I thought about it a little longer and realized that it might be easy. Using my implant, I asked Hal, Do you have any data on camouflage or invisibility devices that Major Justice made for the military?
Hal’s reply appeared in my HUD.
[I have access to records of every device Major Justice made for the military. I can send you the specifications and testing data.] Continue reading Isolation: Part 8
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
“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
Daniel’s grandfather shook his head, “I wish that were true. What you’re seeing isn’t Alzheimer’s. It’s the result of overuse of my powers. You might even call it the growth of my prescience without a growth in my ability to stay grounded in the world around me.”
He stopped, looking from Izzy and Daniel to C, Jaclyn and me, “I can pull it together for meetings, but not for too long.”
C nodded, “We can’t talk too much about that. Not here.” Continue reading Sudden Changes: Part 14
As it turned out, I was right to worry because the situation evolved before my eyes—assuming that watching through a window in my HUD counts.
The True stood in front of Daniel’s house on the sidewalk and pointed their their rifles toward it—which was a good tactic. No one inside could prevent them from shooting up the house.
Except then, they didn’t. Continue reading Sudden Changes: Part 13
Upon landing, the Cabal soldiers were met with the jet’s anti-personnel lasers, spraying laser beams everywhere with uncanny accuracy, hitting all of the Cabal soldiers.
The jet’s anti-personnel weapons hadn’t been designed with the Cabal in mind. They’d been designed more to slow and discourage than to kill. They could kill, but not Cabal soldiers.
On the other hand, they were still lasers, however thin they might be, and in this case, they were being operated by Hal, our AI, whose primary purpose had once been to model space battles. Essentially, he’d been created to assist aliens in how to most efficiently kill each other, and long before this battle, I’d given him permission to listen to the rest of the team and help them as effectively as he knew how. Continue reading Sudden Changes: Part 9
I thought back, I’m not sure if that makes me proud or not. Either way, I’m sure they’ll factor it in now.
I felt a shot of nervousness from Daniel’s end, Can’t argue with that. Things are about to get dicey.
Maybe the conversation would have continued longer, but he wasn’t wrong about that. Two True behind the nearest houses popped out to fire at me. Unsure if Rook had developed killbots of his own, I shot sideways, weaving to make their chances to hit worse. Continue reading Sudden Changes: Part 8