Read Psion Delta for Free Online

the
door.
    It
was a woman with long dark hair and large brown eyes. She might have been
gorgeous if not for her taped and purplish nose and the puffiness that rimmed
her eyes and cheeks. The bruising gave the impression that her face had
recently suffered trauma or surgery. She wore a red tunic that melted into her
black pants with a jagged 13 symbol on her breast. No grin crossed her lips as
she recognized Sammy. No witty remark greeted him, either. She pointed her
jigger at him and fired three times. Sammy raised his hands and used a blast to
shield.
    He
could feel the darkness within him rising up, wanting to take control. He
wanted to kill her, to watch her slowly die while screaming for mercy. Katie
fired at him again as she moved closer. Again he shielded, then blasted at her
to keep her at bay.
    “Sammy
. . . ” came a voice from behind him. It was a familiar voice with a nasal tone
accompanied by a strong scent of cinnamon. “Sammy . . . why?”
    Sammy
knew who it was before he looked. If the darkness had been growing inside of
him at the sight of Katie Carpenter, seeing Stripe with her all but consumed
him with a malice so powerful that it filled him with a black energy he hadn’t
experienced since his time with Dr. Vogt. Stripe’s face looked bizarrely slack
and void of contour until all the muscles in his head and neck spasmed
simultaneously. He wore the same black and white hat Sammy had seen dozens of
times in the room with the black door.
    The
pain in Sammy’s leg tripled. Forgetting Katie, he sent multiple blasts at
Stripe, sending him flying into a wall. Stripe’s head hit first, leaving a
basketball-sized dent in the sheet rock. Blood oozed from Stripe’s mouth while
from Sammy’s came an incoherent scream of fury. From behind, he heard a click
and felt the muzzle of a jigger pressed against his skull. Only then did Sammy
realize his fatal mistake of forgetting the more powerful of the two foes.
    “Goodbye,
Sammy,” Katie said. “You behaved exactly as I thought you would.”
    She
pulled the trigger. Sammy heard the gun go off like a bomb in his ear, and
everything went white.

 
     

     
     
    3. Safe
     
     
     
    Tuesday May 7, 2086
     
     
     
    On
the cruiser ride back to headquarters, Jeffie tilted her
head back against her headrest and stretched out her neck muscles until she
felt her joints pop.
    “I
can’t believe Sammy has to spend five days in that place,” Brickert muttered
next to her. “I was ready to go after five hours.”
    “They
play it safe. You can’t blame them. We represent a significant investment of
the government, don’t we?”
    “We
were shot by tranquilizers, not bullets. I’ve hated hospitals ever since I had
to stay in one for a week after getting bit by a rabid hamster. My parents
almost didn’t get me medical attention in time, and I nearly died.”
    “A
rabid hamster?”
    “I
don’t want to talk about it. And I’ve never eaten coconut pudding since.”
    “Well,
Rosmir said we had to stay at least one day because of Beta policy,” Jeffie
reminded her friend. He’d also told her he wanted to be sure Wrobel hadn’t
laced the tranquilizer with a subtle poison or some other nefarious chemical,
but Jeffie wasn’t sure she believed his excuse. She secretly believed that
Rosmir had wanted her and Brickert at the hospital in case Sammy didn’t
cooperate or had some kind of a nervous breakdown. Regardless of whether or not
she was right, seeing Sammy had been wonderful and frustrating. Wonderful
because he seemed much more like his old self again, and frustrating because
she hadn’t gotten what she’d wanted. She’d needed that kiss to know what to do.
    “Policy
shmolicy,” Brickert complained. “I waited all that time to see Sammy and then
what happens? You make me leave so you can have your ‘private moment.’”
    “Hey,
you agreed to it.”
    “What
else can I say when you’re bending my fingers back like that?”
    “I’m
sorry, Brick. I’ll