Slip (The Slip Trilogy Book 1) by David Estes Page A

lie. If we don’t take drastic action to stem the population, none of us will survive.

Chapter Fifteen
     
    D omino Destovan can’t believe how lucky he’s been in his life.
    Turning sixteen just two days before they lowered the minimum age for military participation from eighteen to sixteen; surviving a direct hit from a drone rocket on the bunker he was stationed in when piloting drones in World War V; losing only an arm, a leg, and part of his skull in the attack; returning home a hero, receiving six medals for bravery and valor and dedication to his country; getting a free procedure to repair his broken body, which is now stronger than ever, made up of sixty percent human flesh and bones, and forty percent machine parts.
    All that in a year!
    None of it would’ve been possible if he hadn’t been a strong kid. He thought his anonymous tip to Pop Con about his Slip sister would be an easy solution to get his parents’ attention. His mother would be taken into custody and she’d tell them everything. They’d find and get rid of his younger sister, who NEVER SHOULD’VE BEEN BORN ANYWAY. Then his mother would come home, and his father could stop hiding out with his sister. They could be a real family, and he’d be their favorite kid again, no longer ignored.
    But that’s not the way it happened. Instead, his misguided mother tried to be a hero and died during the interrogations. Luckily, he was smart and strong and was able to convince the authorities to send him to the military academy rather than some state orphanage. From there, his anger at his parents boiled into hate.
    That’s when his father found him, on a cold and rainy night when he was out looking for trouble on the city streets. His father had apologized for everything and told Domino he missed him.
    Too little, too late.
    Although lava was running through Domino’s veins, he pretended he missed his father, too. He lied and told his father he was scared, that he wanted to be with him again. He wanted to be a family again. His father had told him it was too risky, and that Domino was better off in the military academy. Domino begged to at least know where they were staying, so he could visit from time to time. His father—the stupid, stupid man—told him.
    Later that night, he placed another anonymous tip to Pop Con with the location of the Slip they’d been hunting for over two years. He read the news the next day, shocked that there was still no new news on the Slip hunt. A month went by, then another. He didn’t know what to think, what to do. Had his father and sister moved? Did he realize his own son had tricked him?
    Another week passed and then it finally happened:
    His unauthorized sister and father were found and killed, right where he told Pop Con they’d be. All because of him.
    Good riddance.
    They gave the Head of Pop Con, Michael Kelly, a medal, when it was Domino’s tip that made the difference.
    He knows everything that’s happened to him is part of his destiny, and he won’t run from or regret any of it. He’ll only ever embrace it, especially now that’s he’s free of his freak parents and illegal sister. He didn’t need them then, and he doesn’t need them now.
    And to top it all off, he’s just been recently appointed as the youngest employee of Pop Con. He’s a Hunter, one of the highest-trained officers responsible for locating and terminating UnBees, or Unauthorized Beings. Or, in the rare event that an UnBee slips through the cracks and becomes a full-fledged Slip, he’ll be the one hunting the threat down. Although there hasn’t been a Slip in nine years—since his sister and her father were terminated on a roof; oh how Dom wishes he could’ve been there for that!—he hopes it will happen again. Nothing would give him more satisfaction than to look in the eyes of the scum trying to eat his food and breathe his air, and then pull the trigger.
    People like that will kill us all , Dom thinks.
    In fact, they