Read The 6th Extinction for Free Online Page A

father asked hoarsely, as if seeing him for the first time.
    “Just stopped by to check on how you were doing.”
    A thin hand patted the back of his arm. “How ’bout a beer then?”
    “Another time. I’ve got to get back to Sigma. Duty calls.”
    Which was the truth. Kat had caught him en route from his apartment, asking him to join her at Sigma command in D.C. After he had explained about the situation with his father, she had given him some latitude. Still, he had heard the urgency in her voice and didn’t want to let her down.
    He glanced to Kenny.
    “I’ll get him up to bed. After episodes like this, he usually sleeps the rest of the night.”
    Good .
    “But, Gray, this isn’t over.” Kenny lowered his voice. “I can’t keep doing this night after night. In fact, I talked with Mary about this earlier today.”
    Gray felt a twinge of irritation at being left out of this conversation. Mary Benning was an RN who watched over their father during the day. The nights were mostly covered by Kenny, with Gray filling in when he could.
    “What does she think?”
    “We need around-the-clock care, with safeguards in place. Door alarms. Gates for the stairs. Or . . .”
    “Or find a home for him.”
    Kenny nodded.
    But this is his home .
    Kenny must have read the stricken expression. “We don’t have to decide right away. For now, Mary gave me the numbers for some nurses that could start covering the night shift. I think we could both use the break.”
    “Okay.”
    “I’ll get it all arranged,” Kenny said.
    A twinge of suspicion rang through Gray, wary that his brother’s sudden resourcefulness was driven more by a desire to wash his hands of their father and escape back to California. But at the same time, Gray recognized his brother was likely right. Something had to be done.
    As Kenny led their father toward the stairs and the bedrooms above, Gray pulled out his cell phone and dialed Sigma command. He reached Kat almost immediately.
    “I’m coming in now.”
    “You’d better hurry. The situation is growing worse.”
    Gray glanced toward the stairs.
    It certainly is .
    11:33 P . M .
    Gray reached Sigma command in fifteen minutes, pushing his Yamaha to its limits on the nearly deserted streets, chased as much by the ghosts behind him as he was drawn forward by the urgent summons to D.C. He could have begged off on coming in, but he had nothing but worries waiting for him at his apartment. Even his bed was presently cold and empty, as Seichan was still in Hong Kong, working with her mother on a fund-raising project for impoverished girls in Southeast Asia.
    So for the moment, he simply needed to keep moving.
    As soon as the elevator doors opened onto the subterranean levels of Sigma command, Gray strode out into the hallway. The facility occupied long-abandoned World War II–era bunkers and fallout shelters beneath the Smithsonian Castle. The covert location at the edge of the National Mall offered Sigma members ready access both to the halls of power and to the Smithsonian Institution’s many labs and research materials.
    Gray headed toward the nerve center of the facility—and the mastermind who ran Sigma’s intelligence and communication net.
    Kat must have heard his approach and stepped out into the hallway to meet him. Despite the midnight hour and the long day she’d had, she was dressed in a crisp set of navy dress blues. Her short auburn hair was combed neatly in a boyish coif, but there was nothing boyish about the rest of her. She nodded to him, her eyes hard and focused.
    “What’s this about?” Gray asked as he joined her.
    Without wasting a breath, she turned and headed back into Sigma’s communication center. He followed her into the circular room, banked on all sides by monitors and computer stations. Normally two or three technicians manned this hub, and when an operation was in full swing, there could be twice that number. But at this late hour, only a single figure awaited