The Orbs Omnibus by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Author:Nicholas Sansbury Smith [Smith, Nicholas Sansbury]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/ Simon451
Published: 2015-09-01T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

SCRATCH, scrape, scratch, scrape.

Sophie froze, paralyzed by the familiar sound. She turned slowly and saw Jamie looking up at her mischievously from the adjacent table. The little girl giggled as she slid her fork across the metal table, right through a trail of splattered tomatoes.

“Jamie, don’t play with your food,” Holly said.

“Yeah, Jamie, don’t play with your food,” Owen mimicked as he stabbed one of his own tomatoes. The ripe vegetable exploded into a mess of red juice on his plate.

Sophie took in a deep breath of the Biosphere’s filtered air and turned back to her tablet. Video of Overton’s trip streamed across the display. She watched in silence, trying to understand exactly what she was looking at. As a scientist, she was fascinated by the Organics’ biology, but as one of the few humans left in the fight against them, she found them horrifying. She watched the third wave of Spiders flank Overton’s team and paused the image. The idea was to gain a better understanding of how the aliens operated—how they fought.

After six weeks of working with the sergeant to protect the Biosphere, she was beginning to think more like a marine. And since Jeff’s recent capture, she was becoming increasingly paranoid.

Scratch, scrape . . .

“Jamie, cut that out,” Sophie snapped, glaring at the child.

“Sorry,” Jamie whimpered. The girl dropped the fork and picked at the mess in front of her.

Sophie knew she had to keep it together; none of this was the children’s fault, and she had no right to take it out on them. They had been robbed of their childhood. Nothing was worse than that.

“I’m sorry, Jamie,” Sophie said, getting up and making her way to the other table. She wrapped her arms around the girl in a hug. “I need to see Emanuel. I’ll check in on you guys later.”

Sophie rushed out of the room, still embarrassed that she had upset the girl. It only took her a minute to navigate the hallways connecting the Biomes, and she found Emanuel hunched over the RVAMP in the medical ward. She remained silent, studying him curiously from the doorway. Under the bright LED lights, she could see several gray hairs mixed into his perfect side part. The stress was aging them all.

He worked quietly, twisting a bolt off the metal device. Sophie preferred to listen to music in the lab, but Emanuel had always worked in silence. He claimed it was better that way—that music was just a distraction.

With a small tug, Emanuel removed a side panel, revealing a tangled mess of colored wires.

“What a mess,” he muttered. Reaching for a tool, he saw her standing in the doorway. A warm smile crept across his face. A tingle raced through Sophie. He still had it. His dimples always made her feel better.

“Whatcha doin’?” she asked playfully.

“I’m creating the weapon that’s going to save humanity,” he said.

“What’s left of it, you mean,” she replied. Even with Alexia’s help, she had her doubts about the weapon’s effectiveness on a worldwide scale.

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