Read Subject Nightingale 1: Birth and Death for Free Online

forced open.”
    “ But it worked earlier,” Nightingale said.
    Theo grabbed the emergency handle and gave it a few quick tugs to show Nightingale that it wasn't working. “What are we gonna do?” he asked Jonny.
    Jonny let out a breath and rested his arms on the crowbar jammed horizontally in the door. “We've gotta find somewhere to sit for a minute. Do we know if any other floors are clear at the moment?”
    Nightingale stepped away from Michaela and put herself between Theo and the door. She bumped into him when she reached for the emergency handle, and he looked down at her.
    “I told you it's not gonna work, you just saw for yourself.”
    “ I wanna try myself.” She grabbed the red handle and gave it a firm tug, and same as before, the large steel door began sputtering sparks and slowly opening. “See?” She stepped back over to Michaela and looked up at Theo and Jonny.
    “ Well I'll be,” Theo said as he caught his crowbar when the door released it. He collapsed it and stowed it. “I guess you've got the magic touch, kid.”
    “ Michaela, help us out,” Jonny ordered when the door stopped after about a foot.
    He grabbed its edge and braced his foot against the threshold, and Theo and Michaela each grabbed the edge as well.
    “Pull!”
    The three of them pulled with all their strength, collectively holding their breath and straining as they managed to slowly force the door open a few more feet. When they let go, it didn't begin to close on its own like before—whatever internal security mechanism controlled it must have been broken after so many forced openings.
    “It's not ideal, but it gets us in,” Jonny said as he slipped through first, aiming his rifle left and right before motioning for everyone else to follow. “If the others are on schedule, we've got less than ten minutes before the next ECHO squad sweeps this floor.”
    Nightingale and Michaela went next, and then Theo behind them. As Jonny led them down the hallway, Nightingale reminded herself to keep her eyes up. The floor was littered with bodies, debris, and miscellaneous remnants from a hard-fought battle, and staring at it all upset her stomach.
    “Why are there so many bodies?” she asked, if only to hear a noise other than footsteps.
    “ Because there are many more members of building security than ECHO,” Michaela answered.
    Nightingale let her gaze drift as she followed close behind. The walls that weren't crumbling and cratered were painted white, some bearing the Lab's slogan in tall, black block lettering. Nightingale caught glimpses of that room she woke up in as she read it: Until man is indistinguishable from gods. She saw herself sitting in that throne, hooked up to that machine, and she saw Doctor Metzger mumbling the phrase to himself.
    Shattered windows looked into large laboratories, filled with wrecked equipment that Nightingale didn't recognize. It all looked very technical and scary, and suddenly she began wondering what that doctor had been doing to her.
    “Theo, get us in,” Jonny said as he stopped in front of another steel door, this one labeled Security .
    “ I'm getting real sick of prying these doors open for you, Jonny,” Theo said as he extended his crowbar and got to work.
    Jonny covered the hallway to the right. “I hope it's teaching you a valuable lesson.”
    “Yeah,” Theo muttered between grunts as he forced the door open, “don't play my queens when there's a king in the river.”
    “ A king in the river?” Nightingale whispered, looking up at Michaela.
    “ It is a card game,” Michaela responded, not taking her eyes off the left hallway.
    “ Contact!” Theo shouted once the door was open, and Jonny and Michaela turned to train their guns on the lone member of building security.
    The man had come at him with a fire ax, his ammo completely spent on previous encounters with ECHO. He hurled its blade for the top of Theo's head, but Theo blocked it with his crowbar held high in both