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

he could. A single light, faint, grew bigger, and headed his way. Whatever it was, it was coming at an incredible speed.

24

June 5thUnderfoot Black, Grenada

“Nice to see you alive, Mr. Jaxx.” Donny lowered his eyes, peering above his glasses. He leaned back in his chair, reading the clipboard in his hand. If Donny didn’t ware brown khakis and a tan sweater, Jaxx would peg him as Santa Claus.

“I heard about Captain Richard Fox.” Donny put the clipboard down. “Between you and me, the guy needs to be scrubbed between the ears. You know, with a razor wire. He’s caused me fits and problems in the past.” He waived his hand in the air. “Nothing like he did to you, but my God he’s a nuisance.”

I was shot. That’s a little more than a nuisance. Jaxx couldn’t believe how this place operated, as if shot several times and brought back to life occurred daily.

“Yeah.” Jaxx lay on the couch, determined to say as little as possible, just in case Fox or Slade watched. He didn’t want to screw anything else up.

“I have a question before we begin,” Donny’s frown deepened. “Are there any times in your life that you just don’t remember? Like five years of your life that seem a blur or simply erased from your mind?”

“I don’t think so. Why?”

“You’re the only person that I’ve met who has no memory of being in the SSP except through hypnotherapy.” Donny tapped his clipboard with his pen. “Maybe some memory loss in your mid-thirties?”

Jaxx looked off to the right. “I...uh...can’t recall not remembering anything. Then again, you wouldn’t, would you?”

“How old were you when you graduated from college?”

“Twenty-four. I went for longer than most.”

“So, you graduated high school, then graduated college, then started as an archaeologist right away?”

“I didn’t just start as an archaeologist—”

Donny palmed his clipboard. “Skip that question. Did you ever have any interest in the military?”

“Actually, I did. I wasn’t getting any archeology field work and was mostly an apprentice for another archaeologist, which wasn’t exciting, and the pay was terrible. I was behind on bills so I checked out the Navy, where I could get an actual paycheck.” Jaxx scratched his temple. “I was around twenty-eight years old.”

“Did you join?”

“No. After a few months, I realized enlisting would be the wrong course of action. Navy just wasn’t my passion.”

“Did they run tests on you?”

“Just a physical. Like I said, I didn’t enlist.”

“Okay, what did you do when you were thirty years old?”

Jaxx smiled. “My sister threw me a surprise party.”

“Excellent. Sounds fun. What did you do for your thirty-first party?”

Jaxx wiped his brow. “Hmm...there was this time…” He scrunched up his nose and stared at the wall. “A recruiter met with me when I was thirty-two.”

“Then what?”

“He just came by, asked if I wanted to join. If I had a change of heart. I asked him if I was too old and he shook his head. That was that and he went on his merry way.”

“He came to your house?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s odd.” Donny jotted something down on his clipboard. “What did you do for your thirty-third birthday party?”

Jaxx put his hands behind his neck. That time of his life was hazy. The memories weren’t there. “I...well...” He scanned his brain for anything, for something. Nothing came to the surface. “It’s blank.” He wiped his forehead. “What the hell? And, for my thirty-fourth?” He rubbed his eyes, disturbed. “No clue. I don’t remember a thing. The last party I remember was when I was thirty-seven, when I had my first book launch.” Jaxx sat up. “That was the first time I put myself out there to the world. The world came back, calling me names. It’s odd how you can think you’re so smart and when you attempt to show the world your research, they can torch you without hesitation. That’s when I realized I wasn’t as intelligent as I thought. So, I write books more or less to satiate my book-writing and research-loving appetite.” Jaxx gently slapped his cheeks, an attempt to get himself back on track. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is where the hell my memories went.”

Donny shook his finger. “And, why the Secret Space Program or whoever, wiped your memories. My guess is that when you were around thirty-two or thirty-three the Secret Space Program took you. Don’t beat yourself up for not remembering. They have tech neither you nor I have even heard of. And I’ve never heard of them erasing someone’s memories. I wonder why?” He sighed, long and heavy.

Jaxx stared at Donny. Was he signaling that he was an ally? Was he going to help him work this infuriating puzzle out? Was he going to stick his neck out and be a real man?

Donny doodled in the margins of his paper. “I wish we could go back to that time and pin-point the exact age you were taken and the exact reason your memories were deleted.”

“We can,” said Jaxx, as excited as he had been on that first day, when Slade had told him he’d be earning silly money interpreting hieroglyphs from space.

Donny let out one of his trademark sighs. “Slade has me looking for something else with these sessions.”

Jaxx threw himself back down on his mattress. He shouldn’t have been disappointed with Donny. He shouldn’t have expected anything in the first place. He was a yes-man, through and through. He wasn’t going to help him. “What does he have you looking for?”

Donny grimaced. “Well, apparently Rivkah Ravenwood has similar...let’s say...abilities as you. We think she developed them shortly before she left the Secret Space Program. And we think you may have something to do with her abilities.”

Jaxx sprang to his feet. “Rivkah? Rivkah’s here?”

Donny realized his error.

“How is that possible? Who brought her here? What are they doing with her?” He charged Donny’s chair and got up in his grill. “Tell me you’re not doing this shit to her, you measly little worm.”

Donny didn’t flinch. “Sit down, Kaden.”

“Let me