Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller by Brandon Ellis (easy to read books for adults list txt) 📕

cold. She turned and popped two shots through the doorway, hitting a guard square in the chest.

Jaxx lurched for her, willing her to stop the bloodshed, but was met with the butt of her rifle against his chest, keeping him at a distance.

She eyed Jaxx like a madwoman. “Don’t touch me. Never touch me. But, stay as close to me as possible, or I’ll lodge a bullet in the back of your head.” She rounded him and pressed the rifle’s muzzle against the back of his head. “Move.”

Jaxx had never seen anyone move so fast, so confident. Her eyes, on the other hand, told of a different story. She looked tired, beat.

She pushed him forward with the rifle. “I said move, Jaxx.”

He put his hands up. “Where do you want me to go?”

She guided Jaxx out of the room with another push of her rifle. Guards lined the hall, but Slade and Fox were missing.

“You come after me, this guy gets one in through the chest. Understand?” She lowered the rifle to his mid back, prodding him forward. “If you guards don’t back up, I won’t give another warning.”

None of them moved, then one touched his ear as if he received a communication. He nodded, then waived the men back. Rivkah and Jaxx had a clear path.

Rivkah growled. “What did you do to me?”

Jaxx looked over his shoulder. “I…didn’t do anything.”

But he knew as soon as she asked. It was the blood, the blood he gave her in the ship to keep her alive. It was his blood.

The moment he thought it, Rivkah picked up on it. “You did this to me? You personally? It came from you? What kind of sick freak are you?”

Jaxx didn’t know how to answer. He walked down the hall, the rifle against his back.

“Why do I have these powers?” she continued. “When I’m near you, they’re alive in me. They aren’t when I’m not around you. What the hell did you do to me, Jaxx?” She breathed heavily, almost going off the rails.

No guards were in sight. Maybe he was more important to Slade than he thought. “Don’t pull that trigger, Rivkah.”

He felt her warm breath when she leaned closer, speaking low. “I won’t pull the trigger if you show me the way out, Jaxx. Seems like I’m pretty safe with you, huh? Ain’t no one in this facility going to ruin your life and let you burn your body to a damn cinder.”

Jaxx said nothing.

“Answer me. Where’s the exit?”

“I don’t know.” He didn’t, but at the same time, he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to continue his life’s passion, translating glyph after glyph, uncovering ancient mysteries. In truth, he wanted to figure out everything he could about Callisto. He wanted to go to Callisto, to touch everything on the satellite images.

Rivkah was knocking down that reality with a wrecking ball.

“You don’t want to leave,” she stated.

Jaxx had some experience with this power…as a pilot, with Donny’s pen, and only minutes ago with the door to Donny’s office. He had control of it. She didn’t. Anger fueled her. Intuitively, Jaxx knew that she was dangerous, not only to others, but to herself.

“You know him.”

“Who?” asked Jaxx.

“You’ll see.”

Rivkah opened a door and shoved Jaxx into a room.

Jon Shaughnessy stood dumbfounded in his boxers, toothbrush in hand, wide eyed, his TV on.

Jaxx felt her in his mind like a rat trying to walk through a maze. He didn’t like it.

Rivkah abruptly stepped back like she’d been pushed. “Jaxx, you know something about him.” She gasped. “He’s your escape route. He has something…hidden. Get it from him.”

“No.”

Shaughnessy backed away and made his way into his bathroom.

Rivkah redirected her gun. “Stay put, pudgy.” She flipped her gun over her shoulder, putting a slug through another guard, then brought the gun out in front of her, giving Shaughnessy a grin. “Yeah, little-man, I am a crack shot. There’s no getting out of this room alive without my say-so.”

Jaxx froze, rooted to the spot. “I’m sorry, Jon. I didn’t bring her here. I don’t know what she thinks I know.”

“Jon, is it?” Rivkah asked.

Shaughnessy nodded slowly, keeping his eyes deadpanned on her, his lips slightly moving, but nothing come out.

“Show me,” Rivkah demanded.

Shaughnessy bit his lip. “Show you what?”

“Show me what you’re hiding, then show me a way out of here. You know what I’m talking about. Don’t screw with me.”

He reached under his bed, pulling out a laptop case, laptop inside.

She gestured to Jaxx. “Give it to my boy right here.”

Shaughnessy handed it to him.

It was the laptop he stashed under his desk in the RIOUT room. What was it doing in Shaughnessy’s quarters?

“For a genius, Jaxx, you’re pretty slow. The laptop was their insurance if things went south. Now it’s ours.” She turned back to Shaughnessy. “Now, show me your other secret.”

Shaughnessy shrugged.

Rivkah pulled the rifle up, so the sites were level with her eye. “I won’t ask twice. Genius here has infected me with the ability to read thoughts. Yours, my friend, are pretty interesting.”

Shaughnessy pounded his wall three times. It protruded outward, exposing an elevator.

“Thank you.” Rivkah guided Jaxx through the opening and onto the elevator. The wall closed shut in front of them and the elevator started its ascent.

45

June 9thCharlotte, North Carolina

As soon as he was checked into his motel, Drew pulled out the thumb drive his mother gave him and plugged it into the laptop he’d purchased in the parking lot outside a 7-11. Amazing what people would do for a little cash. He’d had to tap one of his tin-foil buddies for a loan, but he promised he was good for it. Better yet, he promised to clue them in on the exposé of a lifetime, if they’d just loan him a few Franklins, some Hamiltons, and some Grants.

He powered up and went directly to the files on the drive.

Operation Underfoot.

TOP SECRET SPECIAL HANDLING NOFORM with Global Safety Administration.

Idiots. Why did anyone ever label anything “top secret?” You’d think