Free Matt Archer: Bloodlines (Matt Archer #4) by Kendra C. Highley

dead women.
    I made my way outside, still dizzy and aching inside for
that poor kid. I had no idea if he had a family, or was a street-orphan from
Calcutta. Either way, he didn’t deserve to die this way, alone and afraid, far
from home.
    “Major!” Dorland called. “Sir, we’ve found something.”
    He and Blakeney were standing in the entry to one of the
small buildings at the edge of the compound. After telling Lanningham that my
dad wanted to see him, I joined Uncle Mike to see what was up.
    “Sir, I think I should go for the truck,” Blakeney said. “We
need some bolt cutters for sure.”
    Uncle Mike frowned. “ Why do you need bolt cutters?”
    Dorland pointed at the building. “You should come inside,
sir.”
    After sending Blakeney for the truck, we followed Dorland
down a narrow hallway. Like the main building, the hallway ran along the outer
wall, and doors opened up on the other side. We paused at the first door and I
thought I heard whimpering.
    “What’s in there?”
    Dorland raised an eyebrow and opened the door. Inside, in a
makeshift cage made of iron bars, were four kids. Two were Asian, a boy and
girl. The other boy—the youngest of the lot—was black. The oldest was a girl
with big blue eyes and dirty blond hair. None of them was older than nine and
the littlest boy couldn’t be more than five.
    “Hey guys,” Uncle Mike said in a voice he usually reserved
for Baby Kate. “Don’t be scared. We’re here to help, okay?”
    The kids blinked up at us, and the little girl said, “We’re
hungry.”
    Her English was accented, eastern European maybe? I knelt
down so I could see her eye-to-eye through the bars. “What’s your name?”
    “Elske.” She pointed at the black boy. “He’s Ayax.” She
waved the Asian kids forward. “Dat and Mai.”
    “You speak very good English, Elske,” I said. “Do any of the
others?”
    She shook her head. “They didn’t have Elmo.”
    Elmo? Sesame Street . Of course. “But you saw Elmo on
TV?”
    “My mama let me watch when she had to work,” Elske said.
    “How’d you get here, sweetheart?” Uncle Mike asked.
    She shrugged. “Mama let me go to the park. Then…don’t know.”
    “Kidnapped, probably,” Dorland growled. “When Blakeney gets
back, we’ll cut the locks and let them out. He’ll bring whatever rations he can
find in the truck, too. But, sir, there’s something else.”
    He drifted to the door, ready to lead us to the next
problem, but Elske caught my hand. “Don’t go.”
    “I’ll check it out,” Uncle Mike said. “You hang with our
friends here.”
    They left and I sat cross-legged in front of the bars. I
didn’t have any food on me, so I tried to come up with ways to distract them
until Blakeney came. It took ten minutes, but by the time he arrived, I’d
taught them how to play Rock, Paper, Scissors. Well, mostly. Ayax kept waving
his little hands when I signed that scissors couldn’t cut rock. He didn’t seem
to believe me.
    “Looks like you have a fan club,” Blakeney said, smiling. He
held up the bolt cutters. “Who wants to get out?”
    The kids scurried to the back of the cage, cowering. I
looked up a Blakeney. “Um, Sergeant, they might think you plan to use those on
them.”
    “Oh.” He lowered the bolt cutters. “How about I change their
opinion?”
    He clamped the cutters around the lock and bore down hard.
There was a squeal and a scraping sound, then the lock brock free. I pulled the
door open and was almost knocked over as the kids dog-piled me.
    “Yeah, I’m glad you’re out, too.”
    “Archer.” Dorland stood in the hallway. “Got a minute?”
    Blakeney held up a packet of protein bars and, in an
instant, my fan club disappeared. They gathered around his knees, reaching for
the food. I smiled. “Seems like I do.”
    He led me to the last door and motioned for me to go first.
As soon as I hit the threshold, I stopped short, my heart in my throat.
    The Shadow Man stared back at