The Reckoning: Quantum Prophecy Book 3 by Michael Carroll Read Free Book Online Page A

command into the keyboard.
    The screen changed to show a wire-frame figure of a man wearing the arm and the chest harness. “It’s still just as heavy as it was, but it’s much stronger and the harness distributes the weight pretty evenly, so you’ll get used to it. I’ve redesigned it so that you’ll be able to put it on without needing someone else’s help. And our tests show that when you switch into hyperspeed mode, the arm will too, so it should be able to keep up with you.”
    Without saying a word, Danny turned and walked over to the window, and stared out.
    Why can’t they just get the hint that I don’t
want
a mechanical arm? Maybe I should tell them…
    But Danny knew that telling them wasn’t an option. Max and Impervia had known Quantum, and they’d seen how his visions had turned him into a broken man.
    Danny didn’t want them to know that he had inherited not only his father’s speed, but also his ability to sense the future.
    It didn’t work well, and he couldn’t control it, but there were times—like back on Isla del Tonatiuh—when Danny somehow just knew that something bad was going to happen.
    And once, shortly before he’d lost his right arm, Danny had seen a vision of himself with a mechanical right arm.
    If Quantum’s prophecy was accurate, and I’m going to be responsiblefor starting a huge war in which billions of people will die, then…Then there’s nothing on Earth that’s going to make me take that mechanical arm. If I don’t take the arm, then the future I saw can’t ever happen.
    His thoughts were interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. He looked around to see Renata standing beside him.
    “You OK?”
    Danny nodded. “Yeah. Just…thinking.”
    Behind them, the door hissed open and two female guards entered, one of them pushing an old woman in a wheelchair. The woman glanced around, spotted Warren and instantly looked away.
    One of the guards put the wheelchair away while his colleague helped her into bed.
    “Another interrogation session,” Renata whispered.
    Danny said, “I don’t care if Ragnarök was her son. How can they treat an eighty-year-old woman like that?”
    “I suppose they think Mrs. Duval knows something that can help them track down Yvonne.”
    “What could she know? They’ve never even met each other!”
    Renata shrugged.
    Warren walked over, avoiding Mrs. Duval’s glare. “Dan? We need to get you checked out.”
    “Why do we have to get a checkup after
every
mission?”
    “General’s orders,” Warren said. He picked up the chart from the end of Mina’s bed and flipped through the pages. “Back in the old days, we just fought the bad guys and went back to our normal lives. Now, we’ve got the might of the military behind us. Like things weren’t complicated enough. One superhuman wecan’t wake up, one missing in action, one turned against us…Only three of you left.” He put back the chart and smiled at Danny. “But soon enough, there’ll be four.”
    “You found a new superhuman?”
    “Better than that. Razor’s team almost has the new Paragon armor finished.”

5
    E VEN BEFORE D ANNY AND R ENATA reached the machine room, they could hear a loud pounding echoing through the building. They opened the door and stood on the gantry, looking down at Razor and four other technicians as they worked on what appeared to be the framework of a three-meter-tall bipedal robot.
    “All right,” Razor said, standing back from the exoskeleton. He brushed his long hair back from his face. “Everyone get clear…. Let’s try that again.”
    The robot’s motors whined as it straightened itself—then, after a moment, it tilted slightly to the right, then stomped its left foot forward. The robot tilted to the left, then moved its right foot.
    Danny grinned. “It’s walking! Finally!”
    “Shutting down,” Razor said. “Take the readings, Mitch.” He glanced up at Danny and Renata, and beckoned them down.
    Danny was instantly standing in