Project Sable Rose by Wolfheart (new books to read .txt) 📕

her. She pressed enter. The door buzzed, turned from red to green and opened.
“Looks like I won’t need to carry around a code catalog anymore…”
Sable continued through without waiting for him, recognizing the area slightly. An image flashed through her mind, making her head spin. She stood behind two girls – her sisters – while they fired guns rapidly at human-like targets. They shot at the head, the heart, and the stomach – all vital places. She recalled the sick feeling, the unease.
She didn’t understand why she had felt that way. She stood; staring at what her mind told her was her usual place. Then the rest of the surrounding settled, and she realized she was holding her head and leaning against the wall. A couple of people were staring at her unsurely, seeing the pistols and wondering what to do.
“A-are you alright?” Jayson asked with confusion.
“Damn memories, flashing in at random times…”
He visibly relaxed. “That’s unavoidable. I can’t change when your memories slip in. They shouldn’t be so difficult to deal with as you get used to it.”
“Fine. Whatever.” Looking for a free firing box – they were pretty full, honestly – her eyes stopped on a familiar face. It took a moment, but the lean, muscular female with gray eyes and dark, olive skin flared her cheeks deep red. “I can take it from here, Jayson.”
“Are you alright? Your cheeks are red!”
“I’m fine. Leave me to work.”
“You know how to shoot already?”
“I’m sure I won’t get anywhere watching a computer geek pretend he does. Leave me to figure it out. The hardware you installed should be more than enough for a still, non-breathing target.”
He followed her eyes and frowned. “You won’t get anywhere asking a Basic something…”
She slugged him in the cheek – hard. Completely unprepared, he took a step back from the force of the blow.
“What in the Emperor's name was that?!”
“Never call her that!” She growled in a quiet voice full of fury and menace. He stared at her. Heads turned. Most of them looked confused. The girl she’d spotted literally laughed. She put her gun on safety and lowered it, walking toward them leisurely. She came up to stand beside Sable.
“You messin’ with my girl?” She asked with twinkling eyes. “’cause you need ta git lost if ya are, lard ass.”
Jayson blinked, utterly bewildered. “Your girl?”
“That’s right. She’s my girl. We’ve dated for three years now.”
Sable hoped the heat in her cheeks meant she was fevered. The way Jayson stared at her was bad enough.
“You’re…”
“Yes.”
“Then…”
“Shut up.”
“Who is this, baby?” The girl asked.
“My…handler, I think he called it.”
“You’re being pimped out?” She sounded furious.
“No, sweet lips. I’m being trained as a Special Op. Technist, isn’t it?” She asked Jayson, getting anxious. Why didn’t she already know this?
He just nodded, looking very nervous.
“That’s right. Weren’t you informed about her accident?”
“I was told she recovered from minor injuries.”
“Minor injuries?!” Sable snapped, glaring at her so-called handler.
“I had no contact with this woman, Sable. Don’t give me that look.”
“Who informs people of these things?”
“Our boss or the people directly below her are in charge of that. I have no clue what their names are. Even if I did, I would have no idea who the person to tell her would be; I’m not given that information, and neither are you.”
Sable sighed, letting her anger go flat. People that high up wouldn’t consider even her significant other important enough to give the complete truth.
Still, a little truth to that would have been nice.
“I was in a major accident. My left leg and right arm have been replaced with false limbs, and I’ve some memory loss.”
The rest of it seemed to be trapped in the back of her throat. She didn’t want her to kill Jayson.
“Why memory loss?”
“She inhaled some very toxic fumes. She doesn’t seem to remember the accident very well, either.”
“Aren’t technists more computer than that?”
“Usually. But she already has basic training with weapons and tactics from her sisters, and most of her memory problems –“
“Fuck it.” Sable said; she was feeling tired of lying already. “It’s nothing like that. I’m sorry for even trying to lay, but the truth, Samantha, is that I also have a computer for a heart and half a brain.”
She stared at Sable in disbelief.
“You…can’t be serious…”
“I am. Half of my brain – the left half – is a hard-drive; along with my entire right arm, left leg and my heart. Most of my personal memories are lost, or buried. Honestly, it wasn’t until I saw you that I recalled who you were and what we were. I still don’t have a clue how I get along with my sisters, or their personalities.”
“Damn.” She was thinking. Sable could see the wheels turning behind the deep gray eyes.
“Somebody had to have programed that computer.”
“Jayson did.”
She didn’t look pissed. Instead, she looked at him and nodded her thanks. Then she turned back to me. “You ought to visit those sisters of yours and get to know them again. Honestly, they’ve changed a lot themselves. They’ve gone through a hell of a lot since you nearly died. They refused to say anything about it, though. They aren’t allowed to come here anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Your youngest sis nearly blew the place to hell.”
Sable blinked, and then sighed. “Of course. I do remember how violent she is…”
“You know…Terra hasn’t been out of her new room for a week. Why don’t you go check on her some time? She’s going through a lot.”
“If I get the chance; I have training.”
She glared at Jayson.
“I can’t do a thing about it, Samantha. The boss says she trains, she trains.”
“Come over here. I’ll help you with those two pistols…”
She winked.
“Bye Jayson.”
“But-“
“Good. Bye. Jayson.”
He’ll understand this, right? I mean, I can’t toy with him tonight anyway…

He sighed, turned and left. Sable followed the lithe, agile soldier into the shooting box and stood the way her memory placed her sisters. Her mind told her it wasn’t quite right, but she wasn’t sure what she was doing wrong.
“You’re a bit new at this, aren’t you?” Sam smiled. “Here; let me help.”
She wrapped her arms around her and placed her correctly, moving her hands down her torso to straighten it. Then she steadied her shaking arms and aimed them gently. Swooping her arms down the technist’s thighs, Sam showed Sable how to stand.
Her hands are so soft…yet firm…
Everywhere was hot. The feeling was less powerful than the urge – the need – she’d felt with Jayson. But it still pulled up thoughts.
“Oh. That feels…right.” She commented at the stance she'd been placed in.
“Feels right?” Sam looked puzzled.
“Yeah. It’s all the programming; it’ll tell me when I have things right. But I can’t seem to access things right…”
“Have you been listening to your handler?”
“The programing geek?”
“Don’t treat him like that! He comes here often enough to shoot!” Sam surprised her. “He’s damn good at it, though he’s a hell of a lot better with those axes of his than firearms. Jayson was trained to be a Special Ops handler in the first place. But he was too smart to be here, so they moved him.”
“Oh.”
“Now, aim and pull the trigger…”
She carefully aimed for the heart…
And flinched when she opened her eyes after the blast and saw she’d completely and utterly missed the entire target.
“Damn…” Sam shook her head. “This is going to be a long, painful day for you baby.”

Ten rounds later, Sable swore as her shoulder dislocated.
“What’s wrong?” Sam was beside her in a millisecond.
“My shoulder just dislocated…”
“Which one…”
She smiled to try to act like it wasn’t a big deal. “It was my right shoulder; no big deal. You could put that back in place.”
Sam sighed. “Damn. You were just starting to hit the target!”
Sable put down her pistol. “Just re-locate the shoulder and we’ll continue.”
“No way in hell I’m doing that. For one, I’ve had only an hour of my own practice. For two, you have one terrible aim. And for three – you’re going back to your dorm and talking to your handler about pain management and exercising your real limbs as well as your mechanical ones.”
As she scolded the scientist-gone-soldier, she came around and popped the shoulder back into socket. Sable gave a muffled cry of pain. A few people looked over, but they were getting a bit used to them.
I really am terrible at this…

“I’ll walk you to your dorm. Then I’ll know where it is, anyway.”
Not in the best spirits and still in pain, all Sable did was nod and lead the way…

Chapter Four
Sightless Eye

The room they had assigned Terra Lain was small, cramped even. But she didn’t mind anymore. It was quiet, with a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. She didn’t need anything more than that, now that she had her own room. All of her cloths now fit in a single chest; she’d sold most of her childhood clothing, or left it behind. Her single bed fit beside that. At its foot was a perch, where a falcon sat most of the time when it wasn’t on her arm. To the left of the bed was a wall where a strange, unstrung bow of odd metal hung. There were no arrows to the bow, either, but it wasn’t useless.
Everything she was given had a secret, and she knew the bow’s was simple – even if she hadn’t figured it out yet. It really irritated her. She had figured out how to talk to the falcon and make it respond, how to speak with it through emotion and simple commands without moving her lips. But she couldn’t find the secrete of that blasted bow!
Going over to it, she picked it up again to examine it - again. It was light as a feather and perfectly designed from every perspective. There was a place for the string to go, but no string would fit and all the arrows she’d seen weren’t the right size for the fine weapon.
The design wasn’t old fashioned, like some swords the Elite wore for show, duels or practice. It was a solid silver alloy with veins of altering colors intricately woven into it. The veins were connected to symbolize vines and flowers running up and down the weapon. Terra ran her hands up and down the bizarre weapon.
Terra stiffened, feeling rushed suddenly. She could feel somebody coming. Putting up the weapon carefully, she brushed her hair and braided it tightly. Without thinking about it, she knew who it was. Her handler was alright, for a gay boy. Just as he reached the door, she opened it, staff in hand and arm up for the falcon. It was on her arm a second later.
The boy was smiling.
“You’re getting good at that.”
“I knew it was you.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
“Where?”
He sighed.
“Common, Leo. I hate reading thoughts. It makes me feel sick.”
“It won’t if you use it.”
“Then I’d be really good at invading the most private place a person has!”
“That’s the point, Terra. That’s why you are wielding that ability.”
She rolled her eyes. “No. I have this ability because the government scientists don’t know what they’re doing.