The Source: Book III of the Holding Kate Series by LaDonna Cole Page B

perch on either side of the doors, they exchanged a nod, and gave a silent count then whipped the doors open.
    Five jumpers screamed in fright and cowered under their arms.
    “It’s okay. Hey, we’re friends,” Corey said. They slowly emerged from their hiding place and gaped around the room with wild eyes full of panic.
    The smallest one breathed “zombies” over and over with horror sketched across her face.
    Kate jumped up and ran to them, crooning in their ears and stroking their hair gently. “It’s okay. You are safe here with us. Don’t worry.”
    Two of the smaller girls clamped around her waist with vice grips and cried into her shirt. She walked them to a table and eased them into chairs.
    The door banged open and they all screamed hysterically. Chaps ran into the room with an axe in his hands. “Corey! What? Are you hiding?”
    “We’re guarding Kate,” he corrected. “They’re all targeting her.”
    He glanced at Kate and the Cheleuthi warriors, then at the children. “Well, then, I’d better rustle these little ‘uns outta here.” He pointed at the kids.
    Corey nodded. “You don’t want them near here,” he agreed.
    He herded them all together. “Corey, Mama Ty is coming out of the Inner Circle soon. I thought you might wanna know. The board decided to recall her before the year is up.”
    “Good, Chaps. But I don’t plan to be here when she gets back. I am taking Kate away as soon as possible.”
    He searched Corey’s eyes, then nodded and turned to gather the children to himself.
    “Chaps,” Corey called. Chaps turned back with eyebrows raised in question. “I took care of the things we talked about. Thanks for caring and… you know…”
    He glanced at Kate again, gave a tip of his cowboy hat. “Y’all be careful, now. Make it official, ya hear?” He smiled and led the quaking children from the basement.
     

     
     

 
     
     

     
     
    THE SCREAMS OF panicked campers and monstrous invaders slowly died down, and an eerie silence fell over the village. Corey watched as the last of the dragons fell from the sky, digging a trench in the soccer field twenty feet long. A well-thrown spear, buried deep in his heart, quivered with his last shuddering breath.
    “Come on,” Corey said to Kate and the warriors in both English and Ampelese.
    He took Kate’s hand and they threaded through the hallway and pushed through a back metal door. The boiler room creaked and groaned as pipes snaked their way to the understructure of the chapel. He led Kate and the Cheleuthi warriors to an access panel in the far corner.
    He picked up a crowbar leaning against the corner, slipped it beneath the metal plate, and pried it open.
    “Corey, what is this?” Kate asked.
    “Underground tunnel back to First Cabin. I found it on the schematics yesterday when I talked to Wallace.” He held the plate as they crawled through the access panel, then secured it back into place. They stooped low for the first few yards before standing upright as the tunnel widened.
    The tunnel stretched far into the darkness. Corey pulled flashlights out of the backpacks, handed one to Stealthlin and showed him how to use it. He seemed a bit shocked by the fireless torch, but grinned and flicked the switch several times as he brought up the rear.
    They moved quickly through the tunnel, occasionally slowed by a junction where they had to clamber over and around some pipes. Drips and pipe song accompanied their footsteps as they hurried through the dank corridor. They stopped short at a large metal door barring passage. It had a swipe pad on the side and no doorknob.
    “Corey, that looks like the same kind of entry pad that the Inner Circle facility had.”
    When Dirk, Mel, Donnie, Trip, Tara, Kate and Corey became the Keepers, they were blindfolded and taken away to an underground facility for three weeks of intense training. They prepared for the investigation of the Inner Circle, the twelve scientists who formed a