Project X-Calibur by Greg Pace Read Free Book Online Page B

been worrying about everyone else, and I’d forgotten to push my button a few times. I saw Merlin’s smile falter at the news and clenched my jaw. I exhaled, eager to be freed from the chair. But they weren’t done with us yet.
    â€œThat was the easy part,” Pellinore announced. “On to phase two.”

9
    133:46:26
    FULL DISCLOSURE: I’ll never again hear the word “g-force” without practically wetting my shorts.
    After the first test, the chairs—including the floor panels below them—suddenly rose up higher and higher, until the five of us were forty feet above the floor. Sourpuss’s voice came through speakers in the corners of the ceiling. “Your directive for this second part of the test couldn’t be simpler:
Hold on.
”
    I gulped. I wasn’t overly afraid of heights, but I was afraid of
falling.
    â€œYou going to be okay this time, Earnhardt?” Kwan asked.
    â€œI was fine on the first part, Kwan,” I shot back. “I just—”
    I didn’t get to finish, because we all reclined backward until the five of us were parallel with the ceiling. I knew from science class that heat rises, and that was certainly the case now. Forget an elevator shaft, the room now felt like a warm chimney. The ceiling was just a few feet away from us. It was a network of pipes, giving off more heat.
    â€œI’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Tyler murmured.
    â€œYeah, it’s called the
end of the world,
” Kwan quipped.
    WHOOOSHHH!!!
It felt like my stomach and everything else inside me was going to come out of my mouth. My cheeks and lips and hair felt like they were being pulled upward as the rest of me, fastened to the chair, plummeted. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting to smash into the floor and be turned into oatmeal.
    We came to an immediate stop just a foot above the floor, all five of us still in reclined positions. Our chairs rose up on their columns again. Within seconds, we were again staring at the ceiling.
    â€œI went on a ride like this at a state fair once,” Tyler groaned to nobody in particular. “I barfed afterward. Fried cucumbers and corn on the cob. Not pretty.”
    That image made my stomach lurch, and just as Kwan yelled “Yee-ha!!” we all dropped again. I waited desperately to hear Sourpuss’s voice—hopefully saying,
They all passed; help the kids out of those torture devices ASAP.
    â€œGood, now let’s flip them around,” she said instead.
    I did
not
like the sound of that.
    This time, when we got to the top, the chairs continued to recline backward and
kept going,
slowly turning all the way upside down until we were facing the floor, forty feet below. I had thought this couldn’t get worse. Wrong: Not being able to see the ground was
way
better than this.
    We dropped again, and the ground came rushing at us at lightning speed. I was overcome by a crushing fear that we’d plunge through the floor, deeper and deeper into HQ, never to be seen again. We stopped a foot from the floor again, my heart thrashing against the strap around my chest.
    â€œThat should do it,” Pellinore called. “Get them out.” The techs helped us out of our chairs. I tried to walk with confidence, but I felt like I had just taken a ride inside a washing machine on the spin cycle.
    â€œHow do we feel?” Pellinore asked exuberantly.
    We?
I’m sure
he
felt fine. I, however, practically had my intestines stuck between my teeth.
    â€œNever better,” Malcolm grunted, standing tall and looking good as new. The dude was seriously getting on my nerves. Sourpuss scanned me, Tyler, Kwan, and Darla with her eagle eyes. “Any soreness or pain I should know about? Withstanding g-forces of this magnitude will be essential to your success. Speak up now or suffer the consequences later.”
    The four of us gave each other quick glances. Kwan and Malcolm were all smiles, Tyler