The-Infinite-Sea-Pdf

29
FOR OVER FIVE YEARS he’d relied on the gifts that made him superior to humans in almost every way.
Hearing. Eyesight. Reflexes. Agility. Strength. The gifts had spoiled him. He’d forgotten what normal
felt like.
He was getting a crash course now.
He slipped into a ground-floor room through a broken-out window. Hobbled to the door and pressed
his ear against it, but all he could hear was the thundering of his heart. Easing the door open, sliding into
the hall, listening, waiting in vain for his eyes to adjust to the dark. Down the hall and into the lobby.
His own breath, frosting in the frigid air, otherwise silence. Apparently the ground floor was deserted.
He knew someone was standing at the small hallway window upstairs; he caught a glimpse of him as he
maneuvered his way into the building.
Stairwell. Two flights. By the time he reached the second landing, he was dizzy from the pain and out
of breath from the effort. He tasted blood. There was no light. He was entombed in utter darkness.
If there was only one person on the other side of this door, he had seconds. More than one and time
didn’t matter; he was dead. Every instinct said wait.
He went.
In the hall on the other side of the door was a small kid with extraordinarily large ears and a mouth
flying open in astonishment the moment before Evan locked him in the chokehold, pressing his forearm
hard against the kid’s carotid, cutting off the blood supply to his brain. He dragged his squirming catch
back into the black pit of the stairwell. The kid went limp before the door clicked shut again.
Evan waited for a few seconds on the other side. The hall had been empty, the snatch quick and
relatively quiet. It could be a while before the others—if there were others—realized their sentry was
gone. He dragged the kid to the bottom of the stairs and tucked his unconscious body into the small
space between the steps and the wall. Went back up. Cracked open the door. Halfway down the hall,
another door opened and two shadowy figures emerged. He watched them cross the hall and enter
another room. They reappeared a moment later and went to another door.
They were checking each room. The stairs would be next. Or the elevator; he’d forgotten about the
elevator. Would they drop down the shaft and take the stairs from below?
No. If there’re only two, they’ll split up. One for the stairs, one down the shaft, and meet up in the
lobby.
He watched them come out of the last room, then go to the elevator, where one held the doors while
the other dropped out of sight into the shaft. The one who remained had trouble standing, holding his
stomach and grunting softly from the effort, favoring one side as he limped toward Evan.
He waited. Twenty feet. Ten. Five. Holding the rifle in his right hand, his gut with his left. Standing
on the other side of the door, Evan smiled. Ben. Not Ken. Ben.
Found you.
Too dangerous to trust that Ben would recognize him and not shoot him on the spot. He burst through
the door and rammed his fist as hard as he could into Ben’s wounded stomach. The blow knocked the
breath out of him, but Ben refused to go down. Rocking back, he brought his rifle up. Evan slung it to