Free Joshua Dread by Lee Bacon

she’s been hiding, he’s not sure whether they’re destined to be friends … or enemies .
    “Nothing.”
    The look she gave me told me she could see right through my lie.
    “All right. Maybe I’ve heard a few things,” I said.
    “Like what?”
    I didn’t really want to, but I told her everything I’d heard. The truckloads of empty boxes and countless TVs, the machine guns, the torture devices …
    I’d expected her to deny it all, or laugh at how crazy gossip could get. Instead, she shrugged. “Yep, that sounds about right.”
    “Whoa. So you mean—all that stuff is true?”
    Sophie nodded. “Pretty much. Except the part about torture devices. I don’t think he has any of those.”
    “You don’t
think
?”
    It seemed like the kind of thing you would know for sure. Either you had torture devices or you
didn’t
. But there was plenty going on in my own house that I wasn’t aware of. I hadn’t known about my parents’ whole flooding-the-entire-world-and-blackmailing-the-government thing until the day they’d done it.
    “My dad has trouble keeping his identity a secret,” Sophie said. “It’s part of the reason we have to move around all the time. He just enjoys the fame too much. It’s always the same. People start to find out little things about him here and there. Then more of the truth comesout. And then, just like that—we pick up and move to a new town, a new school, a new fake name.”
    I nearly said
I know how it feels
, but I held my tongue.
    “With my dad, the truth always comes out sooner or later,” Sophie said. “And he just expects me to keep silent about it everywhere we go. Sometimes I get so sick of lying to everyone, you know?”
    “So if your name isn’t Sophie Smith,” I said, “then who
are
you?”
    “Promise not to tell anyone else?”
    I nodded. “I’m pretty good at keeping secrets,” I said.
I’ve done it for my parents all my life
.
    Sophie glanced once more across the vacant hillside around us. “My dad is Captain Justice.”

12
    For many Gyfted children, life is full of unexpected surprises .
    T ake it from me, it’s not easy to find out that your project partner is the daughter of your parents’ archenemy. I stared at Sophie, my mind spinning back over the past two weeks. That was how Captain Justice had gotten there so quickly when my parents had tried to flood the earth. Because he now lived in the same zip code.
    “Is everything okay?” Sophie’s voice cut through the silence. “You look a little freaked out.”
    Maybe that’s because your dad tried to crush my dad underneath Mr. Chow’s Chinese Buffet!
I thought.
    But all I said was “I’ve got to go.”
    “Why? What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing.” I took a step backward. “I just remembered I need to be … somewhere else.”
    I spun around before she could say anything, and jogged quickly down the hill. Sophie called after me, but I didn’t look back.
    When I got home, my parents were still in their lab. I dropped my backpack in the living room and headed into the kitchen for a snack. Micus heaved a clump of soil at me, but I was still so caught up thinking about what Sophie had just told me that I didn’t care.
    How was I supposed to go to school with Captain Justice’s daughter? How was I supposed to sit next to her in seventh period?
    Of all the places to live, her dad had chosen Sheepsdale. The coincidence was too big to ignore. What if Captain Justice had tracked the Dread Duo here? What if he was closing in on my parents?
    In the kitchen, I tried to use my Gyft on a Pop-Tart, but my mind refused to focus. The Pop-Tart remained frozen in my hands until I gave up and dropped it into the toaster.
    Apparently, I wasn’t the only one in the house with a lot weighing on my mind. As soon as my mom entered the kitchen, I could see the exhaustion on her face. Darkrings circled her eyes. One collar of her lab coat was stained with some kind of blue liquid.
    “How’re things going?”