Division Zero: Thrall (70 page)

irsten studied the images of food gliding along above a silver rail, as if they were train cars on a track. Burgers of several shapes and sizes led the way, followed by a few things claiming to be chicken. Something unidentifiable, labeled fish, brought up the end of the chain after some hand-snacks like nuggets or fried pickle chips. Every time she ducked into a CyberBurger, she never failed to wonder at how OmniSoy could taste like so many different things.

Sam Chang rubbed his chin, oblivious to the impatient stare from a Class 1 doll on the far side of the register. The ersatz teen could not help but smile at him, a corporate-polished face that had no range of emotion other than cloying pleasantry. A potbellied man behind them, white button-down shirt marked with years-old coffee stains, stood up on tiptoe to wave over Sam at the doll. Kirsten glanced at the thick, twitching moustache on his face as he searched for the courage to speak. Her eyes fell to a gold nameplate hanging from his coffee-stained pocket with the logo of the Imperial Hotel on it: Milton Swanson – Senior Network Administrator.

“Umm, excuse me…” he whispered, waving the tips of his fingers at Sam’s back. When no one noticed him, he looked at the floor and muttered under his breath. “I’m on lunch break. I only get forty-five minutes for lunch break. I’m going to be late because this man cannot place his order. Why do they only give us forty-five minutes for lunch? I’m the head of the network operations team. I should get more than forty-five minutes for lunch. I’m going to talk to Courtney in HR. This is not acceptable. I should get more than that since I’ve been there for six years now. It’s shameful how they treat their employees. Shameful.”

Kirsten leaned on Sam’s shoulder. “Just pick something, it’s all the same stuff.”

Sam bit his lip. “I can’t decide what flavor milkshake to get.”

She stared into the kitchen, mind lost for a moment, until she remembered something Evan said over a week ago. She winked at him, grinning. “Get strawberry.”

Orders in hand, they each went around Milton on a different side, leaving the mad mumbler free to approach the counter. Sam took a seat, stiff and uncomfortable, at one of the small red plastic tables by the front window. As Kirsten settled down across from him, still smiling, she got into a staring contest with an old man leaning on a broom.

Like an Old West showdown, he dared her to drop one thing on the floor. Bushy eyebrows quivered over narrowing eyes. Just one French fry, I dare you.

“What the hell is his problem?” She looked away, blinking.

Sam barely noticed him. “Sorry, I know this isn’t the kind of place you’re used to going.”

Kirsten suppressed the urge to feel sick at the thought of the ice swan and the man that took her there. She did not feel out of her element in this place. Here, she was just an ordinary young woman out on her first date with an ordinary young man. The elite could go to hell.

She reached across the table to hold his hand. “No, Sam, it’s fine. It’s more than fine. I’m sorry it took me so long to see it.”

He blushed, unable to keep eye contact. “You shouldn’t be sorry; I still can’t believe a girl like you even looked at me twice.”

“You’d be surprised how difficult it’s been finding someone who isn’t a shallow, judgmental prick. You’re a sweet guy, Sam, but I have to do this to you.”

Samuel Chang seemed about to cry.

“I’m psionic.”

He furrowed his brow, eyes shifting left to right. “Umm… yeah. You’re in Division Zero right? Isn’t that like, required?”

Kirsten leaned over the table, pushed his milkshake to the side, and kissed him.

She loved the taste of strawberry.

Many thanks to:

You, for reading Division Zero: Thrall. I hope you enjoyed the ride.

The Curiosity Quills staff for making this book possible.

Erika Galpin, for a wonderful job editing.

Mollie for great proofreading feedback.

Andrew from CQ for putting up with my endless revising.

Alexandria Thompson, for the superb covers.

Born in a little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973,
Matthew
has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey.

Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.

He is also fond of cats.

Now that you have completed this book, we hope you will leave a review so that other readers may benefit from your perspective. Authors like Matthew Cox live and die by your reviews, after all!

Please visit
http://curiosityquills.com/reader-survey/
to share your reading experience with the author of this book!