The Crystal Bridge (The Lost Shards Book 1) (4 page)

“And what if I say no?”

Mike leaned down close and whispered, glancing once at the one way mirror. “This is going to be the most amazing job you’ve ever had, believe me. But if you turn back now, you’re out for good. You don’t get to know anything more. You don’t get to see anything more. You never get to talk about any of this with anyone. This complex doesn’t exist, BOCS doesn’t exist, your friend, Mike, is working in remote parts of Asia. You don’t want to do that, do you?”

“So much secrecy. What have you gotten me into?”

“I saved you from that coffee shop. But, really, your book is what got them interested in you,
Prehistoric Genetics, Unlocking the Code
.”

James rolled his eyes.

Mike nodded. “I know, I know. Laughed at by the scientific community, but only because it’s way ahead of anyone else. They’re calling you a prodigy here. They would’ve brought you in with or without me. I did you a favor by providing a friendly face and all.”

James stared hard at the floor. He didn’t like the install idea, but he had to know more. After a long moment passed, he looked up. “Can you show me this BOCS thing first?”

“I’ll have to check.”

A beep came from a speaker above them and then a woman’s voice filled the room. “Mike, Dr. Iverson is authorized to see the BOCS before making a decision on his neural interface.”

“Thank you, computer, even though I already knew that.”

James laughed. “Computer? That wasn’t creepy at all.”

“More obnoxious than creepy. Aren’t you, computer?”

“Yes, Mike.”

“See, even she knows it.”

James smiled. Mike always made even the worst situations more fun. “Let’s go see this boxy thing already. You’ve been going on about it enough.”

Mike stuck out a hand once more to help his friend to his feet. “You’ll love it and you’ll understand why you’re here. Come on, buddy. Let’s show you the real wonder at the bottom of this odd rabbit hole.”

James held out the suit Mike pulled from a locker.
Who ever thought of a white wet suit? So shiny too.
He peeked inside and found the matte black interior he expected. The fabric slipped on easily and James tried on the matching gloves, hood, and booties. The hood resembled a Mexican wrestler’s mask with holes for his eyes, nostrils, and mouth.

James stretched and twisted inside the suit, the comfort surprising him. James had been diving a few times and found wet suits constricting and cumbersome. Even the tight hoodie didn’t leave him feeling as claustrophobic as he’d expected as it molded to the contours of his face.

He finished admiring himself in the full-length mirror and stepped out of his dressing stall. Mike stood waiting and James couldn’t help but laugh at the crazy angelic scuba instructor aspect of it all. “Do I look that ridiculous?”

“Yes, even more so, since you put it on backward.”

“What?” James looked down at his white clad stomach and legs. “I put the zipper in the back.”

Mike laughed. “Gotcha. You look fine.”

“Very funny. So, we going swimming in this BOCS thing?”

Mike shook his head. “It’s not a wet suit.” His eyes flashed from the shadowed holes in his hood. “You’ll see. Come on, you’re gonna love this. Seriously, there’s nothing like this anywhere. No drug, no amusement park ride, no anything that can compete with the BOCS.”

James followed Mike through a glass door that led them to a narrow hallway. Halfway through, Mike stopped them both.

Red lights flashed grid patterns up and down the white of their suits. James squinted, but the lasers never came close to his eyes. They then stepped through a very large door into a huge white square room. James would’ve guessed it to be at least ten thousand square feet, maybe more.

“Welcome to the BOCS!” Mike’s voice echoed in the large space, making him sound more commanding than he was in his odd not-a-wetsuit that closely matched the coloring of the walls.

If James squinted, he couldn’t even see Mike a few feet from him. “Nice camo. You even glitter, like the walls.” The walls and floor of the room sparkled as if painted with millions of microscopic diamonds. “Vampire room?” James joked as the giant door closed behind them with a hiss and then the seams disappeared. “Wait, did you see that?”

“Yeah. There’s more to come.”

A gentle hum came from behind the wall where the door had been. James took a step away just to be safe as the other walls took up the same tone. Even the floor vibrated with a hum he could feel in his teeth.

James shot Mike a questioning glance, but Mike had walked away from him while he’d been preoccupied with the door’s vanishing act. Mike stood in the middle of the room with his arms outstretched.

The hum continued to build into a deep, loud buzzing. The sound reminded James of the earthquake drills in elementary school and the odd noise they’d sent over the loudspeakers. He made his way toward his friend. “This place is crazy. What are you doing?”

Mike did a little dance to the thrum in the walls. “There’s no drug like this.”

“So you said. What’s going on?”

Mike ignored the question and shot back several of his own. “What kind of ground do we want? Sand? Rock? Limestone? A mix of those? Or maybe something more organic?”

James thought his friend had finally lost it. “What are you talking about?”

“Just answer the question! What kind of ground do you want in here for our…garden?” Mike laughed like he’d told a joke, seeming madder by the second. James didn’t see why it was funny.

The hum reached a new level, a deafening thrum, deep like thunder, making it difficult for James to think straight. He had to yell over the noise. “Fine! Dark earth, compost, that’s the only stuff for a garden.”
Mike’s lost it and I’m joining him, talking about this like we’ve got a wheelbarrow of the stuff.

“Done!” Mike shouted back. He winked once and the hum vanished.

A dark spot formed beneath Mike’s feet and spread to the edge of the room. James watched as soil rose up around them. A dizzy, springy sensation came with it as tiny green sprouts worked their way out of the soil under his feet and across the newly formed earth. Soon grass swayed all around them in the unexpected breeze.

Mike waved an arm and trees burst up around them, winding out of the earth like something from a time lapse nature show. Hills formed, a mountain came into view in the distance, and sky broke free from the white ceiling.

James reached down, expecting his touch to pass through the tall grass at his feet. His bare hand wrapped around a single blade.
What?
He stared at his fingers.
Where’s my glove?
James looked to the ground around him, but he couldn’t see it anywhere. He’d lost it somewhere in the grass.

“Mike, I think I misplaced my glove.” James wondered what Omegaphil Pharmaceuticals might do to people who lost equipment.

“I told you it wasn’t a wet suit. You still have it on. Those cargo pants and t-shirt aren’t really there either. Once you have the chips you’ll even smell the air in here.” Mike’s face shifted between reverence and pride. “Let’s add a few friends, shall we?”

James looked down and inspected his new wardrobe, not seeing any detectable sign that they weren’t real. He could even feel the tag scratching at the back of his neck inside his t-shirt. A new hum filled the air as he stuck his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants, feeling the woven threads at the bottom that held them together.
Incredible.

The new hum turned out to be insects that buzzed around in lazy swarms, even landing on his arm occasionally with the soft touch of tiny legs, but not biting. Birdsong filled the trees. James watched as a robin flitted out of the forest to catch the buzzing insects.

“Wow, just…wow.”

“You think that’s good, you’ll really like
this
.” Mike waved his arms at the closest grouping of trees and something walked out of the depths. It moved like a predatory cat, but it wasn’t any type of feline James had seen before. Horns stuck out from its goatish cat head and James swore it had a mane of feathers.

Intense awe rose up in James’ stomach as he stared at the creature, tasting sweet and bitter in his mouth. “What is that thing, Mike?”

“That would be my second original creation. I call her Daytha.”

Almost on cue, the creature let loose a loud whoop followed by a string of sounds that were frighteningly close to words. It walked toward them, eyeing them without warmth in its large feline eyes. The mane bristled, spreading out in a mix of colors that danced hypnotically. James stared at the colors, unaware that the creature continued to approach, slow, but relentless.

He managed to wrench his attention from the feather mane and looked the beast in the eyes. It snarled, showing teeth like mini scimitars, but James’ mouth fell open when he truly stared at the Daytha’s eyes. They showed intelligence above any cat he’d ever seen and a scowling hunger he’d never seen in any goat.

“Beauty, isn’t she? I mixed up a few things to make her. Recombinant DNA was always my specialty.”

James didn’t look away from the Daytha, afraid it would advance as soon as he did. “Yeah, I can see that.”

“Don’t look so petrified. She’s not real.” The Daytha vanished without a sound or even a rustle of grass and Mike’s grin vanished with her. He kicked at a holo-pebble, frowning. “Not real at all.”

His grin returned a second later and he winked at James. “Let me show you my first one.” His arms waved again and he mumbled to himself, looking to James like some kind of a sorcerer, weaving spells into reality.

A cloud of birds formed above the same group of trees where the cat-goat had first appeared. The cloud hovered over the trees in swirling patterns. Mike waved his hand and the swarm floated away from the forest toward where they stood. Thousands of birds the size of sparrows swam through the air around each other. James knew not to trust they’d be any type of bird he’d seen before.

Mike cut into James’ thoughts. “They aren’t birds. I know that’s what they look like from here. They’re reptiles.”

One of the lizard birds landed on a stump near them. Its leathery wings folded in as it eyed an insect that crawled across the wood across from it. James watched in awe as the flying lizard pounced on the insect, tiny jaws snapping up the small meal.

“You’ve made little drakes, tiny dragons?” James breathed out in awe, almost a whisper. He’d always loved dragons.
Loved? I obsessed over them
.

Mike dripped evident pride. “That’s what I was going for. They didn’t turn out quite right, pretty much just lizards with bat wings. I couldn’t get the size right and getting them to breathe fire…well, that’s pretty much impossible.”

“That’s what I would have said about all of this.” James fully smiled for the first time in hours as tiny drakes above him attacked insects in midflight, fighting each other for the bigger morsels, wrestling and tumbling in the air. “They’re amazing!”

James stood in silence as Mike waved a few more animals into view. As he continued his sorcerer impressions, a woman stepped from the trees to join them. Her jet black hair reached her waist when the wind didn’t catch it in fluttering tendrils. Her skin was the perfect color of olive, bronze in the sun where it curved. She wore animal skins with symbols painted over every inch and moccasins that gave no sound of her footsteps.

James smiled larger and stared, entranced, as she stepped up next to him with a pleasant smile of her own. He looked at Mike, who was still waving his arms, and asked, “Did you do this as well? She’s beautiful!”

Mike looked up, surprised, and made a coughing, choking sound that turned into a laugh. “James, let me introduce you to the director of Section Six, Dr. Reed.”