The Red Phoenix 12: Strength Comes in Numbers Read Online Free

looked upon Aldridge, amazed.
     
    “What in Sam’s hell is that?” asked Hart, staring at it with curiosity and fear.
     
    “I don’t know,” Aldridge answered. “But it’s some kind of advanced magical energy.”
     
    “Magical?” asked Heaton. “What do you mean?”
     
    “Watch this,” stated Aldridge as he stared at Dunn’s white lab coat.
     
    The blue mist shot a thin streak of pink lightning at Miles’ lab coat, making it glow for a short time, turning it purple.
     
    “Good hell!” said Miles, looking down at his lab coat in disbelief, holding his arms up.
     
    The mist shot a green bolt of lightning, rotating with pink and purple at Heaton, Dunn and then Hart, until all their lab coats were purple. Dunn and the others did their best to be unafraid as the mysterious phantasm made more whispery sounds that echoed in a soft tone.
     
    “My God, how did it do that?” asked Dunn, astounded at his purple-sleeved arms.
     
    “It changed the color of our lab coats within seconds,” Miles added.
     
    “Amazing,” said Heaton.
     
    “Why does it make those strange echo, whispery sounds?” asked Dunn.
     
    “I don’t know but do you know what the best part is?” asked Aldridge.
     
    “What’s that?” asked Heaton.
     
    “It read my mind,” Aldridge answered. “I imagined all of your lab coats the color of purple.”
     
    “Goodness’ sakes,” stated Miles, drawing his face close to the misty blue apparition, moving his hand through it, adjusting his glasses.
     
    “What does it feel like?” asked Hart.
     
    “It’s nothing more than a vaporish cloud with this light in the middle,” Miles answered. “There’s nothing solid to it at all.”
     
    “Imagine. A form of energy that can change matter at the mere thought of the one that wields it,” said Dunn.
     
    “What do you need from us, Aldridge?” asked Hart, his voice serious like he wanted to talk business.
     
    “For you to be my team of scientists,” Aldridge answered. “You guys are experts in chemical engineering and working with energy.”
     
    “What is it you’re trying to achieve?” asked Hart.
     
    “Anything that will change the world as we know it, grant us the Nobel Prize and plaster our faces on every magazine, TV, and radio show across the globe,” Aldridge answered with ambition gleaming in his eyes. “We are the future of energy in this world, gentlemen.”
     
    “That’s a lot of ambition,” said Dunn.
     
    “I intend to go all the way with this. And I want all of you to stand with me when we go down in history as the greatest scientists ever,” Aldridge replied, full of confidence.
     
    He placed the misty-moving apparition back into the metal chest, closing it up.
     
    “Aldridge, we’re scientists, yes, but we’ve never handled anything the likes of this,” stated Dunn. “Whatever this is it could be centuries ahead of us in terms of technology.”
     
    “True,” Hart added.
     
    “How is it your superiors here at N.A.S.A. allowed you to walk away with this?” asked Heaton. “You discovered this at the crash site on the moon, didn’t you?”
     
    Aldridge was silent. He felt guilty knowing he broke the law and protocol, keeping such a thing from his higher-ups when he knew it should have been reported, documented and released to the proper personnel at N.A.S.A.
     
    “Did you not report this finding on the moon?” asked Miles, sounding concerned, glancing at the others.
     
    Aldridge was still quiet.
     
    “Captain Aldridge? Why didn’t you report this?” asked Hart in disbelief.
     
    “Yes, do explain, sir,” Dunn added, sounding worried.
     
    “What you’re asking is illegal, Aldridge,” stated Heaton.
     
    “It could be a form of power from some dark place in the universe as far as we know,” Miles added.
     
    “Because this is my discovery, gentlemen! Mine and mine alone! I found it! The power belongs to me! There was no way to bring it back on the Apollo Nineteen with