Flash Friday: “The Lexus Chamber”
This piece is excerpted from a Science Fiction Romance I’m working on, entitled Dead Men…
Hope you enjoy! As always, please leave comments and let me know what you think!
”The Lexus Chamber” - Excerpted from Dead Men…
copyright 2008 by Esther Mitchell
At the Section docking hanger, Calli powered down her Flitter and unstrapped her helmet as she made her way into the nearly deserted facility. She dropped the helmet on her desk and kept going toward the Lexus Chamber.
“What are you doing back here?”
Calli stopped as Bethanie stepped out of the lab, and her own brows lifted in mock surprise. “I could ask you the same thing.”
Bethanie grinned. “I never left. I’m running a hazardous chemical analysis that’s very sensitive. I can’t leave until it’s done. What’s your excuse?”
“I had a breakthrough.”
“More like a breakdown,” a new voice said, and Calli swung around to glare at Cade accusingly.
“You followed me!”
“Damn straight I did, darlin’. You’re determined to kill yourself.”
“Go to Hell!” She brushed past him to reach the Lexus Chamber. If she was lucky, he wouldn’t follow her. But, of course, she wasn’t that lucky. She could hear his booted feet on the concrete floor behind her. She ignored him, setting up for a direct jack-in that would allow her a straight free-dive into restricted space. She had a name to find, and she didn’t have time to scour the Lexus for a back door.
“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Cade’s hand slapped over the power conduit, keeping her from plugging the jack in.
She jerked back and glared at him again. She sure as hell knew what she was doing, unlike him.
“I’m working.”
“Bullshit, angel. You–”
”Like you’d know.” She straightened then, her breath frozen in her lungs and her eyes wide as what he said finally registered. Angel. “What did you call me?”
He frowned, as if replaying his words in his head, and she swore she caught the flicker of panic in his eyes, if only for an instant.
“Nothing. Calli, you haven’t worked this hard on a case in years, from what I’ve heard.”
Her eyes narrowed. “From who?”
“Your brother. The captain. Hell, everyone.” He gave her a strange look she couldn’t decipher. “They all say you’re a workaholic, but that you’ve never taken a case personally, before.”
She rolled her eyes. “Who says it’s personal?”
“Please. You’ve been ready to go to the wall - Hell, you hacked an Earth Council facility - for this case. I want to know why. What makes this case different?”
She glared at him, even as her suspicion meter pegged out. Just how the hell did he know what she did in her home Lexus Chamber?
