Cassy Campbell [Travelers 01] A Despair of Demons (epub)

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.Jordan frowned.“But not necessarily the demons.I assume society broke down before people could chronicle the results.”“But some of them might have survived,” Liv finished.Jordan glanced at Liv.“If we could get to the place where they developed the disease…”“Yeah.I could see the research notes, find out how they developed it, tested it, and what the effects were in the lab.”Gin said, “And maybe there’s proof of demons there too.And the Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus…”Ben cut her off.“What do we do?”Connor looked around their circle.“I assume if any of you had heard of Paradise, you’d have said so by now.”Liv nodded along with the rest of the team.If it really was a paradise, it was surprising none of them had heard of it.Travelers liked nothing more than to compare notes about places they’d been.Connor continued, “Then I don’t think there’s anything we can do.We don’t know this guy’s Home World.We don’t have proof demons exist.We’ll report it and wait.”“That’s not what I meant.” Ben cut his eyes meaningfully to Liv.Aww.He is worried about me.Connor followed Ben’s gaze.“I know.We’ll report to Medical.”A sound intruded.It could have been a faraway piece of machinery or a distant gunshot, but Liv knew it was actually a faint sonic boom.Seconds later, she heard the jet’s engine above them—a whisper of sound that could have been mistaken for a wind in the trees, if there had been any nearby.Liv glanced at her watch.“About time.”The team jumped to their feet as the jet landed.They couldn’t see it, but they could hear its whisper as it dropped straight down.As it landed, it became visible: a small, dull-gray plane shaped like a moth, with an engine beneath each wing rotated ninety degrees to point straight at the ground.Its only marking was its identification number: a black ‘SM-7’ on the tail fin.The cargo door in the belly opened, falling to the sand with a thud, and the team strode up the ramp.Liv muttered, “Thank God we’ve got an isolated pickup.”Liv hated when they were forced to take pickups in inhabited areas, where the plane couldn’t disengage invisibility.The SMs were invisible to instruments as well as the naked eye.She always tripped up the invisible ramp, and it was disconcerting to say the least to walk into a plane that suddenly popped into existence around her.The copilot pulled the door shut and returned to his chair as Liv took a seat on one of the benches lining the walls and strapped in.The jet rose straight up, then shot across the sky.She closed her eyes, trying to convince her stomach that it was truly still in her body and not hovering in the air over California.The SM’s top speed was just over Mach 16, although inertial dampeners made Mach 10 feel like Mach 1, allowing it to avoid actually wrenching people’s organs from their bodies.It still always took her a few minutes to adjust.Ten minutes later, they flew through the concealed hangar entrance to the top-secret DEPOT base, located near Groom Lake in Area 51.They touched down in the underground hangar, trundling to the end of a line of identical jets.Since they were used to ferry Travelers to drop-off and pickup points, the crews jokingly called them ‘Soccer Moms,’ or SMs.As the team clomped down the ramp and onto the concrete floor of the hangar, Ben nudged her.“I can’t believe you’re still scared of these things.”“I wasn’t scared, just nauseous.”“You always say that.”“Because it’s always true.”“Are you feeling okay?” Gin asked.“I’m fine.Would y’all just stop worrying? Let’s just get to Medical and get it over with.”Despite her words, Liv walked as fast as she could through the giant cave.When she finally reached the base’s doors, she swiped her key card and pressed her hand to the palm reader.The four-foot-thick blast doors opened instantly, revealing four armed guards standing like statues just inside.The elevator also required a key card.On level ten of the base’s Research and Development section, they navigated a maze of corridors to get to the Travelers’ section.They passed steel doors marked “Biohazard No Admittance,” “Level 5 Safety Precautions Must Be Met,” and “Psychotranslocation Theory and Testing—Absolute Silence Within.” They crossed through another set of four-foot-thick blast doors into the Travelers’ section and took an elevator down to twenty-five.Liv’s impatience to get to Medical died when she walked into the lobby, and her usual reluctance reasserted itself.With its white walls, white chairs, white countertops, white floors, white curtains, and white beds, Medical seemed to imply that humans could never be clean enough.Instead of feeling like it was safe and sterile, she felt contaminated by all that white.A petite woman with shoulder-length brown hair and warm brown eyes met her in the lobby.“Hi, Dr.Brown.I need full bloodwork, neurotransmitters, enzymes, tox screen, an EEG, and a PET scan as fast as we can.”“Everything’s set up.” Dr.Brown led the way to a cubicle separated from others by a sliding white sheet hanging from the ceiling.Liv sighed and tried not to touch anything white.She sat impatiently as Dr.Brown injected her with the markers for the PET scan and a medical drew blood from her arm.Dr.Brown left as another medical wheeled the EEG in on a cart.Liv sat still on the bed while the technician ran all the leads, but she could see in the first moments that it was normal.She sighed with relief.The technician finished, pulled all the leads off Liv’s head, and wheeled the cart out.Too bad everyone wasn’t that professional.Another medical came in and began a physical and neurologic exam.“I’m a neurologist,” she said.“I can tell you, all of these exams will be normal.It’s the bloodwork I need.”The medical smiled at her condescendingly [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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