Read The Ghost Roads (Ring of Five) for Free Online Page B

she was struggling.
    “Do you need a rest?” Gabriel asked. She shook her head. “Due east it is, then. And the wind is with us.” The Messenger shaped his wings and caught an updraft. He soared into the sky. A second later, Daisy did the same.
    T hirty miles away a nervous official sat hunched over a radar screen in the control tower of a small airport. The airport was closed for runway repairs. The man had every reason to be on edge. A tall, shadowy figure stooped over him, a man with a gaunt face who had to be seven feet tall. He was wearing a large rucksack on his back—or at least, that was what it looked like; he was draped in a cloak, so the man couldn’t see what was making the bulge near his shoulder blades. He was accompanied by a stocky figure who wore a baseball cap low over his eyes. The tall man did not speak, but he gave off a dry, unpleasant odor.
    The air traffic controller worked for a covert government agency and had been in many strange places, but this was the oddest of all, shut in a disused control tower at night with this pair who spoke only to each other, their voices harsh and guttural. They had been told to look out for two contacts that would suddenly appear in a quadrant of the sky. The man hadn’t believed such a thing could happen. Flying objects did not appear just like that.But at 3:35 a.m., two objects had appeared on the screen in front of him, two green blips moving more slowly than any aircraft he had ever known. The men behind him muttered and pointed to the radar screen, then fell silent again, intent on the green dots.
    What were the objects? UFOs, perhaps? In the world of spying the man belonged to, there had recently been many strange rumors, warnings of an unidentified threat. There was unprecedented cooperation with foreign intelligence services, which had been on high alert for weeks now. The word “invasion” had been whispered, but an invasion of what, and from where? There had been sightings of winged figures, and one terrified pilot had spoken of a flight of “cruel angels” that had cut across his flight path. Could it be a form of extraterrestrial life?
    The prime minister had sent messages down through senior officials, asking for calm. He spent much time closeted with a close advisor, a quiet, studious-looking man named Ambrose Longford, who was thought to have unique knowledge of the situation. The air traffic controller sighed. He certainly hoped it was true.
    “Where are they going?” the squat man growled.
    “I don’t know,” the controller said, “but on that trajectory, they’ll be over Kilrootford in twenty minutes.”
    The man nodded in satisfaction. The controller kept his eyes on the screen. Kilrootford was a top-secret installation that did not appear on any maps. He was amazed that these two knew anything about it.
    The squat man addressed him now. “Watch them. Do not let them out of your sight!”
    The controller did as he was told, feeling a drop of sweat trickle between his shoulder blades. The men made it hard for him to focus. In fact, they broke his concentration to such an extent that he didn’t see the single green dot moving slowly down the screen, ten miles behind the first two.
    D anny had known that it would be cold at high altitude, but he was not prepared for the bone-chilling winds. His coat kept his body warm, but he had long ago ceased to feel his feet, and he was sure his ears were frostbitten. He looked back at Nala. The Cherb was wearing only a light leather jerkin, but he didn’t look cold at all.
    “Is it me, or is it freezing?” Danny called over Gabriel’s shoulder.
    “Getting colder,” Gabriel said tersely. “There’s trouble up ahead. He pointed toward towering clouds up ahead, their edges a menacing black. “We can’t fly around or over them—too big—and even if we turned back, we couldn’t outpace the storm.”
    “What do we do?”
    “Hold on,” Gabriel said grimly, “hold on!”
    The wind struck