Accelerated Read online

  Novels by Vaughn Heppner

  DOOM STAR SERIES:

  Star Soldier

  Bio-Weapon

  Battle Pod

  Cyborg Assault

  Planet Wrecker

  Star Fortress

  INVASION AMERICA SERIES:

  Invasion: Alaska

  Invasion: California

  Invasion: Colorado

  OTHER SF NOVELS:

  Assault Troopers

  Strontium-90

  Visit www.Vaughnheppner.com for more information.

  Accelerated

  by Vaughn Heppner

  Copyright © 2012 by the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the author.

  -1-

  I was having the nightmare again.

  Iron bands shackled me to a gurney. Fluorescent lights passed above as grim-faced men wheeled me down a corridor. Their shoes scuffled on the tiles and their garlic breath fogged over my face. Straining, I tried to arch my head to see how near I was to the laboratory. There was a loud buzzing noise. I wanted to shout, but the orderlies had stuffed a wadded cloth in my mouth.

  Then a cold, hard feeling built in my gut. No, I told myself. This isn’t going to happen again.

  I struggled so hard I broke out of the dream. A moment of disorientation followed. It was dark where I lay, and the gurney’s dream-wheels had stopped squeaking, although the buzzing continued. I frowned, wondering what had happened to the orderlies. Then I realized I was on my boat, my cabin cruiser, lying on my bunk with a pillow jammed over my head. My bedspread was damp with sweat, the blanket shoved to one side. The one constant was the buzzing. In the nightmare, it had come from the laboratory. Here—

  I sat up. The buzzing came from my security system. Someone was on my boat.

  My heart sped up with adrenalin. Had they found me? After four years of running, of hiding—I’d escaped the terrible facility, the one from my dream that had been a grim reality of inhuman tests.

  The red-glowing numerals of my clock showed it was 12:16 PM, about noon. That couldn’t be a coincidence. They came at me during the height of daylight.

  I slid from my bunk, shoving my legs through a pair of shorts. Then I turned off the alarm. Were Kevlar-armored commandos signaling to one another as they inched toward the door? Were they ready to rush down here, using flash-bang grenades to blind me?

  “Never again,” I whispered.

  I crouched by my bunk, shoving my hand under the mattress. My fingers wrapped around a loaded Browning .45. I yanked it out and flicked off the safety. A round was already in the chamber.

  The Alamo, my cabin cruiser, was docked in San Francisco harbor south of Fisherman’s Wharf. My idea this time had been to hide in the open. That might have been a mistake. I examined my gun. There was a city ordinance against firearms. But that was the least of my concerns as no ordinary prison could hold me for long. Letting them find me was the danger. Letting them take me back to the lab—

  My grip tightened around the gun.

  I exited my cabin, moved silently through a cramped corridor and started up a stairway. I was bare-footed and bare-chested, and I listened, striving to hear any telltale sound that would let me know who had invaded my sanctuary. It was possible tourists had boarded my boat, or kids from another vessel docked at the same pier. I had a Stay Off sign posted in three languages: English, Spanish and Chinese. I could imagine the commandos sneering at the sign, quietly making a quip about it or even tearing it down.

  As my stomach tightened, I slipped through the narrow galley and into the carpeted lounge. There were several portholes with dark curtains in front of them. I had a wet bar, some chairs and a couch. It was comfortable, the most comfortable I’d been in four years. I’d “liberated” a hefty sum of cash to buy the boat outright. Each of my actions toward getting the money and buying the boat had no doubt collectively added up to a mistake.

  I crouched by a chair, aiming my Browning at the door. Shop commandos could wear all the armor they wanted, but it wouldn’t help if I shot them in the face. I’d cover my eyes if the door crashed open. They’d toss in flash-bang grenades first, hoping to disorient me. They would be highly trained, at least as good as the Green Berets of my former A-team in Afghanistan. I’d always known this day would come. I was going to take down as many of those bastards as I could. If I could take them all down, I could run again and find a better place to hide. It was a wild hope. Shop commandos were the best and I’d be going against them at noon.

  A creak sounded by the door that led to the sheltered aft deck outside. My muscles tensed. Then I saw a blot of darkness under the door. It was nearly impossible keeping myself from emptying the magazine through the heavy plastic. I needed aimed shots, however, aimed shots at faces.

  “Don’t let them take you alive,” I whispered to myself.

  Someone tentatively tapped the outside of the door. Was that a trick? It had to be a trick.

  “Gavin,” a woman called. “Gavin Kiel?”

  My chest tightened. The person out there knew my name. They knew I lived here. I’d taken every precaution this time—

  No excuses, I told myself.

  “Gavin,” the woman said, with a hint of desperation.

  I scowled. The voice sounded familiar. How had this woman found me? I wasn’t going to find out crouched here. As I stood, I shook my head. They were playing me. The minute I opened the door, grenades would land at my feet, or they’d fire shock rounds into my chest, trying to knock me down so they could rush in and capture me.

  I could send them a signal by firing a bullet through the door. I raised the gun, but hesitated. I thought I knew the voice from somewhere.

  I crept to a porthole. Slowly, I pulled back a tiny portion of the heavy curtain. It was noon and the sunlight was nearly blinding. I vaguely made out the shape of a woman who looked as if she held something heavy. I mentally berated myself for leaving my sunglasses in my shirt down in the sleeping quarters.

  She tapped at the door again, “Gavin. I need your help.”

  I withdrew my finger from the curtain and ran a forearm across my lips. Was it possible she was alone? I hardly dared believe it. Was I going to have a chance to fix my mistake? Dear God, but I hoped that was true.

  I cleared my throat, then took a combat-shooting stance before the door. “Who is it?” I said.

  “Kay Durant,” she said. “Will you let me in?”

  If commandos waited out there behind her, now was the moment for them to blast down the door. But if she was alone—this didn’t make sense. Kay had worked with them, helping in the experiments on us. Luckily for me, four years ago her conscience had driven her to powering down my cell and unlocking the door.

  “You must run,” she’d told me. She’d given me five thousand euros and a Gerber combat knife. The laboratory had been in Italy outside of Milan.

  I’d been running ever since. Now Kay was outside my door here in San Francisco, pleading for help. If she knew my whereabouts, others surely knew it, too.

  I clicked open the lock, even knowing this could be a trap. I opened the door quickly. Sunlight poured around me, blinding my eyes, but I grabbed for where her wrist should be if she’d raised her hand for another knock. My fingers squeezed flesh, and I heard her say, “oh,” in surprise. It reminded me that I was too strong now. I eased pressure. I didn’t want to break any of her bones. I felt horribly exposed, and I expected shock rounds to thump agai
nst my chest.

  I pulled, and Kay shot past me into the lounge, with her feet drumming on the carpet. Then I glided outside onto the sheltered aft section, with my Browning thrust before me like a spear. I squinted, trying to scan the deck. I’d pump rounds into anything dark, into anything that might indicate black uniforms. Blinding sunlight hammered my eyes. It put purple splotches of pain there and it made my frontal lobe throb as if steel needles stabbed brain tissue. There had been experiments done to me that had felt like this.

  Throwing a forearm across my eyes, I stumbled back into the lounge, slamming the door shut.

  With my head bent, I mastered the pain. Looking around in full sunlight without my sunglasses had been foolish. I knew better. I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. I did it again and sought for calm.

  Something bumped against a chair, a knee maybe. I raised the Browning, aiming at the noise.

  “Please don’t shoot me,” Kay said.

  “Sit down,” I said.

  I heard the rustle of fabric and remembered how Kay used to brush her hands behind her dress, behind her thighs, as she sat in a chair.

  I opened my eyes. The purple color had drained from the spots in my vision. Those were blank areas now. The lounge—my sight filled in everything else around the spots. I tilted my head. Kay sat in a chair, with a small microwave-sized box beside her feet. She kept her feet pressed together and she wore dark slip-on shoes. I noticed they were heelless.

  “Why are you here?” I asked, with my Browning aimed at her.

  Her features were tight as she rubbed her left shoulder. She had long red hair and freckles across the bridge of her nose. Mascara tried to hide the darkness under her eyes. She was unable to conceal their puffiness.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Why aren’t you talking?”

  She tested her left wrist, gingerly moving the fingers. “You nearly tore my arm out,” she said. “You shouldn’t have been able to do that.”

  I stepped away from the door so if anyone blew it down she would be in the line of fire. I had to start thinking.

  Kay was five-five and still slender as a model in her yellow sundress. She had to be in her upper thirties by now. Despite the wear of years, she was still pretty. Her legs were the best part, tanned, trim and smooth. The rest was too bony, highlighted by sharp cheekbones.

  It didn’t look as if she carried any concealed weapons. Maybe she had a gun in the red purse on the box. Maybe she had a detonator in the purse and the box was a bomb, but I doubted it. As far as I knew, they wanted me alive. Besides, Kay didn’t seem hypnotized, drugged or nervous in a suicidal way. I’d dealt with suicide bombers in Afghanistan. If you knew what to look for, a bomber was easy to spot.

  “Do I pass inspection?” Kay asked.

  “Did the Chief send you?”

  “What?” she asked. “No.”

  “How did you find me?”

  “Do you have to keep pointing that gun at me? I’m unarmed. I came here because I need your help.”

  The box could contain tracking gear, unerringly guiding commandos to me. It was the size of a small microwave, with folded brown cardboard sides and loops of tape wrapping it. The tape was the clear type people used in a Post Office. It looked like it had been taped in a hurry, but that might have been done to give Kay a story.

  She crossed her legs and sat back in the chair, watching me, with her gaze darting now and again to the Browning. Those were nice legs. My best friend Dave used to run his hands over them when we went to the beaches of Monte Carlo together. In those days, I’d been in Security. Well, I had been in Security after a fashion. That had all been before the accident that had changed me into what I am now.

  “Maybe this is asking too much,” she said, “but how about a drink?”

  I shifted onto the balls of my feet. A dash down the stairway to the sleeping quarters and I could have my special sunglasses. Then I’d sprint out the door and try to disappear again. Several things gave me pause. One, it was near noon, the worst time for me to be outside. Two, Kay had found me. I wanted to know how. Three, it had been a long time since I’d spoken to someone from my old life other than the few phone calls to Cloud.

  I tried to thumb the safety. The handle of my gun now showed the imprints of my squeezing fingers from a few seconds ago. With a grunt, I forced the safety with my thumb, and it clicked into place. I’d need a new gun soon, but I wasn’t going to worry about it this instant. I slid the Browning between the bands of my shorts so the gun was cold against my skin. Three steps brought me to the wet bar where I checked the bottles. Smirnoff on the rocks minus the cubes, I remembered.

  With a tentative smile, Kay accepted the glass. Her hand shook as she sipped. “I know you’re surprised to see me,” she said. “I debated a long time before coming here. Just to let you know and to put you at ease, I don’t work for the Shop anymore.”

  “You’re on the run like me?” I asked, surprised. If they had discovered she’d let me out of their cage, I’d assumed they would put a bullet between her eyes. I remember urging her to come away with me that night.

  “I left,” Kay said. “I walked away from the Shop.”

  “Do you know how many people have wished they could do that?” I asked. “Now tell me something true.”

  “It is the truth,” she said. “There was a change in policy three years ago. It came from the highest levels. Doctor Cheng, Doctor Harris and the others, they were released. So were those who…who tested them.”

  “There’s a nice word,” I said. “Tested.”

  “Those were bad times,” she said, looking down as if ashamed.

  “Kay, why are you here? This doesn’t make sense. If you don’t start answering quickly, I’m going to assume you’re stalling and the Chief’s men are on the way. In case you’re wondering, I’ll do anything to keep out of their hands. I’m never going back.”

  She grew pale as I talked. “It was a bad time, and they did evil things. They did the worst experiments on you.”

  “Why? Why did they pick on me?”

  She stared at me.

  “Kay,” I said.

  She gave a little start. Was she drugged? “You…you were a soldier. The others were scientists.”

  “Try again,” I said. “It’s harder to find people who could do what I once did than finding more scientists.”

  “You weren’t always this cocky,” Kay said.

  “Quit evading the question,” I said.

  Her gaze slid away from mine. “The Chief,” she said quietly, “he feared you more than the others and therefore he considered you expendable.”

  That sounded about right.

  “Gavin,” she said, speaking louder, “I don’t have much time.”

  “Before we go into that, I want to know how you found me. Who else knows I’m here?”

  “It wasn’t the Shop,” she said. “So you don’t have to worry about them.”

  “Just spit it out,” I said.

  “Doctor Harris, he found you.”

  “What? How? And why would Harris be looking for me?”

  Kay uncrossed her legs and set the glass beside her purse on the box. With her hands folded, she leaned toward me. She gave me an earnest look, and it might have been genuine.

  “About a year after you escaped, there was a change of policy at the highest level. The Chief had done something to anger very important people. I think there was a review concerning Cheng, Harris and the others, and there was pressure from the American State Department.”

  “You expect me to believe that?” I asked.

  “The Americans put new safeguards in place,” Kay said. “It was a political thing. Cheng went to work for Polarity Magnetics soon after.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The name of a research company linked to the Pentagon.”

  “What does Polarity Magnetics have to do with me?”

  “Will you let me finish? Quit being so paranoid.”

  I glance
d at the door. “You talk about a change in policy, but I’ve been hunted on three different continents. There’s never been any change in that. Shop commandos almost got me the last time.”

  “There was a change. It happened just as I said. But you know the Chief. He worked overtime and regained much of his lost authority.”

  My neck burned hearing that. It felt as if a sniper’s crosshairs were targeting me.

  “And you killed people,” Kay said. “You were supposed to slip away from the Reservation, not shove a knive into them.”

  “The Reservation” was the Shop name for the laboratory facility near Milan.

  “They used big spotlights on me,” I said, “and they fired these blue beams. I had to take them out before they recaptured me.”

  “Those guards were Shop personnel, and you know what that means. If it’s any consolation, I’ve heard the Chief wants everyone back on the Reservation. But first he has to—”

  “Time’s up,” I said, standing. The heat on the back of my neck had become too hot. I could feel someone out there watching my boat. The desire to flee was becoming overpowering.

  “This is about Dave,” Kay said in a rush. “I need your help because I think I can save him.”

  That stopped me. “Dave is alive?”

  “…if you can call it that.”

  “He’s the same?”

  Kay nodded somberly.

  Once, when everyone had been normal, Kay had been in charge of certain tests at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. People used to think those tests would end the world by accidentally creating a black hole or opening a way into a different dimension, with Stephen King monsters waiting on the other side. There had been an accident all right—one that nobody could have foreseen—but the world was still here. Dave had taken the brunt of the exposure, and it had changed him more than it had changed the rest of us.

  “I’ve been trying to bring him back,” Kay said.

  “How is that even possible?”

  “The few times Dave phases in he moans as if he’s trying to speak, trying to wake up. Doctor Cheng believes he’s been communing with others and now he’s trying to warn us of the things he’s learned.”