Voyage of the Sanguine Shadow 1: Shadow Galactic Read Online Free Page A

looked nervous.  “Can’t I get arrested for
that?”
    Takeo shook his head.  “You won’t.  Trust me.”
    “I’ll lose my scholarship if I go to jail,” Gavin
insisted.
    “You’re not going to lose your scholarship.”
    Fogg dispersed and flowed into the truck’s
dashboard vents.  A gentle haze formed around Gavin’s pickup.  As they drove at
sensible speeds alongside the rest of the traffic, Fogg got to work on the
vehicle’s computer systems.  A moment later, a series of cheerfully descending
notes chimed, and the traffic grid indicator light blinked off.
    “Here we go,” Gavin exhaled.  Gripping the wheel
with renewed focus, he raced along the roads, bobbing and weaving through
traffic.  Takeo smiled as he swayed with the tight turns and sudden changes in
speed, the weightless moments when Gavin took the occasional hill just a bit
too fast.
    “You really should try for your pilot’s license,”
he teased.
    Gavin cast his friend a sidelong glance.  “I can’t
afford it.”
    “But you can afford this truck you hardly ever
drive?”
    “I’m driving it now,” Gavin countered, and he
jammed a hard left, pressing Takeo firmly against his door.  “Besides, even if
I got my license, I’ll never be able to afford anything that can fly.”
    Takeo shrugged as soon as the turn was complete. 
Up ahead, Supernova Express came into view.  “You could always pick up some
extra work with my dad.  He pays well, once you’ve proven yourself.”
    Gavin laughed.  “And spend my life getting shot at
by psychotic xenos?  No thanks.”
    “If you switch your major to biochem, it could be
a lucrative move.”  He nodded toward Gavin.  “We could really use someone in
forensics.”
    Gavin slowed down and parked against the curb in
the first open space he found, a few blocks away from the club.  Its thumping
music could be faintly heard as he let his truck idle, and he regarded Takeo. 
“Let it go, Takeo.  I’m probably not even going to graduate.  You and I both
know that.”  He switched off his truck, and the doors slid open.  “Let’s go
find Taryn.”
    Fogg took the form of a mechanical pup and
scampered along as Gavin and Takeo made their way closer.
    Up ahead, huddled near a payphone under a shadowy
overhang, two hooded fellows took note of them and moved quickly away, deeper
into the darkness of a shuttered restaurant.  “Such subtlety,” Takeo mocked,
and he rested his hand near the small of his back.  He whispered to Gavin,
“Whatever those guys have to say, don’t talk to them.”
    “Why not?” Gavin asked, as one of the hooded men
stepped back into view, his hands in his pockets.
    “Got a smoke?” asked the stranger, his companion
close behind him.  He glanced this way and that.  Other shadows loomed deeper
within the shuttered restaurant.
    Gavin answered, “Not on me,” and he felt a sharp
jab to his arm as Takeo nudged him along.  “Sorry.  Good luck.”
    “Slow down,” a deep voice rumbled, and a massive
creature of stone skin stomped into view from further down the walk.  The
others swept in behind Gavin and Takeo as they regarded the stone man.  “Really
could’ve used that smoke.  What else you got?”
    “One or two things,” Takeo growled, and he pulled
Gavin stumbling to the wall.  In a flash, he produced a heavy revolver that had
been tucked into the back of his pants, and he leveled it fearlessly at the
stone man.  “You are all leaving, now!”
    “I don’t think so,” snarled the stone man, and he
charged.
    Takeo squeezed the trigger twice, and two shots
struck their mark, near where the heart would be on a human, but only a shower
of sparks rained down from the stone assailant’s chest.  Two more hooded
figures bolted from the deeper shadows, as the first two lunged.  Takeo gripped
and swung a hooded man around, sent him careening into the stone attacker.  A
blur of kicks and punches, and two more toppled with a crunch to the