Read Hydraulic Level Five (1) for Free Online Page B

When he sees you, he’ll wave you up to the front. After that it’s up to you, hon.”
    I twisted my fingers together. There was no way he’d see me through this crowd—the whole thing was ridiculous.
    Answers, Kaye. You came here to be friendly, butter him up.
    Molly nudged me again. But when I turned around to tell her to give me a minute, I saw it wasn’t Molly, but an old classmate of mine…what was his name? Alan something.
    “Kaye Trilby! Or Cabral. Or…Trilby.”
    Murphy, that was it. “Hey, Alan, good to see you.”
    “Good to see you too! So, you here to see Cabral? Heh, obviously. Who isn’t?”
    Embarrassment prickled my cheeks. “Yeah, something like that. Old friends, you know.” Molly had disappeared. I scanned the crowd for her frantically, only to see her make her way to the security guard near Samuel.
    “Don’t I know it! There are people here I haven’t seen in years. Half the old baseball team…oh! I saw Jennifer Ballister on her way out, looking pretty pleased with herself.”
    I had to chuckle. That sounded like Jennifer.
    “Now that your boy is famous, everyone wants a piece of him, I guess.”
    “He’s not my—”
    “Speaking of which.” Alan flung an arm over my shoulder, hitting me with a waft of body odor. I shrank back. “Tell me what it’s like to be a famous character in a book series, and now a movie!”
    “Samuel didn’t intend for Neelie—”
    “Neelie’s a pretty hot ticket. All of my buddies are half-in-lust with her.”
    Ew. Now I was really uncomfortable. I glanced over at Molly again and saw that the security guard was currently standing next to Samuel, waiting to speak to him. Molly gave me a thumbs up. Crap crap crap.
    “Reading The Last Other must have been especially weird for you,” Alan prattled on in my bad ear, and I realized I’d missed a good chunk of what he’d said.
    Wait. “Why would reading the book be especially weird for me?”
    “Ah…I don’t know, I just think it would be strange to read about Neelie dying. I mean, it was pretty sad. I was even choked up.”
    Everything else faded away as I absorbed what Murphy had just told me. Neelie died?
    Samuel killed off Neelie?
    My hands trembled, but this time it wasn’t from nerves. It was fury. He killed off Neelie! My Neelie! Oh man, I was going to be sick.
    The security guard made his way over. I stared past him, seeing Samuel. His eyes were on mine…questioning, intense as ever.
    He killed off Neelie.
    “Ma’am, if you’ll follow me. Mr. Cabral would like to speak to you.”
    I nodded, sliding from Alan’s arm. He gave me a good-natured pat on the shoulder.
    “It was nice to see you again, Kaye. Say hi to Cabral for me.”
    “Yeah, you too.” I kept my eyes fixed on Samuel, vaguely catching curious chatter from the book line about my free pass to the front. Molly sidled up next to me, bouncing with excitement. And then I stood in front of him, arms clutching his book.
    He smiled tightly. “Hello, Kaye.”
    My voice failed as his pale eyes swept over me, taking in my dress, my hair, my face. He killed Neelie.
    “Was that Alan Murphy with you?” When I didn’t answer him, he grew concerned and waved a hand in front of my face, snapping me out of my shock.
    I dropped my book on the table and glared at him expectantly.
    “Nice to see you again, too,” he said, chuckling.
    “How could you do it, Samuel?”
    The smile fell from his face. “Do what?”
    “You know.”
    “I’m afraid I don’t.”
    I leaned in, my voice not one ounce sultry. “You killed off Neelie.”
    He looked baffled.
    I thought my hiss was too low for anyone else to hear. I thought I’d been discreet. But a stunned silence hung around the table for several uneasy seconds. And then behind me, a desperate “No!” followed by grumblings rapidly intensifying to a dull fury.
    “You…you bitch!” one woman screeched.
    “Are you insane? You just gave away the ending!” cried another.
    Oh holy hell.
    My