The man slides beneath the Skeletex suit, settling the bone colored skull cap onto his head. The rest of the suit snaps into place, attaching to the metal grafts on his arms, legs, and spine.
Gun notices several incisions on the back of Four-Five-One’s neck. Two of them are stitched up and already scarring over, a small wire dangling from each. Leftovers from the earlier Skeletex models. A third incision is red around the edges, the wound adhesive dried to a dark yellow.
“A new wireless chip was embedded into Four-Five-One yesterday,” Christakos says, indicating the new incision. “All he has to do to activate it is compress the switch in his earlobe.”
Four-Five-One illustrates this point by reaching up to squeeze his earlobe. As the connection is made, his eyes briefly roll back into his head. The room is silent, all eyes glued to the man.
A second later, his eyes lids snap open. He leaps from his upright position, flying fifteen feet across the room. He moves so fast his body blurs.
Gun lets out a wordless exclamation of surprise. Anderson claps his hands in approval.
Four-Five-One spends the next fifteen minutes showcasing the Skeletex suit. He shadowboxes, jumps, spins, and rolls. Some movements are so fast, his limbs blur. Christakos even goes so far as to put the man in an observation room and chuck fist-sized rocks at him. Four-Five-One bobs and weaves his way around every last one of them.
There isn’t one hiccup, not one glitch. Nothing to get a man killed in combat. Everything Gun sees is flawless. It’s impossible not to be awed by this combination of science and Black Tech programming.
When test subject Five-Four-One at last comes to a halt, breathing hard, Anderson applauds.
“Well done, Christakos,” he says, voice booming with pleasure. “You too, Four-Five-One. Custom meals for a full week for you.”
Four-Five-One smiles in content. Christakos shifts, unease plain on his face.
“Mr. Anderson, you do realize this means we’ll be over budget on the project?” he asks. “We have to scrap all the original chips we purchased and manufacture these new wireless connectors. The timeline will be pushed back. I have to get all the subjects scheduled for the new install. We’ll need to build in time for trials to the new software connectors—”
Anderson waves the man to silence. “Don’t ruin the moment with details, Christakos. I’m giving you a compliment.”
Christakos opens his mouth, closes it, then opens is again. “Yes, Mr. Anderson.” It’s with obvious effort that he chokes back the rest of what he wants to say.
“Come, son.” Anderson claps Gun on the shoulder. “Let’s go back and share the good news with the family. This is a night to celebrate!”
• • •
The moon sits low in the sky as Gun makes his way through the compound. He’s dressed in his Anderson uniform, a dark green bulletproof jumpsuit with the Anderson logo stitched on the upper left breast. He’s even gone so far as to don an official olive green beret, an article reserved for formal occasions. With his height and build, he’s a formidable sight.
He rides the elevator down to sublevel eleven in the R&D lab. Inside are two mercs, backs straight as they salute him.
“Takahashi, Phelps.” Gun nods to both of them.
“What’s going on?” Standing to one side, slouched against a lab counter, is Christakos. He still wears his sleeping clothes, plain black sweatpants and T-shirt. It’s the first time Gun has ever seen him without his lab coat. His hair has been hastily flattened with water, tendrils sticking to his temples. His eyes are bleary.
“William, why have you had these two louts drag me out of bed in the middle of the night? Not even your father stoops to such base behavior.”
Gun produces a large thermos. “I understand you’re a fan of my family’s Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.” He removes the lid from the thermos and sets it on the counter in front of the scientist.
Both eyebrows climb up Christakos’s forehead. “Why are you offering me coffee in the middle of the night?”
“Because I want you caffeinated when you implant me with the Skeletex chip and graft the connectors to me. I’m your next test subject, doctor.”
Christakos sputters, taking several steps back. “No way. The technology isn’t validated—”
“I’ve been following your progress. You’ve successfully implanted five test subjects so far. There have been no complications.”
“Yet. No complications yet. Even test subject Four-Five-One has only been working with the chip for two weeks. We don’t have enough data—”
Gun cuts him off. “Here’s how it’s going to work. You can cooperate and do as I ask. I can make sure you get my ration of Jamaican Blue Mountain delivered to your apartment every week for the rest of your life. Or, you can fight me and I can blackmail you into doing what I want. Either way, I’m not leaving here without the chip and suit connectors.”
“Blackmail?” Christakos huffs. “What are you talking about?”
Behind Gun, one of the mercs shifts. Gun doesn’t have to look over his shoulder to know both men are squirming, at least mentally. It hadn’t taken much work for Gun to find out Takahashi is cheating on his wife and Phelps is addicted to pain killers. Both men were more than willing to help on tonight’s mission in exchange for Gun’s silence.
His father taught him well.
But Gun didn’t want to be like his father. He’d already made arrangements for both men to receive a generous supply of bourbon in exchange for their cooperation. There was more than one way to buy loyalty.
“Blackmail?” Christakos demands again. “What do you think you have on me? I spend my life in this lab! I arrive before the sun is up and go home when it’s dark. I’ve dedicate myself to Anderson Arms!”
Gun is almost bored. It had been too easy to dig up dirt on everyone in this room.
“You have two illegitimate children from an extramarital affair. You abandoned them in a refugee camp when my father found you and offered you a job. You could have brought them, but that would have required you to come clean with your family. Instead, you left the other kids behind.”
Christakos pales with every word—which is saying something, considering how pasty he is under normal circumstances. By the time Gun is finished, Christakos has filled a cup of coffee from the thermos. He takes a long drink of the steaming liquid.
“What are we going to tell your father?” he asks after downing the cup.
“I’ll deal with my father.” Gun has no doubt Anderson will be ready to raze the ground when he finds out Gun went behind his back. But when the world sees the Anderson Skeletex suit rescue Sulan, one of the slayers of Imugi, his father will have no choice but to approve of Gun’s decision.
Christakos downs the rest of the coffee. “I do this, and you promise not to tell my wife?” he demands.
“I’ll keep your secret and have coffee delivered to you every week.”
“Fine. Let’s get started. Go into the decontamination room and sterilize yourself. The dressing gowns are in the closet. Meet me in room D.”
Gun nods, then turns to Phelps and Takahashi. “You two are responsible for making sure no one enters the lab until we’re done. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” the reply in unison.
Gun turns his back on them, striding to the decontamination room.
When Sulan and Li Yuan call, he will be ready.
THE END
Acknowledgements
To all my wonderful beta readers–thank you!
M.G. Alves
Lan Chan
Chris Picott
Chrissy Wolfe at EFC Services, LLC
About the Author
Camille Picott is a fifth-generation Chinese American. She's been writing novels since she was twelve years old. Among her books you can find Asian-inspired science fiction and fantasy novels, zombies stories, and how-to manuals for speculative fiction authors.
Camille loves cooking and running absurdly long distances. It
's not unusual to find her chopping veggies in the kitchen late at night or hitting the trail in her running shoes long before the sun rises. She considers sleep to be optional and largely overrated.
Visit Camille at
www.camillepicott.com
or follow on Facebook @ultrawriter
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Hank is a teenage hacker. Forced to barter her computer skills for a meager wage, she knows the work she does isn’t exactly legal, but Hank needs the money to support her family. When a colleague is murdered before her eyes, she is forced to question what she does. Confronted with a chance to save a girl’s life, Hank must choose between doing what’s right or protecting those she loves. Hacker is the novella prequel to Sulan, a fast-action YA dystopian series.
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Other Works by Camille Picott
Available on Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible
The League
Sulan, Episode 1
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Sixteen-year-old Sulan Hom can’t remember life before the Default, the day the United States government declared bankruptcy. As a math prodigy, she leads a protected life, kept safe from the hunger and crime plaguing the streets of America. She attends the corporate-sponsored Virtual High School, an academy in Vex (Virtual Experience) for gifted children.
Beyond the security of Sulan’s high-tech world, the Anti-American League wages a guerrilla war against the United States. Their leader, Imugi, is dedicated to undermining the nation’s reconstruction attempts. He attacks anything considered a national resource, including corporations, food storage facilities, and schools. When Sulan witnesses the public execution of a teenage student and the bombing of a college dorm, she panics.
Her mother, a retired mercenary, refuses to teach her self-defense. Sulan takes matters into her own hands. With the help of her hacker best friend, Sulan acquires Touch, an illegal Vex technology that allows her to share the physical experience of her avatar. With Touch, Sulan defies her mother and trains herself to fight.
When Imugi unleashes a new attack on the United States, Sulan finds herself caught in his net. Will her Vex training be enough to help her survive and escape?
Risk Alleviator
Sulan, Episode 2
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Riska, a miniature winged tiger, is the first Risk Alleviator prototype. A purposeful collision of biology and weaponry, he is product of the Global Arms research facility. He was crafted to be a bodyguard for the wealthy and privileged. Before his kind can be mass produced and released to the market, an extensive testing and training phase is required.
When a training session goes horribly wrong, Riska is slated for destruction. Dr. Hom intercedes to save Riska’s life, presenting a new proposal to Global Arms. Riska is released into his care. The eccentric doctor is the first human to show him kindness, and a bond is quickly forged between the two.
But even as Dr. Hom alters Riska in the desired direction of Global Arms, it becomes clear he has his own agenda. First and foremost among those is to create a personal bodyguard for his daughter, Sulan.
This novella is the next installment of the Sulan series.
The Dome
Sulan, Episode 3
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After escaping the League, Sulan and her friends are granted entrance into the Dome, a utopian biodome in the wilderness of Alaska. Sulan soon finds herself a pawn in Global Arms’s political maneuvers to secure the national mercenary contract. Forced to put on a public persona that makes her skin crawl, she must charm Vex media moguls to further the cause of Global. Should she fail to embrace her new role as company spokesperson, the consequences will be deadly to everyone she loves.
Meanwhile, the League unleashes a new deadly threat on the United States. When Sulan and her friends stumble on the trail of a League mole within the Dome, they set out to track him down. Will they be safe in their new home, or will they find themselves trapped among enemies?
Undead Ultra
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Undead: a reanimated corpse with a craving for human flesh.
Ultramarathon: any footrace longer than a traditional marathon (26.2 miles).
For ultrarunners Kate and Frederico, a typical Saturday morning is spent pounding out a twenty- to thirty-mile “fun run.” It’s during one of their runs that an insidious illness descends upon northern California, turning humans into flesh-shredding zombies.
When Kate receives a desperate call from her son, Carter, she and Frederico flee their hometown and set out to help him. The only problem? Carter attends college over two hundred miles away and the freeways—clogged with car wrecks, zombies, and government blockades—are impassable. Running back roads and railroad tracks becomes their only means of travel, but neither of them has ever run so far before.
As pain, injuries, hunger, and fatigue plague them, getting to Carter and staying alive seem impossible. It’s either outrun the undead or become one of them, and for Kate, death is not an option.
The Warrior & The Flower
3 Kingdoms, Book 1
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Yi, a retired soldier, has lost everything he loves: his wife, his daughter, and his home. He seeks refuge from his heartache by plunging into a secret mission for the World Emperor. The assignment takes him to the doorstep of a brothel, where he witnesses the madam beating a young girl. Drawn by the child’s striking resemblance to his lost daughter, Yi rushes to her defense and negotiates for her purchase. After all, how hard can it be to care for one little girl? But between the child’s inquisitive nature and the dangerous secret she carries, he gets more than he bargained for.
Raggedy Chan
A Chinese Heritage Tale, Book 1
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Emma Chan-McDougal receives a special gift from her Auntie Gracie: a rag doll named Raggedy Chan. But Raggedy Chan is no ordinary doll. She is a beautiful Chinese princess who lives in a jasper palace on the enchanted isle of Kunlun. The peace of her island home is threatened when Drought Fury steals Winged Dragon, bringer of rain. Without Winged Dragon, Kunlun will wither and die.
To save her stricken homeland, Raggedy Chan sets forth alone. Her quest leads her to America, where she meets people who distrust her because she’s different. Can Raggedy Chan adapt to the strange ways of this new land and rescue her beloved dragon?
In this modern fairy tale, Chinese-American author Camille Picott draws on her heritage to weave a story of magic, adventure, and sacrifice.
Raggedy Chan – the Illustrated Edition
Contains over forty full-color illustrations
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Nine-Tail Fox
A Chinese Heritage Tale, Book 2
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When fifth-grade Emma Chan-McDougal is ridiculed by her classmates for being part Chinese, she's devastated. To ease Emma's wounded self-esteem, her aunt, a Chinese immigrant, spins the mythical tale of a brave little Nine-Tail Fox named Ainu who lives in San Francisco.
In a parallel animal world that comes to life when humans slumber, Ainu Nine-Tail and her mother face off against Chih Yu, an ancient demon who feeds on hatred. As the last of their clan, the Nine-Tails are honor-bound by a family oath to defend the Chinese animals from the demon. When Chih Yu kills her mother and leads an angry mob against Chinatown, Ainu is left to complete the task alone. Raw with grief and only partially trained for battle, Ainu must reach deep inside herself to find the wisdom and courage to save her people.
Will the journey of Ainu Nine-Tail help Emma find the strength to confront the sch
ool bullies and win back her confidence?
In this modern Chinese fable, Chinese-American author Camille Picott draws on her heritage to weave a story of courage, truth, and adventure.
Writer’s Toolbox – Creating Tension
Make Your Speculative Fiction Novel A Page-Turner
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What makes readers stay up into the wee hours of the night, eyes glued to the pages of a novel? The answer can be summed up in one word: tension. Tension is vital to any successful story. So just how do you infuse your novel with tension?
This article contains specific techniques to help maximize the tension in your science fiction or fantasy story. Each technique is illustrated with examples. Learn how to keep readers glued to the pages of your novel!
Writer’s Toolbox is a how-to series dedicated to helping speculative fiction writers improve their craft.
Writer’s Toolbox – World Integration
How to Weave Worldbuilding Into Your Speculative Fiction Novel
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World Integration tackles the tricky task of incorporating worldbuilding details into a science fiction or fantasy novel. This can present an interesting dilemma for genre writers. How can information on a fictional world be delivered to readers in a way that is natural to the story line? How can important details be shared without bogging down readers in pages and pages of boring exposition?
Sulan Box Set (Episodes 1-4) Page 65
