The Raven-Haired Rogue: A Novella by Zakour John

Author:Zakour, John [Zakour, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: Serealities Press
Published: 2015-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

10

We get out of the elevator and onto the hotel’s rooftop. I can see the shuttle-craft coming to take us to Merinda’s ship. All in all, I would say I am making progress on the case—except, of course, now HARV is under some sort of attack.

“HARV, are you still with us?” I think.

Nothing.

“Come on, HARV!” I mentally coax.

I hear in my mind three quick beeps, three long beeps, and then three quick beeps. It’s an SOS. For HARV to resort to Morse code, this has to be even worse than I thought.

Merinda gazes over at me. “Zach, are you OK?”

“Yeah, buddy. You look kind of pale,” Maxxx notes.

“I’m fine,” I halfheartedly reassure them. Rubbing my stomach, I tell them, “I just grabbed a bad taco at the taco hover.”

Merinda moves over to me and places her hand over my stomach. “Perhaps I can help,” she says calmly.

“Ah, OK, but usually there’s just one thing that relieves this,” I tell her.

“Zach, just relax,” I hear Merinda say in my head. “The bionics in my brain give me psi powers. One of my abilities is to heal. I can sense what’s going on between you and HARV. You need to let me heal you both.”

“Ah, how?” I ask. “You going to reboot my brain?”

Merinda smiles. “Actually, yes,” she thinks.

“That could work!” Carol says in my head. DOS, my mind is getting congested.

I know in the old days, back when a computer was having problems, a reboot would often do the trick. Still, I couldn’t say I was thrilled about having my mind rebooted.

“Don’t be a baby,” Carol thinks to me. “You’ve had me and so many other psis playing around with your white and gray matter, this is no big deal. If you want, I can reboot you.”

“Carol, I know you have a powerful mind, but my mind is built for healing,” Merinda thinks.

“The shuttle will be on the ground in one minute,” Alicia informs us.

“Zach, I can have you feeling better by then,” Merinda tells me. Holding out her hand, she says, “Trust me.”

I take a deep breath, and then another. “HARV?” I think out one last time.

Once again all I hear is three quick beeps, three slow beeps, and three quick beeps.

“Help me,” I tell Merinda.

Merinda puts a hand on my midsection and another on my forehead. “Just relax, Zach.”

I feel warmth on my head and in my gut. Not just the warmth from Merinda’s touch, but an extra type of warmth that I can only describe as hot cocoa on a cold day. My entire body starts to relax.

The next thing I know, Carol is standing behind me for support. I’m not sure why, until my knees buckle.

I feel a slight jostle from behind. “Come on, tió, wake up. You’re heavy.”

“Carol, give him a second to recover,” I hear Merinda order.

The first thing I see when I open my eyes are Merinda’s incredibly green eyes. She smiles. “Welcome back. How do you feel?”

“HARV, are you in there?”

The numbers 1…2…3 scroll in front of my eyes.

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