Read Tritium Gambit (Max and Miranda Book 1) for Free Online

picked up on tachyon radiation, but maybe they would have seen the bright lights of a ship coming in for a landing. I was new to being an agent, but I was sure the report of some missing fishermen wouldn’t, by itself, be enough to create a ping at the Service. We were only sent on missions where extraterrestrial activity was detected.
    I found a blog post by a person who lived nearby. He claimed he saw a falling star that night, a coincidence maybe. The local paper had three different small postings of owners looking for lost dogs that went missing the same day. More coincidence perhaps.
    I hooked into the Service servers again and started looking for more events reported on that day. The servers recorded virtually all news from around the world in every locale, and an artificial intelligence correlated the data to identify anomalies, which the Service called a ping. However, the server had nothing for the Ely region on that day other than the missing fishing guide and his clients. The sheer lack of data made me suspicious. I looked at other regions across the state on the same day and found random bits of news that didn’t flag a ping. It was simply information.
    “ Computer, why is there no data for August 26th in Ely, Minnesota?” I asked.
    “ Agent Miranda, my name is Jasmine, not ‘Computer.’ There is data for August 26th in Ely, Minnesota.” The hologram showed the article for the missing fishermen.
    “ Okay, Jasmine, but why isn’t there any other data?”
    “ No other data is available.”
    I wanted to pull my hair out. “Yes, but why?”
    “ Agent Miranda, I do not understand your query. The data is not present because it is not there.”
    “ Was it removed?” I asked.
    The computer was silent for a moment. “There are no records of data being removed.”
    “ Has anybody accessed the brief for my assignment in the last hour?” I asked.
    “ Only you and Agent Wendy.”
    “ Besides the two of us, I mean.”
    “ No other access has been recorded within the last hour,” Jasmine said.
    “ Thank you, Jasmine.”
    I swiped off my com link and tucked it into my backpack. There was apparently a tremendously skilled hacker in the system with access to highly classified data, somebody who didn’t want information about the stolen Phoenix to be available. I could only hope Wendy would uncover the culprit.
    I was exhausted and needed sleep, but before I could even try, I needed to relax. I pulled out a thin mat from my bag and set it on the floor. I put my earbuds in and selected my acoustic Beatles playlist. I started my Yoga with the bird of paradise pose and let the stretch and the music relax me.
    When I finally climbed into bed, I had forgotten all about the troubles of the day and fell quickly to sleep.
    I woke up when I heard the gentle click of a cabin’s front door shutting. I jumped out of bed and slowly opened my door to peek into the den area. Max was sprawled across the entire hideaway bed with no covers on. He was wearing a white T-shirt and shorts. Tyler was standing at the door with a plain brown paper grocery bag. He looked like he was sneaking in.
    I opened my door further and stepped out. Tyler smiled at me.
    “ I brought breakfast,” he said. He started unpacking the bag. He had a few eggs, a pack of bacon, a loaf of bread, and a carton of orange juice.
    “ That’s so sweet. Where did you get it?”
    He hesitated. “There’s a place down the road. I’m still adjusting to Earth time and couldn’t sleep, and so I decided to go for a little run.”
    “ I’m surprised they sell single eggs.”
    He shrugged. “Yeah, it is surprising, isn’t it?” He smiled and pulled out a frying pan. “How would you like your surprising eggs?”
    “ Sunnyside up,” I said.
    He chuckled. “Sorry, I can only do scrambled.”
    I smirked. “Scrambled then.”
    I sat down at the small kitchen table and watched as he found a cast-iron fry pan, poured in some oil, then added the eggs after he