Read Meta Zero One for Free Online Page B

it is.”
     
      Eric held up a coffee jar, there were still a few grains stuck to the side, but as Eric passed it to him, Elroy saw something moving inside. The creature was about the size of his thumb and it moved with shocking speed around the walls of the glass. Elroy held the jar in his hand carefully, it shook violently in his hand, and he looked closely at what it contained.
     
      “What the fuck!”
     
      “What the fuck indeed. I think that's your evidence of meta powered involvement right there.”
     
     
     
       Elroy prowled the house.
     
     Mr Windrow had been taken into custody, into the secure holding facility just outside New York the FBI kept for people suspected of being involved in a Powers' related incident.
     
       It was the sort of facility which if you didn’t answer the questions correctly, or if Elroy decided you were a threat to America in any way, you wouldn’t be getting out of.
     
       Mrs Windrow’s body had been taken to the same facility, where it would be examined and then incinerated.
     
      The creature in the jar was in Elroy’s coat pocket where he could feel it moving as it tried to escape from it's tiny prison.
     
       The neighbours were being sold a story at the moment which would not, he knew hold water for long, but he also knew that it didn't have to. This was after all America, where people had attention spans which were shorter than the average commercial break.
     
       In a week some celebrity would have a divorce, buy a black baby from Ethiopia, or show everyone her fanny getting out of a limo, and the incident in the Windrow house would be forgotten.
     
      Now Elroy prowled about the house, he avoided the little girl’s bedroom and the main bedroom, cleanup crews would arrive in the morning to begun sterilisation of the scene. They would deal with the final forensic analysis and they could clean up the mess.
     
       He did not need to see it again.
     
      For now he had the house to himself and he wanted to look for things the forensic team might, with their more structured approach, overlook. He was looking for things which interested him in particular.
     
      Elroy wanted to understand the Windrows, he wanted to see how they lived. He wanted to see if there was anything to suggest why they would have become targets for a Meta Powered attack or if, as he suspected, they had brought it on themselves.
     
      Starting in the sitting room, he wandered through their lives picking things up at random, searching for inspiration.
     
      He examined the books on the shelf, nothing unusual there, it was the normal mix of thick airport thrillers, magazines and books of photographs. He picked a few up at random and idly flicked through, nothing.
     
      There were lots of photographs of Jean-Marie and the toddler Sally. He looked at them all closely, his analytical mind noticed how the girl looked very little like her parents. Odd he thought, picking up a recent scan photograph, propped on the shelf, there were no photos of Sally as a baby. He made a mental note to check on her paternity, and careful not to crease it, he pocketed the scan.
     
      Turning on the TV he checked on the digital recorder, the usual mix of films and TV shows. There was the complete run of Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek and The Big Bang Theory. You're a bit of a science fiction geek are you Mr Windrow?
     
      Finding nothing else unusual, he sat on the sofa, and absently ran his hands behind the cushions. Old pens, toys, and dried out desiccated food scraps, again nothing of interest to him.
     
      The kitchen next, he looked in cupboards, opened drawers and glanced in, a mix of fast foods, and standard store cupboard essentials. At the table cookbooks and magazines were strewn around. One was open with a list of ingredients for an Indonesian chicken curry written on the back of an envelope.
     
      They were clearly not expecting whatever had happened, you don't often plan a