The Catalyst: (Book One) by Devi Mara

Author:Devi Mara
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2015-01-20T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

The taxi dropped her just over a block from Renon. She walked from there. The street was quiet on the edge of the industrial district. The offices she passed had been emptied at five o’clock, when the business day ended. She walked quickly down the sidewalk, keeping her head down and her gaze on the driveway to the Renon labs.

The lamps that usually lit the long lane were dark. Clearly, the night guards had forgotten to turn them on. Robin sighed. Their mistake would make her approach easier. If she was lucky, she could bypass them all together. She did not think she would be quite that lucky. But when she reached the front of the building without being stopped, she frowned.

Robin glanced over her shoulder at the empty guard shack. Something very odd was going on. She tried the front door. Locked. So, the guards were gone, but the building was still secure. Maybe, they had gone to get something to eat nearby. It was a massive violation of policy, but with no one around to stop them…

She slid her key into the lock and the lights flashed green. Very odd. Robin eased through the door and glanced around. Everything appeared to be intact. The front desk and lobby were still and silent. Robin continued across the large space, but the back of her neck began to prickle. She tried to ignore the feeling.

The elevator let out a quiet beep and she stepped onto the lift. As the doors closed, she sniffed the air. It smelled off. Like burnt spices. Incense, maybe. She looked around the elevator for the source. The space was empty. She was still sniffing curiously when the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

She walked with her head down until she was near the lab. Something shiny crushed under her tennis shoes. Robin raised her foot and knelt to pick up the rock. She held it in her palm and frowned. Not a rock. Glass. Her gaze slowly rose to take in the hallway ahead of her. The thin carpet was covered in thousands of shards of glass from the windows at the end of the hall.

Robin gaped at the mess for a moment, before the pieces came together. The creature had escaped. She let the glass fall from her hand and raced for the door to the lab. There was only a piece of shredded metal where it had been. The lab was mostly intact, but the tank was destroyed.

The power cords had been ripped from the wall and one side had been smashed, leaving the fluid to spill out onto the lab floor. She moved closer to the destruction to study the floor. There were footprints on the carpet. One set of bare feet and one in shoes of some kind. She followed them until they faded at the doorway.

Someone had broken into the lab. No. Someone had broken the creature out of the lab. She turned to look at the door and narrowed her eyes.

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