Storm Girl

by Ben Mason

  Storm Girl

  Ben Mason

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Excerpt from Gravitas

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Author Notes

  About the Author

  Newsletter

  Copyright info

  1

  They had dropped Katie in the middle of the desert to watch her die. They hadn’t bothered to stick around. A drone was buzzing fifty feet above her head was the only clue people were watching.

  Katie dusted herself off, the red clay messing up her denim jacket and jeans. Red particles were stuck in her auburn hair and she had to rub a some sand out of her eyes.

  “It’s not funny anymore,” she said. Her words echoed out along the desert. Kessler wasn’t here. Neither were any of the men in his goon squad. She swore if she ever saw the Swedish scientist again she was going to be the one doing the poking.

  Marching along the hard, flat ground, kicking rocks, Katie started to curse. The base had been an epicenter of different nationalities and cultures so she had plenty to choose from.

  It was Kessler’s fault she was here because he got permission to use her for “tests”. It was the stupid base’s fault for being so boring. It was her mom’s for being stuck in all those meetings and not checking to see if Katie was doing her schoolwork.

  It was hers for going inside the vault and not staying in the green section of the map like she had been told.

  Shaking her head, Katie listened to see if there were any birds or animals running around. Nope. The drone was scaring them off.

  As if on cue, the white buzzing machine flew down and stood in front of her, hovering several feet off the ground. A blue light flickered inside the glass eye and a miniature hologram sprung out in front of her. A tall, thin man with thinning hair plastered back against his scalp stared back at her. The man was pale and had a puffy face that was going fat. His eyes were sharp and small. The whole hologram was blue, but Katie knew from memory those eyes were cold, crisp gray. She had seen them when Kessler went by the monkey cages staring at his experimental subjects and marking their progress…or decline.

  “How are you doing, Katie?”

  She scowled as he said her name. The creepo had a crisp, metal voice that made him sound like a posh killer robot.

  “Does mom know where I am yet?” Katie asked.

  “Ms. Legault has been assured by the staff you are within are safety parameters. She signed off on this little experiment herself.”

  Of course she did. Classic mom, not wanting to rock the boat. “I’m not what you think I am. If I was, I would have hurt you when you grabbed me,” Katie said, poison dripping from her words.

  Kessler wagged a finger as he tsk-tsked her. “Temper like that can lead to heatstroke. You should modify that kind of behavior if you get back.”

  “When I get back,” Katie corrected him.

  Kessler gave a thin smile and shrugged. The hologram died and the drone rose back into the sky before Katie was able to grab a rock and smash it.

  She wanted to scream at the stupid thing like she had when they first put her out here, but decided not to. She needed to save the saliva. Her throat was burning from lack of water.

  Squinting, Katie went back to seeing if there were any birds in the sky. She was expecting buzzards.

  After all, she had been out in the desert for thirty-six hours and was aware of the simple, unkind truth.

  She was dying.

  2

  Katie ignored the boulder when it first came into sight. She had been tricked into running and screaming before, only to find out it was another mirage.

  The first time she had cried. The second time she hadn’t had the energy for tears.

  When she came closer, she realized it might be the real McCoy. Holding out her fingers, she felt the shade kiss her skin. The sunburns screamed with relief as she shuffled in the rest of the way.

  The large red stone boulder rose up like a big middle finger and spread out in a half-circle near the base, giving it a decent amount of shade. There was a little curve near the top and Katie hoped when the sun crested over it her oasis wouldn’t turn into an oven.

  Closing her eyes, she tried not to fall asleep. If she fell asleep now, she might not wake up.

  But it was hard. When she closed her eyes, Katie imagined herself back in the bunker she called a room, the posters for No Questions and The Kings of Fall covering her hideous lime green walls. She thought about her tacky wooden desk and her laptop with its restricted internet. She even thought about the pile of half-completed homework scattered on her bed and floor.

  She tried not to cry about how much she missed that stupid room.

  “I can’t believe you signed the papers, mom.” Of all the terrible places and terrible things her mother had done (most of them came from not being around) this was the worst. And once Kessler scraped her body off the floor of the desert and dissected her and gotten whatever was inside her, she wasn’t even going to be able to look pretty for her funeral.

  As she started to drift off she saw the vault again, the large circular door looking like a glowing green coin, inviting her in. She hadn’t wanted to stay inside, just take a look around. She was so bored. It was Friday and the internet was down for maintenance and she had read all her books and listened to all her music.

  She was going to turn around when she saw her favorite monkey, Darla, locked up in a cage with a bunch of gas cylinders stacked on either side of her. Instinct had taken over. She had rushed forward and tugged at the latch until it sprung open, letting Darla rush out. Poor girl had been so traumatized she had banged into the wall screaming.She hadn’t meant to hit the emergency lockdown.

  Katie’s stomach squeezed into a knot as she remembers the heavy click as the door’s tumblers locked into place. The dull memory of the alarm sirens forced Katie to half-open her eyes again to stop from thinking about it anymore.

  Because the next part was the worst. Creepy Kessler staring at her with his face cocked to one side waiting to see what would happen while everyone else around him was trying to get her out. She reached out to grab him when her hand passed through the glass observation window and right near his face.

  His broke into a deep smile before opening his mouth and biting down deep into the back of her hand.

  Katie jolted awake, the pain in her hand forcing her to sit up.

  There, sitting on the top of her left hand, was a scorpion with its stinger buried deep in her skin.

  3

  Screaming, Katie tore the scorpion from her hand and slammed it against the rock. Her hand had started throbbing and she was hit with a feeling of nausea. Her whole body hurt.

  “Please don’t start sweating,” she told herself, knowing it was useless. You just got stung. Who cares about water loss now?

  Staring at the scorpion in the burning sun s
he saw it give two more kicks before dying.

  Despite her pain, her stomach rumbled.

  “No way.” Her stomach didn’t care. Kessler and the others hadn’t dropped her off with any provisions. Even the drone was without supplies. If it broke down in the desert it would be as stuck as she was.

  She approached the scorpion carefully and touched it with her foot. The thing was yellow and its exoskeleton was sort of see-through.

  Her hands trembled as she picked it up and struggled to tear it open. No dice. “Grossgrossgrossgross,” she whimpered as she brought it to her mouth. Taking a deep bite she tried to imagine it was chicken.

  It ended up tasting like gamey crab. Really awful, undercooked, dry desert crab.

  She chewed it a few times and then used her fingers to pull out as much meat as possible before sucking up as much liquid as possible. The second she finished her stomach locked up and she fought down the urge to throw up.

  Moving back into the shadows she saw the drone watching her. She curled into a ball and put her jacket over her head.

  Listening for the drone’s engine and blades, she heard it coming closer. She palmed a rock she had picked up from the ground.

  She was going to have one chance at this. The drone got closer and closer until she thought her ears were going to burst. At this point her skin was an ocean of fire and she had to fight to not cry out in pain. Everything hurt.

  When the buzzing threatened to force her hands to her ears she spun around and chucked the rock hard. It shot out straight hitting the drone on the left side leaving a red mark.

  It wobbled for a second before stabilizing and drifting higher.

  “Leave me alone!” Katie screamed.

  The only thing worse than dying in the middle of the desert with the bugs and birds to eat her was getting watched by a bunch of middle-aged losers while it happened and not being able to do a thing about it.

  Closing her eyes, Katie heard her dad’s voice. Hey Kiddo. You remember what I said, right?

  Her mind flashed to the memory of six years ago. Him leaning against his old cherry red model-T, his skin glistening in the sun. It was right before he started chemo. He had pointed at the sky right between the clouds. You ever need me, you give me a ring up there. Okay, kid?

  Dad, please, Katie thought. Holding her hand up toward the sky she whispered one word. “Help.”

  Purple lightning shot out of her palm and smashed into the drone blowing it out of the sky. Katie blinked for a second. Dark clouds swirled around her as more purple lightning laced in and out of them.

  And then the rain started to come down.

  Katie laughed in the downpour. She was still in the desert, without any food or a way to get home, and now she was getting soaked to the bone. But she had water and she had the satisfaction of knowing Creepy Kessler wasn’t able to watch her anymore.

  Opening her mouth, she started drinking.

  It tasted sweet.

  4

  Johan Kessler smiled at the snowy reception on his monitor. He rewound the video feed with his finger, swiping left on the screen.

  There was no doubt. The gene enhancer had taken hold. His pulse quickened. A decade and a half of research and finally his work was showing fruit. If he had known all he needed was a human specimen he would have locked someone into the vault a long time ago.

  Spinning around he watched the faces of his “co-workers”. Kessler’s smile faded a little. The men and women in the white coats who shared this lab with him were little more than overpaid interns. They didn’t have the ability to comprehend his formulas or the impact of this moment on history. They were tied to their petty moralities.

  He saw their faces. All grief-stricken over their complicity in forcing the girl out into the desert. What was her life to all the others they were going to save? Some of them were even crying. Had they cried when a serial rapist had killed Johan’s brother Emil back in Ebeltoft, or when the man who did it escaped prison and killed twice more? Soft hearts all of them with no idea the greater utopia they were working toward.

  Straightening his shoulders, taking in a deep breath of the antiseptic smell of the sterile lab, Johan gave the others a tiny smile.

  “It works. Now the hard part. We need to get the girl back, both for her safety and to study. Just because she is positive doesn’t mean we can relax. She has single-handedly sped up our work by an untold amount. We owe her our best efforts.”

  The others nodded and set off, tinkering with the equipment, preparing beakers and flasks with different chemicals. Checking to make sure they were out of the way, Kessler moved toward the back of the room.

  Against the far wall were a line of men in black tactical gear. Each of them had a Colt M4A1 rifle pointed at the floor and an HK handgun in a side holster. All of their faces were staring off into the distance awaiting orders with the exception of the man in the middle.

  Kessler took a moment to regard the face with it’s open contempt. The man’s eyes were brown and he had a chiseled jaw with the beginnings of a five o’clock shadow. His brown hair was cut short in a crew cut. If the reactions of the females both in the lab and in the base were any indication, he was handsome.

  “Agent Stanfield, are your men ready to be deployed?”

  “They are,” Stanfield said. “Sir, permission to ask a question?”

  “Granted,” Kessler said, fighting not to grind his teeth. He barely tolerated questions from his lab assistants. Taking them from men whose only job was to retrieve and kill was even more annoying.

  “We’re to bring the girl back alive. Why are we packing live ammo? Why not take tranqs?”

  Kessler thought about the different options for a moment before deciding blunt truth was his best choice. “That was two questions, Agent. But to give you some piece of mind, we can’t use any interfering chemicals that might disrupt our test subject’s current balance. As for the ammo, it’s in case our subject decides to resist,” he said, his mouth starting to curve into another smile.

  Kessler hoped she wouldn’t resist. A live subject was better. But a dead one meant conducting an autopsy. So—really—either way, he won.

  5

  Leon grimaced as he checked his gear and motioned his squad toward the jeeps. There were eight of them in all and he hated to think how bad they was going to scare poor Katie. A few of the guys had even been the ones to drag her out there in the first place. He had hit the ceiling when he found out. If he hadn’t been off duty he would have stopped it.

  He winced thinking about her. The other guys kept teasing him because she followed him around. They said she had a crush on him. Well it wasn’t like there were any boys her age on the base. So he let her tag along sometimes. Even had taught her how to shoot a gun.

  And now he was going to have to drag her back to get poked and prodded by dear sweet Uncle Sam. It’s not the worst thing you’ve done, Leon. Remember the Op in Galinda?

  “Always,” he muttered under his breath.

  The sound of high heels echoing off the garage floor broke him off from his thoughts and made Leon and the rest of his men pivot.

  Leon’s heart sank. Moving after them was Mary Legault. She was dressed in a blood red business suit with a skirt and her strawberry blond hair was done up in a severe bun. If she ever smiled Leon thought she would be pretty.

  He had never seen her smile and she wasn’t smiling now, her blue eyes burning with rage and, behind that, fear. Makeup was hiding dark circles under her eyes.

  “Where is my daughter?” She asked, stopping in front of Leon.

  “We don’t know, ma’am. We’re going out to search for her right now.”

  “With loaded weapons?” Mary asked, crossing her arms. The men near Leon shifted a step back. Mary Legault was head of budgetary expenditures so she was, in essence, their boss. She decided if they stayed or went.

  “Not our idea ma’am. They want us locked and loaded. Chances are she’s wandered off, but in case their was fou
l play or we run into some coyotes, we’ll be glad for the backup.”

  He saw Mary struggling, the pragmatic realist fighting the hopeful mother. She took in a deep breath. “Agent Stanfield, I’ve been getting the runaround for the last day and a half. No one is cooperating. I needn’t remind you of my friends in the Pentagon. One phone call and you, your team, Dr. Kessler and anyone else connected to a potential coverup will have to start shopping with the other homeless vets for street alley real estate.”

  Leon stepped forward, his nerves on edge and the muscles in his neck tight. “Ma’am, I understand this is a tough time for you so I’ll let that last crack go. But as far as your daughter’s situation, there is no way I would ever hurt Katie. I want to see her back here as much as you do.”

  Mary gave a sharp chuckle. “No, you don’t. You aren’t a mother.” But the edge in her eyes had softened a little followed by exhaustion. “I’m going to try and get some rest. When I wake up I expect to see my child.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Leon said before Mary Legault spun on her heels and stalked off.

  “Good thinking,” Cruz said. He was a lanky, grinning skull of a man. “If it comes down to it, we’ll pull the trigger instead of you. That way you didn’t lie.” The rest of the team chuckled at the dark humor.

  Leon felt like he was falling into a dark pit. If it came down to it, what was he going to do?