Arc 10.4.0: Truth and the True

Truth and the True: Part 3

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Then I worried if they’d notice that I was looking around or worse, that I was barely working. For a moment I felt like my heart was about to speed up, but it didn’t. My implant informed me that it was, “Quelling ‘fight or flight’ response,” and I began to feel normal.

While I hoped it wouldn’t do that when I was in a fight, I felt relieved to know that it worked.

Though I didn’t see either Art or Zola, I decided that I ought to get back to work. I could check through access to the library later.

Coding did distract me from the world for a while, but not forever. Midway through the afternoon, it struck me that if someone in the company had a Citizen’s Mark, finishing the helmet might be the best thing I could do. My implant’s hack into the birthing chamber platform only allowed me access to the library of creatures, but not total control. Continue reading Truth and the True: Part 3 →

Arc 10.4.0: Truth and the True

Truth and the True: Part 2

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“No shit?” Vaughn looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Do you know when?”

Emmy frowned. “Are you making fun of me?”

“No,” Vaughn shook his head and then smiled at her. “I believe you. There are psychics all over. The Heroes’ League in Grand Lake has had at least two—the Mentalist and the Mystic. They’re pretty well known and I’m sure there are a bunch of people with potential out there that no one knows about. Do you take power juice?” Continue reading Truth and the True: Part 2 →

Arc 10.4.0: Truth and the True

Truth and the True: Part 1

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With everything going on at Higher Ground, you’d think that I’d work on that and nothing else, but life wasn’t that simple.

We’d gotten to that point in the semester when the tests begin to appear and papers along with them. Electronic engineering and materials science weren’t majors with a lot of papers, but I did have to turn in a couple of short ones explaining the technical choices I’d made on projects. The tests weren’t bad—Dr. Strazinsky’s calculus class asked about material I’d learned on my own and “Principles of Photonics” was interesting enough that I couldn’t ignore it. Continue reading Truth and the True: Part 1 →

Arc 10.3.5: Jekyll Or Hyde

Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 18

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Haley raised an eyebrow. “But for real, who are they?”

Crossing her arms across her chest, Stephanie said, “They really are in the Marketing Department. Zola’s a graphic designer except she also writes—which means she writes a lot of internal memos from management to the masses. She’s not a bad person. She’s artsy—likes to talk about different periods in graphic design. I went out with her to a few bars when she worked in the lab. I haven’t seen her much lately. She’s been busy with work and learning to use her powers, I guess. Continue reading Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 18 →

Arc 10.3.5: Jekyll Or Hyde

Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 17

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Flipping through the people I could remember from work, I couldn’t think of any that had even hinted that they might be Feds or in any way on my side. To be fair, that was probably a mark of competence.

That in turn reminded me of Stephanie. I needed to show her this video. Even though I wasn’t quite sure she was trustworthy, we were in this together now and she deserved some warning if they somehow caught on to her.

You could make an argument that she might be better off not knowing given Zola and Art’s senses, but I couldn’t quite make myself believe it. At core, the more a person knew, the better they could adjust their actions to match their situation. Continue reading Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 17 →

Arc 10.3.5: Jekyll Or Hyde

Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 16

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A few hours later, I found myself on a call with him. Isaac sat in his home office. I sat in my lab. I’d used backchannels to let him know I had something big and he’d called me from his secure system—the one so secure that even his superiors wouldn’t be aware of it because they might have been compromised.

I’d given him access to the video I’d made. He’d finished watching and shook his head. “That’s bad. I’ve seen worse, but that’s pretty bad. Higher Ground is blackmailing their own employees into getting their DNA modified by alien artifacts. Then they’re using them to steal an unknown piece of data from Hardwick Industries. It seems to be organized by their research director who might have connections to the Nine.” Continue reading Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 16 →

Arc 10.3.5: Jekyll Or Hyde

Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 15

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Using alien technology to empower people to break into Hardwick Industries and maybe commit other crimes as well had to be in violation of some agreement. Plus, they were talking about me. Didn’t the FBI quit while they were ahead if they had something and a civilian “asset” was in danger?

They hadn’t said, “That kid makes me nervous. Let’s kill him,” in so many words yet, but a risk to life and limb seemed implied in the way they were talking. Continue reading Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 15 →

Arc 10.3.5: Jekyll Or Hyde

Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 14

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Art laughed. “I don’t know how many guys like him you knew in college, but here’s a little secret. Guys that age want women desperately and have no idea what to do about it. You’re good looking. Even if he never says anything, he’ll probably get nervous every time he gets near you.”

Zola shook her head. “I hope not, but I’m not sure it’s nervousness. I’m still figuring out what all these smells mean, but that doesn’t seem quite right. Besides, doesn’t he have a girlfriend? I thought I heard he was with someone or maybe Stephanie?” Continue reading Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 14 →

Arc 10.3.5: Jekyll Or Hyde

Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 13

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I sat down, not wanting them to think I was watching them. Thanks to the bots I’d hidden around the offices and the lab, I didn’t have to watch them with my eyes. Allowing communication between my bots and my implant let me sit at my desk and watch the two of them move with my brain.

No doubt that opened up issues related to both privacy and humanity’s cyborg future, but I wasn’t worried about them. For me, being able to watch the two of them as they walked over to one of the small conference rooms meant that life was good.

I’d bugged that small conference room. Continue reading Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 13 →

Arc 10.3.5: Jekyll Or Hyde

Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 12

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I recognized them. I didn’t know their names, but I’d seen them at the party the company threw at the old hotel by Lake Michigan.

Neither of them went by the company’s informal dress standard—jeans and a t-shirt, but their success in looking a cut above the rest of us worked better on the woman than the man.

Only a few inches shorter than I was, the woman had light skin, blond hair and wore a green suit jacket with a black turtleneck and pants. It struck me as a goth turned business professional look. I guessed she might be in her early thirties.

I pegged the man as being in his early forties. A couple inches shorter than the woman, he had curly black hair, tan skin, and either hadn’t shaved or grew facial hair at an alarming rate. Continue reading Jekyll Or Hyde: Part 12 →

The Legion of Nothing: A Series of Online Superhero Novels (Updates Monday and Thursday)