Element Zero by James Knapp Read Free Book Online Page B

He had a cool aura, though. It was complex, with a million focused points, and in between it all his colors roiled like a storm. They reminded me of how Nico’s used to look, and thinking about that made me a little sad. Penny patted my arm.
    “No Chen,” she said. She noticed it too.
    I was about to get out when the door between the two guards opened and an older man in a suit stepped out. I immediately recognized the square face, and the gray military cut. I took an extra mouthful of ouzo and swallowed hard before stowing the flask in my suit-jacket pocket next to where the pistol was strapped.
    “General Osterhagen,” Penny whistled. “That’s not good.”
    “Why not?”
    “He’s got bad news. He wants to make sure no one glosses over it.”
    His face looked serious, like it always did, but Penny was right: there was something about the soft light of his consciousness that was grim and determined. Behind the thin white halo that surrounded it and behind the layers of his thought I saw worry, and that worried me.
    Osterhagen didn’t look especially intimidating. In fact, if you didn’t know anything about him, you’d think he just looked like somebody’s grandfather. I knew plenty about him, though, and that included all the men he killed when he was in the service, and all the ones he killed once he was out. He’d actually killed men with his bare hands, but when you looked at those calm blue patterns that usually made up his aura, you’d never guess that any of it bothered him, ever. He didn’t scare or worry easily.
    Penny killed the engine, and as we got out, I could see she’d noticed it too. We walked up to him and he held out his hand. First Penny shook it, then I did. His hand was hard, and he always squeezed a little too tight, but even though I hated touching people, I’d learned to give him my best shake. It was one of those things that mattered to him.
    “General,” Penny said, throwing him a wink, “if I’d known you were going to be here, I’d have dressed up.”
    Penny was dressed up; we both were whenever we visited the Stillwell Corps research facility. She flirted as a matter of course, with men and women, but there never seemed to be much interest behind it. Osterhagen, as usual, completely ignored it.
    “I thought I’d give you a tour of the lab tonight,” he said. “There’s something I want you two to see.”
    “Sounds great,” she said. “Let’s do it.”
    In reality, she was actually really excited to see the lab, and so was I. Ai had sent us before to get what she called an unfiltered report, but so far they’d drawn the line at letting us walk around inside the work area and see what was going on. Ai never pushed it, so I assumed Osterhagen had let her view it remotely or walked her through himself, but I’d always been curious. The lab was where they took all the Huma-infected subjects they’d been able to find. I’d never actually seen one. Not that I knew of anyway.
    The guards straightened up even more as he passed back by them and opened the door. We followed him in, and they brought up the rear as the door slammed shut behind us.
    The hallway behind the door was long and led directly to the wing where the research took place. No one ever saw us come or go except the guards and the skittish scientist type named Moses who usually met us. There was no Moses, this time. Osterhagen turned back and I saw orange light flicker in the darks of his eyes, like I used to see with Nico sometimes, way back when. As soon as it happened, the two guards peeled off and left through the next door we passed, leaving the three of us alone.
    “So where’s your man?” Penny asked. “Chen?”
    “Mr. Chen is not currently on the base.”
    “Why not?”
    “He is off shift.”
    “Hey, it’s not like we’re coming down to the wire or anything,” she said, offhand. The general scowled.
    “I know that better than you,” he said. “His team works in twenty-four hour shifts.