Free The Strike Trilogy by Charlie Wood Page B

creature, with a tarnished metal head and a twisted body made out of wood and springs. The being had found Orion’s apartment after using the coordinates gathered from the third blood bird, and was now moving on to the next step of its mission: scanning the building with its bionic eye.
    After spotting Orion through the kitchen window, the robo-chameleon chirped loudly and then leapt onto the building with a springing of its legs; instantly, its body changed from the color of the green leaves to the color of the grey apartment walls. In little flits of movement, it then dashed down to the window, reached toward it, and stuck one of its suction cup-like feet onto the glass. It could now see and hear everything that was happening inside.
    With its mission accomplished, the robo-chameleon finally raised its head toward the sky and blinked its eyes. As it began to emit a soft beeping sound, like a satellite giving off a signal, it beamed the images and sounds of the apartment to someone else—someone far, far away…

    In the security center of his skyscraper, Vincent Harris was studying one of his monitors. Onscreen, he could see Orion and Keplar, having their conversation in Orion’s kitchen.
    “Where are we going after Scatterbolt’s done talking to the kid?” the dog asked.
    “Well,” Orion replied, “there aren’t many places we can go where they won’t come looking for us, but Gallymoora is one of them. As soon as they’re finished in the library, that’s where we’re headed.”
    Keplar grumbled. “Great. Gallymoora. My favorite place.” He finished his beer and tossed it into a recycling bin. “Well, you’re right about one thing, bro: they won’t ever look for us there.”
    Vincent smiled, pushing a button on the intercom in front of him. “Rigel, send the Hoplites to Gallymoora immediately. Have them wait there until I give further word.”
    “Yes, sir,” Rigel’s voice crackled through the speaker.
    Pleased with himself, and with how the surveillance mission had succeeded, Vincent looked back to the screen with a smile. But then he watched Orion: the old man brought his coffee mug to his mouth, but his hand was trembling so much that he had trouble sipping from it without it spilling. He was younger than Vincent, but looked so much older.
    Vincent watched the image in silence. The smile was now gone from his face.

CHAPTER NINE
    A fter taking off from the roof of Orion’s apartment building, the Sky-Blade was in the clouds again, soaring to its next destination. In the cockpit, Keplar was using the time to catch up on his sleep, with his cowboy hat pulled down over his eyes and his feet propped up on the control panel, while Scatterbolt was standing on the pilot’s chair next to him, doing his best to steer the ship along its way. The robot’s metallic arms were just about long enough to reach the controls, and it was a bit of a struggle, but he didn’t mind, as flying was one of his favorite things to do in the world, right up there with playing poker and reading about frogs.
    In the cabin of the ship, Tobin was sitting all the way in the back, as far away from the others as he could possibly be. Orion was also in the cabin, but he was sitting up near the front, sharpening his arrows with a square stone.
    “You must be very frightened still,” Orion said, trying to get the boy to open up. He had barely spoken since they left Quantum City.
    “No,” Tobin said, his arms across his stomach. “Nauseous. Dizzy. Kinda feel like I’m dying. But that’s about it.”
    Orion chuckled. “That sounds like fright to me.”
    “I guess. Either that or my body is collapsing in on itself. One of the two.”
    Orion laughed again. “You haven’t asked me any questions about what Scatterbolt told you back at the library. I thought there’d be plenty of stuff you’d want to know more about.”
    Tobin grabbed the sides of his chair as the vehicle banked and picked up speed, then looked across the cabin