Children of the Void: Book One of the Aionian Saga by Jack Halls Read Free Book Online Page A

crumpled up the paper and stuffed it in a pocket. “I can’t remember writing it. Must have been a long time ago.”
    “It said something about malicious code,” said Takomi. “You don’t know what it’s talking about?”
    “Could be anything. Byron and I worked on lots of projects over the years. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”
    “Well, maybe you could tell us what this is?” Gideon pulled the metal pin out of his pocket and held it up for Diana to see. She squinted, then her eyes went wide. “Where did you get that?”
    “Doctor Marcus’s closet,” said Gideon.
    Diana held out her hand. “Give it to me, please.”
    Gideon did as he was told. Diana pushed the pin into the same pocket as the slip of paper.
    “Hiro’s been looking all over for that,” she said. “Byron must have borrowed it at some point. He’ll be happy to have it back. Thanks.”
    Diana straightened the front of her lab coat and looked at the two teenagers. “Now. Is there anything else you two have pilfered from someone’s house?”
    Takomi and Gideon both shook their heads.
    “Good to know. Next time you want to go looking through things that don’t belong to you, ask somebody first, okay?”
    They each muttered a reply, and Diana reached out to squeeze Takomi’s hand. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got work to do. Gideon, why don’t you come over for dinner tonight? We’d love to have you.”
    Gideon was about to say that his father said he’d be coming home for dinner tonight, but he realized he didn’t expect the admiral to remember. “Thanks, Mrs. Tsukamoto. Sounds good.”
    She smiled and turned to walk away. Takomi and Gideon walked the opposite direction. Gideon leaned in close to Takomi. “I expected her to be angrier than that.”  
    Takomi said nothing as she threw him a sideways glance. When Diana was out of the room, Takomi grabbed Gideon’s arm and brought him to a halt. “She’s lying. I can tell.”
    “Why would she lie?”
    “I don’t know.” She pressed her fingers to her lips and motioned for Gideon to follow with her other hand. They crept back toward the door Diana had exited. At the door, Takomi pushed it open a crack and peeked through, then froze, letting it close again. She turned to Gideon, mouthing the words she’s right there and pointed at the door.
    Diana’s voice drifted down to them. “Call Admiral Killdeer.”
    In the seconds of silence that followed, Gideon was sure Diana would hear his heartbeat. Finally, Diana spoke again, though they couldn’t hear the reply. She spoke quietly, and was apparently wearing an earpiece. “Yes, Ethan? It’s Diana. I need to talk to you. Takomi and your son have been meddling in things they shouldn’t. No, not over the com. I’ll be up there in ten minutes.”
    Her footsteps receded down the hall. Gideon realized he’d been holding his breath.
    “Great, he’s gonna kill us,” said Takomi. “Why’d she have to tell your dad?”
    “No idea, but there’s something weird going on, and I want to find out what it is.”
    They walked back to the exit.
    “You saw the way she looked at that symbol we found,” said Takomi. “It’s got to mean something.”
    “No kidding. It can’t be a coincidence that I’ve seen it three times in three different places. My mom acted pretty much the same way when I asked her about it.”
    “Well, who can we ask about it?”
    “I get the feeling anybody who knows about that symbol is not going to tell us anything.”
    “So how do we find out?”
    Gideon pushed open the outer doors and walked into the sunlight. “I’ve got an idea, but you’re not going to like it.”
    “What?” asked Takomi.
    “I’ll have to wait a couple weeks, but I think I can get into the satellite hangar. I should be able to get into my dad’s office and get a better look at that book too.”
    “How in the world are we going to pull that off? CENTCOM’s the most secure spot on the whole ship.”
    “We? So you’ll help