Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten Read Online Free Page A

hand, “why come to us and not the Integrated Corporate Board of Directors?  I mean, they have a military, they have security, and they have trillions and trillions of exchange units to burn on a mission such as this, why come to us when they could’ve gone to the government?
    “I don’t like this at all, Flavia.”  He was nodding emphatically.
    Her answer was simple.  “Secrecy, my dear, the government lacks the ability to keep things quiet, whereas, we… well; we’re specialists at making things disappear.”
    “Oh, I’m sure the Board has its secrets,” countered Estefan.  They did… this he knew, because a good majority of them were involved the Synod itself.  Flavia knew better than to be so naïve.  Their children had infiltrated the governing body of the Sixteen Worlds ages ago.
    She changed lanes quickly, sliding around slower moving traffic, calm, collected, though they were hurtling down the highway.  They had nearly reached the agricultural center of the city where the old Metro District of Los Angeles, the Staples Center, LA Live and so much more had once stood.  All of that was now three thousand feet above their heads, carefully reconstructed, brick by proverbial brick – on the second tier of the megalopolis.  Only six or seven minutes had passed.  The trip would’ve taken them just under an hour back when he was kid growing up in Southern California.  Already he could see the humungous processing plants and the forest of twenty-five hundred foot silos that seemed to make the mountains surrounding the Great Basin small, almost hill-ish.
    “They’d want to mass produce the Shadow Spark, Eff, and that would be playing directly into the hands of those who’d stop at nothing to get ahold of such technology, especially this Destro-dude Dr. Ahmed was talking about.”
    He raised his eyebrows.  No one ever said Flavia was stupid , he thought.  Only Celestes would want to keep something that manipulated their Mutations out of mainstream society.  The people Dr. Ahmed Carlos Ball represented knew this…
    Well, at least something in this whole fucked up mess made sense.
    He saw it then, a sleek, dark colored Glide-car, keeping pace with them, about one hundred and fifty meters back, two lanes to their right.  It was one of those extra-long jobs, the sort concealing…
    …Ah crap, heavy weapons!
    “We have a tail,” he announced gravely.
    “Saw it already,” replied Flavia, “Running its’ signature through the city grid.  Seeing that it’s technically still our grid, we find out who these bastards are.”
    Estefan glanced around, noticing night was fast approaching.  Already the light about them had diminished considerably, only the running lights demarking the lane boundaries and the lights of the other Glide-cars, -trucks and -transports illuminated their way.  The giant fields of produce and grain were disappearing before his eyes.
    “Cut our lights, override the safety protocols in the highway and get us the fuck up to the top level of the highway,” commanded Estefan.
    Beside him, Flavia blinked rapidly, her vision switching to thermal as she catapulted the vehicle upward, pushing passed 350kph.  They were gone as if they had never existed in the first place.
    Access to the grid they had built proved vital once again, especially since they’d come to Angel Free Town alone.  Their usual, multi-layered security cordon they’d left on the surface of the Moon. ow How
     
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~ Chapter 2 ~
    (Earth Summer – 2385)
     
    The Fermonist
     
    They had just reached level twelve, snaking between a huge flatbed-Glider and a municipal Glide-bus, when Flavia said: “Negative on the signature.  The damned car isn’t registered in Ang el Free Town.  It’s here without proper I-Dent.”  The fact she could pay attention to her Neuro-Nanoswarm and not cause an accident was the stuff of a master-driver.
    “Interesting,” muttered the Heavy.