Birthright: After Earth Read Free Page B

having the keys to the kingdom.”
    “I … 
what
did I do?” The full weight of the last few minutes fell upon her. Allshe had been doing up to now was mentally beating herself up that the creature had escaped. The means she had employed to attack the monster, and its clear inability to perceive her, had not registered on her.
    “You ghosted! You just entered a whole new level of—” Hopkins stopped, seeing the look on her face. “Mal, what’s wrong?”
    She wiped the moisture from her eyes and said softly, “The first thing I thought was, ‘
Wait’ll I tell Jan
.’ ”

iv
    When Mallory began her day as part of a squad hunting for an Ursa, she never would have thought she’d end it in the office of the Savant.
    She’d never had an encounter with the Savant before. As head of the Science Guild, he was simply not someone she’d ever cross paths with.
    But because of the unexpected manifestation of Mallory’s ability to ghost, Colonel Green had brought her straight to the science hall, where she could be subjected to a battery of tests. They gave her a psychological third degree far more comprehensive than anything she’d ever endured. They asked her hundreds of questions; they showed her screens with random blots of blackness and asked her what she saw (her insistent reply of “random blots of blackness” seemed to impress nobody). They drew blood, had her urinate into a container. They did everything short of shove probes up her ass, and she worried that if they didn’t like the results of their tests, that would be next.
    And when it was all over—she hoped—Colonel Green had ordered her to wait in the Savant’s office. She dutifully did as she was told. Despite Hopkins’s certainty that shewould face no disciplinary action even though she had disobeyed orders, she had still braced herself for the worst when Terelli returned with her to Ranger HQ. But Green had been waiting there for the both of them; Terelli, it turned out, had sent word on ahead. Mallory had received the equivalent of a disciplinary slap on the wrist, and Green had taken over from there.
    Mallory had spent the entire day adjusting to what had happened, and yet her mind was still racing. She paced the office, right up until the door opened and the Savant entered. The Savant was remarkably tall, with sparse hair and sunken cheeks. He also had the most piercingly blue eyes that Mallory had ever seen. She’d never considered what perpetual inquisitiveness would look like, but decided it was probably what she was looking at now.
    She snapped to attention the moment the Savant came in. Right behind him was Colonel Green.
    “Take a seat, Ranger.” The Savant gestured to a chair facing his wide desk.
    Mallory remained precisely where she was.
    “She’s too well trained,” Colonel Green informed the Savant. “There’s a superior officer in the room. She won’t sit unless I give her leave to do so.”
    “Well, then I would appreciate it if you did, because I’m sufficiently old-fashioned that I won’t sit while there’s a lady standing.”
    A twitch of a smile crossed Green’s face. “I think the lieutenant might take exception to being described as a ‘lady.’ ” When McGuiness didn’t rise to the bait, merely stood there and awaited orders, Green said, “At ease, Lieutenant. Take a chair.”
    She did as he instructed. Her back remained rigid and her hands were flat upon her lap. She waited expectantly.
    “So how are you doing, Lieutenant?” said the Savant conversationally, as if they were sitting down for coffee.
    “I’ve been poked and prodded within an inch of my life, sir,” she said, making noattempt to mask her impatience. “So with all respect, rather than how I’m doing, I would prefer to know what, if anything, this intrusiveness has revealed.”
    “Very well,” said the Savant. He had taken a seat and leaned forward on his desk, his fingers interlaced. “To be honest, I initially believed that the