Sky Ghosts: Initiation (Sky Ghosts #1)

Chapter 2

Dave came around as someone lowered him into a chair, not too carefully.

Dim light filtered through his eyelids, and he cracked one eye open. Two large, blurry silhouettes were moving away from him down a long hallway, then disappeared around a corner.

He turned his head and blinked at the two strange girls before him. His heart kicked up into a gallop. This was some fucked up nightmare.

Someone shifted beside him, and he turned to find Chad pulling himself upright. His friend winced and rubbed his head.

"Come on," the girl with the katana said, jerking her head at a double door a few steps away. "Don't make me drag you in there."

She'd lowered her mask, and so had her sister—because they clearly were sisters—and he could see her lips tighten in impatience. Such a cold stare in those dark, kohl-lined eyes. The other one looked younger somehow.

"Where are we?" Chad said. He stood, making the girls back off.

"You'll find out in a minute," the other girl said over her shoulder, throwing open the double doors.

Dave relaxed a little at the sight of a small waiting room—a plain desk, a row of chairs, and unadorned walls. At least it wasn't some basement where they would be quartered and dissolved in acid. But then another armed man in leathers blocked their path. Blond and well-built, if not tall, with a sword strapped to his belt.

"How can I help you?" he asked, his voice exaggeratedly polite.

"Back off, Jerry. This is important." The big sister frowned but stopped. "Sector ten, cleanup."

Jerry took a radio off his belt as they all crowded inside. Dave's head throbbed, and not just from having been knocked out. So, so many questions.

The radio hissed, and Jerry spoke into it, "Sector ten, cleanup and cover."

An elbow poked into Dave's ribs, and he turned to look at Chad, his friend's eyebrows arched. What could he say? Dave shrugged, deciding just to roll with it.

He flinched at the noise the guard's radio made. "Rodger that," a reply came.

Jerry put the radio back on his belt, raising his eyebrows at the big sister without moving from his spot. "I'm gonna go tell Peter about your arrival, and he'll tell me if I should let you in. See? Following rules is easy," he said, as if she were five. His light, almost translucent eyes flicked toward Dave, their touch unsettling, before he disappeared behind another door.

The four of them waited in heavy silence. Dave's eyes kept darting to the big sister's sword and sophisticated high-tech scabbard.

The door swung open, and she strode forward, into a big office with white walls and dark-wood floors. A large window across from the door betrayed no hint of their location. The room looked ascetic with its black cabinets with neat rows of books and folders and a long conference table in the center.

Dave stopped by the door, his eyes locking with the man on the other end of the big table. Peter put down the papers he'd been reading and brushed off his white dress shirt as he stood. If not for the graying hair and deep lines in his face, Dave would've given him forty years, tops. He was a big man, tall and broad-shouldered, and he eyed his guests with an air of authority.

Peter's curious gaze turned to the girls, and he ran his fingers over his short beard.

"We found something interesting," the big sister said. "Stumbled upon these two surrounded by Eugene's men. It sounded like Eugene wanted them alive. Actually, one of them." She glanced at Dave with a shrug. "We thought you might be interested. And we couldn't just let them go, anyway."