Zhena (Sample Chapters) by Michael Pennington (learn to read books TXT) 📕

ignore such a call
and let the machine answer it. However, she was
getting tired of them so she intended to let these
people know their calls were not welcome and make
sure they didn’t bother her anymore.
“Hello.”
The person didn’t answer right away. It was
definitely a telemarketer. The computers normally
dialed several different homes at once and
connected to whoever answered first. That caused a
few seconds delay in them answering. She waited to
hear some unknown voice say they were looking for
Mr. or Mrs. Anderson along with the low hum of
numerous other people talking in the background.
Instead, she began hearing a strange series of clicks
and whistles. It was similar to a fax machine, but
somehow different. At first she was sure someone’s
machine had simply dialed the wrong number. But
then, she began to feel strange. It was as if a veil
was being pulled away from her eyes. The room
began to spin and it was all she could do to stand.
She wanted to pull the phone away from her ear, but
somehow her arm felt locked. She used her other
hand to brace herself on the counter. And then
suddenly, the line went dead. It was as if she had
been released from a vice. She fell to the floor and
the phone fell away. She had an image of a man
standing in front of her. She was strapped to a chair.
He was wearing a white coat and speaking in a
language she didn’t understand. Yet somehow she
knew what he was saying.
“Are you prepared for this?”
“I am prepared to do anything for my country.”
The voice was hers, but it was again speaking in a
language she didn’t understand.
“You are the best, you are the primary. Without
you, none of this will succeed.” The man reached
towards her and began to place some sort of mask
over her face.


Iosef looked at the stopwatch. He was unsure
what to do. The call had ended six seconds too early
and he didn’t know why. He checked the equipment
and verified it. It appeared to be working properly.
Somehow the call had been cut off on the other end.
He wasn’t sure how the subject would respond in
this case. He checked his notes. The procedure
didn’t say anything about what to do if a call ended
early. He checked some of the original research. It
took some time but he found the notes used when
the procedure was created. It was determined
twenty-three seconds was the optimal time period
for recovery. Different period of time could result in
“unusual outcomes.”
He threw the page with disgust. It would have
been nice if they had mentioned that in the original
procedure. Moreover, he couldn’t find anything
about what to do in the event of these “unusual
outcomes”. The original notes were still very
disorganized. He had spent some time trying to put
them together in a usable format but his resources
were limited. If he had someone to help he could’ve
used them to organize all this. His only choice now
was to approach the subject and determine what was
meant by “unusual outcomes.” He reached for the
vodka bottle and wished he had started there
anyways.


“Mommy!”
A voice was yelling for her. It was a voice Susan
knew but suddenly somehow didn’t seem right.
Reality began to collapse back into place. She was
being pulled back into her kitchen from a faraway
place. And yet, part of her didn’t want to go back.
Part wanted to stay in the room with the man in the
white coat as if that was where she really belonged.
“Mommy, I hurt myself,” yelled the voice.
Now the pull back to her kitchen was even
stronger. Someone needed her, someone she cared
for. The kitchen came back into focus.
“Hey Mom, the brat fell down and… whoa are
you okay?”
Susan was still lying on the floor with the phone
next to her. As her vision cleared, she saw Tommy
coming in the back door.
“Mom what happened?” He ran up and knelt next
to her.
“I’m not sure, I got this weird phone call, and then
I felt dizzy, and don’t call your sister a brat.”
“Do you need me to call the ambulance?”
“No sweetie, I’ll be fine. What happened to your
sister?”
“She just tripped and skinned her knee on a rock.
Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes I’m fine.” She started to get up. Her strength
was quickly returning but something was different.
She felt more acute, more aware of her
surroundings. It was like someone had flipped a
switch and turned on parts of her senses she wasn’t
previously aware of. She walked out the back door
and saw her daughter lying on the ground. Michelle
was crying and her knee was bloody. Susan
immediately focused on the blood. As she ran to her
daughter her brain was working at breakneck speed.

Assess the damage, determine the liability, and
determine if she can continue the mission.

Wait,
what mission? She shook her head to clear it.
“Honey, are you okay? What happened?”
“Tommy pushed me down on a rock.”
“Did not! We were just playing tag and you
tripped.”
“After you pushed me!”
“I was tagging you!”
"All right enough, let’s look at this.” The cut was
long, but not deep. There was some dirt around it,
but nothing serious. Some soap and water, a
bandage, and a kiss should fix both the physical and
psychological damage.
“All right, let’s head inside and get this cleaned
up.”
“Cool!” said Tommy as he ran back toward the
house. She knew where he was going. He spent way
too much time on that damn computer. She was
worried about his social skills.
“Where do you think you’re going? With your
sister hurt I need your help with dinner.”
“Ahh Mom,” he sighed.
“Get inside and finish making the salads. I’ve got
pasta on the stove and it’ll be done soon.”
As she walked back toward her house she heard
Lois yelling out her window.
“Hey Susan, did your phone stop working?”
“Actually yes, it went dead in the middle of a
call.” She didn’t mention what a strange call it was,
or the strange results.

Stay focused on the task, minimize the damage, don’t divulge unnecessary information.

She had no idea where these strange thoughts coming from.
“Maybe it was that construction up the street?”
said Lois.
“You could be right. Now we don’t even have
phones to complain with.”
“Oh I’ve got my cell phone and I’m using it. Say,
are you okay? You look a little frazzled.”
“I’m fine. Michelle just skinned her knee pretty
bad.”

Stay on target. The mission comes first.

She had to get these thoughts out of head and tried shaking it again.
“Okay, are we still on for seven-thirty?”
“See you then.”
She soon had her daughter in the bathroom and
was washing the cut.

Superficial wound, minor damage, no direct impact on mission.

This wasn’t making any sense. She needed to clear these thoughts from her head, so she decided the current mission was dinner. That seemed to quiet the voice. While she certainly didn’t understand what was going on, it somehow seemed natural, which did
concern her. “I need to figure this out,” she thought
aloud.
“Figure what out Mommy?”
“Nothing sweetie.” She put a bandage on the knee
and gave her daughter a kiss.
“Thanks Mommy”
“Good, now can you go be a big girl and set the
table?”
“Okay.”
As she went back to preparing dinner, she focused
on what had just happened. It was probably just
someone’s computer trying to contact Tommy. But
they had DSL. Hardly anyone used dial up
anymore. It may have just been a fax machine. She
had heard of people responding strangely to
different combinations of light and sounds but those
people usually had epilepsy or some kind of
neurological disorder. Maybe she needed to
schedule an appointment at the base hospital?
“Mom, the salads are ready, what kind of dressing
should I put out?”
“The usual dear.”
“I’ll deal with this later,” she said to herself.
“Right now I need to focus on the current mission,
dinner.”

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Publication Date: 07-07-2009

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