Broken by Robert J. Crane

Author:Robert J. Crane [Crane, Robert J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Paranormal
ISBN: 9780988699588
Publisher: Reikonos Press
Published: 2013-05-24T06:00:00+00:00

13.

“I want you to go to South America.”

The air was clear, the ground covered with snow again, and I could tell by the glare of the sun I was in Ariadne’s office. I sat, watching, insubstantial again. The smell of the place was crisp; more Zack’s cologne, which caused Ariadne to cringe, than anything else. It was late in the day, and there was a sound of Ariadne tapping the desk with long fingernails as she spoke. I could taste the head of the pen that she was chewing, the bitter flavor of the plastic filtering through as I watched her gnaw on it. I would have considered it odd that I could taste what she was tasting even as I watched her from outside her body, but this was her memory, not mine, and in truth I only wanted to see what she had seen, I didn’t really care about the finer details.

“Sorry, what?” Zack asked, blinking across the desk at her.

“I want you to go to South America to get M-Squad,” Ariadne said, and I realized that this memory I was seeing was long before Zack’s little interlude in the bar, but after his meeting with Old Man Winter where he was told to get close to me. “They’re out of contact trying to wrangle a meta named Aleksandr Gavrikov, and we need them to help settle this Wolfe matter. This is of far more importance than Gavrikov, so I need you to get down there and re-establish contact. Bring them home so we can deal with this … Wolfe situation.”

Zack looked slightly rumpled across the desk from me. “Um … I mean, the Director made it clear to me that my current role was to get closer to the girl—”

“Her name is Sienna,” Ariadne said simply. “And you may carry out whatever order the Director gave you,” ice frosted over her tone and I could sense the distaste for the Director’s order both in her head and in her tone, “when you get back, if he still wants to go through with that particular … “ She didn’t finish her sentence but I heard what she wanted to say in her mind—obscenity.

“Um, all right,” Zack said, and stood. “I’ll … uh … “

“There’ll be a helicopter waiting in a half hour,” she said, coolly watching him. “Be on it.”

“Okay,” he said with a nod, and I looked at the lines of his face. He was handsome, no doubt, and I caught the hint from his look that he knew something else was going on, something with Ariadne giving him this order. He walked out without saying anything else, and the world changed dramatically in the moments after that. It took me a moment to realize that I was seeing time leap forward—the sun went down, the office became dark, shadows creeping in around the light cast by the fluorescents overhead. Ariadne sat there, her pen scratching out ink letters on a page in front of her.

“You sent Zack Davis away,” came the rumble from the door, and Ariadne looked up.

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