Captured (The Prometheus Project Book 2) by Douglas E. Richards Read Free Book Online Page B

today the city was strangely quiet.
    They arrived at the entrance a few minutes later.
    At least they should have .
    The opening was gone!
    Regan gasped, while Ryan’s eyes widened in horror.
    The alien force-field was perfectly intact. No kaleidoscope of colors that represented an opening in the field. No doorway out of the city and back into the cavern. There was no question they were in the correct location. But where was the opening? The city’s only exit was gone!
    They were trapped! Just like the first time they had entered the city.
    “Impossible,” said Ryan, in total disbelief. It was like a very bad dream. How could this be happening again . “What’s going on?”
    Regan said nothing, continuing to stare straight ahead in shock. The last time this exit had disappeared they had been completely alone. At least this time they wouldn’t be. She was at least thankful for that.
    Her brother must have been thinking the same thing. “We need to find the rest of the team,” he said worriedlyafter a few long seconds of silence. “Even if the entrance closed down at three in the morning there should be at least fifteen people here. Maybe one of them will know what’s going on.”
    They rushed to the nearby building that Carl had selected as his headquarters within the city and went inside.
    It was abandoned!
    Again, this was impossible . There were always at least a few of Carl’s people planning and watching security monitors twenty-four hours a day.
    They drove to four additional alien structures that had been converted into labs or were actively being studied by members of the team with the same result.
    The city was a ghost town . Maybe they were alone, after all.
    With each new discovery of abandoned quarters that shouldn’t have been abandoned the sick feeling in the pits of their stomachs intensified. Changing their strategy, they drove toward the center of the city, stopping periodically to enter multistory buildings to use as lookouts.
    They were each at a different window on the third floor of one such building, silently searching the city below for any signs of life, when Ryan’s voice exploded through the silence. “Regan!” he shouted. “Quick.”
    She raced over and joined her brother who was pointing at something through the window. She looked out in plenty of time to see the reason for his alarm. Achill went down her spine as what she was seeing fully registered. A Hauler was slowly passing the building. They both watched it in shock, their mouths falling open.
    Inside the flatbed compartment three men were kneeling, clutching machine guns against their chests expertly with both hands, one hand at the trigger and one hand supporting the butt of the weapon.
    The men were dressed from head to toe in black. In addition to black socks, black shoes, and a black jumpsuit, they each wore a thick black nylon belt with a variety of black pouches and gear clipped on, and a black ski cap. They each faced a different direction, carefully scanning the city as the vehicle slowly advanced, their intensity and alertness unmistakable even at a distance. There could be no doubt that these were superbly trained and extremely dangerous men.
    Inside the large driving compartment were two more of the black-clad men, one driving and the other pointing a machine gun at a man in civilian clothes, handcuffed to a thick steel pole running across the back of the compartment.
    It was Cam Kincaid!
    And he was clearly a prisoner.
    If there had been any doubt before, there was none now.
    Prometheus had been invaded!

C HAPTER 8
Spies
    T hings had quickly gone from bad to worse.
    They watched from the window as the vehicle passed a powerful waterfall that gushed from the top of a nearby building and slammed into a shallow pool far below. The water seemed to appear from nowhere and lead nowhere, but this was because the waterfall didn’t really exist. It was a perfect holographic simulation, utterly realistic, right down to