Chapter 11 snippet (new writing)

Kate stretched on her couch, the book in her hands feeling heavy. It had taken her two years of searching to find a printed version, and she had spent a month’s pay to get it. However, now that she had it, she found it enjoyable to read.

Feeling the leather cover and the archaic paper under her hands, she smiled to herself. Poe always had a unique vision about the world, she reflected. While some would say his writing was disturbing, she found it to reflect the realities of the world. For how disturbing would the average Alliance citizen find the events that had unfolded?

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,” she read to herself. “Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,”

She settled down and continued to read Poe’s classic ‘The Raven.’ As she progressed, she could feel a certain connection to the author. Suffering from his loss, she mused; he mourned himself to death. Something that she knew she would’ve done over her life if she hadn’t been thrust into Intelligence work.

As much as I hated it, she thought. It was the one thing that kept me alive after losing so much of my body.

Yawning, she felt her eyes start to grow heaving. When was the last time she had slept? Over a day ago, she told herself, maybe longer. Maybe the best thing to do would be to read a bit longer and then take a nap.

Reading her book, her eyes fell shut before she knew what hit her. Falling to the deck, her book closed itself.

###

Anderson looked at the plot as they closed on the base. Gritting his teeth at it, he resisted the urge to slam a fist down. Almir had already left, he told himself, probably hours, or even minutes, before they arrived. Damn it to hell, what did he have to do to catch her?

“Tactical doesn’t report any ships within range, sir,” Bradford said.

“I can see that,” he spat. “Get a team down to the base. I want to know what they’ve found.”

“Yes, sir,”

Anderson sat down heavily in his command chair. This couldn’t be happening, he told himself, could it? Almir finding herself in the middle of another of their plans was getting old. He could understand why his superiors were so determined to see her dead. If she had died back on Ireland, like she should have, then they would already had accomplished what they wanted.

The woman just keeps on living, he snorted. She can’t be human!

“A landing team is in transit,” Bradford said. “They will be onsite in half an hour.”

Tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair, Anderson knew the time couldn’t go by fast enough.