Disconnect: Book One of the Divided Worlds Trilogy by Imran Siddiq

Author:Imran Siddiq [Siddiq, Imran]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: romantic science fiction, young adult novel, divided worlds trilogy, male character POV, male romance novel, love in space, can androids love, ebook Leicester author, Space romantic fiction
Publisher: eBookPartnership.com
Published: 2013-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15 - Relationships

Adrenaline pressurised Zachary’s head. Eyes widened, he blinked off the blurs and touched his damp back. He arched upright in the large pipe to inspect himself. A small hole in the bag indicated the bullet’s path. Unclipping the top of the bag, he heaved a sigh at seeing that the bullet had scuffed the edge of the Intel-Depository.

Outside, from higher up, the soldier from the lift called for attention.

Zachary’s palm skated along the moist pipe as he ran, hunched. Pockets of steam ejected in short bursts overhead. Coughing, he heard a humming noise drawing close. The lift was returning. Zachary ran deeper into the curved pipe. Where did it lead?

A thud behind him sent chills down his spine.

“I see him,” wheezed a voice.

Zachary bounced off a hard dead-end in the pipe. His kick reverberated instead of shifting the panel.

Damn.

A water droplet trickled onto his nose. Zachary looked up at the small hole above him. It’d be tight. Leaping up, he squeezed into the upright tunnel. Steam tore at the skin of his neck. Why did the steam here prove so toxic compared to the slush he’d waded through in the Wastelands? He continued upwards towards an opening.

Not slowing after he passed through it, Zachary moved to another dead-end with a hole leading down. He pressed his temples. If correct, then this would bypass the last path and place him close to the lifts. Was that dangerous? What if the soldiers had predicted his route? Maybe the soldiers assumed his movement to be forever up and so to go down would seem … stupid.

Boots sliding, Zachary landed into a new pipe. Whirring sounds muffled his movements. Loud bangs pounded in a sequence with second-long gaps. Crawling under the thickening white smoke, a thirty-foot grate presented passage over a deep chasm. Zachary rushed forward. Jolting, he stayed on course and dived into another pipe, without smoke, but a dead-end soon arrived. He gasped in shock that he’d made it alive. Not a single soldier was in sight. Yet.

Zachary removed the Intel-Depository from the bag. He guessed it to hold important information. Could it provide something for him to use? A sparkling circle illuminated in the centre followed by the buttons of a keyboard appearing under four empty boxes, and the words, ‘Enter Password’.

Zachary smacked the dead-end wall.

Taking the Intercom from the bag, he suspended his thumb over the recognition-pad. He had no idea of the password he needed to operate it, and he didn’t want the device to lock. Zachary pushed into the rear-grooves of the Intercom’s underside, removing the lower shell. Intact inner components glistened at him. Although this wasn’t a Raptor, the green circuit boards appeared the same. He pinched between two layers to remove a red chip – the identity of the Intercom. With light prodding, he separated the crumpled components of the broken Raptor out of his pocket. There he found a bent, but similar, red chip. Zachary blew flakes off the chip’s mangled edges. The Raptor’s chip slipped into its new home.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.