Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 54208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 271(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 271(@200wpm)___ 217(@250wpm)___ 181(@300wpm)
After a flurry of gunfire, a male voice called, “Hawking Winther, you can take these back to your company now.”
They knew his name? “What? Who are you?” Hawking looked around the crane to see bodies scattered across the area and six men standing in a semi-circle around his position.
“Come on out.”
Shaking his head, Hawking took a chance and stepped away from his cover. While his hands were up, he held his gun ready.
“Your mom’s treatment is funded. You have other things to do besides go to jail or get killed here.” The man walked forward and handed him a round token. “This is a marker. We’ll need your experience in the future.”
The men turned to go, leaving Hawking gawking after them as they merged into the shadows. He shouted after them, “I don’t get it. You’ve saved me and my mom, and I just owe you a favor?”
“You’ll owe more than that,” the voice responded from a distance.
Chapter One
“What do you mean my research is flawed?” Celeste stared at the man sitting behind the large desk. She’d never liked the self-inflated supervisor who forced everyone to call him by his PhD title and last name in the casual lab atmosphere.
“It’s common practice to review a sample of the documentation for testing, Celeste. Yours was randomly selected and failed,” Dr. Hughes stated. “The computer review reported concerns, so another scientist examined it. I don’t know what your purpose was in introducing false data, but your research is now canceled, and you are terminated.”
“Canceled?” Celeste could only repeat the word that stood out to her in all the madness her boss spouted. “But Dr. Hughes, I’m on the edge of some very exciting breakthroughs that will allow us to stop cancer cells from multiplying quickly.”
“You can drop the act, Celeste. Your research is a flop, and you’re fired.” He pressed a button, and a large man stepped into the office. “This man will escort you to the lab for you to retrieve your personal effects and then off the grounds. You are not to return. I would not suggest that you use our firm as a reference here in New Zealand or anywhere.”
“Dr. Hughes! I’ve worked here for almost eight years. My research is not flawed. It needs to continue. I’m close to finding a viable way to stop cancer from spreading.”
“Good luck in the future, Celeste.” The administrator looked down at the papers in front of him and ignored her as Celeste stood in front of him.
Pissed beyond thinking straight, she pounded a fist on his desk. “You know there’s nothing wrong with my research. What’s going on here?”
“Thomas? Please deal with this.” Dr. Hughes did not look up as the security guard Celeste said good morning to every day when she arrived took her arm and towed her away from the desk and through the door.
“We can do this the hard way, or you can preserve your dignity,” the guard told her after closing the executive’s door.
“I’ll go get my things,” Celeste said, stiffening her spine.
She walked back to her lab and found her computer gone. Thank goodness she’d saved her work before reporting to the meeting. Doubly saved it, that is. Shrugging off her company lab coat, she grabbed her large purse from under the desk and set it in the chair. Celeste opened the middle drawer and gathered the few things she’d stored inside: Chapstick, hand lotion, pen, blue-tooth external hard drive.
“Wait. You can’t take that.”
Celeste’s heart thudded inside her chest as she tried to look cool. Her fingers clamped on the outer housing of the drive as he reached forward.
“That belongs to the company,” he said sternly as he plucked the company pen from her hand.
When her heart stopped fluttering drastically in her chest, Celeste put the small tech box along with the other things he’d deemed harmless into her tote. The last thing she selected to take was the cute, black cat figurine from the top of her desk. “That’s everything.”
The security guard opened the other drawers and found nothing. “You don’t have any company property in that big purse, do you?”
“I have my phone, wallet, and an emergency pack of tampons. You’re welcome to check,” she said, waving a hand at the bag.
Just as she thought, the mere mention of feminine products made the man back off. She picked up her purse and looped it over her shoulder. Avoiding the curious looks of the other scientists as she followed Thomas out of the lab area, Celeste walked through the doors and didn’t hesitate. She kept placing one foot in front of the other until she reached a park three blocks away.
Heading for a spot where she frequently ate lunch, Celeste ducked behind a hedge to a bench very few people seemed to know existed. She collapsed and dropped her face into her hands. What just happened?