Free No ordinary hero (Keepers of justice # 1) by Dee J. Stone Page A

tell my dad you almost killed us. And if Washington finds out about this? They won’t like to hear that the kids are trying to kill each other. Come on, Stretch.”
    “Y ou should talk to your perverted friend. It’s him you should be worried about,” Air says.
    “Why?” I ask.
    “Didn’t you hear what happened?” Furball says, glancing at Stretch. He averts his gaze from her.
    “No, I haven’t really been around lately. What’s going on?” I ask. None of them talk. “Stretch?”
    He stretches his arms down the court. “He’s been acting weird.” He shrugs. “I don’t know.”
    “Caused some trouble in the Sim Room yesterday and was dismissed from practice. We think he’s doing drugs,” H 2 O says. Oh, no. He’s been clean for two years. I don’t want him getting back into that.
    “We gotta talk to him, Stretch,” I say. He nods. “Later, girls.
    Stretch and I enter the building and take an elevator up to X’s room. He shares it with Speed, which basically means he lives alone, since Speed’s pretty much in his own world. I knock on the door once we get there. No answer. I knock a second time and still nothing.
    “X? You in there?”
    The door opens and shuts so fast I almost miss it. “Speed! Get back here.”
    He pops in front of us and starts his pee dance. “What’s up?”
    “Is X in there?” I ask.
    Speed looks toward the door and his eyebrows knit. “Dunno. He could be. I didn’t see him.”
    “Open the door.”
    “Why?”
    “Open it, please. This is important.”
    “Okay.” Speed unlocks the door and runs off.
    Stretch and I step inside. X i s lying on his bed, earbuds plugged in his ears. I don’t think he’s even listening to the music because his head isn’t bobbing to the beat like it usually does. Stretch and I move closer. He doesn’t see us, so I tap his shoulder. One look at us and he grunts.
    “X, what’s up with you?” I ask, sitting on the floor. Stretch finds some chips and doesn’t hesitate to chomp down a few. X sits up and pulls the earbuds off. He grunts again. “Whatever it is, you can tell us. You know that, right?”
    He crosses his arms over his chest.
    “If it’s drugs—” Stretch says, mouth full.
    “It’s not drugs,” X snaps.
    “What, then?” I ask.
    He’s quiet. Then he gets up and locks the door to his room. He faces us. “We’re screwed.”

Chapter Fourteen
     
    We’re screwed. How many times have I heard that before? I stare at X, waiting for him to continue. He walks over to his shelf and pulls out a stack of notebooks and papers. After throwing them on the floor, he sits down near me and crosses his legs. “Read.”
    I open one of the notebooks and see scribbling. X has one of those handwritings where I can’t read a thing. “What’s all this?”
    “You keep a diary?” Stretch asks, laughing. I give him a kick and his body stretches to the other end of the room. He doesn’t say anything as he slowly retracts his arms and legs and adjusts his shirt.
    “Talk,” I tell X.
    “I couldn’t sleep one night. Went downstairs to play some Xbox. That’s when I saw him.”
    “Him?” Stretch asks.
    X nods. “The bastard infiltrating the League, pretending to be one of us.”
    Pretending to be one of us? What’s he talking about?
    “And I’ve been watching him for a while, recording all my findings in these notebooks. You don’t need to be a telepath to spy on him. All I got are these that work wonders.” He points to his eyes. “He doesn’t know I watch him every night. I see him on his laptop, writing all those emails. See him talking on the phone. Watch him go out the back entrance and meet with a guy dressed in black. They exchange papers. He breaks into the security room and erases the footage from the tapes. We need to take the bastard down.”
    I can’t believe this. I don’t want to believe this. “Who is it?” I ask.
    “Light ning.”
    Lightning? ! “You serious? He’s Dad’s second.”
    “He’s a