severe hurt on him or not. After all, we’re basically heading to some town in the middle of nowhere hoping there’s a clue that will lead us on to the next place this person’s gonna strike.”
“Criminals are dumb.” Scott turned the SUV onto US Highway 212, heading east. “It wouldn’t surprise me.”
“You think he left a note that says, ‘Next I turn south and drive 400 miles to Ankeny, Iowa, where I will rob a convenience store and stop to use the potty’?” I rolled my eyes.
“Why do you think they’re sending us to Owatonna if there’s not going to be any clues as to where he’s going next?”
“He or she,” Kat said.
I yawned again. “Because half of what the Directorate does is gather evidence so they can justify locking these criminal metas up when they actually catch them. I’ve seen the files. We’ll pick up the evidence and get whatever info the locals have, and when the Directorate hears about the next attack, we’ll haul ass to catch up.”
Kat and Scott exchanged a look and then she turned back to me. “Wow, you’ve given this some thought. But what makes you think that the, uh...the meta...the criminal—”
“Suspect.” Scott said it businesslike, as though he were trying to play the part of a real FBI agent. “Or perp. That’s what they call them on the