Tremor Read Free Page B

and Clara Quinn.”
    â€œRare. Very, very rare.”
    â€œIs there a purpose to this conversation?” Dylan asked. “Because if not, maybe we could do this whole quiz thing later. Everyone is in position.”
    â€œYou know, Faith’s not as strong as she thinks she is. There are surprisingly simple things that could get her into real trouble she couldn’t get out of on her own.”
    Dylan wanted to disagree, but the teacher inside him couldn’t bring himself to defend Faith. She’d always been stubborn, all the way back to her first training sessions on the roof of the old Nordstrom building. But the depth of her resolve grew unfathomable after Clara took a hammer to Faith’s best friend’s head. For all Faith’s astounding power, it often felt as if she was focusing only on the instruction required to complete a cold, hard task she was destined to perform: killing her enemies.
    â€œI’ve been training her awhile now,” Dylan said. He was acutely aware of Faith’s shortcomings as a student; and as much as he hated to admit it, she needed the kind of push only Meredith could provide. There was also, at the front of his mind, the confusing fact that he was in love with the girl he was training.
    â€œThrow the kitchen sink at her; she’ll figure it out.”
    â€œYou sure about that?” Meredith asked.
    Dylan didn’t have time to change his mind before Meredith began lifting washers and dryers up in the air with the force of her own thoughts. She was, everyone knew, capable of some pretty scary shit when she was trying to prove a point. Thirty smashed-up washers and dryers slammed into the meat locker doors, piling up like a Montana snowdrift. All that remained for the training to start was for the person hiding inside to come out. The washing machine on the top of the pile tumbled to the concrete floor, followed by a breathless moment of silence.
    The echo of a cough was heard.
    Then all hell broke loose.
    When Faith blew open the two metal doors, it was like a bomb going off: washers and dryers were ripped to shreds; shards of metal and knobs and wires flew everywhere, exploding into the air. But Faith’s show of bravado was her first mistake, because Meredith had secretly placed a dozen more bowling balls in the meat locker. They were black, which had made them harder to notice in the dim light of the room full of meat hooks. Before Faith could turn around, all ten balls were slamming into her back one after the other, pushing her out onto the warehouse floor like a tin can being kicked down the street.
    â€œHey, take it easy—” Dylan started to say.
    But Meredith was having none of it.
    â€œStay out of this.”
    As soon as she had Faith off guard, she started piling the appliances on top of her, quickly burying her under a mountain of junk. There was silence in the warehouse as the drifters looked on, unable to stop themselves from smiling. The pile began to move, slowly this time, as Faith glided up through the tower of metal. She hovered in the air, holding a ball and staring at Meredith as if she was planning to knock her down like a bowling pin. She was about to say Is that all you got? And she would have, but Meredith had one more trick up her sleeve, and the time had arrived to use it.
    A giant swath of netting dropped from behind an exposed beam in the ceiling, then spun like a corkscrew, tangling into a knot around Faith’s body. That was followed by a thick rope, which spun around and around Faith so fast she couldn’t stop it. She hung in the air, struggling to get free, like a caterpillar helplessly trapped in a cocoon. She flew back and forth, banging into walls and concrete pillars, a rage-fueled menace without a chance of setting herself free. When she finally gave up and fell to the floor, Faith was so exhausted she couldn’t even scream in frustration.
    Meredith looked at Faith and thought of the first