Accelerated by Vaughn Heppner Read Free Book Online Page A

weights to each. I’d read somewhere that sailors at sea during the Napoleonic era had used two twelve-pound round-shot on a body to ensure it went down. I didn’t know these two, and I didn’t like them. I was sure they were vile individuals. Still, I said a short prayer for each, for their souls. I’d killed them, after all. By praying for them, I hoped in my old age that their deaths wouldn’t come back to haunt me. Then I slid each body overboard, watching each slip underwater.
    Lastly, I ripped out bloody carpet, anything bloody and shoved it all into a duffel bag. I piled weights into the bag, tied it tight and hurled it overboard.
    Only then was I ready to inspect Kay’s mysterious box. I’d already thought all kinds of things concerning it. Bomb, supervirus, heroin, tainted cash or bonds, I had no idea what waited for me. Dave had liked Kay back in Geneva. She’d always seemed nice enough to me then, if tightly wound. One thing I didn’t like about her was that she’d helped the Shop run experiments on us in Italy. What kind of person did that? It’s true she hadn’t helped them with the worst experiments on me, but I had no idea what she had done to the others. After my experiences this afternoon, I wasn’t going to trust her about the box.
    I sighed as I entered my bedroom. The small, microwave-sized box was still on my bunk. The cabin tilted as the ocean waves washed against the hull. The rolling waves moved my boat, and therefore the cabin, back and forth, and today the motion gave me a touch of nausea. Normally, I didn’t get seasick. It must have been a lingering effect of the flashlight blaster.
    It was interesting to me that the intruders hadn’t opened the box, but simply placed it on the bed. I leaned against a wall as the cabin continued to tilt various ways. I watched the box and I noticed how it pressed against my blanket. What was inside? I wanted to know. I was curious. The fact the bald man had used a weapon specially designed for me made me even more curious.
    Polarity Magnetics: I’d like to know more about the company. Did they work on magnets or was it simply an interesting name? The particle accelerator had used huge magnets. Did Doctor Cheng and her people study dark matter there in Long Beach?
    I cracked my knuckles and knelt on the edge of the bunk. I listened, but couldn’t hear anything from the box. Kay had walked with it. She’d jumped the gap between the pier and the boat with it. The two intruders had lifted the box. I’d lifted it earlier, putting it in a closet. It had weighed nearly twice as much as a microwave its size.
    Blowing out my cheeks, I climbed into the galley, selected a sharp steak knife and returned to the cabin. First, I moved the box onto the carpet. Then I squatted by it and set my hand on top. Clear tape seemed to have been hurriedly wound around the box. Gingerly, I eased the steak knife against a tape-strand and slowly sawed back and forth. If I was about to kill myself, I was an idiot. It seemed like the smarter thing would be to dump the box into the ocean and forget about it. I could take my boat to Mexico and disown any part of this.
    That would have been the smart thing, but I was curious, and I owed Kay. Therefore, I kept on sawing the first strand. It parted. I jerked my hand away and waited. Nothing ominous happened. I put my ear to the box, listening closely. Frowning, I cut another strand and then a third. I wiped my wrist against my lips, grabbed a cardboard edge and slowly pried it open. There was something silvery inside the box.
    My heart was beating hard by then. I shouldn’t be doing this. I should hurl the box into the ocean. I was playing with things that I had no idea they did. Look at what had happened to me in Geneva.
    “Remember what happened to Dave,” I whispered.
    Hadn’t Kay said this box had something to do with Dave? He phased in and out. Was it a phase bomb? I had no idea what a phase bomb would be able to do, but I