Next (The Next Chronicle Book 1) by Joshua Guess

Author:Joshua Guess [Guess, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-03-31T04:00:00+00:00

By the time they reached Kit's office, she was feeling alive again. The lights were already on when they entered, revealing Ray Elliot asleep on her couch. The coffee table next to him was littered with empty trays from the facility cafeteria. There were only a few smears left on them, nary a crumb to be seen.

“Wow,” she said. “Even for a food coma, that's a little extreme.”

Archer chuckled. “He's not actually sleeping. He's looking for our killer. Once he started eating, he didn't stop. Said he had to fill the old battery to try this out. Apparently it takes a lot out of him.”

“How long has he been at it?” Kit asked.

Archer checked his watch. “About an hour. I did some paperwork after he started, then went and woke you up.”

Kit was about to take a seat and begin checking police dispatches when Ray's eyes snapped open. He sat up with a groan, brushing his shaggy black hair away from his painfully thin face. “Well, that was informative,” he said.

Hope rose in Kit's chest. “Did you find him?” she asked.

Blowing out a breath and searching through the trays for a scrap of food, Ray nodded. “Yeah, I found him. But he also found me, so I couldn't get close.”

Archer cocked his head. “What do you mean, he found you? Aren't you just sort of floating around when you do this, like a ghost?”

Ray nodded. “Yeah. I don't know exactly how it works, but I think I'm sending my mind out along the energy of the Surge. That's why I see everything in shades of green. Sort of like that movie with Keanu Reeves in it, the one where he sees computer code?”

“The Matrix,” Kit supplied.

“Yeah,” Ray said. “When I'm looking at Next that way, they vary in brightness. I think they're brighter the more powerful they are. I found our guy on the west side of town, not that far from where he attacked you. He was too bright to look at, like the sun. I was floating maybe a hundred feet in the air trying to make him out inside all that light when he saw me.”

“How do you know he saw you?” Kit asked.

Ray's eyes grew distant. “I couldn't see him inside the bubble of light he was giving off, but the whole thing shifted when I got close, like it was turning toward me. Then I was hit by something. I know you said he was telekinetic, but I wasn't really there. I think he can manipulate the Surge itself. He slapped me away like a home run. Which means not only can this guy sense the Next the same way I can, he can screw with their—our—power source.”

Kit opened her mouth to say something, then had a thought. She ran around her desk and fired up her computer. “Comeoncomeoncomeon,” she said at top speed as she waited.

Archer slipped around the desk as well. “What is it?” he asked.

“Had an idea,” she replied as she typed in her password.

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.