Chapter 1
Prologue
I hurt all over.
Opening my eyes, I saw the fluorescent lights swaying and sparking. Their seizure-inducing blinking did nothing good for my pounding head. The purple dust from the experiments was everywhere.
“Not my best idea,” I muttered as I sat up. Chunks of dust and debris piled off of me. Coughing, I surveyed the lab.
Well, the lab was wrecked, but it may not have been a bust. Needed to check the seeds. If I was lucky, the seeds would be undamaged, and if I was extremely lucky, the treatment would work and we could begin shipping them to third-world countries for near-indestructible crops.
A chunk of the lab’s wall dropped out in front of me with a crash. Rebar came with it. I stepped over it and made my way to the testing area and was elated to find the seed that had undergone the first test had sprouted and was growing at a 15-to-1 ratio. This was the best news I’d had all day.
I called for assistants, but the lab was strangely quiet except for the occasional crash of the rest of the structure collapsing. So everybody evacuated without me. Cowards. Well, non-essentials would be fired after this.
I patted myself for my phone to call Dr. Gregores — he would need to know it had worked — and found nothing.
Then I heard Al’s ringtone.
My phone lit up under the rubble and I snatched it. It was a text:
You were right.
Well yes, most of the time — but what specifically this time was she referring to?
Hmmm… I felt odd. Freer somehow… hunh.
All of my thoughts turned to Al. Warmth started in my chest and spread through me. Even thoughts of ending Dr. Harmon’s career left my mind. He had tried to stop this project, saying I was using unethical methods.
He was right.
But it worked.
I was right.
But I didn’t like Dr. Harmon trying to get in my way. I knew he did it out of pure spite. I would ruin him for trying to get in my way.
But right now I needed to go see Al.
I went for my keys and found nothing.
This was odd.
I forced the door to the lab open and shouldered past it out into the hall, and heard my own voice far down the corridor.
There I was, giving orders and working.
And I smiled.
It felt good to be back.
I ducked back into the ruined lab as the other me looked up from his discussion with the contractors. Of course he would do everything he could to get the project back on track the same day.
He could feel me.
Well, that wouldn’t do.
I brushed the dust off of my black Armani suit and headed out of the lab in the opposite direction.
Time to go see Al.
The thought of her made me feel lighter than I had in weeks.
Good things come to those who wait, I thought as I left the parking garage on foot and felt the sun on my face.
Hailing a cab, I headed home.
The ride was quick.
While I was at home, I changed and got myself presentable, then picked up the two transport cuffs that Al had gifted me. She wanted to make sure I had them as a safety measure in case I ever got myself in a tight spot.
She was amazing.
I put one in my pocket and slipped the other on. I dialed it to K-Rax Station and twisted.
I faded out and up to Kinren Industries’ K-Rax space station — a massive nod to Alonna Vaughn’s imaginative ambition and her drive to see her little son again.
I set the transporter coordinates to Vinny’s Breakfast Café. Considering the time, Al was going to be crabbing over her coffee about having to go undercover in one of her company’s departments that was having issues.
She didn’t need to, but she always chose to see things through herself. It was admirable, but it made her life a lot tougher than it had to be.
Al hated personnel problems.
But she loved her coffee.
And she loved the steak sandwiches at Vinny’s.
I saw her across the promenade and my heart stopped.
She was breathtaking… and grousing over her coffee.
In her periwinkle station suit — she kept hers a little blousy like mechanic coveralls because she hated tight clothes when she was tired, which was all of the time — boots, and about a dozen tools stuck in her clipped-up dark curly hair, she was simply magic.
And then I saw that giant white-haired oaf beside her.
I didn’t like it one bit that she was so close to him.
While I appreciated how much John Silvers had helped her when I couldn’t be there for her, I still had the urge to throw him out of an airlock.
Instead, I grabbed a cup of coffee and made my way over to them.
And slid into a chair while they talked.
Hmmmm, so she had taken my idea to heart. That was good.
I hated seeing her kill herself for nothing. She was oblivious to everything while she was working a problem and i took advantage of it to watch her mind work.
I sipped my coffee and waited.
