Delete: Volume 3 (Shifter Series) by Kim Curran Page B

other tiny details about him, including the fact he’d cut his head shaving it. It was a weird experience, this heightened awareness. It must be all part of the training from this reality.
    “This,” Aubrey said, “is George Burnley. Otherwise known as the Brute.”
    The “Brute” was drooling, his eyes staring into space.
    “You’ve cuffed him?”
    “Of course.”
    “He’s a Shifter, then?” I said, stepping forward. “Bit old, isn’t he?”
    “He’s sixteen,” Aubrey said, “and responsible for the deaths of at least seven ARES officers, not to mention a series of vicious racial attacks.”
    Suddenly, I wasn’t so worried about why we were fighting and what we lost. Because if it was to stop animals like this, then it was worth it.
    Aubrey closed the door behind us. “He was recruited into the Red Hand from a neo-Nazi group called the English Defence League that sprang up at the beginning of the war. They believed the government brought the war on us by allowing foreigners in the country.” The disgust was clear in Aubrey’s voice. “We rounded up most of them in the early days. But George here proved useful to the Red Hand. He’s an explosives expert.”
    “You take power where you can find it?”
    “Something like that.”
    He had a nasty gash across his cheek, which was oozing gently. “Was that your handiwork?” I said, pointing at the cut.
    “He didn’t want to come quietly,” Aubrey said.
    “They never do,” I said. “Right, uncuff him. We’re not going to get any sense out of him in this state.”
    “But what if he Shifts?”
    I smiled. “Fixer, remember?”
    “Sure, I remember,” she said, pulling out a key from a pouch on her belt. “I wasn’t sure you did.”
    She undid George’s cuffs and then stepped away hastily.
    He blinked his eyes and smacked his lips together, as if waking up from a long sleep. He went from drowsy to rage in a matter of seconds, trying and failing to break free of the chains. He strained at his bindings, the muscles on his arms bulging.
    “There’s no point,” I said. “The chain isn’t going anywhere and neither are you. Unless you cooperate.”
    “I will never cooperate with you scum who are destroying this nation.”
    “Then you will stay here and rot,” Aubrey said.
    He let loose a torrent of such foul abuse directed at Aubrey that I reacted without thinking. I punched him in the throat, leaving him gasping for air.
    “If you ever, ever,” I shouted, “speak to her like that again, I will tear your tongue out, do you understand me?”
    “I’d like to see you try,” he croaked, holding onto his throat.
    “Now, Captain Jones is going to ask you some questions and you are going to answer them civilly or,” I pulled the knife I’d used to cut Hedges’ bindings and ran the tip across the red lines on George’s face, “I will remove each of your tattoos. One by one.”
    He went cross-eyed looking down at my blade.
    When I pulled it away, I saw the change in him. Gone was the big-man act, leaving only a scared teenage boy, sitting abandoned in a cell.
    “What do you want to know?”
    “X73,” Aubrey said.
    George’s bulldog face wrinkled in confusion. “I don’t know what that is.”
    “Don’t lie to us,” I shouted, spraying his face with spittle.
    He blinked. “I’ve never heard of it. I’m telling the truth.” And the desperation in his eyes made me believe him.
    “What about the attack they are planning?” Aubrey said, walking to stand behind him.
    “I don’t know. They said something about a programme and a virus. I thought they might be planning on hacking S3’s computers. But they don’t let me in on the strategy stuff. I’m only there to blow things up, you know?”
    Aubrey laid her hands on his shoulders and leant in close to his ear. “If you are lying to us, this will go badly for you.”
    He tried to twist around in his chair to look at her. “I swear on my life. I ain’t lying.”
    “Your life