Page 65 of Red Zone Awakened

“You have a problem with violence,” he told her.

“Only since I met you.”Keiko pointed a finger at him.“Don’t ever touch me like that again.”

“Don’t worry, I’m really attached to my dick and want to keep it in one piece.It does most of my thinking for me.”

For a second, it looked like she might smile, and then she began pacing again.“Start at the beginning.Tell me everything.And I mean all of it.”

“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know as long as you stop pacing.You’re making me dizzy.Wait.Is there anything in this room that records?Is this conversation secure?”Damn it, he was completely out of his depth in this tech-ridden world.He should have asked her that before sharing any secrets they couldn’t afford to get out.

Keiko let out an irritated huff and stomped over to the nearest panel, where she did that connection thing with her magic fingernails.“There’s nothing online.If there was something that worked on Wi-Fi, it would be jammed anyway, but there’s nothing built in.My guess is this room’s used by staff who’re too low level to monitor.It’s safe to talk.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure.But if you’re so worried, why don’t you check for yourself?Just press your hand to the panel and access the controls.”

And just when he’d thought the night couldn’t get any worse for him, it had.

Mace ran a hand through his hair and considered his options.There weren’t any.If he was going to come clean, it might as well be about everything.“I can’t access it.I don’t have any implants.”

The alarm blared in the background as she gaped at him.“But your accent’s Texan, which means you grew up in the Northern Territory, and everyone here’s given an implant at birth.Even if you were born elsewhere, you’d have received an implant when you came to the territory.It’s compulsory.”

He squirmed, making his sore balls ache.“That’s the thing.I didn’t grow up in the Northern Territory.I grew up in the United States of America.”

Her eyes widened, and she appeared frozen to the spot.Which was fine because the spot was on the other side of the room from his bruised balls.“There hasn’t been a United States since the Technology War.”

“I know.I fought in it.”

Keiko’s hands began to shake, and then she burst out laughing.It verged on hysterical.When she was finished, she wiped her eyes.“Are you telling me you fought in a war that ended over a hundred years ago?”

Mace shrugged.“What can I say?I look good for my age.”

“I need a drink.”She crossed to the drinks counter, and Mace kept an eye on her just in case she reached for the few remaining mugs.

“I don’t think you’ll find any alcohol in there.”

She grabbed a bottle of water and lobbed one at him.He snatched it out of the air, unscrewed the top, and drank deeply.

Keiko took her water and sat in the chair opposite his.“Okay.Talk.”

“Long story short, I was a US Army Ranger fighting on the southern front, at the border of Mexico, when the anti-implant side of the conflict was pushing into North America.We were losing the battle, and it looked like they were going to take over the country and make implants illegal.The US panicked and dropped an experimental weapon to end the war, much like they did to end the Second World War.”

“I know this part.”She sipped her water.“They dropped the bomb that caused the Red Zone.They thought the poisonous gas would dissipate in a year or two, but it didn’t, and now nobody knows what to do with that area because the scientists who designed the bomb are dead.What’s this got to do with you?”

Mace kept his face blank.“I was in the Red Zone when the bomb dropped.”

She shook her head.“That isn’t possible.Not only did the government clear out all personnel before dropping the bomb, but everything even vaguely biological died in the blast.”

“Not everything.”He tossed the soggy ice pack onto the floor.“My team was in a cave system in Mexico at the time.We got a five-minute warning before the bomb dropped.Nowhere near enough time to clear the area.All we could do was wait to die.”There was no explaining what those five minutes felt like.He’d held his sister and prayed for her safety.Then he’d told his best friend he’d see him on the other side, never imagining the other side would be a hundred years later in a world he didn’t understand.

“What happened?”Keiko’s soft voice brought him back to the present.

“The bomb fell.We were knocked out.But we didn’t die—obviously.Best we can guess, the chemicals in the bomb and the unique combination of minerals in the rock merged to produce a different reaction within the closed cave system.Instead of killing us, it put us to sleep for a century, and when we woke, we found ourselves alone in the caves.All the animals who’d taken refuge there during the fighting were gone.

“At first, we thought they’d died, but then we realized we’d absorbed them.Our DNA had sucked in the DNA of whatever animal was closest to us at the time.And we’d become something else.”

Her eyes flickered as though she were chasing her thoughts around the air in front of her.“That’s why your hearing’s enhanced.It isn’t an implant—you hear like a bat, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”