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Chapter 38: The Tour, Part 1
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FLUX Chapter 39: The Tour, Part 2
Ellie smiled and bumped shoulders with her. "I've never seen him smile so much."Alex shook her head. "Nah, it's probably just the beer.""Nope, nope. I've known that man a very long time and he can hold his liquor. It's definitely you.""What about Brooke? Didn't she make him happy?"Ellie choked on her sip of beer and spit it back into her glass. "How do you know about that?""You can see it in their faces when they're around each other. And he told me just a little when we were out on the road. How long were they together?""It's kind of hard to say. They dated for a while before he was taken, then a little bit after he came back. He just broke up with her before he left on this trip. So kind of off and on for the last six years."Alex remembered their conversation about the girl he wanted to marry. She still wasn't over him. And now Alex was in the way. She wasn't trying to be, but Jack kept fawning over her and that had to cut Brooke pretty deep."Hey Ellie, you're a scien
FLUX Chapter 40: Back to Work, Part 1
Alex rubbed the sleeping sand out of her eyes. Her head throbbed as if it had been struck by a train. She flapped her arms out with a sigh. Last night was blurred, but not forgotten. She drank a little too much. No. She had been given too much to drink and then interrogated. She felt bad for yelling at Jack, but at least she had not given up her secrets. How could he even try that? That wasn't a way to earn someone's trust.The red numbers of the digital clock read "15:23". She'd been asleep all day. Alex stretched her cramped muscles, feeling lazy, but it felt nice to have some down time. Her next step would be to figure out how to use her new contacts to help find Lexi. There were no leads right now, but maybe they could help, if they weren't too busy interrogating her. Her body ached, but it felt as if it was getting better. Alex rolled up carefully, letting herself fall off the bed on to her feet. She showered and dressed, but took her time since she wasn't sure what to do next.
FLUX Chapter 41: Back to Work, Part 2
Jack had a feeling deep down in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't indigestion or a hangover. It was fear. Fear of what? He was just here flicking up his report on Alex on the flickerboard. Wait, Alex? The Link pulled, it called to him. The fear grew. A flash of a grinning man, one of Jimmy's brutes, popped into his head. He didn't take time to think anymore, he only acted.He jumped from the chair and dashed through Operations almost mowing over three people in the process, sending papers flying and shrieks of dismay in his path. He darted down the hall, past slow walking humans, and around a series of corners, letting the Link reel him in.Jack slid around the corner. Two men lay sprawled out on the floor, one cradling his wrist, and the other his balls. Two more men had been knocked askew and were on their knees in the process of getting back up. He recognized two as the guards posted outside her door. Jack saw Alex over the shoulder of a man holding a knife.?He could feel her fear
FLUX Chapter 42: Back to Work, Part 3
The humans in Operations watched Alex as the party came through the doors. Jack was in front of her, but their eyes drilled through him, almost painfully. She dropped her own eyes as if she was a bad child come to receive punishment. They marched straight through Operations and into a conference room on the other side.Janice waited for them, her arms crossed over her bosom. She leaned back in her chair and gazed over her charges. Jack filed in, then Alex, and finally Jimmy. The rest of the guards stayed outside with the door closed. Alex held the sleeve of her shirt over the gash in her arm."I told you she was dangerous." Jimmy clenched his fists.Janice gave him a look that put him in his place. He hung his head, as if he too, was being scolded."This..." Janice said with meaning, "is unacceptable.""I'm sorry. I will take my belongings and leave. You ca" Alex began, trying to take responsibility."No, this isn't her fault. Sh" Jack took a step forward."She's a hybrid, of co
FLUX Chapter 43: Comfortable, Part 1
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Ellie patched up Alex's arm and wrapped up her wrist. She was so excited to show Alex and Jack the spikes on the monitoring systems. Something about the Link and their actions were "causing the data points to coincide," whatever that meant.Alex sat with her back propped up with pillows on the bed in the room. She didn't really want to call it her room. It wasn't. It was Janice's. Papers lay scattered across the bed. She flipped through the documents the humans had collected on Henry Truex. There was very little evidence of Alex. It looked like she vanished after the age of twenty one. Her file contained a few pictures and arrests from her early years as a human rights activist, but not a single scrap of information on Lexi. Good.She scanned the pages one by one into her memory, trying to find connections that their computers and analysts didn't see. The Truex Research Center showed up a couple of times in money transfers from personal acco
FLUX Chapter 44: Comfortable, Part 2
Jack woke from his dream. He had been chasing something, couldn't remember what. It seemed important. He had been weighted down, something slowing him, like a great big weight on his chest. Oh well, a dream's just a dream.He still felt weighed down. And the air smelled strangely sweet, like honey. Not sugar sweet, but musty sweet. What a strange smell for a room full of men.His hand moved over something soft and silky. Hair? Oh man, how much did he drink last night? If this was Brooke, he would never forgive himself.The room was dark. One of the other men in the room snored soundly. He ran his fingers through the sleeping girl's hair. Her head lay on his chest, a gentle weight. Her breathing steady and quiet. The hair was long and straight to the touch. Please don't be Brooke, please. It didn't smell like Brooke, she was more of a cinnamon smell, or at least she used to be. It had been a long time, maybe she changed perfume or shampoo or whatever it is that made girls smell so good.
FLUX Chapter 45: Comfortable, Part 3
Jack looked her in the eyes. "It's just the Link?"Alex shrugged. She wasn't sure. "Probably. It's like a drug. When I'm around you, I practically feed off it. I crave it. Do you think Ellie can reverse it with a genetic fixer thing?""Might be possible." Jack's hand dropped to her thigh. "But do you really want to fix it?"Her bottom lip trembled as the feeling of fire coursed through her. Alex turned to face him, her knees on either side of his legs now. She planted her hands on the back of the office chair, shifting her weight so that it rocked back. Alex looked down at his smoky blue eyes. Definitely the Link. This wasn't normal. No one could make you feel this good. It was just chemicals messing up her brain. It was a distraction, she needed to get this reversed and quick. But in the meantime-Alex kissed him, letting her tongue slip between his lips. She pressed her chest on to his. Jack's hand slid into the back pocket of her jeans. The other pulled her thigh closer. Their t
FLUX Chapter 46: The Meeting
"We can't just let her keep running free. She's freaking out the population," Jimmy growled."We need to know why she's here," Janice said calmly. "When we figure out what her angle is, we can decide if she is a threat to us.""I'm telling you, she's not like that. She's not malicious. If Alex was here to hurt people, don't you think she would have done it by now? You saw how she handled those ingrates." He shot a look at Jimmy. "She could have killed them, but she didn't. It was self-defense.""Self-defense or not, we have to consider the five thousand other people living here. They don't want a hybrid here. People don't feel safe," Jimmy said."Yes, why is a hybrid living among the humans? Does she think she is so much better than us? She can walk around and lord over us?" Sherry of the department of information distribution said."I find it surprising she doesn't want anything in return," David, the headmaster of education, said, tapping his fingers together as he leaned back i
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