Chrysalis by Brendan Reichs

Author:Brendan Reichs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2019-03-04T16:00:00+00:00

20

NOAH

The hideout was cold and dispiriting.

It’d taken fifteen minutes to get there, racing down corridors, following as Black Suit made turn after turn. He’d led us to an elevator that rose faster than I could blink, the doors opening onto yet another featureless hallway. Another sprint, more antiseptic walls, and we’d entered a cargo hold filled with rows of stacked shipping containers. An unobtrusive door at the far end had accessed this lonely space, which appeared to be some sort of break room.

And then we’d sat. And waited. After rushing us inside, Black Suit left again just as quickly, promising that the sensors in this area were disabled. We could hide here. We’d be safe.

Not that the concept made much sense anymore. We were on a space station orbiting the planet from a distance of thousands of miles. Our whole environment had been a lie. We’d thought we were building a new society on a reclaimed world—pioneering a brand-new Earth—but we’d been nothing more than a lab experiment. Toys for people we didn’t know, who’d eventually decided to pull the plug.

Maybe even literally. Had they drained the lake?

I ground my teeth in frustration. Used again. Nothing had been real.

And for what? Why were these people doing any of it?

I was sitting on a sleeping bag in the corner. A half dozen other rolls were piled against the wall, next to a minifridge stuffed with rehydrated meals. There was a tiny kitchenette, a table and chairs, and a bathroom. The room smelled of long habitation combined with minimal hygiene. In a word, it stank.

I was debating whether to eat another bag of soggy noodles when Black Suit slipped back through the doorway. It disturbed me how relieved I was to see him again. Ignoring us completely, he walked over to the table and sat, removing a tablet from a bag at his feet. Long minutes passed as we stared at him, waiting for the bastard to acknowledge we existed.

“Well?” Ethan asked, always first to lose his patience. “What the hell’s going on? Why’d you bring us here?” He was standing in the kitchenette with Tack, glaring at our . . . rescuer? Kidnapper? Things were too confused to sort out.

Black Suit held up a finger, then locked the screen and looked up. “This is my humble abode. I’ve been living in here for months. So far the crew hasn’t noticed that I looped the sensors in this quadrant, and the hangar outside is used for long-term storage only. It’s almost never visited. We’re off the grid for the moment.”

I rose and walked to the table. “Why are you hiding from them? Isn’t this just, like, Phase Seven of your grand plan?”

Black Suit pursed his lips. “Turns out I was lower on the food chain than I thought. I designed and ran Project Nemesis in Fire Lake, and believed it to be the endgame for all human survival.” He swept a hand at the walls around him. “Obviously, I was wrong.”

Tack grunted. “So you didn’t know about this .

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