Broken Protocols Read Free Page B

childhood state. It was almost a relief in a way. To have an explanation for this insanity.
    It was either that or she was having a crazy dream. And that was all too possible. Not to mention being a better option.
    She beamed at her cat. “I’m going to wake up soon and this will be just a happy memory.”
    “I wish I was dreaming.” Charmin snorted. “This little room is nice and cozy and all, but where is the couch? I need my nap.”
    “Sleep? You need to sleep?” She shook her head, staring around the tiny closet. “I was trying to get ready to go out on a date.”
    “Yeah, great.” Charmin gave a jaw-splitting yawn before tucking into her shoulder. “Who needs a date? Well, okay, you do, but really, I need my beauty sleep.” And he closed his eyes.
    She stared down at her cat and whispered, “Please let this be a bad dream. And please let me wake up soon and find everything back to normal.”
    “I hope so,” Charmin muttered, “because you forgot to feed me dinner before we time-travelled.”
    At the words time-travelled, she forgot to breathe again. “Don’t say that,” she cried.
    Suddenly, the door opened. The same two men peered in, but the green Mohawk, so large and long, was all she could focus on.
    A scream caught in the back of her throat. But no sound came out.
    “Aha. There you are,” said the owner of the Mohawk, Milo, if she’d gotten the names right. “And who were you talking to?”
    She wanted to fight. Wanted to kick them both in the teeth so hard they’d never eat again. The older brother, Levi, according to what she’d heard – and not Lawrence as she’d initially thought – peered around the green hair. This close, she could see he looked very similar to Lawrence but there was something younger, cleaner about his features. And maybe nicer. Lawrence had gained a seedy look to his cheeks and a perpetual smirk to his eyes.
    As if he was always one up on you.
    Which, in her case, he had been. And if Levi wasn’t Lawrence, she had just smacked a complete stranger.
    Damn.
    She risked a look at Charmin, saw the feline smirk as if to say ‘Uh oh, now you’re in trouble’, and shuddered. In a low voice, she said, “You can bite them in the balls while I run.”
    “Not happening.” And damn if Charmin’s voice didn’t drop low to match hers.
    Levi reached down and yanked her to her feet. She tugged her arm back, climbing out of her hiding spot on her own. She shot him a dark look. “You don’t have to hurt me.”
    He retreated instantly, his hands out in front of him apologetically. “Look, I’m sorry. We’re not going to hurt you. Please. Let’s go sit down and we’ll explain everything.”
    She raised one eyebrow and proceeded to repeat everything she’d heard them say. Their eyebrows shot up. She added, “As you can tell, I can hear just fine. Now I want you to tell me how the hell you’re going to fix this.” She glared at Milo. “I want to go home.”
    Milo jumped forward, his face earnest and proud at the same time. “See, that’s the thing. We can’t. That’s the beauty of this technology. It can’t be reversed.”
    “And that’s beautiful?” she asked ominously, her heart and mind screaming their protests in sync. “How do you figure?”
    While she waited, she realized the men were guiding her into a glass cube she hadn’t noticed in the dark room. She could barely see her surroundings, but it looked like a futuristic type of office with huge wall screens she’d never seen before. And some kind of center console. The screen looked kind of see through and had all those weird colors. She couldn’t tell from her position.
    Once inside, she sank into the deepest corner of the cube to avoid their touch, holding Charmin tight. He was her one link to normalcy. He stared up at her and opened his mouth.
    She slapped a hand over it and glared at him. And realized that if Charmin could talk – there was nothing normal left.
    Trying to process the