Fury of the Six (The Preston Six Book 5) by Matt Ryan Page A

pulling his arrow back.
    They watched as it trailed across the sky and made impact. The explosion struck the flying object and it veered off momentarily. A small chunk of the cube fell to the rubble below.
    “ No ,” Edith called out. “Not the Queen!” She ducked down, trying to hold onto Evelyn.
    Joey felt the tug as well, and it gained in strength with each passing second. “Hit it again, Lucas!” he yelled above the sounds.
    Lucas dove to the ground, grasping for a hand hold. “I can’t, it’s pulling me.”
    Joey grasped Evelyn with Poly and Edith and they formed a tight circle, holding her in place, but Joey felt her body moving between them.
    “It’s going to crush her!” Poly yelled.
    The pulling got worse as Joey had trouble keeping both his feet on the ground. Hector sat, unfazed, looking at the ground with his blank stare. “It’s locked in on our thoughts. We have to blank out!”
    “It’s taking our baby!” Poly screamed over the noise.
    Joey knew, no matter what, he couldn’t do what Hector was doing. He couldn’t do anything else but put all his thoughts into saving his daughter.
    The tug on Evelyn intensified and was more than any of them could bear. Joey felt his daughter’s body slipping from his grip and his fear reached new heights as she started to slip away. Poly and Edith jumped to grab at Evelyn, but Joey had the last fingers on her. He held tight to her onesie, but the bottom button unhooked and his fingers lost purchase. She floated in the sky above them.
    Evelyn cried out and turned to the machine.
    “No, you can’t have her,” Edith yelled at the cube as she ran toward Lucas. She jumped up next to him and pulled the two arrows from his hands and ran up the rubble pile, making great leaps as the cube pulled her along. It had her. She floated toward in the air with the arrow extending out.
    “Edith has the bombs,” Lucas cried out while doing a handstand and hanging onto the edge of the concrete.
    Joey held Poly as they slid along the ground toward the cube. Soon it would have them all, unless Edith was able to pull off a miracle. She threw the arrows out at the same moment a door on the cube opened and swallowed her up. A section of the cube broke off and shot off into the sky, toward the black building.
    Evelyn floated far ahead of Joey. “No,” Joey said as he reached for her with one hand. He felt his and Poly’s body lift off the ground and pieces of concrete pelted his body as he floated. Lucas floated next to him and he looked back. Julie was much further away and had her face in her Panavice.
    He hoped she could find another way to stop it. Joey thrust forward, trying to get closer to Evelyn.
    “Get her, Joey. Use your power. Do something! ” Poly screeched.
    Joey wanted to save her, but he also didn’t want to go into slow motion and watch the last agonizing seconds before his baby girl was sucked into the machine. He cursed the world and all the things that led him to this moment. It already had Edith and soon it’d have them all.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    “ALICE, OR SHOULD I CALL you Renee?” Gladius asked.
    “Either is accurate,” Alice replied. “What are your objectives?”
    “We came to kill Marcus. Do you know where he is?”
    “Yes.”
    “Will you tell us?”
    “No.”
    Gladius sneered at the ceiling and searched for the speakers. She wanted to smash them in. “You told her.” She pointed at Gingy.
    “No, I swear,” Gingy said and backed up against the wall holding her hands up.
    Gladius half wanted to believe her. She didn’t really think they could fool an AI like Alice anyways. She must have sensed the body heat, the extra noise, or the peculiarities of Gingy’s actions. “So now what?” Gladius addressed Alice.
    “We wait for Marcus to respond.”
    “He said to let us go,” Minter chimed in.
    “Negative,” Alice said. “He has responded and has one question. Is Julie with you?”
    Gladius looked to Hank who shrugged. “Yeah,