Calypso Directive by Brian Andrews Read Free Book Online Page A

garb. But he left the wool cap untouched upon his head and the maroon scarf wrapped snugly around his nose and mouth to hide his face.
    As he logged into his email account, he was taken aback. The date stamp on his last sent message was over five months old. Five months! He felt the color rising in his cheeks as he thought about his imprisonment. No phone calls, no email, no letters, no walks outside, no contact with anyone.
    He took a deep breath, calming himself so he could concentrate on the task at hand.
    He sorted the email in his inbox by Sender. Hundreds of messages flooded the screen, but not a single one was from Julie. With the way they had left things, she probably didn’t even know he was missing. Maybe no one did. He hadn’t exchanged emails with Julie for over a year. To make matters worse, he couldn’t remember where she worked. He knew she ran her own lab, but the details of her employment had never been a heated topic of conversation between them. Still, he had a starting point; he knew her instant messaging account name. If she had changed that , then he was in serious trouble.
    He opened MSN Instant Messenger.
    â€œC’mon Julie,” he said quietly. “Be there.” A blue task window popped up on the screen with a friendly chime:
    Hello Will, 0 of your contacts are online.
    Shit.
    He clicked back over to his email account to compose a message, addressing it to Julie’s personal email address:
    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Subject: Urgent! Need help.
    Julie - I’m in trouble and need your help. I’ll be logged onto IM for the next 24 hours. - W
    He hit “send” and sank into his chair. In the past, Julie had checked her personal email periodically throughout the workday, but there was no telling how long he would have to wait today. For the next ninety minutes, he reacquainted himself with the world, scanning news sites for current events and checking his favorite blogs. It was a sobering experience. So much had happened while he had been locked away, and the more he read, the more alone he felt.
    As he clicked from site to site, he kept one eye on the front desk and the people around him. It was a diverse crowd, but not a dangerous crowd.
    Bing.
    The sound seemed unnaturally loud, and Will was momentarily afraid that the computer had somehow betrayed him. He glanced around wildly, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to him. In fact, he could hear other people’s computers making similar sounds.
    It was an Instant Message alert.
    Julie:
    will? is this a joke?
    His breath quickened, and his hands started to shake. He could barely type.
    Will:
    no joke. i’m in trouble and need your help.
    Julie:
    why me? what about your girlfriend?
    Will:
    we broke up
    He waited . . . his stomach tied in knots. After what seemed like an eternity, the message window refreshed with new text.
    Julie:
    I’m pissed at you. you break up with her and don’t bother to tell me? you’re a jerk.
    Will:
    I am. But something really bad happened to me . . . I couldn’t contact you til now
    Julie:
    tell me
    Will:
    I was kidnapped, but I escaped. now, i’m in Prague.
    Julie:
    kidnapped? WTF are you talking about?
    Will:
    I was put in quarantine, drugged, smuggled to Prague, and held against my will in some kind of hospital. but not a real hospital, more like research lab. they locked me in a room, did tests on me, injected me with things. the past five months of my life have been a nightmare, but last night I escaped.
    Julie:
    i don’t have time for this crap
    She didn’t believe him! Desperation flooded his mind, and he assaulted the keyboard with a barrage of keystrokes.
    Will:
    EVERYTHING I’M TELLING YOU IS TRUE! I’m in Prague, with no fucking money, wearing somebody else’s clothes, and the two kids who shared a room with me at a youth hostel last night are infected and are probably dying right now.