Lacuna: Demons of the Void Read Free Page A

into the twisting maze of tunnels which resembled, for all intents and purposes, a rabbit warren or the maze in some medieval wizard’s dungeon. Behind her back, the two military personnel exchanged a subtle, questioning, ‘What the hell?’ glance.
    “ 他妈的书呆子 ...”
    “Be nice,” Grégoire implored in a mutter.
    Summer glanced over her shoulder. “Huh?”
    “Nothing,” Liao chirped, giving her best smile. Her heels tapped on the polished linoleum with every step as she squinted slightly in the dimly lit corridor.
    Rowe shrugged it away, fidgeting with something in front of her. Click. Click. Click. Liao saw that it was a ball point pen and the woman was clicking the top button on and off. Every repetition seemed to increase Liao’s blood pressure.
    “We don’t get many other girls in here,” Rowe admitted sheepishly as the group passed a giant trash can overflowing with soft drink cans, pizza boxes, plastic takeaway containers, and computer printouts smeared with grease.
    “That’s probably because you work in a lightless, filthy hovel,” Liao snipped sarcastically, her tone a little more acidic than she really intended.
    Summer winced, looking away from the Chinese woman.
    Melissa gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, it was a long flight.”
    As they walked, Liao could feel eyes on her as they passed endless laboratories, some filled with modern looking computers. About half of them were in use by neck-bearded scientists (and, despite Rowe’s comment, the occasional woman) typically typing at a blistering pace in black and white terminals.
    Click. Click. Click.
    Rowe absently waved her hand as she passed several doors, her other hand abusing the pen’s clicker.
    “What do we have here? Uhh... okay. This is an advanced, high radiation resilient tungsten-aluminium- whatever alloy... that’s the pet project of the materials guys. I don’t know what it’s called, something Greek or Latin, but we nicknamed it ‘indestructium’. Radiation resistant, really really strong, lightweight... apparently they think it’s the bees knees, but eh . So you can build a cool tank with it. Who cares . I hate those arrogant assholes.”
    Click. Click. Click.
    Summer paused before an unmarked door, mercifully slipping the pen into her hip pocket. The woman seemed a lot more relaxed now that they were further inside, away from the last vestiges of the sun’s presumably harmful rays. “Let’s start at the least impressive item and work our way up, shall we?”
    Liao shrugged, idly wondering if the woman was a little nuts. “Sure, why not. We have to see it all eventually.”
    The redhead opened the door. Inside, a donut-shaped chrome-steel device rested on a heavy wooden table. It was a fairly plain metal composition that didn’t at all hint as to its functionality. It had a layer of thick, shiny, silver paint on it that made it look like a piece of scrap that they’d dragged out of a junkyard, smoothed, and then tossed up on the table.
    “We call it the Reactionless Drive ,” she proclaimed, gesturing over the very simple looking device with a hand, her tone conveying a weight that the others simply didn’t feel.
    “Looks like some kind of tacky prop from a 60’s sci-fi show,” Melissa observed, chuckling. “What’s it do?”
    Summer looked very offended.
    “Only, you know, violate Newtonian physics ,” she retorted, pushing up her glasses with her ring finger yet again, a gesture Liao found almost as annoying as her voice. “This baby generates gravity waves . Observe!”
    Rowe pressed the giant, fist-sized red button on the wooden desk. And exactly nothing happened.
    Liao watched curiously as she took the plastic pen out of her pocket, holding it near the giant donut. The tip wobbled, and then the whole pen was jerked out of her hand towards the featureless metal – hitting it with a *clank*.
    “Impressive, but isn’t that just magnetism ?” Liao observed dryly.
    “That pen’s plastic