Kayla laughed, “You haven’t spent half the time talking to him that I have. At least he’s respectful to you. He thinks I’m some kind of no name peon.”
I couldn’t imagine what he said to her that made the way Major Justice treated me seem respectful.
She looked down at her phone, “Oh, and he’s gone. I guess he wanted to sneer at me one more time before they attacked.”
Cassie’s eyes narrowed, “You didn’t tell me he was being nasty to you.” Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 11
Kals talked with Julie in a low voice, using words that were a mixture of English and Ascendancy. The Ascendancy was straight jargon transliterated or translated into English. Even the Xiniti implants couldn’t translate it very well, turning most of the words into sound waveforms—which I could maybe figure out her strategy given time, but not in the moment. I still needed more context.
The words themselves still didn’t make it clearer. An example? Kals said, “I’ll need you to do eight high mind squirts in a row in the low mind zug pattern I taught you earlier.”
Julie meanwhile, furrowed her brow at first, but then smiled and said, “Got it!” Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 10
As Adam took off the necklace and handed it to me, Daniel thought at me, This is a good sign. In my dad’s stories, this is the kind of thing that should have provoked violence and I don’t sense any coming except in the least likely of futures.
I took the necklace and looked at the buzzer. I’d been right to think that it looked like one of my earlier designs, but it wasn’t one of them. I’d made them available to other people at points, but I didn’t think I’d done so with the model this appeared to be a copy of.
Keon had the skill to do it. He’d been at Stapledon before Adam disappeared and so had other techies. Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 9
Making a mental note to ask Amy if we could do something about him teleporting into HQ whenever he wanted, I stood up. I wasn’t the only one. Jaclyn, Haley, and Izzy had beaten me to it. Izzy was already in the air, hovering above her seat.
Tiger hadn’t done much when Adam first appeared in HQ, but this time, he’d made it to his feet and was already walking around the table.
He wasn’t growling, but watched as Adam walked toward the group, sometimes glancing over at Jaclyn as if wondering what she wanted him to do. Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 8
Well, at least the call was over. It wasn’t as if I hated Sean at this point, but I didn’t love unpredictability and if Sean had been turned by the Dominators, it would definitely be a surprise.
On the other hand, if they turned him and asked about me, they’d know our history. If they knew that, they’d know that he’s not someone I’d trust without question, making him a bad choice for betrayal. Still, if they could get him and couldn’t get anyone closer, they’d use him.
The screen went blank and Haley and I looked at each other. Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 7
The discussion went on after that, but no one said anything new. In the end, we took a vote with almost everyone voting yes to working with him.
Cassie spoke for everyone, though, when she said, “Alright, it looks like we’ll be working with him, but we don’t have to trust him. He’s got to pass Daniel’s and Kals’ testing. Plus, if Amy scans him with magic and finds something unexpected, we still ditch him.” Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 6
“I think we may have to,” I said. “I don’t like the idea either, but I feel like having us on the front lines at all times might not be a good idea. We could use help even if it’s Adam’s help.”
Cassie looked over at the medical capsule and then back to us, “I know what you’re thinking. We just lost Travis and you and I both know that there’s something out there that can kill any of us—even me. I’m not sure this is the time to make this decision. I think we might find it too easy to say yes right now even though you know what Adam’s like.” Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 5
I wasn’t the only person who noticed. Adam stopped what he’d been doing and his eyes widened.
If that surprised him, he recovered quickly, “Dr. Klein! I didn’t expect to see you. I knew you were Nick’s father. I just didn’t think you’d be here.”
He gave a quick smile, “It’s a little weird to have different pieces of my life crossing like this.” Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 4
I looked over at Haley. We were going to have to talk about this among ourselves and not just the two of us either—the whole team.
Of course, we had almost the entire team here already with the exception of Daniel, Jaclyn, Izzy, and Marcus. They were still out handling the police at Daniel’s house, or in Marcus’ case, traveling back from the fight at the factory.
It wouldn’t be that long and we’d have everybody whether we wanted them or not. Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 3
Adam walked across HQ’s main room like a man who knew where he was going. To be fair, except for being large enough to hold a regulation basketball court plus an audience, the room was basically a big square.
Anybody would know that all they had to do was cross the room diagonally and that we were on the middle left. Continue reading Simple Choices: Part 2