A Darker Shade of Dead by Bianca D'Arc Read Free Book Online

fantasy for those lonely hours in the middle of the night when she longed for a lover in her lonely bed.
    â€œYou about ready?” Matt’s voice broke into her silent reverie.
    She blinked, looking at him. “What?”
    â€œJust asking if you were done. I have some electronics for you in my office. I didn’t realize you’d be here this early or I’d have brought them with me to breakfast.”
    â€œOh.” It took her a moment to register what he was saying. “Mariana and I were going to check out the lab.” Mentally, she kicked herself for the rather dull-witted reply.
    â€œMy office is on the way. If you don’t object to a slight delay, I’d feel better if you were outfitted properly before you got to work today. Everyone on the team has already been issued a sat phone and headset. I’d like for you to keep them with you while on duty so we can stay in contact without having to scramble for a phone in case there’s an emergency.”
    â€œSounds reasonable.” She looked at Mariana. “Do you mind a small detour?”
    â€œNot at all.” Mariana smiled warmly as she waved away the issue. “It’s on the way. Won’t take but a minute.”
    They bussed their trays and stepped into the early-morning sunshine. The rest of the men took their leave and went off in other directions while Matt, Sandra, and Mariana headed for his office.
    Matt ducked inside, leaving the women to enjoy the fresh air. He returned a minute later with a phone and headset, which he handed to Sandra. He spent a few minutes explaining the basics of how the equipment worked. She asked a few questions, having never seen such technology before, but it wasn’t difficult to pick up. Within five minutes, she felt confident that she knew how to operate the electronics.
    â€œDon’t forget the meeting this morning. You’ll have a couple of hours to check out your workspace in the lab, but don’t get too caught up,” Matt warned with a friendly smile. “I’ve called the entire team together so we can all meet each other and talk through our strategy and duty assignments.”
    â€œI’m looking forward to it,” she responded politely.
    In truth, Sandra didn’t really care about the meeting either way. She’d sit in the background and observe as usual. Strategy wasn’t her strong point, and she already knew what was expected of her work-wise. She was there to work on the tech end of things. That was her only area of expertise. She couldn’t fight the monsters. Not physically. No, she’d use her scientific expertise to try to annihilate them.
    It was the soldiers who would do the actual physical work and employ the strategies he wanted to talk over at this meeting. But she would attend. It was expected of her and she always tried to live up to her employers’ expectations. She didn’t like confrontation, and she didn’t like to make waves. She’d attend. She just wouldn’t contribute much unless asked directly.
    Â 
    John Petit arrived at the meeting room feeling a little out of his element. It was good to be back on a military base, but after what he’d been told about his new assignment, it had a sort of Twilight Zone feel. He was still tempted to believe someone was playing a colossal joke on him. After all, zombies didn’t really exist, did they?
    John was all too afraid this wasn’t a joke and some mad scientists really had crossed the line and created the living dead. It would be up to him and the rest of this makeshift team to put an end to it. He’d been given basic information on the other members of the team. Most were either Spec Ops warriors or scientific personnel.
    But there was one new member of the team who truly troubled him. She was the whole reason he’d been asked to join the team, in fact, and he just couldn’t wrap his head around that whole scenario. Who