Atlas (The Atlas Series)

by Becca C. Smith

  Jack reached over and turned out the lights as the two of them proceeded to have a good time.

  Kala listened to Jack’s heavy breathing as he slept beside her. Normally, this was her cue to sneak out, but for some reason she didn’t want to leave just yet. He looked so peaceful lying there with the down comforter keeping him warm on this cold winter’s night. Jack never asked her to leave. He never asked her to pretend they weren’t seeing each other. He completely gave Kala her space and time. Never pressuring. Always respectful. Who was this guy? Jack was flawless.

  That’s what scared Kala the most.

  There must be something wrong with him. No one was that perfect.

  Kala tried to resist the urge to snoop, but since it was in her nature, she carefully crawled out of bed and walked to Jack’s dresser. She had probably been in Jack’s room over a hundred times and over a hundred times Kala had done exactly the same thing she was doing now: looking for anything that would confirm that there was no way on the planet someone like Jack could exist.

  After a few minutes of searching, she came up with what she always came up with:

  Nothing.

  Kala didn’t know why it was so hard for her to trust men she was in relationships with. Sure she had a crappy childhood, but once she met Owen and Linda, her life had turned around ten-fold. When it came to combat, Kala never had a single trust problem. She knew her fellow soldiers would die for her and that she would do the same for them. But for some reason when it came to relationships, Kala never really cared about the guy, not like Jack, who she figured had to be some sort of robot or clone.

  She took a deep breath, then went to the window to feel the cold against the glass. Sometimes just holding her hand against the pane and feeling the cold air hovering on its surface calmed Kala down. Pulling the sheer curtain aside, she looked outside. Kala’s heart jumped in her throat.

  The woman from before was standing across the street, staring straight at Kala.

  Kala threw the curtain aside and instinctively grabbed Jack’s gun out of his side table.

  Jack was up instantly.

  “What is it?” He jumped out of bed, poised for action like a trained soldier.

  “That creepy woman is out there, staring at your apartment,” Kala said while cocking the gun.

  Jack carefully took the gun from her hands. “What are you going to do? Kill her for staring?”

  Kala shook her head. What had she been thinking? It wasn’t like her to grab a weapon just because someone creeped her out.

  Then again, Kala never got creeped out.

  So what was it about this woman that made Kala’s skin crawl? The person down there was a businesswoman for God’s sake. Carrying a briefcase.

  Or a bomb.

  Maybe that’s what set Kala’s teeth on edge. Her instinct that this woman was a terrorist.

  Kala grabbed back Jack’s gun and looked him in the eye. “She has a briefcase and I’m checking it out.”

  Jack didn’t argue. He pulled the curtain open further to get a look at the mystery woman himself. “Where is she?”

  Kala was putting her jeans on, but dashed back to the window.

  The woman was gone.

  And really gone.

  No sign of her anywhere.

  Jack wrapped his arms around Kala from behind and kissed her neck. “Are you sure you weren’t imagining things?”

  Was she?

  Could she have possibly made up the whole thing in her head? It definitely wasn’t like her, but it was late and now that Kala looked outside…

  She pulled away from Jack and placed his gun down on the dresser, then she rejoined him at the window. “You think I’m crazy,” she accused.

  Jack smiled. “My kind of crazy.”

  Kala relaxed and smiled back as Jack leaned down, giving her a kiss that made her knees wobble.

  A loud buzzing interrupted them.

  Kala mumbled into Jack’s lips, “That’s your phone.”

  Jack finished the kiss, then pulled away and picked up the phone by his bedside.

  Kala watched as Jack’s face revealed something she’d never seen in him before. Ever.

  Fear.

  It was so foreign to her she didn’t know how to react.

  “What is it?” she asked and found that her voice was shaky.

  When Jack looked up at Kala, all signs of fear were gone.

  Kala was starting to wonder if she was going insane. First the woman appearing-disappearing, then Jack being scared? Her eyes were playing tricks on her. Or her brain was. Or maybe it was all that tequila.

  “We’ve got an assignment.” Jack put his phone down and started to get dressed.

  Kala was a bit taken aback. Usually when the team was called in all their phones went off at the same time like a universal alarm.

  Kala’s phone hadn’t made a peep.

  A slow inkling of doubt started to creep up in her brain. Was Jack lying to her? Why would he when she could easily catch him in a lie like that?

  “Are you going to get dressed?” Jack was transitioning into “commander mode.”

  “Yeah,” Kala said and since she already had her jeans on she reached for her t-shirt on the floor.

  Both their phones went off at the same time.

  Kala grabbed her phone off the dresser and checked the message:

  Compound A.S.A.P.

  Kala tried not to show what she was feeling. Something was weird. And something was off. Jack received a message almost two minutes before the rest of the team received orders to report in. It was nearly impossible for Kala not to be suspicious. In the three years that Kala had served in Jack’s company, Jack never received orders first. Orders came from General Turner and they were simultaneously sent to everyone on the team. So who had given Jack the heads up? And why?

  Kala desperately wanted to grab Jack’s phone and see who the first message was from.

  Jack was fully dressed and tossed Kala her jacket. “Let’s get going.”

  “I took a cab.” Kala was horrified. The last thing she wanted to do was arrive at headquarters with Jack. Derek and Lali would know right away about their affair. It was extremely difficult to hide anything from the two of them and Kala was positive Lali was already suspicious. But to arrive together at three in the morning? They wouldn’t be fooling anyone.

  “Your choices are simple: take another cab or come with me. What will it be?” Jack had a kind of hopeful look in his eyes, and Kala knew he wanted her to come with him.

  “I’ll call a cab.” Kala just couldn’t. She wasn’t ready.

  Jack seemed to be okay with this as he smiled knowingly at her. “Stubborn as ever.”

  Kala just nodded, called a cab and headed for the front door.

  Jack went with her. Before he walked towards his car he leaned down and kissed her. “See you there.”

  Kala nodded back and watched as Jack got into his car and drove away, toward the Compound. She waited for her cab as patiently as she could, but patience wasn’t exactly her strong suit.

  That’s when she saw the woman again.

  She was down the street, standing there, holding her briefcase. The woman couldn’t have been more than three hundred feet from where Kala stood.

  Kala wasn’t going to let it pass this time. Unarmed, Kala ran toward the woman.

  The woman didn’t move. It was like she wanted Kala to confront her.

  When Kala was within ten feet of the woman, she slowed to a stop.

  “What do you want?!” Kala yelled at the woman aggressively.

  The woman smiled at Kala and Kala felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.

  “Not you, dear,” the woman said as if sharing some inside joke with no one in particular.

  Kala walked slowly toward the woman.

  Eight feet.

  Six feet.

  Four feet.

  The woman held her hand out to stop Kala from coming any closer. “That’s far enough, Ms. Hicks.”<
br />
  Shouldn’t have said her name.

  Kala leapt the final three feet and had this woman in a headlock before the woman could react. “How do you know my name?” Kala whispered harshly in the woman’s ear.

  “Stay away from Jack,” the woman warned.

  Though Kala had the upper hand, hearing this made her push the woman away from her.

  “Are you sleeping with him?!” Kala accused. Now she was pissed. If this woman was a scorned lover, or worse, another lover, Kala would have finally figured out what was wrong with Mr. Perfect. Jerk!

  Before Kala could move, the woman was suddenly in her face. Her eyes were bright blue and glowed slightly.

  Glowed! Kala had never seen anyone’s eyes glow before!

  What the hell was in that tequila?

  Hallucinogens. Definitely hallucinogens.

  Kala instinctively moved like a cat and was behind the woman, holding the psycho’s arms behind her back.

  The woman seemed shocked that Kala was able to capture her. “I see what Jack sees in you,” the woman admitted.

  “Let’s see what you have in this briefcase,” Kala grabbed the case and shoved the woman away.

  Kala opened it despite her years of training that taught her to take it to the Compound where they could handle it safely.

  Aside from a pen and a single piece of paper, there was nothing in the case.

  Nothing.

  Kala tossed it aside and wondered how her instincts could be so off. Then she said what she dreaded the most, “So what? You two a couple?”

  “No,” the woman answered simply. “But we will be if you don’t ruin it for him.”

  Great, a stalker, Kala thought to herself.

  The woman’s eyes glowed again.

  What was going on?

  Kala stood in attack stance.

  “Not this time, little one,” the woman scolded Kala like she was three-years old.

  Before Kala had a chance to make a move, the woman disappeared.

  Completely.

  Kala thought she was going nuts. One minute this woman was standing in front of her and the next Kala was standing by herself on the sidewalk.

  “You call a cab?”

  Kala turned to the street to see a taxi waiting for her.

  “Um, yeah,” she said, reeling from what just happened.

  Kala still wasn’t sure what had just happened. She sat down in the taxi and told the cabbie the Compound address.

  The driver nodded and they drove off.

  Chapter Two

  Kala stared out the taxi replaying the last ten minutes. The woman had seemed obsessed with Jack. Warning Kala to stay away from him was the standard jealous girlfriend threat. But it had seemed like more than that.

  And her eyes freaking glowed! Kala still didn’t believe that she’d seen that right. Maybe the street lamp had hit this woman’s eyes at an angle that made it look like they were glowing?

  But then she vanished from thin air.

  By the time she arrived at the Compound gates, Kala was convinced that someone had slipped her acid or some kind of drug at the bar. What she’d seen was impossible. Kala wouldn’t be surprised if she had made up the whole lady thing in her head. Kala was a jealous person. It made sense that she’d hallucinate a stalker business lady with glowing eyes that could disappear on cue.

  Seriously?!

  Kala shook her head. She needed to clear her mind before she went in. Missions required full and complete concentration. For the sake of her fellow soldiers she needed to file this incident away immediately. Kala was tempted to report the possibility that she had been drugged, but she knew there’d be testing required and she wouldn’t be able to go on the mission. That was something Kala wasn’t willing to give up.

  And, secretly, she was worried that the tests would come up clean and that maybe what Kala saw wasn’t drug-induced, which would indicate that she might be crazy.

  Kala paid off the cab driver and walked up to the front gate entrance. From the outside the buildings appeared to be a series of warehouses and hangars. Nothing special. No one knew that those buildings were just fronts for what lay beneath. An enormous underground compound almost a square mile in size, housing the highest level of military combat and technology on the planet. The base was a half a mile underground, encased in walls made of a special metal that was undetectable by satellites and radar. Kala still felt a surge of pride every time she entered the structure that was known only as the Compound. She was one of the few chosen to be a part of something so important. Kala kept on wondering when they’d realize they’d made a mistake and boot her out, erasing her memories or something dramatic like that. But, so far, her sniper skills had kept her invaluable to the team.

  Kala arrived at the gate, where three armed guards stood attentively in a small booth. She flashed them her badge and they waved her through, buzzing for the gate to open.

  A jeep awaited Kala as she moved closer to the warehouses. Derek was driving.

  “I saw your Apollo in the parking lot and figured you’d take a cab. How’s the head?” he asked sympathetically.

  Kala hopped in the jeep and shook her head. “I don’t know what the hell they put in the tequila, but I swear to God I’ve been seeing weird crap.” Kala secretly hoped Derek would volunteer that he had had similar hallucination issues, but he just chuckled.

  “Must be lack of sleep, kiddo. Aside from this monstrous headache, I just had one hell of a buzz.” Derek drove them through a pair of enormous doors and straight into one of the unassuming hangars.

  There were a couple of jeeps parked inside the gigantic hangar, though other than that, it was completely empty.

  Derek and Kala jumped out of the jeep and walked to the center of the room.

  A holographic circle rose up from the ground around them, surrounding the pair, then rotating and scanning their bodies with beams of light. Kala could see her and Derek’s stats appearing on the rotating hologram with chains of DNA circling their bodies and then the words IDENTIIES CONFIRMED flashed. The hologram vanished and the floor became a platform that began lowering them underground.

  The one weakness Kala had in terms of physical endurance was motion sickness. No matter how hard she tried to fight it, something about her equilibrium just couldn’t handle fast motion. And the platform they were on was descending fast. It flew down into the bowels of the Compound, slick black walls flying by them at frightening speed.

  Derek looked over at Kala and tried to hide a grin, but Kala noticed.

  “Shut up,” she groaned.

  “How many times have you been on this thing?” Derek was highly amused.

  “You suck.” Kala took a deep breath, trying to steady her stomach. It didn’t help that she still had half a bottle of tequila in her system.

  Within seconds the platform stopped and two doors slid open. Kala shook off her queasiness with a couple more deep breaths and walked inside.

  Kala was still amazed every time she entered the Compound: holographic images rotating on computer consoles, smart screens, shelves stacked with every kind of gun imaginable. It was like the military had puked on a science fiction novel. The same slick black metal made up the floors, walls, ceilings and doors.

  The Compound was an entire city built underground. The section that Kala and Derek had arrived in was just the Research area, a mixture of scientists and soldiers, each with their own agendas working at various stations.

  Lali came up behind Kala.

  “You guys get your orders yet?” She was already dressed in full combat gear. Lali was shorter than Kala by a few inches, but what she lacked in height, she made up for in muscle. Kala wondered how Lali’s shoulders could be bigger than most men’s, but Lali managed to pull it off and still look like a girl. Lali had short bobbed black hair with blue eyes. She smiled at Derek, but talked to Kala, “We’re on the stealth carrier tonight.”

  They shared their little joke at Kala’s “air-sick” expense. Kala
shrugged like she wasn’t concerned, but that only made the two of them laugh.

  “You guys love this,” Kala grumbled at her two teammates. “I’ll make sure I vomit on the both of you.”

  “Let’s suit up,” Derek grinned.

  The three of them walked down a series of hallways until they reached their ready room. It was a typical locker room, except all the lockers were made of the same black metal as everything else in the Compound. Kala and Derek started to suit up in their combat clothes.

  “Change of plans.” Jack entered dressed in a black body suit that almost looked like scuba gear.

  Kala’s stomach fell. She knew what his clothing meant, and Jack quickly confirmed it.

  “Phase-suits tonight,” he announced and Kala groaned.

  No one really liked phase-suits, but Kala hated them the most. Mainly because it aggravated her motion sickness, but also the whole idea just felt unnatural. She could never get used to the sensation of walking through walls. The new phase-suit was better than the last with only minimal disorientation, but if any part of the body wasn’t covered, it would be left behind.

  As in not being attached to the body anymore.

  Last year, Lali lost an ear when the team took down the terrorist leader John Graverstin. The seam on her hood popped open from the impact of running through a thick security wall and when she stepped into Graverstin’s bunker, Lali’s left ear didn’t come with her. Kala had to give it to Lali though. She hadn’t made a peep. Lali only grunted slightly from the initial shock and pain, then she was all business. In less than ten minutes, Kala’s team had taken down Graverstin’s entire base of operation. Kala barely noticed Lali’s missing ear anymore, since she always kept it covered with her hair.

  Kala reluctantly slipped into a black bodysuit. The suit itself was made from a special kind of stretch material, like a thick spandex. It was mainly there to make sure everyone’s body parts stayed covered so that when they put on the phase-suit nothing would be showing. It was tight and uncomfortable and Kala felt like Catwoman in it. And not in a good way. Showing off her womanly curves always made her self-conscious. In combat situations she wanted to be seen as tough, not sexy.