Read Subject Nightingale 1: Birth and Death for Free Online Page A

hands. He brought his knee up and into his attacker's crotch, and the ax fell to the floor with a clatter. Next he brought the thick end of the crowbar down onto his attacker's face, and seamlessly turned the motion into a strong grapple.
    Theo was now behind the man, but Jonny and Michaela held their fire for fear of the bullets going through. Nightingale remained huddled behind Michaela, keeping her eyes shut and away from the scene.
    The man gagged, pinned to Theo's chest with the crowbar pulled across his throat, and he grasped uselessly at the thick steel as he felt its hold on him tightening. With a quick twist of his upper body, Theo brought the man's head to one side, and snapped his neck with a quiet tchk! He let out a breath as the body slumped to the floor, and panted out his sudden burst of adrenaline.
    “ Confirmed kill,” he said as he put his crowbar away. “Rest of the room looks secure.”
    Jonny and Michaela lowered their guns as they entered with Nightingale. The windowless room was mostly dark, bathed in the bright blue light of two large malfunctioning security monitors. Attached to the far wall, they only cast their light halfway across the room—it was barely even enough to illuminate the keyboards attached to the consoles beneath them.
    “Why's it so dark in here?” Nightingale asked as she crept toward the light source, one hand on the wall to help find her way.
    “ Michaela, look after the girl,” Jonny ordered as he and Theo moved to a table in the center of the room.
    “ Be careful, child, there are bullet casings on the floor. Do not trip.” Michaela stuck close to Nightingale, leading her to the monitors. “This is one of the security hubs for the entire building. When they fell under siege, they shut down all of their security operations to prevent them from being overridden.”
    Nightingale felt better under the light of the monitors. She looked at the door as it eased itself shut. “That's why all the doors are locked?”
    “Yes... Like a turtle hiding in its shell, the entire building is in a high level of lockdown.”
    On the other side of the room, Jonny pulled a tightly rolled map from one of his pockets and unfurled the large sheet across the table. Its glossy surface started to glow a gentle blue, and a white outline of the building appeared on its surface. The word Locating flashed several times, and then the blueprints for floor 25 appeared. A red dot blinked in one of the rooms to display their current location.
    “ We've only got one chance to plot our course before we go off the grid,” Jonny said.
    Theo leaned his palms on the edge of the table, arms stiff as he looked over the map. “Are there any service shafts we can take?”
    Jonny shook his head. “The elevators are all down, and Tommy has the repelling gear.” He touched the edge of the map with his right hand and dragged two fingers vertically across its surface. The white outline of floor 25 rotated into a 3-dimensional image, and then when he dragged his fingers horizontally, several floors above and below 25 appeared. Several yellow dots populated the map. “These are the closest ECHO squads.”
    “ It looks like Reverb got caught up.” Theo pointed at the yellow dot on floor 20, the word Reverb floating above it. “Buys us a little extra time to have that stairwell all to ourselves.”
    “ Let's not waste it,” Jonny said. “It looks like Specter is on time,” he pointed to a dot on floor 30, “which means they'll be leap-frogging down to floor twenty-two in seven minutes. Reverb will be here in ten. That gives us seven minutes to figure out our route, and three minutes to get lower than floor twenty.” He looked up toward Michaela and Nightingale and called out, “We're heading out in seven. Be ready.”
    “ Where do we go once we hit nineteen?” Theo asked.
    “ Roger,” Michaela said, confirming Jonny's notice.
    “ Which one is Roger?” Nightingale asked, confusion sweeping across her