Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller Brandon Ellis (ebook reader for comics txt) 📖

Opening his door, he peeked down the hall. Empty. Dim lights. The scent of soil drifted in the air, probably from a nearby greenhouse. He walked down the hall and around a corner. Everyone in this section of Underfoot Black no doubt slept.

He ambled past the RIOUT office and took the stairs to an upper level to a lobby. Empty.

“Sir?”

Not as empty as he thought.

Jaxx turned around. There stood a man in camouflage fatigues, holding a military rifle. Eerily familiar, Jaxx couldn’t put his finger on where he had seen the guy.

Jaxx put his hands up, just in case. His mind fixated on “killers” and he didn’t want to inadvertently invite a bullet from some Terminator-wannabee’s gun.

The man wanted to laugh. The corners of his mouth gave him away. He didn’t give into the impulse. Instead, he fixed Jaxx with a cold eye. “This isn’t a bank robbery, Mr. Jaxx. Put your hands down.”

The helicopter pilot. Fox.

“What are you doing out of your quarters at 0200 hours, Jaxx?”

No, it wasn’t just that he was the helicopter pilot. Jaxx knew Fox from somewhere else, but from when and where?

“I couldn’t sleep.”

Fox gripped his rifle tighter. “How does not sleeping lead to sneaking around the facility at night?”

A scene played in Jaxx’s head—a long lost memory. The very same guy who stood in front of him, subtly threatening him with a rifle, was on a video screen, yelling profanities at Jaxx.

Jaxx lurched back and the memory vanished. He gathered himself and dug deep to recall more. But nothing rose to the surface.

Fox cleared his throat. “Cat catch your tongue?”

Jaxx put his hands in his pockets. “I thought I could walk it off. You know, maybe it would make me tired enough to fall asleep.”

He studied Jaxx for a few uncomfortable seconds. “I’m just at a loss for words, Mr. Jaxx. You don’t remember who I am, do you? You don’t have the faintest clue. I can see it in your eyes.”

Jaxx searched his mind for some answers, but came up empty.

Fox, shifted from one foot to the other, his face turning red. “Answer me, boy!”

“All I know is that you were the pilot who picked me up in Peru.” Maybe that was it. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Yes, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Did you have a hypnotherapy session today? Any memories come to surface?”

Jaxx licked his lips. “I did. I’m not quite sure how to feel about it. I think I was making it all up.” He didn’t want to share his “memory implant” theory with an angry, armed man. For all he knew, he was in on it.

Fox narrowed his eyes. “My name is Captain Richard Fox. Did that come up in your session?”

“No. Should it have?”

“Slade says he doesn’t know you from Adam. Doesn’t remember you from the Secret Space Program. I, on the other hand, do. You aren’t very popular with SSP, or with me. If you let anyone else know the contents of your hypnotherapy session besides Slade, Donny, and me…” he tapped his rifle muzzle a few times. “Do you get my drift?”

Adrenaline picked up in Jaxx. He gulped down a few breaths to stay quiet and nodded. He hadn’t seen Fox in his session, but Donny had mentioned that he, Slade, and Fox were all in this Secret Program together.

“Don’t screw up. I don’t like screw-ups. You’re on a tight chain with me.”

A tight chain? Is that like a tight leash? Has Fox had me on a tight leash before? “Alright. Can I go back to my room?”

Fox tipped his head to the side. “Remember, tight chain. Now, get.”

Jaxx walked past Fox and down the stairs. He turned a corner and looked back to make sure that Fox asshole didn’t follow. No sight of him. Jaxx headed in the opposite direction and down another hallway. He stopped in front of the RIOUT office. No one inside. He turned the handle and pressed on the door. Miraculously, it opened. “Idiots forgot to lock up.”

All the computers in sleep mode, he went to Shaughnessy’s station, then thought better of it. Shaughnessy was a good sort; he didn’t want to muddy his electronic footprint. No matter how good Jaxx was at erasing his steps, there’d be a record somewhere. He hoped his hacking skills were still up to par. His stomach clenched with the thought of what he was about to do. If caught, Fox might put a bullet through his brain, execution-style. He shook off the image. No one would go to those lengths around here. Or would they?

But Jaxx wanted some answers. Slade was being vague. He could feel it.

He went across the room to another computer and flipped the keyboard over. In a room full of rocket scientists—who all knew how important security and encryption was—some moron always wrote their password down and kept it someplace obvious. It only took him three keyboards to find his own, personal idiot. He couldn’t be sure, but if memory served, the computer belonged to the scraggly-bearded chap who’d sneered at him on day one. Well, karma’s a bitch, dude; suck it up.

He swiveled the computer’s mouse and the screen turned on, bringing it out of sleep mode. He typed in the password and a basic computer operating system displayed several icons. He clicked the internet icon.

A soft metallic noise pinged in the corner of the room. Had someone opened the door? Or the sound of gun-metal on a stainless-steel desk? Jaxx sucked in a sharp breath and ducked. He shoved himself under the desk and pulled his knees to his chest to make himself as small as possible. He waited a few beats, willing his breathing to slow. When nothing else happened—no sounds, no words, no smells—he crawled out. He chided himself for his overripe paranoia. Right now, he could have majored in paranoia. Hell, he would have been a gold medalist, several times over, if anyone ever held a Paranoia Games.

No one is