Dragonflies: Shadow of Drones by Andy Straka Read Free Book Online Page A

technology I’m about to show you, if you’re up to it. A program I think will be of great interest to you.”
    “Oh, yeah? Why all the secrecy? What’s it for, repelling alien invaders or something?”
    He smiled again. “Not exactly.” This really was one seriously good-looking dude. Raina didn’t normally swoon over men–she was attractive enough in her own right. But Murnell was off the charts. She wondered if they’d purposely sent him in to be here when she woke up, a walking talking genius hunk of male pheromones.
    “Okay. What is it then?” She tried to sit up, but immediately felt dizzy, and laid her head back down.
    “In a minute. Give yourself a little more time for the medication to wear off.”
    “I don’t have more time.”
    “Why, you have a pressing appointment?”
    Actually, yes. With a pretty boy college rapist and his scumbag cover-up of a father. She glared at Murnell, wondering if he might just fit into the pretty boy category himself.
    “All right,” he said. “If that’s what you want…But if you fall and crack your skull, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
    “Can I have some actual water?”
    “Okay.” He reached around and picked up another cup, turning to hand it to her. This one contained only liquid, no ice.
    She took a couple of sips. It tasted heavenly.
    “Stomach okay?”
    She nodded.
    “Good. You think you can stand?”
    “Time to find out,” she said.
    She raised her head again, and though she felt the same dizziness, this time it was a little better. She pushed through it and sat all the way up.
    “Everything all right?” he asked.
    “What’d you people give me?”
    “An anesthetic. Just like you were having a surgical procedure.”
    “Priceless.” She shook her head. “Who were the guys who snatched me?”
    “One is a medical corpsman. The other is a squad leader. Both special forces.”
    “Great. Now they can add jumping and seizing women to their resumes.”
    “Again, I apologize. But I hope you’ll come to see it was worth it.”
    “Right,” she snickered. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
    She swung her legs off the cot and placed her feet on the floor.
    “You can walk okay? ...I mean with the prosthetic.”
    “That’s the general idea. Titanium, carbon fiber, and biomechanical electronic feedback–state of the art. Though it’s not exactly the same as Mother Nature.”
    She pushed off the cot and rose into a standing position. The room seemed to swirl for a moment.
    He was there by her side, taking hold of her arm.
    “Don’t get any ideas,” she said.
    Again he offered her the smile, this time with a slight guffaw. “Don’t worry. You can make it okay?”
    She nodded, waving him off, and he let her go.
    “Which way to the Emerald City?” she said.
    He looked at her quizzically for a moment. “Funny you should say that.”

10
    There was a loud click as the door in the corner of the room angled open. She followed him through it into a brilliantly lit hallway. After the dimness of the room, the light was almost blinding.
    “Give your eyes a moment to adjust.” He paused, waiting for her to catch up.
    “Where are we going?”
    “You’ll see. Stomach still okay?”
    “Okay enough.” She felt like crap but wasn’t about to give her jailer, if that’s what he was, the satisfaction of knowing it.
    He laughed. “Spoken like an Air Cavalryman.”
    “Woman, you mean.”
    “Of course.”
    Raina noticed right away that, unlike the room with her cot, the walls here were made of a more high tech substance, a kind of steel she’d never seen before, polished like glass, with a faint greenish tinge. The walls and the ceiling contributed to the corridor’s brightness. At the far end of the hallway, maybe fifty yards away, stood a soldier with an M16 in full combat gear. What was all this?
    Upon reaching the soldier, they were confronted by another, far more substantial entrance. The soldier continued to stare straight ahead, paying