Hero Complex by Jesse J. Thoma

Author:Jesse J. Thoma [Thoma, Jesse J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2023-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Athena was bored. Bronte and Spero were working, Galen was off doing things Athena didn’t want to think too hard about, and she had nothing to do. No one needed a Band-Aid or a chest tube removed. There wasn’t need for medication dispensing or any of the millions of other things she was confident in performing in her day-to-day as a nurse. Bronte insisted she was healed and no longer required her care. At least not medical care. It had been less than a week so either she was lying or the zeptobots were showing off.

Athena didn’t like feeling useless, but whatever Bronte and Spero were working on was beyond her skill set and she wasn’t interested in going on drug runs with Galen.

She pushed off her bed and stomped across the warehouse to the side door behind the medical suite. She glanced back at her roommates hard at work. They’d been tinkering with Spero’s computer. As far as she knew, it wasn’t operational yet, so they hadn’t had a chance to look at the data from the thumb drive. Neither looked when Athena pushed out the door. Galen had told them there weren’t any cameras for a block in any direction out this entrance, so they’d begun using it to soak in the sun or stand in the rain. Athena thought of it as the “patio.”

Once outside she leaned against the warehouse wall and tipped her face to the sun. Before all this nonsense she’d listened to meditations instructing her in an oddly demanding yet soothing voice to imagine the sunshine flowing through various body parts in order to relax. She’d never been able to do it and that failure had stressed her out more than whatever had prompted her to turn on a meditation in the first place. But now, standing here, face to the sun, she understood. She didn’t need to imagine. She could feel the sunlight dripping through her body inch by inch, releasing tension as it went.

Her ankles and feet were about to relax into a loose guitar string when the warehouse door banged open and the sunlight magic was gone. She opened her eyes and balled her fists, ready to swing at whoever had interrupted her moment. In that instant she didn’t care if they were friend or foe.

Spero stood calmly, out of punching distance, staring at her.

“Are you looking for me or the sun?” Athena unclenched her fists.

He glanced at her hands. His unreadable expression never changed. He pointed at her then toward the door.

“You need me in the warehouse? Is everything okay?” Athena’s heart rate increased. What if Bronte had had a setback in her recovery?

Spero patted the air with his hands in the universal sign for “calm the fuck down.” He pointed at the door again.

“Why now? I was enjoying a moment.” Athena looked skyward. A cloud had covered the sun. “Damnit. Your timing is terrible.”

Athena waited for a reaction from Spero, but he seemed content to wait out her temper tantrum.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.