Lost Earth (Ark: Book 1) by Joshua James & Daniel Young

Author:Joshua James & Daniel Young [James, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

Eight

Gideon started walking towards the official entrance to the Lottery Slums: a long escalator that cut through the nineteenth and eighteenth levels of the Gaea Ark and connected the main concourse transit floor to the slums. He planned on taking what he found to Reggie and then following up on this “Rendo.”

With informants all over the Ark, Gideon felt like he knew who all the major players on board were, but this Rendo was unfamiliar to him. The data he had from Lock was sparse. That meant one of two things. Either she was small-time, just an innocent woman running some kind of repair business that also sold outdated technology, or she was so big-time that she covered her tracks expertly. That would make her very smart and very dangerous.

“Incoming call from Reggie,” Bella chimed.

Gideon sighed. He didn’t have any answers for Reggie, and he was afraid that he was going to be asked for some. Still, he wasn’t going to ignore the call, because he knew that Reggie would just call again. “What’s up, Reg?”

Navigating a crowd while on a video call was hard, but Gideon wasn’t about to wait around in the Lottery Slums for a minute longer than he had to. So he held his arm up, the projection of Reggie floating just above the DD in his forearm, and made it work.

“Have you spoken to Maddox?”

From the tone of his voice, Gideon knew Reggie was stressed out. He used to get like that even when they were kids—usually when the subject of his father or the company came up.

“No,” he said. “I must have left just before she got there.”

Reggie frowned, and Gideon could practically read his mind. I send you down to Engineering to handle something sensitive and you leave early?

“I had a lead to follow up on,” Gideon said. He saw Reggie pour himself a drink through the video chat.

“What were your impressions?”

“I have no idea, Reg. The damage was extensive.” He hesitated, glancing around, then finding a corner to stop. “But we’ve both seen what the”—he hesitated—“project materials can do to a person if they come in direct contact with them … well, you see where I’m going.”

Reggie downed the whole glass of Scotch he’d just poured, then decided to pour himself another. “How could someone down there come in direct contact with Chronos particles?”

Gideon winced. He wished Reg would exercise more care. But he was in his office, and the connection was secure.

“I really don’t know, but I don’t have any other explanation. I sent a message to the guy that secured the scene before I got there. I told him to send the body to your labs, hopefully your eggheads can figure it out.”

“What guy?”

“Some Marine, what was his name….? Sergeant something or other, something Russian sounding... Kovalenko?”

Reggie spat his last sip of Scotch back into the glass. “Wait, there was military there?”

“You didn’t know?”

“Goddammit, that piece of shit Lacazette. I knew he’d been...never mind. Other than the soldier, who else saw her?”

Gideon shrugged.

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