Free The Restoration of Flaws (The Phantom of the Earth Book 5) by Raeden Zen

eyes for but a minute, then fell back to sleep,” Maria said. “Perhaps now’s not the best time.”
    “We’re out of time. Antosha expects us to have the mission protocols complete within days, something I normally take twenty or more days to prepare.” To Oriana, he said, “But you know all about mission protocols, don’t you? You’ve been on, what, a hundred missions, so you know exactly how they work—”
    “Do you think I want this?”
    “I don’t care what you want.” Mintel retrieved a syringe from the medical cart and flicked the top. “He’s waking, and he will talk.”
    He injected the syringe into the vial near Shrader. A glowing green fluid dripped into the tube on his arm, a stimulant, Oriana assumed.
    Pasha should be here, she thought. He’d know how to search the doctor’s mind.
    Shrader opened his eyes.
    “Can you hear me?” Mintel said.
    The doctor nodded.
    “How many fingers do you see?”
    “Two.”
    Mintel adjusted the gurney into a chair. “Do you know who you are?”
    Shrader waved his head back and forth. “I don’t know … who are you?”
    “Damn it,” Mintel said. He moved closer. “We’re scientists, like you, and we want to help you.” He smiled, kindly yet mischievously. “Doctor, tell us everything you remember about your life before you arrived here.”
    Shrader’s heart rate elevated again, and a beeping sound coincided with a flashing yellow light.
    “Aha, this is too soon,” Maria said.
    “Tell us what you remember,” Mintel said.
    “What I remember?”
    “What happened to the Reassortment Strain? How did it escape containment? What do you know about Hengill Laboratory and Hengill Power Plant? What happened during the war—”
    The beeping changed to a siren. Three bots encircled Dr. Shrader, who thrashed side to side.
    “Mintel, this is too much for him,” Oriana said. “Don’t—”
    “Not a word from you.”
    “If we don’t work together, your captain and my brother aren’t going to make it.”
    “You shouldn’t be on this mission.”
    Shrader puked, and the medical bots injected him with fluids.
    “Aha, please, you’ll have to take this discussion outside,” Maria said.
    “What do you remember?” Mintel said.
    “I … don’t … I … don’t know what you want … where … where am I?”
    “The Reassortment Strain.” Mintel raised his voice. “Tell me everything—”
    “I don’t know what that is, I don’t know where I am, I don’t know—”
    “You were there, they froze you. Why’d they freeze you?”
    “Mintel!” Oriana said. “You’re going about this wrong—”
    “Don’t know about a freeze, don’t know who you are, where am … I … I … don’t remember—” Shrader’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he passed out.
    The Janzers burst into the infirmary, their pulse rifles pointed at Oriana and Mintel, who were forced to leave.

ZPF Impulse Wave: Pasha Barão
    Research & Development Department (RDD)
     
    Palaestra, Underground Northeast
     
    2,500 meters deep
     
    “We’ll begin with a twenty-kilometer jog,” Dahlia said, “then you’ll face the Graka training bot.”
    “The Graka …” Pasha said.
    “Training bot,” Dahlia said, as if he should know. “Standard rules, you jog, enter the arena, pin the Graka or it pins you. This is my first evaluation, so I don’t expect any heroics.”
    Wonderful , Pasha thought. O should be here, not me.
    Dahlia led him through the narrow hallways of the Montauk Facility, a maze as complex as any he had encountered during development, through an archway entrance with a golden sign reading MALCOMBE MINZIER TRAINING CENTER.
    “This is the striker-aera training facility,” Dahlia said, “but most of us call it the Hive.”
    She checked Pasha in with the Janzer guards as her shadow. The training center was shaped like a honeycomb. The trainees ran on crystalline treadmills that extended from and moved along the comb’s sea-green walls. The