The Handler Read Online Free Page B

off or possibly lain down to rest from her exertion in tidying up. The tension in Sasha’s shoulders ratcheted up until he was hunched over, like an old man. He edged closer and dropped his voice. “Did Henry tell you about me?”
    I nodded, wondering why we were whispering. “He said that you had an unusual ability. He didn’t specify what it was.” Which wasn’t entirely true. Henry said Sasha could do something extraordinary with erasing memories, but I wanted to hear it from Sasha himself.
    His dark eyes searched mine, as if he could take the measure of me by peering into them. “Did he tell you that I don’t want to use it anymore?” Sasha asked. “Not ever again. I’m not here for that, so if that’s what you want, I might as well leave now, and we’ll just consider this all a misunderstanding.”
    Sasha’s instincts had gushed black. The sudden, fierce chill of it made me think he had tried to jack me. But he wasn’t cringing on the floor or screaming in terror—whatever was raising his most basic fear came from the depths of his own mind, not mine.
    “You’re afraid to use your ability?” I asked him.
    He looked away and examined the machinery that lined the nearby exterior wall. A mask of indifference dropped over his face, but his instincts burst into a writhing red mass. “All I’m saying is that I don’t ever want to do that kind of work again. Henry said…” Sasha faced me with his impassive look locked in place. “He said you would be different. That you would understand that some weapons should never be fired.”
    I nodded. Every jacker’s mind was a weapon, one that could easily be used for evil. For Sasha, however, it seemed to be something more. His ability fueled an inferno of fear and anger that he had to keep contained with an iron mask. The need to know what he could do sparked to life inside me.
    “I would never force you to use your ability against your will, Sasha,” I said. “You have my promise on that.”
    Sasha narrowed his eyes, studying me. No doubt looking for some reason to believe a promise from a jacker he had just met. Anna wouldn’t be too pleased about me making promises to someone barely inside our front door, but I couldn’t recruit people to our cause by forcing them to do things that terrified them. And my curiosity already burned like an itch I couldn’t scratch.
    “Can you at least tell me what it is?” I asked, trying not to let too much of that intensity show through in my voice. I swept out a hand, inviting him to the kitchen table where Anna stood, her hands resting on her hips. When I saw she had tucked a pistol in her waistband, I threw her a scowl. Her full military welcome wasn’t making this any easier.
    Sasha hesitated a long moment, then strode toward her. He ignored the weapons on the table and met Anna’s defiant glare. Her fingers silently drummed her hip, like they were warming up for shooting. I arrived at Sasha’s side, wishing my sister didn’t have such a hard head in so many ways. Linking a choice thought into her mind would have been very convenient at the moment.
    “I can erase you,” Sasha said to her, and my sister’s hand froze. “I can take away everything that makes you who you are, from your love of these weapons,” he glanced at the table, “to what kind of childhood you had, to the kind of person you want to marry. I can rewrite you into being someone completely new, down to every last personality quirk and habit and memory. Everything that is you would be gone. Permanently.”
    The muscles in Anna’s jaw worked. “I doubt that.”
    “My sister is probably immune to your charms,” I said, making a desperate bid to lighten the tension. “Seeing how most people can’t jack into her head at all.”
    “I don’t think that would be a problem for me,” he said. “All I would need is to touch you.” Anna flinched, even though Sasha had made no move towards her, and I could understand why. I had never heard