Atlas (The Atlas Series) (3 page)

Kala nodded back and watched as Jack got into his car and drove away, toward the Compound. She waited for her cab as patiently as she could, but patience wasn’t exactly her strong suit.

That’s when she saw the woman again.

She was down the street, standing there, holding her briefcase. The woman couldn’t have been more than three hundred feet from where Kala stood.

Kala wasn’t going to let it pass this time. Unarmed, Kala ran toward the woman.

The woman didn’t move. It was like she wanted Kala to confront her.

When Kala was within ten feet of the woman, she slowed to a stop.

“What do you want?!” Kala yelled at the woman aggressively.

The woman smiled at Kala and Kala felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.

“Not you, dear,” the woman said as if sharing some inside joke with no one in particular.

Kala walked slowly toward the woman.

Eight feet.

Six feet.

Four feet.

The woman held her hand out to stop Kala from coming any closer. “That’s far enough, Ms. Hicks.”

Shouldn’t have said her name.

Kala leapt the final three feet and had this woman in a headlock before the woman could react. “How do you know my name?” Kala whispered harshly in the woman’s ear.

“Stay away from Jack,” the woman warned.

Though Kala had the upper hand, hearing this made her push the woman away from her.

“Are you sleeping with him?!” Kala accused. Now she was pissed. If this woman was a scorned lover, or worse, another lover, Kala would have finally figured out what was wrong with Mr. Perfect. Jerk!

Before Kala could move, the woman was suddenly in her face. Her eyes were bright blue and
glowed
slightly.

Glowed! Kala had never seen anyone’s eyes glow before!

What the hell was in that tequila?

Hallucinogens. Definitely hallucinogens.

Kala instinctively moved like a cat and was behind the woman, holding the psycho’s arms behind her back.

The woman seemed shocked that Kala was able to capture her. “I see what Jack sees in you,” the woman admitted.

“Let’s see what you have in this briefcase,” Kala grabbed the case and shoved the woman away.

Kala opened it despite her years of training that taught her to take it to the Compound where they could handle it safely.

Aside from a pen and a single piece of paper, there was nothing in the case.

Nothing.

Kala tossed it aside and wondered how her instincts could be so off. Then she said what she dreaded the most, “So what? You two a couple?”

“No,” the woman answered simply. “But we will be if you don’t ruin it for him.”

Great, a stalker
, Kala thought to herself.

The woman’s eyes glowed again.

What was going on?

Kala stood in attack stance.

“Not this time, little one,” the woman scolded Kala like she was three-years old.

Before Kala had a chance to make a move, the woman disappeared.

Completely.

Kala thought she was going nuts. One minute this woman was standing in front of her and the next Kala was standing by herself on the sidewalk.

“You call a cab?”

Kala turned to the street to see a taxi waiting for her.

“Um, yeah,” she said, reeling from what just happened.

Kala still wasn’t sure what
had
just happened. She sat down in the taxi and told the cabbie the Compound address.

The driver nodded and they drove off.

Chapter Two

Kala stared out the taxi replaying the last ten minutes. The woman had seemed obsessed with Jack. Warning Kala to stay away from him was the standard jealous girlfriend threat. But it had seemed like more than that.

And her eyes freaking
glowed
! Kala still didn’t believe that she’d seen that right. Maybe the street lamp had hit this woman’s eyes at an angle that made it look like they were glowing?

But then she vanished from thin air.

By the time she arrived at the Compound gates, Kala was convinced that someone had slipped her acid or some kind of drug at the bar. What she’d seen was impossible. Kala wouldn’t be surprised if she had made up the whole lady thing in her head. Kala was a jealous person. It made sense that she’d hallucinate a stalker business lady with glowing eyes that could disappear on cue.

Seriously
?!

Kala shook her head. She needed to clear her mind before she went in. Missions required full and complete concentration. For the sake of her fellow soldiers she needed to file this incident away immediately. Kala was tempted to report the possibility that she had been drugged, but she knew there’d be testing required and she wouldn’t be able to go on the mission. That was something Kala wasn’t willing to give up.

And, secretly, she was worried that the tests would come up clean and that maybe what Kala saw wasn’t drug-induced, which would indicate that she might be crazy.

Kala paid off the cab driver and walked up to the front gate entrance. From the outside the buildings appeared to be a series of warehouses and hangars. Nothing special. No one knew that those buildings were just fronts for what lay beneath. An enormous underground compound almost a square mile in size, housing the highest level of military combat and technology on the planet. The base was a half a mile underground, encased in walls made of a special metal that was undetectable by satellites and radar. Kala still felt a surge of pride every time she entered the structure that was known only as the Compound. She was one of the few chosen to be a part of something so important. Kala kept on wondering when they’d realize they’d made a mistake and boot her out, erasing her memories or something dramatic like that. But, so far, her sniper skills had kept her invaluable to the team.

Kala arrived at the gate, where three armed guards stood attentively in a small booth. She flashed them her badge and they waved her through, buzzing for the gate to open.

A jeep awaited Kala as she moved closer to the warehouses. Derek was driving.

“I saw your Apollo in the parking lot and figured you’d take a cab. How’s the head?” he asked sympathetically.

Kala hopped in the jeep and shook her head. “I don’t know what the hell they put in the tequila, but I swear to God I’ve been seeing weird crap.” Kala secretly hoped Derek would volunteer that he had had similar hallucination issues, but he just chuckled.

“Must be lack of sleep, kiddo. Aside from this monstrous headache, I just had one hell of a buzz.” Derek drove them through a pair of enormous doors and straight into one of the unassuming hangars.

There were a couple of jeeps parked inside the gigantic hangar, though other than that, it was completely empty.

Derek and Kala jumped out of the jeep and walked to the center of the room.

A holographic circle rose up from the ground around them, surrounding the pair, then rotating and scanning their bodies with beams of light. Kala could see her and Derek’s stats appearing on the rotating hologram with chains of DNA circling their bodies and then the words IDENTIIES CONFIRMED flashed. The hologram vanished and the floor became a platform that began lowering them underground.

The one weakness Kala had in terms of physical endurance was motion sickness. No matter how hard she tried to fight it, something about her equilibrium just couldn’t handle fast motion. And the platform they were on was descending fast. It flew down into the bowels of the Compound, slick black walls flying by them at frightening speed.

Derek looked over at Kala and tried to hide a grin, but Kala noticed.

“Shut up,” she groaned.

“How many times have you been on this thing?” Derek was highly amused.

“You suck.” Kala took a deep breath, trying to steady her stomach. It didn’t help that she still had half a bottle of tequila in her system.

Within seconds the platform stopped and two doors slid open. Kala shook off her queasiness with a couple more deep breaths and walked inside.

Kala was still amazed every time she entered the Compound: holographic images rotating on computer consoles, smart screens, shelves stacked with every kind of gun imaginable. It was like the military had puked on a science fiction novel. The same slick black metal made up the floors, walls, ceilings and doors.

The Compound was an entire city built underground. The section that Kala and Derek had arrived in was just the Research area, a mixture of scientists and soldiers, each with their own agendas working at various stations.

Lali came up behind Kala.

“You guys get your orders yet?” She was already dressed in full combat gear. Lali was shorter than Kala by a few inches, but what she lacked in height, she made up for in muscle. Kala wondered how Lali’s shoulders could be bigger than most men’s, but Lali managed to pull it off and still look like a girl. Lali had short bobbed black hair with blue eyes. She smiled at Derek, but talked to Kala, “We’re on the stealth carrier tonight.”

They shared their little joke at Kala’s “air-sick” expense. Kala shrugged like she wasn’t concerned, but that only made the two of them laugh.

“You guys love this,” Kala grumbled at her two teammates. “I’ll make sure I vomit on the both of you.”

“Let’s suit up,” Derek grinned.

The three of them walked down a series of hallways until they reached their ready room. It was a typical locker room, except all the lockers were made of the same black metal as everything else in the Compound. Kala and Derek started to suit up in their combat clothes.

“Change of plans.” Jack entered dressed in a black body suit that almost looked like scuba gear.

Kala’s stomach fell. She knew what his clothing meant, and Jack quickly confirmed it.

“Phase-suits tonight,” he announced and Kala groaned.

No one really liked phase-suits, but Kala hated them the most. Mainly because it aggravated her motion sickness, but also the whole idea just felt unnatural. She could never get used to the sensation of walking through walls. The new phase-suit was better than the last with only minimal disorientation, but if any part of the body wasn’t covered, it would be left behind.

As in not being attached to the body anymore.

Last year, Lali lost an ear when the team took down the terrorist leader John Graverstin. The seam on her hood popped open from the impact of running through a thick security wall and when she stepped into Graverstin’s bunker, Lali’s left ear didn’t come with her. Kala had to give it to Lali though. She hadn’t made a peep. Lali only grunted slightly from the initial shock and pain, then she was all business. In less than ten minutes, Kala’s team had taken down Graverstin’s entire base of operation. Kala barely noticed Lali’s missing ear anymore, since she always kept it covered with her hair.

Kala reluctantly slipped into a black bodysuit. The suit itself was made from a special kind of stretch material, like a thick spandex. It was mainly there to make sure everyone’s body parts stayed covered so that when they put on the phase-suit nothing would be showing. It was tight and uncomfortable and Kala felt like Catwoman in it. And not in a good way. Showing off her womanly curves always made her self-conscious. In combat situations she wanted to be seen as tough, not sexy.

From the passing glance she just saw coming from Jack, she was out of luck.

Reason number one thousand why she shouldn’t have let herself get involved with her commanding officer.

After everyone was suited up the four of them headed toward the Cog, where all the fancy military gear was housed. You had to have a level five clearance just to enter the Cog, and considering that the highest clearance level was six, that was saying a lot. Jack’s team was all given level five clearance, only Jack had six.

Kala walked second to last in the group order and felt like she was wearing a big onesie. Not only were her hands covered with tight-fitting gloves, but the suit covered her feet as well. To top it off, their suits had face hugging hoods currently hanging behind their necks. With no heavy shoes, the four of them hardly made a noise as they walked through the black metal hallways toward their destination.

They reached the double doors of the Cog a few minutes later. The four stood in front of the doors and a holographic wall shot up in front of them like it did for Kala and Derek on the elevator. It scanned each person individually, their profiles rotating in front of them, until they were all cleared for passage.

The black doors silently slid open.

The Cog. Home for every imaginable and unimaginable piece of military gear owned and invented by the government.

Kala knew that one of the head honchos of the whole compound, General Geoffrey Turner, was responsible for it all. He and his partner, General Harry Clifton, started the secret OPS program years ago and were pretty much given free reign to do whatever was needed to protect the country. Kala had never met General Turner, but she had heard stories of his greatness. Turner had been a Seal himself, so Kala always felt a little extra pride that they had once been a part of the same team. General Turner basically scoured the earth for the best and brightest and he was pretty much allowed access to whatever he needed to use for experimentation. The results were astounding, the phase-suit being Turner’s greatest accomplishment so far.