Trying to keep him guessing, I interpreted the question as literally as possible. “It does not help me remember. What do you mean by faking ‘it’?”
Dr. Hansen began to move his left arm upward toward the gun, mostly likely to steady it so that he could shoot me. I had no time left to wait. I was just about to use the stealth suit (concealed as jeans, a long sleeved t-shirt, and a jacket) to lean forward and throw the desk at him, but I didn’t have to. Continue reading Loose Ends: Part 2
Haley and I stopped in front of Dr. Hansen’s door. “I’ll see you in a little bit.”
She squeezed my hand and stepped away to grab one of the chairs next to the wall in the engineering department. We weren’t the only ones there. The engineering department was a combination of a workroom, departmental assistant’s office, and common room. Ten or more professors’ had offices that surrounded the room.
The nice ones had windows. Dr. Hansen, as the department head, had a corner office. Continue reading Loose Ends: Part 1
That at least was good news. The bad guys appeared to be contained. Speaking of which, Russell Hardwick, Ryan, Zola, Art, and the two Protection Force guards were still stuck too.
Plus, Dr. Griffin was off to the side of the room.
So we were all good except for the four, twenty-foot tall, grey mechs and they were less of a worry than you’d think. With Izzy being stronger than a locomotive, it only took one blow to knock the head off of the first mech in. The head bounced off the shoulder of the mech behind it and rolled off into the night. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 35
“It’s complicated, but the short version goes like this: we didn’t begin being creatures that spanned universes. We began as small reptilian creatures in a universe that may not exist any longer. We grew, changed, and after a time learned how to modify ourselves. We’d always had a small talent for existing out of phase, but we expanded it, allowing ourselves to move from one universe to another and connect to other versions of ourselves. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 34
The smaller presence rattled off a reply. “Impossible. We all agreed that there were enough of us and then we rewrote ourselves so that there wouldn’t be more. We’d all know it if they changed it back—if it’s even doable—which I doubt.”
Though there was no air to breathe, I heard the larger presence sigh, “Nevertheless, there was a child.”
“Impossible—” the smaller presence began. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 33
Though I didn’t lose the feeling of my connection to Daniel, I couldn’t connect to him. In much the same way, I couldn’t contact my implant.
At the same time, I could feel presences in the darkness, and, as my senses adjusted, I could see stars. At least I assumed they were stars. If I were to stick to pure description without assigning meaning, I saw pinpricks of light in the darkness. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 32
Almost as he hit the floor, I stepped on his cyborg arm, and not in the casual, “I’m holding it down and I’m not going you move it,” sense. I stepped on his arm more in a, “finishing move,” sense.
My booted foot hit with enough force to shatter concrete and armored forearms along with it. The armor around Rook’s forearm bent and cracked, revealing machinery, wires, circuit boards in reinforced protective cages, and below the forearm the barrel of Rook’s Abominator energy weapon with its batteries and tech that made my implant activate and all but scream for attention. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 31
Deciding it was worth taking the chance, I unloaded the sonics on him, blasting him at the same frequency that I’d used before, the one that seemed close to making his “body” shatter.
It was a risk, both because the sonics might not be able to generate enough power and because they always seemed to take on longer to work than my other options.
On the other hand, punching him didn’t seem likely to take him out and using the laser would charge him up, making it easier for him to unleash another blast like the last one. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 30
Victor held his head in his hands, screaming as if in pain. I guessed it might be feedback from his connection to the birthing chambers.
Rook, meanwhile, began screaming at him. “Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!”
Even before he’d finished, I fired another boombot at him and aimed a narrow beam sonic attack at Victor because with all the energy flowing through me I could handle that and still have time to adjust the sonics. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 29
“Funny that you’re doing the tech stuff and I’m the one out here fighting everybody?” I mean, it was.
“Shut up and hit people!” I could feel her irritation over the implant link.
Knowing that she had a point, I fired off a few more goobots, covering all the people near me, and then I ran around them down the side of the room, passing the newly born True who were crawling, or in some cases running and falling, toward the edge of the room.
They didn’t seem to be a threat for now, but if they got control over their muscles, I’d have to do something. Continue reading Mere Anarchy: Part 28