Scarlet Angel
Authors: C. A. Wilke
Tags: #scifi, #adventure, #murder, #action, #guns, #revenge, #science fiction, #space, #woman, #technology, #tech, #strong female
Scarlet Angel
By C. A. Wilke
This is a work of fiction. Characters and events are
either entirely the imagination of the author or are alternative
histories and alternative personas that are used fictitiously.
Scarlet Angel
C. A. Wilke
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2014
All rights reserved.
Editing by:
Bev Gelfand
at WomanWithARedPen.com
Printed in the United States of America
Books Available from C. A. Wilke
Twisted Nightmares (Contributing Author as
Christopher Wilke)
Twisted History (Contributing Author as Christopher
Wilke)
Find C. A. Wilke at WriterWilke.com
Contents
Chapter 38:
Thirty-Four Percent
Dedication
First and foremost, I have to dedicate this book to
my amazing wife. For so many years she listened and put up with my
half-baked stories and ideas. It was only at her prodding that I
finally decided to take the plunge and actually do this. Her
support and patience has been invaluable and absolutely priceless.
I could not have done it with out her.
Second, I have to thank and give credit to my
critiquing group. Andrew, Cam, Michael and all of the other members
of the Central Phoenix Writing Workshop have been responsible for
me growing as a writer. They have given me the most valuable piece
of advice that I could ever give a budding author: Find a critique
group and seek the harshest most brutal criticism. It will hurt,
and you will suck. But it will be SO worth it.
Chapter 1
A Magic Trick
Getting a second chance at life is not all it’s
cracked up to be.
* * *
Scarlett’s vision went dark. She didn’t like not
being able to see.
Cash tied the blindfold tight and took her hand.
“Now, you’re not going to try an’ peek, are you?”
She tweaked the corner of her mouth in a smirk. “No.
What is this all about, anyway?”
He tugged at her hand to get her to stand. Scarlett
heard the smile in his voice. “Emma and Ruby want to surprise
you.’
She didn’t bother asking any more questions. She
knew he’d just be evasive. That was one thing he was good at,
keeping secrets.
Cash pulled her along through the living room. He
guided her away from the floral slipcovered couch and around the
oak coffee table. In her mind, she saw her feet shuffling over the
cream berber carpet, just missing the sharp wood corner.
Scarlett turned her head and saw the trickles of
light filter through the fabric in blurry sparkles. Cash pulled her
to the right and her feet shimmied onto the hardwood floor. From
there, it was a straight shot into the dining room.
Gentle tugs nudged her closer to where she knew the
cherry stained table was. A chair touched the backs of her knees
and she sat down. Light no longer filtered in between the threads
of her blindfold and she heard the whispers of children struggling
to stay quiet. “Before I remove this blindfold, you have to promise
you won’t be mad.”
Scarlett tilted her head and turned to his voice.
“Why? Cash? What did you do? Emma? I know you’re here. What did he
do?”
The whispers morphed into giggles.
“
Promise.”
Scarlett pinched her lips tight and sighed through
her nose. “Fine. Promise.”
To her left small hands clapped softly, quickly
followed by a “shush” as Cash fumbled with the blindfold.
Emma’s voice cut through the darkness. “Really Cash?
Can’t undo your own knot?”
“
Oh, hush you. I didn’t want it to
fall off.”
A second later Scarlett felt the knot loosen. The
scarf fell away.
In front of her sat a large white cake. In
chocolate-brown letters were her name and an even bigger “5.” Five
small, unlit candles surrounded the number.
She looked up from the birthday cake, already
feeling her eyes swell.
Ruby’s dining room was not large. The cherry china
cabinet on the far wall and the buffet to her right left little
space for the people crowded in the room. All of her friends and
family surrounded the table, including Cash’s wife Emma, their two
kids and his mother Ruby. A few other friends she’d met through her
work at the dojo were there as well, nearly a dozen people in
all.
Scarlett craned her neck around to look at the man
she considered her brother. “Cash, what the heck is this?”
He smiled down at her. “Five years ago today, my
mother pulled you from the bank of the river. It hasn’t been easy
for you, starting a new life. I know my mother thinks of you as her
own daughter, and I cannot imagine being closer to a sister than I
am with you. You’re a fantastic aunt and a helluva sensei.”
Cash strolled over and put his arm around his wife.
“On that day, mom didn’t just save you. She brought a new member
into our family. You’ve brought joy into our lives. So happy fifth
birthday, Scarlett.”
The room erupted with cheers and clapping hands.
Little Ethan even stuck two fingers in his mouth and let out a
shrill whistle. His mother shot him a disapproving glance.
Scarlett sniffled and struggled against the wetness
forming at the corners of her eyes. As she scanned the room and the
faces of her friends and family, the lump in her throat grew
tighter and tighter. She sniffled again and a salty bead of water
trickled down her cheek to her jaw.
Her soft smile broadened into a face-wide grin. More
droplets followed the first until both her cheeks were wet and
tears of joy dripped from her chin.
When the noise died down, she wiped her eyes and
cheeks. “Thank you all. You guys have been such a great family. I
still have no idea what happened to me or what my life was like
before. But, in a way, it doesn’t matter. You’ve brought me into
your homes and your lives. Given me a job and a life. You’ve helped
me become a part of this community. Thank you.”
Another brief round of clapping ensued. “But...” She
raised one finger and waited for quiet. Her smile faded and she
looked serious. “But... I think you guys missed something.”
Cash’s brow wrinkled. He and Emma exchanged glances
then looked back at Scarlett. “What?”
“
You forgot to light the candles.”
Scarlett’s face broke into a smile.
Everyone chuckled. Cash’s four-year-old Sofie piped
above the rest with her squeaky voice. “Ethan... Ethan want’s t’ do
it.... Ethan’s got a trick!”
Emma smiled at her daughter and looked up at
Scarlett. “It’s true... Ethan’s been working on this magic trick
all week.”
“
Well then. Don’t let me stop
you.”
Sofie turned to her brother and tugged at his
sleeve. “Ethan…do the trick Ethan! Do the trick!”
The eight-year-old stood and pulled a black plastic
wand out of his pocket. He tried not to smile but the corners of
his mouth turned up to spite him. The boy cleared his throat and
held his hands over the cake.
The room grew silent. Ethan waved his hands back and
forth over the candles in his best great magician impression.
“Abracadabra... Lightus Upis!”
Scarlett watched the cake with rapt attention. For a
long moment, nothing happened. Ethan looked at his father, his eyes
wide with disappointment.
“
Try again, Ethan.” Cash nodded
for emphasis.
The boy repeated the words. Scarlett grinned at the
boy’s best effort at a commanding voice.
At first, nothing happened. Just as the boy turned
to his father again, the candles burst into flame.
The ring of candles turned and flashed brighter,
exploding in Scarlett’s face. Wind rushed in her ears. She closed
her eyes and flung her arms up to shield her face, but there was no
heat.
Then the light vanished. When Scarlett opened her
eyes, she was no longer sitting at the table. She was not even in
Ruby’s house. Scarlett was in a large, dark room littered with
computers and people in suits and labcoats. She glanced down at her
own labcoat and the Universal Dynamics logo embroidered over her
left breast.
The floor sloped down to a massive window. What she
saw on the other side of the window made her heart stop. Three
horizontal spires of metal, silicon and wires were aimed at a fixed
point a few dozen feet away. The spires pulsated with lights
blinking in time with each other.
Blue sparks flittered along their lengths, leaping
off the spire and curving back to it. The energy gathered into
glowing balls of blue-white light at the tips. The air itself felt
electric, as if she might get a shock just from breathing. The
energy balls grew until they were a couple feet across.
Everything was quiet except for a whine in
Scarlett’s ears. She blinked and the spires released their energy.
Thick beams of light shot out from each piece.
Where the beams met, space itself began to distort.
Like looking through a sphere of water, the area began to ripple.
The center of the sphere, where the beams met, throbbed with a
brilliant blue glow.
The glow grew into a ring and spread outward. Inside
the ring, Scarlett saw only black. Somewhere in the distance,
someone yelled. “Increasing power to seventy-five percent.”
The ring grew larger, until it was a dozen feet
across. No longer was the darkness inside the ring pure black. Tiny
speckles of white, pink and light blue dotted the space.
Then the realization hit her. That actually was
space.
A wave of terror flooded through Scarlett. Without
knowing why, her eyes were drawn away from the hole into deep space
and back to the blue sparks. She knew the bolts of energy were part
of the process, they were expected.
One of the sparks leaped off the spire and licked
the glass window. A small, black scorch mark of melted glass
remained. Scarlett felt the world around her shrink. All of her
perception focused in on the spires and the energy they were
funneling to the wormhole.