another sneak peek

todays sneek peak comes from my upcoming novel "Path of Ink"

Charles heard the muffled sounds of an alarm from above. He pushed the specimen tube into the compartment and looked around the room. “Doctor?” he instinctively called out, knowing that Dr. Fredrickson wouldn’t actually be able to hear him. He got up and went into the next room: the main control room and looked up the staircase. Behind him the computer screen was flashing words at him in a foreign text. Despite not being fluent in it, both he and the doctor had learned enough of it to run the system. Flashing in front of him was the word ‘LOCKDOWN’. He wondered what was happening above. They both knew how to activate the lockdown sequence and had practiced it numerous times. Originally a time sequence would be implemented, but they had added an optional code function to the program so that it could be in lock down indefinitely until the code activated it from the outside.

He stood diligently at the screen, waiting for the clock to count down. Anytime they felt the project was at risk, they would set a timer. Dr. Fredrickson had become more skittish in his old age and many a night Charles had sent a message to his wife, telling her to not expect him for days as Dr. Fredrickson had a bad habit of mixing up the word for ‘hours’ and ‘minutes’. His stomach grumbled, knowing he likely wasn’t going to get to have her meatloaf that night.

Sighing, he went back to his work, Dr. Fredrickson still hadn’t inputted a time delay so it was most likely a false alarm. Dr. Fredrickson, once calmed down, would shut off the lockdown sequence at some point. Charles was examining a specimen tube when he heard the sound of a muffled explosion followed by the room shaking slightly. He dropped the specimen tube to the ground. It shattered loudly at his feet but he paid no notice to it. His heart began to race as he ran back to the control room. Again he called out to the doctor. This time his voice was laced with fear.

Charles began to run up the staircase. The room shook with another explosion and he was almost flung from the stairwell. He gripped the railing desperately, not waiting for the shaking to stop. He was halfway up when another explosion rocked the stairwell. He screamed out at the doctor in vain. The temperature increased immensely the higher up he went, forcing him back down the stairwell. Once back at the bottom of the stairs Charles looked at the upper door as another explosion went off. He raced back into the main control room and looked at the screen knowing what to expect. Flashing on it, instead of a countdown timer, were the words, ‘SYSTEM SHUTDOWN’. A single tear slid down his cheek as he knew that the doctor was dead. That he would never seen his daughter grow up and that he only had a few years at most to finish their mission.