Free Absolute Power (Book 1): Origins by Grayson Queen Page A

driving.  For a while, he scrutinized her in the rear view mirror.
    “Anne G is it?”  He asked.
    “They call me Angie,” her accent was more apparent amongst the Americans.  “It’s easier.”
    “George here has been telling me about you,” Porter said.  “He thinks you've been running around fending off soldiers single handed.”
    “I used my gifts the best I could,” she answered straight-faced.
    “Then you've killed men?”
    “Yes.”
    “A lot of them?”
    “Yes,” she answered again, “only the ones who hurt people.”
    “Are you angry about your parents?”
    Anne Marie shifted in her seat and stared out the window.
    “Angie, are you angry at the people who killed your parents?”  Porter asked forcefully.
    Looking at Porter through the rearview mirror, she answered, “I'm angry at everyone who would do such a thing.”
    Porter looked at Deacon-Slater, who was a little too smug for his taste.  “Where we're going we'll train you how to protect innocent people and stop the ones who hurt them.”
    “Good,” Anne Marie said.
    “How are you planning on transferring her to the States?”  Deacon-Slater asked.
    “That was easy,” Porter replied.  “I adopted her.”
    Deacon-Slater laughed, “If you think having a teenage daughter is easy, then you have another thing coming.”
     
2000, Nebraska
     
    Henry Schreier was disturbed by the amount of clutter scattered around the office.  Doctor Stein didn't seem to be bothered.  To Henry, it was a bad sign.
    “Please, take a seat,” Doctor Stein said as he picked a magazine up off the only other available place to sit.  Stein sat in his worn leather chair and moved a stack of paper so he could see Henry.  “I'm so glad you could come, Doctor Schreier.”
    “Henry, is fine,” he replied in a German accent.
    “Then please call me Victor,” Doctor Stein said then paused for a moment.
    Henry shifted awkwardly.
    “Uh, most people make a joke about now,” Doctor Stein explained.
    “Oh,” Henry said not understanding.
    “My middle name is Franklin,” Doctor Stein replied embarrassed.  “Victor Franklin Stein…  Victor Frankenstein…  Like in the book…  Anyway, the reason I invited you here was because of that paper you wrote.”  He dug through the mess on his desk and pulled out a sheet.  “Your ideas on mapping synaptic impulses and motor functions are... Well, right up our alley.”
    “You know that it is all edge theory,” Henry informed him.
    “Henry,” Doctor Stein changed to a more serious tone.  “Do you know what this place is?”
    To be honest, he wasn't exactly sure.  An invitation to meet Doctor Stein, all expenses paid, had reached him in Germany a few days ago.  Typically, Henry would have ignored it, but he hadn't been working on anything important.  He was also a bit surprised that a high-end research company would have a location in the middle of nowhere.  But he was more surprised when the car pulled up to the facility.
    Reliant Dynamic Science was housed in a renovated mansion in the middle of an empty plot of land.  It was all grass and sky as far as the eye could see.  The house must have been over a hundred years old.  The facade and architecture had been kept perfectly intact.  But inside, the house was lined with power and data cables.  The rooms were an amalgamation of hot labs and parlors.  Doctor Stein's office was no different, with a computer terminal built into an antique bookshelf.
    “From what I have seen, something top secret and advanced,” Henry answered.
    “We work solely in, as you phrased it, edge science,” Doctor Stein told him.
    For the first time since Henry met the disheveled little man, he was intrigued.  Sitting forward he said, “You want to fund this project?”
    “Yes and no,” Doctor Stein said.  He clenched his jaw as he tried to work out the best way to word his explanation without giving anything away.  “We have a project that could benefit from