Space City Outbreak, Book 3 by Jared Austin

Author:Jared Austin
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Young Adult, aliens, E.T., coming of age, Mars, outer space, humor, space exploration, Romance, extraterrestrial, Adventure, juvenile fiction, diverse cast, ya, space opera, multiple POV, interplanetary, ET, found family, world building, science fiction, futuristic
Publisher: Up Past Dawn
Published: 2021-11-27T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22—Neil’s Investigation of Dr. Snelling

Neil lounged in a chair in a corner of the mess hall, a glass of purple melon punch on the table beside his wrist-comp. “I’ve gone through emails. Ran a search program for my name, Riagan, and Jarl. No hits.”

“What about chemical hypnosis?” Jiro asked, before biting into an eggroll.

“A few, but they’re encrypted.”

“Try Fran as a password,” Eris suggested, both hands clasped around a steaming mug of coffee.

Neil snorted. “She’d use a better password than that for encrypted files.”

“How do you know?”

He grinned. “Cause I already tried Fran’s name.”

“Her son, Nate?” Riagan suggested.

Neil shook his head. They all fired off password suggestions based upon what they knew about Dr. Snelling, most of which in reality pertained to Fran. None of it worked.

“What else you got on there?” Jiro asked.

“Lots of research papers and notes, personal and work calendars, and data files I can’t run.”

He’d also discovered quite a few emails exchanged with the Council, as well as Dr. Trevena, but as he started reading through the unencrypted ones, he realized this was typical since she ran the Olsin Pedran facility. Even the encrypted emails had subject lines that related to new tech. They had a full backup of Dr. Snelling’s wrist-comp, and thus far had found nothing useful on it.

“Can you distribute the files so we can help search?” Jiro asked. “Would go a lot faster.”

Neil shook his head. “Can’t risk anyone discovering we copied Dr. Snelling’s files.” He’d kept their primary search between himself and Riagan.

“I agree,” Riagan said.

At that moment, Neil received an email to his own inbox. Sent from Dardanos. The subject line read URGENT, all students report to medical immediately!

“Did anyone else get the email to report to the infirmary?” Jiro asked, frowning.

Neil pulled up the email, but the instructions simply elaborated on the subject, stating all students should make orderly haste to the infirmary. It assured them all that they had no cause for alarm, but it was mandatory.

“What that’s about?” Eris asked.

“No cause for alarm?” Jiro’s voice held a skeptical note. “This late in the day, no way this is routine.”

“You two get over there,” Neil said, and held up the wrist-comp. “Riagan and I’ll hide this first.”

They split up, Neil and Riagan heading for the alley behind their dorm. Neil hated using the alley and purposely avoided it as much as possible. Every time he set foot in the alley he remembered the overwhelming fear that had consumed them without reason or explanation during their first encounter with the traitor, Jarl or whoever it had been. And it seemed completely reasonable to avoid the alley, even if the actual attack took place a good distance from their dorm. Logical or not, part of him felt that if something horrible happened there one time, it could again.

But worse than that, Neil thought it was the complete lack of memory of what happened after he’d been chemically hypnotized that bothered him most. He had no idea how much time had passed between them exiting that basement and fleeing for safety in the garden.

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