Magnet by Viola Grace Read Free Book Online

excused herself for a moment. That was an hour ago and I can’t track her.”
    Drovin looked at him. “What?”
    “You heard me. She was talking about seeing a creature from Earth and then she disappeared.”
    Nanette looked up from one of the geological displays. “What kind of creature?”
    “She called it a skwool? Something like that.” Loesh looked to Nanette for clarification.
    “What did she say it looked like?”
    He described it and she went to the terminal, bringing up an image.
    “Does that look like what she described?”
    Drovin leaned forward and his eyes were wide. “Oh, damn.”
    Loesh blinked, “What? What is it?”
    Drovin sighed and ran his hand over his face. “On our first assignment, she held onto a case, within that case was an experimental intelligence. When we returned that case to the researchers, they discovered a leak, but as the majority of the experiment was contained, they dismissed it as being destroyed in the attack.”
    “I am not sensing anything.” Loesh was tense.
    Drovin nodded. “That is the point. It is undetectable. If she is seeing something from home, her mind is creating the shape and giving it substance.”
    Toyo stood up, “We need to find her.”
    Loesh nodded. “We do. When does the wave strike?”
    Rand pointed to the display. “It doesn’t. Something cancelled the wave out. The origin point was your little spot on the beach where you confronted the Lord Mayor. Nothing was seen on any monitors or displays.”
    Loesh scowled. “That isn’t right. Polly was at the seaside. She stood there for five minutes while I coaxed the mayor to the door.”
    Toyo turned to the coastal monitors, and they could all see the wave of energy move from the shoreline and out to the expanse of the water, but there was no one on the beach.
    “That is impossible, she was there.”
    Drovin nodded, “We know. We will comb the surrounding area and find her, I promise.”
    Footsteps behind them made Loesh turn. Polly was standing there with her hands wrapped around something small. She smiled at him. “I caught it!”
    Nanette stared at her. “Caught what?”
     
    * * * *
     
    “You seriously can’t see it, can you?” She looked at the adorable squirrel in her hands.
    The Guardians shook their heads.
    “Well, damn.” She put her face close to her captured prize. “What are you?”
    He chirped happily at her and squirmed until he scampered up her shoulder and clutched her hair for balance.
    The faces staring at her saw her hair move, she could see that much. “So, you can’t see him.”
    The Guardians shook their heads.
    Loesh came toward her. “You are completely invisible to my senses right now. I can see you, but I can’t smell you.”
    She reached out to take his hand and her new little buddy ran down her arm and up onto his shoulder, rubbing the blue locks of his hair against the small fluffy face.
    He jerked to one side.
    “So you can see him now?”
    Loesh shook his head. “No, but I feel something. There is a tingling on my shoulder that wasn’t there before. Is my hair moving?”
    Polly grinned. “It is. He is wrapping himself in it.”
    Nanette cleared her throat. “Polly, do you know what it is?”
    “Aside from a squirrel? Nope. I had a pet squirrel growing up and this little guy looks just like Gerald.”
    Nanette chuckled. “Gerald?”
    “He was a serious squirrel; he needed a serious name.” She chuckled. “What happened to the wave?”
    Toyo leaned against the command console. “It was cancelled. Do you know anything about that?”
    Polly looked at the images of the incoming wave as well as the one that seemed to have left from the shore and gone out to meet it. “I remember standing on the shoreline and getting rid of all that pent-up energy. Once it was gone, I felt much better.”
    Drovin cocked his head. “Was the energy an over stimulation of your talent?”
    She shook her head. “No, it was from the outside. It was like wearing a static