Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
These are most definitely powered down. Which just adds to the mystery. Because something has to be going on in here, otherwise why would the sensor go off?
This question snaps me back into a more practical reality and I go looking for that sensor. My torch scans the walls for something that might detect motion.
I find them—hundreds of them, actually—mounted on the ceiling. All aimed down at the maze of walkways that exist between the server towers.
One of them, when I point my torch down at the floor, is ever-so-slightly blinking a blue-green light.
It’s in the direct middle of the maze and that’s when I realize there’s a glow emanating up from the space below it.
My fingertips dance along my battle belt and a moment later I’ve got the VersiStrike in high ready as I move forward towards the nearest entrance to the cluster of servers.
The Versi comes with its own torch. I tap it on with a practiced fingertip as I slip my other light back in place on my belt. Then I walk forward, carefully and silently, eyes darting around, expecting something to happen.
A maze of server towers really is the correct way to describe the room I’m in. Sometimes when I turn a corner it’s a dead end, a looming black tower acting as a wall. So I have to retrace, try again, then again. I’ve got no idea how long I stumble around trying to find the center because time seems to have stopped. Literally. The display on the Versi where the time should be has no readout.
But it’s a while and I’m starting to get frustrated when I see a slight shift in the light levels around a corner and up ahead. Obviously, there is no one in here with me. And no attack is imminent because it should’ve happened already. So I walk faster but keep the Versi at high ready anyway.
When I get to the corner, I’m just about to turn when everything around me becomes a waterfall of blue. I take a step back in surprise, release a round from my weapon, sending flechette darts everywhere, and then let out a breath, feeling stupid.
I lower the Versi and look at the floor, shaking my head.
My augments came to life. That’s all it was. Just my fucking implants. And the waterfall of blue is nothing but commands left over from some old mission or something.
Then, just as quickly as it appeared, it’s gone. And in the darkness, the glow I’ve been looking for is back.
But it’s what’s in the center of that glow that has me scratching my head.
Because it’s a woman.
A scantily dressed woman asleep on the floor of the ruined god’s brain room.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Hey.” I toe the woman with my boot. She doesn’t move, so I do it again. “Wake up. What are you doing in here?”
No response. Just… deep breathing.
I wait for an attack, bracing for it. In my experience a half-naked girl lying on the floor in the middle of a place she ought not to be is nothin’ but a trap.
But when it doesn’t happen, I step backwards, keeping my Versi’s torch trained on her as I put some distance between us. And then keep stepping until I bump up against one of the ruined servers.
I’m looking at her—right at her—when the glow that I was following just disappears. This is when it hits me that a minute ago my augments lit up and battle commands were scrolling down my field of vision.
But when I try and tap in and reconnect, it’s… dead. Like it has been for the last seven years. Cursing myself under my breath, I shake off the memories that want to creep back in and concentrate on the woman in front of me. She’s dressed funny, in sort of a costume. In all likelihood she’s a whore and there was some kind of party down here and she got left behind.
It’s the simplest explanation, which means it’s probably true.
She’s alone. I can feel it. I’m going to assume those sensors on the ceiling don’t have cameras. Either that, or they stopped working, or maybe never worked in the first place because of the spark or that hum. This means there is a high probability that no one is watching, so I let out a breath, letting solutions run through my mind the way they used to back when I was in the Sweep.
Well, not at all the way they used to back in Sweep. That’s the whole reason I’m no longer a soldier and live in a ruined god’s tower.
I was first augmented on my fourteenth birthday. Then again, every year after that until I was nineteen. I was meant to be something special. Kind of a… super soldier of sorts.
But the augments never really took. Not the way they should’ve. I was given a commission as a specialist with computation upgrades. It wasn’t a superpower, not at all. But in the beginning, it got me and my men out of a lot of sticky situations.