Reset by Brian Andrews

Author:Brian Andrews [Andrews, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503954267
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2018-04-23T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

2331 Local Time

Westfield Dynamics

Culpeper, Virginia

He didn’t remember falling asleep. That’s how tired Legend was. One minute he’d been reading about transcranial-magnetic-stimulation studies being conducted at Duke University; the next minute his head was lolling. Angry, overstretched neck muscles jerked him awake. He opened his eyes for a beat in drowsy confusion, but heavy lids quickly usurped control and sent his chin bobbing off his chest again.

Somewhere far away he heard a mobile phone ringing.

In the semiconscious regions of his brain, a voice told him the phone was his. “I don’t care,” he mumbled, but he was a soldier and an officer, and that meant he had to care.

He forced his eyelids open and took a deep breath as he tried to get his bearings. The desk he was sitting at was not his own. He was not at the Pentagon . . . That’s because he’d stayed at Westfield D, working late just in case something happened.

Just in case the orb woke up.

Groggily he reached for his mobile phone. The call had been from Cyril, and there was a voice mail waiting for him. He pressed the play icon and turned on the speaker: “Legend, it’s Cyril calling. We’ve got a problem. The orb is waking up . . .”

He didn’t wait for it to finish before he was up and sprinting. He flew down the steps to the basement level, the rapid-fire cadence of his feet echoing in the concrete stairwell. When he reached the bottom, he slammed into the rocker bar on the steel door and sent it flying open. He dashed down the corridor toward the BRIG control room. When he got to door, he found it curiously ajar. He pushed it the rest of the way open and found the control room deserted.

What the hell? Where was his science team?

Heart still pounding and lungs heaving, he walked straight to the bank of monitors to see what was happening inside the BRIG.

“Oh no,” he said with a gasp, staring at a live feed of Cyril and Malcolm both standing entranced in front of a brilliantly glowing, hovering orb. Déjà vu washed over him, and so did a wave of panic. Behind the two scientists, Harris stood completely kitted up for battle and holding an M4 in a relaxed carry across his chest. He didn’t appear to be hypnotized like Malcolm and Cyril, but his posture and mannerism were different from before. Most disturbing, he was permitting this to happen—possibly even standing guard over the proceedings to ensure it happened.

What the hell?

Unger had the 1800-to-midnight watch. Harris wasn’t even supposed to be here. Legend ran out of the control room and headed toward the BRIG. When he got there, he saw a massive blood smear that led across the hall and disappeared under a closed door labeled JANITORIAL SUPPLIES. Legend opened the door and was greeted by Unger’s corpse seated against the back wall of the closet—eyes open, mouth agape, blood running from a bullet hole in his forehead.

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