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

She didn’t care if the next person who walked into the room had ten guns or none. She’d fight her way out of this underground facility. If it was Slade, so be it. The asshole used her for something she hadn’t quite figured yet. She was an officer and he was treating her like a piece of shit. She’d been accepted into the Secret Space Program long before he enlisted. Where was his respect? Yes, he had a longer military tenure, but no one knew space, a starfighter, and a cockpit like Rivkah. No one.

She stopped and put her hands on a short dresser and looked into a mirror attached to the wall. Astounding. Her skin, normal. She’d gotten used to a gargoyle looking out at her from the mirror, whenever she was stupid enough to glance at her own reflection.

She touched her skin for the hundredth time. Every time, she had to remind herself she wasn’t imagining it. They healed her. But for what? To kill her? It sounded ridiculous. Regardless, her face healed. And if she escaped this plan—no, when she escaped this facility—people wouldn’t stare at her when she walked down the sidewalk on a city street. A new life, a different life, a going-outside life, a talking-to-other-people life. Maybe there was a reason to live, after all.

Her door clicked and opened.

Captain Richard Fox entered, two guards behind him. “You’re coming with me. You’re our new expert pilot. No one gives two shits or cares about your being here. You’re to do as you’re told. Understand?”

“I should have known you were involved. You son of a bitch.”

She took a swing at him. He caught it without a flinch, but didn’t realize that’s what she hoped. She brought her other hand up and grabbed the hand Fox used to catch her punch and yanked it downward, pulling him to the ground. In the same movement, she flipped over him and kicked both guards, knocking them to the floor. She landed on top of Fox’s back.

The “Ooomph!” from Fox made her grin. She punched him in the back of the head for good measure. He flopped unconscious.

Both guards scrambled to rise but Rivkah lurched forward, catching both of their throats in her hands and pinned them to the ground. “You get up, you die.”

She unstrapped a guard’s rifle and raced down the hall. Then she felt him. Someone familiar. She stopped, her body pulling her down another hall like a magnet to its opposite attraction. She ran next to the wall, pulled, seduced by some unknown force. She crept to a door, slowly turned the knob, and peeked in.

She gasped.

There, lying on a couch, was Kaden Jaxx. His eyes closed.

Another man with glasses sat in a chair by his side.

Jaxx spoke in a monotone voice.

Did they experiment on Jaxx as well?

She clenched her jaw. Screw Jaxx. He deserves it.

Her intuition ticked up. She was on full alert. Something bad was coming her way.

In a flash, she ducked as a bullet whizzed by and lodged in the wall, just inches from her head. She turned, laying one bullet in a guard’s forehead, then two more in another guard’s chest.

More guards rounded the hall.

She had no way out, so she pushed her way into the room.

The man next to Jaxx stood, hands up, eyes wide. “Don’t shoot.”

41

June 8thPortland, Oregon

Drew knew he should switch up his routine. Stop going to the same bagel shop. Leave Portland. But he liked his routine. It grounded him. Also, he kinda-sorta-maybe-a-whole-lot liked the woman who’d been kind to him that first day, when he was starving hungry. Sure, she had a boyfriend, but these things change. Her name was Anyara and she was studying the subtle energies at the Portland School for Chakric Arts.

“Delicious?” asked Anyara.

Drew swallowed, thoughts brewing. He hit the royal bucket during his interview with Slade and Connor. But worse. He endangered his mom. He took another bite of her creation, stone-ground rye bread, with a touch of honey.

“It’s absolutely delicious, right?” she repeated.

Drew rubbed the back of his neck. “Kinda.” He took another bite.

“Only kinda?”

“Sorry, Anyara. It’s fabulous. Melt-in-your-mouth delicious. It’s just that...” He trailed off. Drew’s biggest worry wasn’t if he was being followed, tracked, or if Slade would send a team to end his life.

No.

He missed his usual weekly visit with her. He thought that asking her the same questions over and over would get old and tiresome. It didn’t. And now he sent her his phone. Bad move? Good move? He couldn’t help but wonder. Plus, she had Alzheimer’s. Statistically she was in one of the youngest afflicted age groups. What would she do with it other than place it somewhere and then forget? He could punch himself.

Plus, even if she didn’t know it, she needed him. He kept her ticking. He kept her mind active.

Or, perhaps, it was that he needed her. She was all he had. She was all that was familiar to him.

He needed to talk with her now.

Drew swallowed his last bite.

“You want to take some of last night’s remains?” She smiled. “For the pigeons?”

Drew lowered his head, embarrassed to ask for what he really wanted. “Yeah. Can I have some of your brioche?”

She smiled and pulled a paper bag from under the counter. “One loaf, or two?”

It was their little joke. He had only the money he made from juggling and he gave most of that to her in tips, so he never bought a whole loaf.

He gave her a wink, though he hadn’t winked in years.

“Be careful out there,” she said.

“I’m always careful. I only juggle in the daytime and only to prime numbers.”

Anyara shook her head. He was convinced she didn’t know what the hell he was talking about, but it made him feel good when she smiled, so he tried to make her smile whenever she broke away from work, to check in on him.

He walked around the corner of a building and down a sidewalk.