City of Glass: (Spirits of the Earth Book 3) by Milo James Fowler

Author:Milo James Fowler [Fowler, Milo James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2020-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

14 Sera

22 Years After All-Clear

Arienna takes the news fairly well. Better than I did, at any rate. She seems to accept at face value that the parents who raised her are not blood relatives, that her biological parents are from the North American Wastes, and that her eggs have been harvested monthly to create children for upper-caste Eurasian citizens. Now that her augments are offline, it shouldn't be long before she starts manifesting some kind of unique yet bizarre ability.

That's right, tree monkey. Join the club.

The problem being, of course, that the club currently boasts only three members, and it doesn't look like Erik will be visiting the other seventeen anytime soon. Because as soon as he activated that EMP burst in the palm of his hand to knock out Arienna's neural implants, a swarm of Dome 2 law enforcement drones buzzed our way through the trees.

For a split-second, I felt a bit of nostalgia at the sight of them zipping through the air with their little rotors whirring at top speed. I've missed Wink and Blink. But these aren't my buddies, and seeing eight of them whiz our way with their lights flashing and warning sirens wailing is downright intimidating.

Arienna raises her hands into the air and bows her head like a good citizen. I'm tempted to do the same to keep the drones from firing any shocker darts my way. But once they identify me as a law enforcer and Arienna as a local, we won't be targets. Erik is the one they're after.

I consider letting them have him. He's broken more laws than I care to list right now, the most recent being yet another EMP burst. Not a wise choice today, after what just went down at the Chancellor's tower.

But I understand what he's trying to do. As more of my memories return, like he promised they would, I realize how important it is for the other members of the Twenty to discover who they really are. Apparently, localized electromagnetic pulses are the only way to neutralize the augments that interfere with remembering our past...and our abilities.

Which makes me wonder about those thousand or so kids created from our sex cells. Are they displaying any unique talents yet?

"Remain calm, citizens," the drones command in unison, hovering around us in a loose cordon. They direct their high-powered flashlights at our faces in the sun-dappled gloom beneath the leafy canopy. "Please kneel, interlocking your fingers behind your heads."

Arienna and I do so. Erik scowls, fishing through his jacket pockets like he's forgotten something important.

"You're gonna want to kneel," I warn him.

He nods absently but doesn't follow suit. I'm sure he regrets it as a drone fires a dart like a miniature missile, striking his chest dead center. The shock is instantaneous, and he groans, his limbs outstretched as his entire body stiffens. Grimacing and convulsing, he hits the artificial dirt and thrashes around for a few moments before lying completely still. He looks dead.

"Enforcer Chen, why have you not deposited this violator at local law enforcement headquarters as you indicated?" the drones ask.

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