The Indestructibles (Book 2): Breakout by Matthew Phillion Page A

Luminae give their hosts."
          "Answer the question, Barren."
          "I had no idea! I met Horizon a hundred times, more than that, and I never got a good read on his power. You know why?" Sam said. "Because he was one of the good guys, and his powers were none of my goddamn business."
          Prevention sat down at a table in the center of the room and motioned wearily for Sam to sit down. She looked tired. If she weren't so hell-bent on messing with the kids, Sam might feel bad for her — she was clearly under orders to rein in the five most ornery people on the planet, and it wasn't going well.
          "Well for future reference, yes, Luminae give their hosts psychic defenses," Prevention said.
          "You got busted?"
          "Oh I got busted. Little punk actually laughed at me," she said.
          "The boy is a bit of a showoff," Sam said. "Who agreed to meet with you?"
          "Solar and Straylight. The others were noticeably absent. Are you sure you have no idea where the werewolf went?"
          "No harm in telling you he went looking into his past. Other than that he didn't talk about it."
          "It is remarkably unnerving to know there's a werewolf on the loose and I have no idea where he is."
          Sam laughed.
          Prevention actually cracked a smile. Her agents, hovering around the room, looked somewhere between uncomfortable and relieved.
          "Which one of you has to deal with him if he shows up?"
          The agents looked at Prevention for approval. She nodded.
          "We've both dealt with shapeshifters before," Lock said. "Hand to hand and with firearms."
          "Don't kill the boy," Sam said.
          Rourke shook his head.
          "Only as a last resort."
          "The werewolf is a good boy," Sam said. "The other critter in that body . . . Just avoid him, if you can. You haven't dealt with a full-fledged werewolf?"
          "No," Rourke said.
          Sam nodded.
          "Don't poke the tiger," Sam said. "Or wolf in this case. You'll be thankful for it later."
          Prevention crossed her legs, rubbed her eyes.
          "Well, in any event, they won't play ball with us," Prevention said.
          "Solar shut you down?"
          "Not in so many words. Did she pick up the coy thing from you?"
          "Have to assume that was Doc," Sam said.
          "Doc Silence. Even dead he's still a pain in our backside," Prevention said. "What did he have against us?"
          "Us? Nothing," Sam said. "We never tried to tell him what to do."
          Sam slunk back in his chair. He felt very old, and very tired. He wasn't old enough to feel like this, and he was so tired of being sick.
          "How are you feeling, Sam," Prevention said.
          "Like I'm dying very slowly. How do I look?"
          "Like you're dying very slowly," Prevention said. "This is why I'm here right now."
          "Not to complain about the intel I didn't give you about the Indestructibles?"
          "No," Prevention said. "I told you we could help you."
          "What could you possibly do to help me at this point," Sam said.
          "I can't do anything," Prevention said. "But we have something that can."
          Prevention waved a hand at Rourke, who opened the door, and a dead man walked in.
          "You," Sam said.
          The man walked with the aid of a cane he didn't need before, his shoulder slumped to one side, hair gone gray at the temples.
          "Hey, Sam," the man said in a voice Sam Barren hadn't heard in years. The voice of a dead hero. "I see they've got you under lock and key too."
          Henry Winter, the scientist hero once known as Coldwall, stood in the doorway, when he should have been long buried in the ground.
         

 
     
     
    Chapter 15:
    Plague hospital
         
         
          Caleb Roth was beginning to think he had been going