Free Ordinaries: Shifters Book II (Shifters series 2) by Douglas Pershing, Angelia Pershing Page B

front door to find Tanner sitting there eating potato chips. Seriously, wasn’t he supposed to be locating a ship or something? Why did I get stuck with Mole Man while Tanner is sitting around with . . .
    “Alice!” I shriek when I see her and jump forward to throw my arms around my best friend.
    “Ryland!” she screams, and then I feel her body shaking as she sobs into my hair.
    What the heck is going on here?
    Tanner looks up guiltily, and I’m going to scream.
    “What did you do?” I shout at him.
    He opens his mouth to answer, letting me see the mushy yellow-brown mash in his mouth, but doesn’t have time to answer before Viktor begins squealing yet again.
    “What is it now?” Kai snaps.
    Viktor turns to stare at Kai, blinking again. “Wah-wah-we need to lah-lah-leave.”
    “Why?” I snap, stroking Alice’s silky black hair.
    “I have lo-lo-located the first v-vessel.” Mole Man smiles. At least I think he’s smiling. It’s a sort of creepy-looking bucktoothed grimace.
    “Where is it?” Clay asks, getting excited.
    “Siberia.”

Chapter 9
    Ryland’s Angry: Why Am I Not Surprised?
    –TANNER–
    Okay, when Ryland said we got a pilot, I was picturing someone tall and strong. I was picturing a hero. You know, someone who could save our lives and all. I don’t even know what to think about Viktor. He seems too nervous to be a pilot. Clay says he’s good, so I guess he’s better than nothing.
    Siberia, though? Really, Siberia was definitely not on my list of places I ever wanted to visit. The rodent guy stammers something about an ancient colony ship. He is totally excited about getting his hands on the archaic controls.
    Kai perks up and asks, “The ancient ships? Like the artifacts?”
    The new guy gives him a look like he has no idea what that means—which, of course, he doesn’t.
    “The original colony ships?” Kai asks, getting annoyed with Viktor for the hundredth time.
    The strange little man shrugs it off, ignoring the questions.
    Alice’s dad, Gale, walks up to the small man and starts talking to him like he already knows him. This is weird. Marcus, Gale, and this Viktor guy look like they are old friends.
    I look over at Ryland, and she is glancing between Alice and this Gale guy—totally confused.
    “Alice?” Ryland says.
    “Oh, yeah!” Alice says excitedly. “That’s my dad! He’s—”
    She goes from crying to excited in nothing flat. What happened to stoic, emotionless Alice?
    “Your dad? What’s—” Ryland interrupts.
    “I’m trying to tell you,” Alice says. “He didn’t run out on me.”
    Ryland wrinkles her brow.
    “He was protecting me,” Alice goes on. “He was always watching.”
    “What?” Ryland is still confused.
    I ask, “What does that mean? Are you a Shift—”
    “No, no. I’m not like you, but,” she says. “My dad is a pilot.”
    “You’re from . . .” Ryland asks.
    “Yeah . . . Gaia,” she says excitedly. “We’re from the same place. Well, my dad is. He escaped. I’m an Ordinary!”
    “Is that how you got away?” I ask her.
    “Yeah! My dad was there. He wanted to get everybody, but there were too many . . .” Alice says.
    “Wait!” I stop her. “You nearly dislocated my jaw when I left Melinda at the White House, and you left our family with Shifters?”
    “What were we supposed to do?” she says, now sounding apologetic. “We’re Ordinaries. You guys are the super heroes. What could we do?”
    “Okay! Shut up!” Ryland spouts. “What do we do now ?”
    “Hey!” someone shouts. “You’re on TV again.”
    The room quiets, and we all stare at the television. They show footage of the DC battle. When my sister flies through the air—I totally missed that part when it was really happening—the room lets out a collective cheer.
    Ryland doesn’t really know how to respond to the sudden burst of admiration. She just smiles shyly and lowers her eyes. Contrary to popular belief, she doesn’t usually like to be the