Read Elijah's Chariot (The Forgotten Children Book 1) for Free Online Page B

walking past the gang leader. “We have to get home.”
    “Svyeta!”
    Both
the girls and the group of gang members turned at the shout that had come from
just a few paces away. An unshaven man in his late thirties with shaggy hair
hanging over his eyebrows and ears and wearing mismatched clothes staggered
toward them, swaying a bit after each step.
    “Come
here, what are you doing out so late?” His words were thick and garbled as he
continued to lurch toward the girls.
    Svyeta’s
heart hung in her throat. She wasn’t sure if she was more relieved or terrified
to see her father. On one hand she was grateful he was there to help rescue her
from this situation and on the other she was scared he was just going to make
it worse.
    “Papa!”
Pyotr yelled, holding his arms out wide before bursting into hysterical
laughter and slapping the shoulders of his fellow gang members. 
    Zhenya
ran to her father as he stopped and swayed dangerously, appearing to be on the
verge of tipping over as he shifted his confused gaze to the teenage boys. She
wrapped her arms around his legs trying to hold him steady. 
    Svyeta
took her father’s hand. “Let’s go Papa, let’s get home.”
    “Yes,
Papa, you really should get home since it’s so late . It’s almost, oh my,
it’s almost noon! Looks like you’ve already started your celebration early, old
man.”
    Svyeta’s
father’s face turned red with anger and he began advancing toward Pyotr. Svyeta
and Zhenya stepped in front of him, leaning their bodies into his to stop him
like they had a hundred times before over the years. It was always better for
him and everyone else if he just stayed away when he was like this.
    “Papa,
Mama wants us home. She’s waiting with dinner,” Svyeta said urgently to her
father. 
    The
man blinked and stopped in place, seemingly heedless of his two daughters still
pushing their entire body weight into him. Finally, with Svyeta tugging on his
hand, he turned away from the Black Scorpions and started shuffling toward
their apartment building. 
    “Next
time then, Svyeta. Don’t worry though, we’re always throwing great parties.
Right Ivan?” Pyotr asked as he smiled after the two girls pulling their father
home.
    Ivan
didn’t say anything, just nodded as he stared at Svyeta. His eyes, which hadn’t
left Svyeta’s face during the entire conversation, were wide and emotionless.
Svyeta had no idea what thoughts were going on behind them. She found that she
was a little afraid to know.
     
     
     

CHAPTER
SIX
     
    “We’ve
got six Russian Air Force men dead – with no readily identifiable cause of
death. And two reports within the last hour that say there may be similar
mysterious deaths within the vicinity of Yekaterinburg,” said a strong,
slightly east-coast-accented voice. Administrator Leonard Hoffman paused in his
loud tirade of the past few minutes to wipe his glasses with a monogrammed
handkerchief, a dramatic effect at which the head of NASA was obviously well
practiced.  
    Placing
the glasses back on his pink face, he continued, “Now, I don’t have to tell any
of you here how ugly the blame game is going to get if we don’t start coming up
with some definite answers to explain these phenomena fairly soon.”
    Sean,
Kevin, all Kevin’s NASA colleagues and several U.S. government officials were
crammed into a large conference room back at the Embassy. They’d stayed at the
Russian Space Agency for a couple of hours after Jerry had landed, trying to
find out more about what exactly had happened. After no additional information
had seemed forthcoming, they’d all returned to the Embassy for an emergency
meeting. Disorder and chaos was so widespread across the usually quiet compound
that Sean had been able to walk right into the conference room behind his
father and quickly found a seat against the wall at the back of the room.
Everyone was too agitated and exhausted to notice the boy. 
    Jabbing
his finger into the open