The Alpha Drive

by Kristen Martin

  The last thing she wanted was for Rhea to intrude on their conversation, so she led Anthony to Rosemary Hall’s common room. As per usual, the room was empty, the drab furniture exuding a less-than-pleasant, musty odor. Emery patted the seat of one of the couches, watching as dust particles bounced off the fabric and floated into the air. She crossed her legs carefully, half expecting her knee to start bleeding profusely from her nonexistent bullet wound.

  Anthony laid the burgers and fries out on the table in front of them. He placed a straw in Emery’s drink and handed it to her, his eyes flitting back and forth between the food and the door.

  Emery yawned as she looked at the food. She should have been famished, but her mind was consumed with the training and what Torin would make of it. If bullets were their strategy, it was a pretty lame one.

  She turned her attention back to Anthony as he leaned into the cushions and stretched his arm across the

  back of the couch. As they made eye contact, it hit her.

  I don’t want to be with him anymore.

  Anthony spilled his heart out, expressing how he’d been so lonely the past couple of months with nowhere to turn and no one to talk to. He’d always been good at placing blame on others and she was feeling the effects of this more than ever. Emery ate her burger in silence, offering only a nod of her head or blink of her eyes to signify she was paying attention.

  When they finished eating, she walked him downstairs to his car, fabricating an elaborate excuse as to why they couldn’t talk longer.

  Anthony trudged behind her down the stairwell. “I just poured my heart out to you and you’re not even going to let me stay?”

  Emery pushed open the door that led to the parking garage. Right before they reached his car, he stepped in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. He grabbed both of her hands, his eyes desperately searching hers for answers. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but we’re going to work through it,” he whispered as he squeezed her delicate skin.

  Emery looked down at their entwined fingers and sighed. “No,” she said as she pulled away, “we’re not.”

  Anthony let go, watching as her arms dropped to her sides. “I don’t understand.”

  “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I’ve

  done some thinking. A lot of thinking, actually. And I don’t think we should be together anymore.” Emery waited for him to respond, but the deafening silence only grew louder.

  “I just need to be on my own for a while. I’ve grown so much over the past couple of months and I need some time to figure everything out. I’m sorry, Anthony.” She inhaled deeply, stuffing her trembling hands into her pockets.

  “I don’t know what to say,” he choked, “but I guess if that’s what you want, then there’s nothing I can say to change how you feel.”

  As he turned toward his car, she reached for his arm, grasping his sleeve tightly. “I’m really sorry.”

  Anthony pulled something from his pocket. It was the necklace he’d given her last Christmas. The same necklace she’d thrown at him during their last fight.

  “This belongs to you.”

  Emery shook her head. “It’s beautiful, but I can’t keep it.”

  “Em, it was a gift. I want you to have it.”

  Emery knew better than to start another fight. She turned around and moved her hair out of the way as his rough, calloused hands draped the necklace around her neck. As he hooked the clasp, his index finger brushed against the nape of her neck.

  Emery froze. No.

  “There’s like a bump or something . . .”

  She whirled around to face him, the necklace falling onto the cement at her feet.

  Anthony was eerily still for a minute, as if he’d been turned into a statue. Emery snapped her fingers in front of his face, trying to get him to blink or make some sort of movement.

  “This can’t be happening,” she said out loud as Theo’s warning hurtled to the front of her mind.

  Emery frantically waved both hands in front of his face, but he didn’t flinch. No, no, no.

  She bent down to pick the necklace up off the pavement, but when she stood back up, Anthony’s head was turned. He looked around the parking garage with a bewildered expression on his face.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, hoping that, by some miracle, he hadn’t seen the chip.

  He took a step back, eyes shifting nervously. “I’m fine,” he said as he made his way to his truck.

  “Anthony!” she called after him, feeling puzzled by his reaction.

  He turned to look at her. “I’m sorry. Do I know you?”

  There it was. Emery felt her heart drop as all of the color drained from her face. This can’t be happening.

  “Anthony,” she said as calmly as she could, “I’m Emery. Your girlfriend of over a year.”

  He scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief. “Listen, sweetheart. I don’t know what kind of day you’ve had, but I am not, nor was I ever, your boyfriend.”

  Emery watched with her mouth agape as her nonexistent ex-boyfriend climbed into his truck and sped off. She stood there, frozen in time, the necklace dangling limply from her index finger.

  22

  Theo groaned as he watched the scene unfold, the holoscreen zooming in on Emery’s face. He slammed his fists onto the metallic control station, the buttons shaking angrily from the impact. Of all the participants, he never wanted Emery to experience such a heart-wrenching experience. And neither did his superior.

  Pacing the perimeter of the room, Theo geared himself up for what he knew would be the most uncomfortable conversation of his life. “Call Victor Novak,” he commanded into the open space, his voice echoing throughout the control room. He waited for the holoimage of the President’s face to appear, but as always, it was just a shadow.

  “President Novak speaking.”

  “Sir, it’s Theo. Do you have a moment?”

  A chuckle resonated from the other end. “For you, Mr. Barker, I have not one.”

  Theo paused, irked by his response. His lips pressed into a firm line, his mood turning sour. “I assure you, this will only take a moment. It’s about Emery Parker.”

  Silence.

  “Sir?”

  “It better be good news, Mr. Barker.”

  Theo bit his tongue. “Unfortunately, it’s not. About fifteen minutes ago, Emery ended her relationship with her boyfriend. He saw the chip, sir, and per Alpha Drive protocol, his memory has been erased.”

  An incoherent string of words sounded from the other line.

  “I’m sorry, sir. Can you repeat that?”

  “This is indeed problematic, seeing as we’re close to finalizing our strategy. We need her. She can’t lose focus because of a petty mishap with her boyfriend.” Another unpleasant gargle escaped from his throat.

  “Sir? Are you asking me to bring Anthony’s memory back?” Theo clamped his mouth shut, realizing his question sounded more like an accusation.

  “Of course not.” Condescension dripped from the President’s voice. “We need both the ring and the pendant—the two things that only she has access to—otherwise everything falls apart. We just need to make sure she’s still on our side. “

  Theo turned his back and rolled his eyes. He’d heard this story a million times before. “How do we do that?”

  There was a pause as the President hummed. “Before we get to that, are you sure there’s nothing you want to tell me?”

  Theo froze. His thoughts whirled back to when Emery’s vitals were low; when her microchip looked like it had been tampered with. “No, sir.”

  The President sighed. “You know that I hate liars more than anything, Mr. Barker.”

  Theo gulped. Should he come clean? It was highly unlikely that the President knew about the incident.

  “A little birdy told me that, a while back, someone may have tampered with Ms. Parker’s chip. Is this true?”

  Theo turned around in his chair. “Who told—?”r />
  “It doesn’t matter who told me,” President Novak interrupted. “What matters is that I’m in charge of The Alpha Drive and I’m not being informed of critical details when I should be.”

  Theo lowered his head in defeat. “My apologies, sir. It won’t happen again.”

  “See to it that it doesn’t.” He coughed. “Now, seeing as Ms. Parker’s chip may have been tampered with, we need to understand how such an event could occur. I’ll need you to put Emery through a simulation. We need to see if she’s going to crack and reveal The Alpha Drive to the public. If she does, we’ll know where her loyalty stands.”

  Theo’s mind began to whirl with the possibilities. Simulations were one of his favorite past times.

  “And the next time you receive any sort of intel,” Victor paused, clearing his throat angrily, “I want a full report. I will not be left in the dark again.”

  But before Theo could say another word, the line went dead.

  23

  Torin knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret for long. But this . . . this had happened too soon.

  He sat in front of the 7S board of directors with his eyes lowered, his thoughts shifting back to just a few hours prior. He’d been right in the middle of hacking into the Federal Commonwealth’s mainframe to check up on things when a low-level employee had caught him red-handed. So much for flying under the radar.

  The Commander was alerted right away and Torin was apprehended from his office and dragged into the conference room on the seventh floor . . . the same conference room he’d eavesdropped on when he’d found out half of the world was comatose.

  “Mr. Porter,” the Commander began, “you’ve been brought here for your failure of disclosure with regard to Project Viper.”

  Torin raised his eyebrows. “Project Viper?”

  The Commander approached the table with a stern expression. “Did you or did you not fail to disclose that you successfully hacked into the Federal Commonwealth’s mainframe?”

  Torin sighed, drumming his fingers on the desk. It was no use pretending to act innocent. They knew. Time to confess.

  “I failed to disclose that I’d hacked into the mainframe.”

  The Commander’s mouth pressed into a harsh line. “And can you tell the board, for the record, what your directive was?”

  Torin sighed as murmurs filled the room. “My directive was to report to the Commander once I successfully hacked into the Federal Commonwealth’s mainframe.”

  The room fell silent as the board documented his statement.

  Torin lowered his head, then muttered, “But can you really blame me?”

  “Excuse me? Would you care to repeat that?”

  Torin looked up at the Commander with wide eyes. Oh, now you’ve done it.

  The Commander didn’t wait for him to answer. “Yes, we can blame you. You are at fault here.”

  Torin wasn’t sure what had gotten into him, but he felt the need to defend himself. “Look, I was never told why I was hacking in the first place. Everything around Project Viper has been so secretive that no one knows what we’re even working toward or what the end goal is.” He hesitated, wondering if he should speak the words he wanted to say next. “Project Viper? This is the first time I’ve heard the name. I didn’t even know what this project was called, and I’ve been working on it for months! So, forgive me for wanting more information.” He bit his tongue, knowing that his last statement would get him into more trouble than it was worth.

  The Commander slammed his fists on the desk. “You are a Corporal. Nothing more. Corporals do not ask questions, they simply do as they are told. Why we do what we do doesn’t matter. You just do it. We made that abundantly clear when we brought you onboard.”

  You are a Corporal. Nothing more. The words rang in Torin’s head like an underwater scream. He slowly raised himself up off the chair and placed his hands on the desk, his fingertips an inch away from the Commander’s. “Why we do the things we do does matter. Yeah, I withheld the status of the project from you for a little while. Of that, I’m guilty. But only because you didn’t provide me with the information I needed to do my job.”

  “Your job was completed the minute you hacked into the Federal Commonwealth’s mainframe.”

  “But—”

  “But nothing. You leave me no choice,” the Commander barked. “Torin Porter, you are hereby suspended from your duties as Head of Project Viper.” He waved his hand in the air to dismiss him.

  Suspended? They couldn’t suspend him. They needed him.

  “You can’t be serious!” Torin yelled as the guards grabbed his arms. “I’m the only one even working on that project!”

  Darkness rolled over the Commander’s eyes. “I changed my mind. Effective immediately, you are wholly suspended—from your position as Corporal, as Head of Project Viper, as well as any other duties at the Seventh Sanctum.”

  Torin felt his heart drop into his stomach. This isn’t happening.

  “Get him out of here,” the Commander ordered, turning his back as he walked away.

  The guards escorted Torin to the front of the building, stripping him of all badges and devices that belonged to the organization. Torin kept his head lowered as the guards shoved him outside. The double doors slammed shut behind him. And that was it. In seconds, he’d gone from Corporal Porter to jobless loudmouth.

  Torin ran his fingers through his hair as he looked around at the bustling city before him. A girl with dark red hair walked by him, busily talking on her holophone, as a visual of a guy’s face floated in front of her. And that’s when he remembered. Emery.

  How was he going to reach out to Emery? He’d connected to her phone through his phone—a 7S device—which, of course, he no longer had in his possession.

  Torin eyed the nearest T-Port and sulked over to it, directing the machine to teleport him to his apartment. His body materialized at his apartment complex, and he trudged up the stairs, head hanging low. As he unlocked his apartment, he gazed around at his neat and orderly home. Why couldn’t his life be like his apartment, where everything was perfect and in its place?

  Torin fell into the couch and heaved a loud sigh before putting his face in his hands. There had to be another way to get through to Emery. After throwing himself a two minute pity party, he pulled himself up off the couch and strode over to his desk. He cracked his knuckles as the computer screen illuminated before him, then set his fingers on the virtual keyboard and opened his latest coding template.

  He had a lot of work to do.

  24

  It had been three weeks since Emery’s brutal break-up with Anthony. No matter how hard she tried, the scene wouldn’t seem to flee her mind. The burger and fries. The walk down the stairs. The unclasping of the necklace. Anthony’s blank stare. It played over and over again in her head, like a bad record on repeat.

  To fill the void, Emery found herself spending more and more time talking to Mason. Things with Mason were easy—comfortable—and hanging out with him kept her mind from wandering down the deep dark hole that was her life. Their friendship had grown tremendously over the past few weeks, but unfortunately, they weren’t the only ones taking notice. Rhea’s teasing knew no bounds, and she was constantly saying that Emery was “on to the next one”.

  Latin class started in an hour, and Emery was busily typing away to finish her essay. As close as she was, the finish line seemed so far away, especially with Rhea impeding on her progress.

  “So, you never actually told me what happened between you and Anthony,” Rhea pried. “I mean, I never got any details or anything.”

  Emery stopped typing. She very well knew she couldn’t explain the break-up without tipping off The Alpha Drive. “That’s not true. I gave you details,” she responded, eyes still focused on her laptop.

  “Emery,” she demanded with a snap of her fingers. “The least you can do is look at me when you speak.”

  Emery glanced up from her laptop. Sheesh, someone
woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

  “Like I already told you, Anthony brought over burgers and fries. We talked for a little and then we broke up. I walked him out to his car and he left.” She shuddered at that last part. Thinking about what had actually happened made her cringe every time the memory drifted across her mind.

  “What about Mason?”

  “I already told you, Mason’s just a friend.” At least that part is truthful.

  “Whatever happened to Warren?”

  “I don’t know, we still talk sometimes.” Emery sighed, her agitation growing. “Are we done playing 20 Questions?”

  Rhea snorted, even though Emery couldn’t find the slightest bit of humor in their conversation. “Alright, alright, calm down,” Rhea muttered. Sensing the tension, she changed the subject. “Hey, let’s do something tonight. It’s been a while.”

  Truthfully, Emery wasn’t in the mood. Her focus as of late had been solely on The Alpha Drive. Much to her surprise, she was actually exceeding her own expectations. She gazed back up at her roommate. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  “What’s that?” Rhea asked as she tossed a bowl of soup into the microwave.

  “We have a chemistry test tomorrow.”

  Rhea rolled her eyes as she hit the start button. “Let me ask you something. Do you plan on being a chemist?”

  Emery considered this, her thoughts shifting to her mother. Even though she didn’t talk much about her time at Darden, her mom had revealed that her favorite class was Intermediate Chemistry with Professor Kemp, the same professor Emery had this year. She couldn’t quite figure out why her mother liked Professor Kemp so much—he always seemed to be watching her, scrutinizing her every move. It was unnerving, to say the least.

  Her thoughts whirred back to Rhea’s question.

  “Well, I was a member of the chemistry club at my old school,” she recalled, sinking back into her desk chair.