The Awakening (The Hyperscape Project Book 1) (35 page)

She shrugged
again.  “Maybe.  Maybe not.  You didn’t see me running from that
big robot-thing, did you?”

His eyes
narrowed.  She spoke the truth.  She was the only one who had stood
her ground.  Not that sticking around had been the smart choice.

“I know Tae Kwon
Do.  Been studying it since I was five-years-old,” she said as she looked
out the dirt-smeared window.  “It teaches you to be bold.”

“There’s a
difference between boldness and stupidity,” Kael replied.

She turned to
frown at him, her arms going across her chest.  The position of her
forearms thrust her breasts even higher, revealing a tiny bit of cleavage above
her sweater.  Her breath hung in the air, reminding him of just how cold
she must be.  The building’s windows were mostly broken out, allowing for
little shelter against the elements.

“How old are
you?” he asked.

“Twenty-seven.”

“Your name?”

She hesitated,
her gaze turning toward the floor.  “You first.”

“My name is
Kael.”

“Kyle,” she
repeated.  “Sounds like a perfectly harmless name.  But you’re
not
harmless.  And you’re not human either, are you?”

“Kah-ell,” he
corrected her pronunciation.  “All drawn together in a subtle way. 
And what makes you think I’m not human?”

“Well, for
starters, a man appeared out of thin air and called you master, and then this
big shiny, chrome thing stepped out of the crowd and tried to break you in
half.  Now, I know the military, as advanced as we’ve become with our
drones and weapons and such, doesn’t have anything like that hulk, and as far
as I know, humans can’t appear out of thin air.  Not to mention the sword
that morphed out of its arm and then morphed back into an arm and then back
into a sword, like magic.  Plus, my friend swears aliens have been
visiting us for ages, and...maybe you’re one of them coming back to visit, or
coming back to find something, or
take
something—”

Kael stood up,
effectively cutting off her speech.  She took a step backward.  He
stopped.

“I’m not going
to hurt you.”

She repositioned
her legs.  Kael noticed that she had shifted her center of gravity and she
was now on the balls of her feet.

“Your Tae Kwon
Do is no match for me.”

“We’ll see about
that,” she retorted.  “Now, if you don’t start talking, I’m going to speed
dial my cousin, who’s a New York cop, and you’ll be apprehended, taken to a
secret government facility, where I’m sure you’ll be more than happy to talk.”

Kael’s mouth
twitched at the corners as he held back a laugh.  “You don’t bluff
well.  You have no cousin who’s a cop.”

Her chin lifted,
and he saw the glint of defiance in her eyes.  “How do you know that?”

“Because I can
tell when someone is lying.”

She opened her
mouth to say something, then clamped it shut again. 

He smiled in
satisfaction.  “You and I are in danger.  I plan on keeping us
safe.  But I must remind you that if you limit me in any way, I will have
no choice but to abandon you and leave you to fend for yourself.  You’ve
seen what a Sulcrum can do, so I suggest you work
with
me not against
me.”

She gulped hard
but kept her gaze firmly on his.

“Now, your name
please.”

“Sarah. 
Connor.”

His frown
deepened into a scowl.  He was losing patience with this female. 
“Your
real
name,” he growled as he took a menacing step toward her.

She gulped again
and took a step backward.  Her back butted against the wall, stopping her
from escaping.  “Okay!  Eva!  My name is Eva!”  She said
the words in a rushed, desperate near-squeal.

He stopped
advancing toward her.  “Good.  We’re making progress.  Now, what
other talents do you have, Eva?”

Her eyes
narrowed.  “If you think you’re getting into my pants, think again! 
I’m not—”

“I simply want
to know what you’re capable of that might help us!” he roared.

She jumped at
the explosive sound of his voice in the small room, her eyes blinking rapidly
as she realized what he had meant.  “Oh!  Oh,
well...I’m...well...I....”

“Do you have a
profession in this world?”

She glared at
him.  “I did until you smashed my flower stand to bits with your big ass!”

His right
eyebrow twitched as he tried to hold back his mirth.  She looked both
comical and beautiful standing there looking so angry.  “That’s it? 
You sell flowers and you know Tae Kwon Do?”

She lowered her
eyes and toyed with a frayed thread on her coat.  “I was thinking about
going to college.”

“What about
tech?”  After only a momentary pause, he answered for her.  “No, I
didn’t think so.”

She
frowned.  “I may not be handy with tech, but I’ve got bigger balls than
you do!”

His eyebrow
twitched again.  “You have no idea.”  He wasn’t about to tell her
that his testicles were internal.  “Enough of this talk.  We’re
running out of time.  So...just...whatever situation we find ourselves in,
do as I say.  Exactly as I say, without argument.  Do you
understand?”

“Of course I
understand!  I’m not stupid!”

He nodded once
then turned back to the desk.

“So, what
are
we going to do?”

“Right now,
you’re going to be quiet, and I’m going to think.”

“I’m hungry,”
she muttered.

He glared at
her.

She looked
away.  “Right.  Shutting up now.”

“Do you have
family?”

Her gaze went to
the floor again.  “Nope.  Mom ran away when I was three, and dad died
six months ago.  Cancer got him.  No siblings.  And....”

“No cousins,” he
finished for her.

“Right.” 
She nodded and turned her back so he wouldn’t see her eyes.  She gave him
about two seconds to think before she turned back and asked “That man...the one
who came before the machine thing.  He called you Master Jai. 
Master…what does that mean?”

He answered
slowly.  “It means that he was giving me the respect due me, as master of
the region of Jai, where he dwells and I once ruled.”

She smacked her
hands together and crowed, “See!  I knew it!  You’re an alien! 
Jai’s not on earth, is it!”

He glared at
her.  She clamped her mouth shut and huddled in a corner away from the
windows in an attempt to stay warm.  The room seemed deafeningly quiet,
but it only lasted a few minutes.  Kael broke the silence when he stood up
so abruptly that he nearly knocked the desk over with his knees.  She
jumped and opened her mouth to scream, but one look from him made her close the
sound off before it left her throat.

He nodded toward
the door.  She huddled closer into her corner and waited.

A word entered
the room before the man did.  “Master.”

Kael
relaxed.  He’d smelled the priejst, but he hadn’t been sure. 
Sulcrum’s had a number of ways to confuse their prey. 

The door opened
and the priejst stepped into the room without making a sound, his black leather
duster swinging around his ankles as he came to a halt.  He turned his
head and looked at the girl, then fixed his gaze on Kael.  He opened his
palm and tossed something onto the desk between him and his master. 

“I bought you
some time.”

Kael stared down
at the small diamond-shaped metal pod that had come to rest in the center of
the desk.  It was the communication device from inside the Sulcrum’s
head.  The priejst must have taken it before the head had exploded.

“I do not know
how long, maybe a day, maybe two.  But eventually they will realize the
Sulcrum is no longer communicating signals to home-world, and then they will
come.”

Eva stepped out
of the corner, her eyes glued to the priejst.  “You’re that guy.  The
one that appeared out of thin air.”

The priejst barely
glanced in her direction.   His focus was on Kael.

“She’s been
imprinted,” Kael said.

The priejst
frowned. 

Eva stepped
closer, her high heeled boots scraping the floor.  The sound seemed overly
loud to Kael’s sensitive ears and made him painfully aware of just how exposed
they were.

“What does that
mean?” she wanted to know.  “Imprinted?”

The priejst
turned to look at her.  “It means that they now have a genome of the human
race.  They know how you work, what your weaknesses are, and they can
formulate an attack plan accordingly.”

“Attack
plan?  You mean....” she grimaced, her blue eyes going paler.

“They will come
and decimate your world,” the priejst said succinctly.

“But I
thought....”  Her eyes went to the small metal device on the table. 
“You cut off the transmission.”

“An imprint is
sent as it is occurring,” the priejst explained.  “But without the portal,
it will take time, perhaps several days before the signal reaches Trinoor.”

“Trinoor?” she
echoed, looking worried.

“Our
home-world,” the priejst answered.

“What about the
portal?” Kael asked.  “Can they send ships through?”

“The portal can
only be manipulated for a short time.  One small object can be sent
through each time the portal is opened,” the priejst answered.  “A person,
a Sulcrum, a Rydyr, a Battalia at best.  Then the energy required to open
the portal again must be restored to full.  It will take four earth hours
before a person or a Sulcrum can traverse the portal again.”

“What about a
Battalia?” Kael asked.

“Longer.  A
day.”

“So, I have 24
hours between a single attack and the time a ship might arrive,” Kael said.

“That is
correct.”

Eva assessed the
priejst, his long blond hair, pale silver-grey eyes, high cheekbones, long
fingers.  Her eyes slowly swept him from the top of his head, lingering
around his groin, and then down his long legs to his booted feet.  Kael
tried to ignore her.  Her interest was annoying.  She should be
cowering in the corner, sniveling and begging for mercy, not in the middle of
everything wanting to know what was going on.

“And the
ships?  How long before they reach earth?”  Kael continued.

“A month. 
Maybe more.”

Kael’s shoulders
relaxed a fraction. 

“But if the
Sulcrum doesn’t capture you, Jindom will come with a Battalia long before he
sends ships.  You know this, Kael Jai.”

Kael’s eyes
narrowed.  “Yes, I know.”

“I am in
communication with a priejstess back home,” the priejst said.  “She is
hidden but vulnerable.  I will know what she knows.”

 Kael
dipped his head in acknowledgment, his blue-black brows knitted together in a
frown of concentration.

Eva had stepped
closer to the priejst and had her head tipped back as she looked up at him in
fascination.  Kael stared at her for a long moment.  She was
strangely unabashed about her curiosity.  “You talk more than this one
does,” she piped in, jerking a thumb in Kael’s direction.  “He seems
limited to short sentences and grunts.”

“He does not
need to,” the priejst replied, his gaze still on Kael.  “Talk much, that
is.”

“What is a
Battalia?” she asked him.

“A small ship
that carries six, no more.”

“That doesn’t
sound like a small object to me,” Eva muttered.

Kael
frowned.  “Compared to the ships Jindom commands, a Battalia is tiny.”

Eva pretended
Kael hadn’t spoken.  Her eyes were still on the priejst.  “Do you have
a name?”

“I am called
Sylph.  I am the Keeper of Kael Jai.”

“What does that
mean, keeper?”  she asked.

“It means that
he is my guardian, and he will die protecting me if need be,” Kael interjected.

“Cool.” 
She smiled.

Sylph glanced
her way.  Judging by the look on his face, he was as perplexed by her as
was Kael.

Kael’s
expression was stony, serious.  “I need an army.  There’s no way I
can defend this planet without one.”

Sylph
acknowledged the comment with a slight slant of his head. 

“Why don’t you
just go to a different planet?” Eva offered.

Kael turned and
fixed her with a steely green stare.  “Because you’ve been
imprinted.  You could remove me from the planet, or kill me, and they
would still come and destroy your world.”

“They would not
know if he had been moved, and they will not stop until his body has been
identified,” Sylph explained.

Eva stared from
one to the other, her mouth forming a silent oh.  “Can’t you just let it
slip that he’s been moved?”

Sylph
frowned.  “I cannot endanger my own Jai.”

“Or fake his
death,” she finished.

Kael’s glare
deepened.  She noticed but she didn’t shrink away from him.

“Jindom will
never believe that Master Jai is dead unless he sees his corpse with his own
eyes,” Sylph explained.  His tone clearly let her know that he was losing
patience with her.

“I thought about
throwing her in the river,” Kael commented.

Sylph’s lips
twitched upward in a half-grin that he fought to control.

Eva glared at
Kael.  “I didn’t ask for this, you know.  I was just minding my own business,
selling my flowers—”

“It was a slow
morning for you, you’d only sold one bouquet all day,” Kael’s smooth, deep
voice interrupted.

She huffed a few
times in frustration before continuing.  “When you came along and brought
that monster with you.”

“You could have
run, like everyone else.  Then you would have never been imprinted.”

Her breath
fogged the air between them as she huffed even more.  She folded her arms
across her chest and clamped her mouth tightly shut.

“But you were
too curious,” he finished.  “You had to get involved.  Too
involved.  I suspect that’s a pattern with you.”

Sylph stood
vigilant, hearing their conversation but only half listening.  His stance
made Kael nervous.  Sylph would know if anything changed in the
field.  He would sense it before anyone else could.  Kael was not
prepared for war.  He’d done battle with many, had killed many, but
here...on this planet...he felt helpless and alone.  Without his army,
what good could he do in protecting the innocents of this world?  At the
moment, he barely had the means to protect himself.