Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe

Author:Megan E. O'Keefe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2019-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

INTERLUDE: ALEXANDRA

PRIME HAS NOT YET BECOME A STANDARD

EARTH, THE MOMENT OF CHANGE

Lex did not leave the Puerto Rican station for a year. It was, as the pundits reminded her through flashing white teeth or tastefully structured think pieces, the longest she’d stayed at any one facility since Prime had begun construction on its first space elevator. They never said first, though, that was her own little mental correction. They didn’t know about the second.

Her very presence, she knew, strained the project. Speculation swirled about the facility’s importance, about what secret experiments Lex got up to behind the pristine lab walls. Weapons, viruses, biomechanical interfaces. Deathstars. Some even said Lex herself had died that day, the day she swept down to the Caribbean after a perfectly normal television junket. She chuckled, whenever poorly overdrawn videos of her speaking “revealed” the truth that she was some sort of CGI or cyborg.

Some of the rumors were true, of course, but those were the closest to the fringe. The ignored and insane. But she browsed them, in her rare moments of downtime, curious to see who was closest. Curious, too, to see if there were any leaks in those pristine lab walls.

Someone knocked at her bungalow door. Lex kicked her rolling chair back from her desk and stood, stretching long arms above her head. The tablet inset in her desktop revealed the face of Dr. Maria Salvez at her door, her lab coat slightly askew, dark half-moons throwing penumbral shadows beneath her eyes. Lex checked the time: 0200. Salvez had been working late into the night, but for her to visit before she went off shift was unprecedented.

In her pajamas—silk-like tank top, loose-fit pants, shaggy slippers— Lex opened the door. Salvez did not so much as blink at her boss’s appearance. Most would grovel for the perceived slight of having wakened her. This was why she liked Salvez. No bullshit.

“Come. It’s done. I have something to show you.”

Lex shivered in the warm, tropical air. She’d taken up residence on the Prime compound on Caja de Muertos, her front door mere steps from the lab that sheltered her greatest prize. The thick air hung heavy on her shoulders as she stepped out, not bothering to find a robe or proper shoes. A storm, maybe, threatening in the distance. She hadn’t yet spent enough time outside on the island to grow in tune with the vagaries of its weather patterns. The only storm she cared about right now was the one inside her mind.

It’s done.

She crossed the plaza under the glare of security lights, Salvez leading the way with her determined, stalking gait. Outside the walls of the compound, the wood of palm trees groaned as they swayed under the winds. Leaves hissed against one another. But in the main building, silence, aside from the subtle rumble of the HVAC working overtime to keep the air cool and humidity down.

A cupola had been erected in the heart of the building. Mirrors lined the curved dome of the ceiling, a silvery kaleidoscope hiding cameras and measurement devices.

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