Socket 2 - The Training of Socket Greeny Read Online Free Page A

escorts turned, their motions fluid. The one on the
left, his eyes were down but they cheated a glance back at me.
Their momentum kept them turning, their arms falling toward their
belts and in tandem they unleashed their evolvers. They spun on
their inside heels, pushing their weapon hand at me. Bluish spikes
shot forth and space crackled as they sliced time.
    But I was ready. I gripped the metaphorical
time spark I felt in my belly and stopped time along with them,
leaving Com and the Commander standing still in normal time. I
ignited the evolvers around my hands and deftly parried the tips of
their blunt spikes that would knock the wind out of me for a week.
Fortunately, they did not counterattack. I was at a woeful
disadvantage with my back to the ledge. They retracted their
weapons and stood back at attention.
    We returned to normal time, where Com and the
Commander took another step and turned. I deactivated the weapons
and placed them on my belt.
    “Well done, Commander,” Com said. Half-smile. “Yes.”
    The assassins followed them through the
exit.
    I took a minute to allow my heartbeat to
return to normal before doing the same.
     
     
     
Normal Night Out
     
    The servys watched me idle the black sedan
across the garage and through the illusion of a solid wall into the
outside world.
    The sun was falling below the trees on the
far side of the boulder-strewn field. Behind me, the Garrison’s
rusty cliffs soared hundreds of feet like a sentinel watching over
the world. I stopped the car and let the remains of daylight fall
on my face. The breeze rushed through open windows with scents of
bending grass and fallen leaves.
    The wheels thumped on the underside of the
chassis, folding into the wheel wells and the anti-gravity boosters
whined into action, keeping the car afloat. The car bobbed slightly
off the ground. I twisted the steering wheel, then stomped the
accelerator.
    The car shot forward and the force threw my
head into the seat. The rocky terrain raced under the car. I tapped
the stereo and selected Bongo Monday’s latest hit, Parade on
Me. The bass thumped in my chest. The Garrison cliffs receded
in the rearview screen.
    “To review public policy,” the car’s feminine
voice said, “there is no use of anti-gravity boosters off the
Garrison’s premise. There is no—”
    I turned the music up until my eardrums
throbbed and turned the wheel until the car tilted on its side,
carving the air in a deep right turn. Lookits, the small silver
balls used world-wide for surveillance, tried to keep up, their
eyelights watching, reporting back to the Garrison. I yanked the
car left and soared to the other side. I’d flown these cars
hundreds of times in the simulated training rooms, but there was
nothing like the real thing. Besides, simulations didn’t have music
systems.
    I reached the end of the field and slowed
onto a barren road that entered the dense forest. I tapped the
music down.
    “To repeat,” the car said, “you will drive
responsibly while in public. Obey all laws. Do not engage any
automobile functions that are not available to the public. You are
due back by sunrise. It is recommended that you get back to your
house by 2 AM at the very latest.”
    “Yessss, ma’am.”
    A large wormhole bubble warped the space at
the end of the road, swirling with blue colors. The wheels touched
on the ground and the road bounced below. The first time through a
wormhole was like walking through Niagara Falls. Now it was more
like getting steamrolled. Still not pleasant.
    I came out the other side thousands of miles
away from the Garrison. The exit was on a deserted road in the
country. Dusky light filtered through the South Carolina oaks where
the air was humid and the rules changed.
    Be normal .
     
    Chute and I never lost touch when training
started. I went home a lot in the beginning. When I couldn’t go
home, we met in virtualmode. And when that didn’t work, we talked
on the nojakk, sometimes until the