The Quantum Brain (Pulse Science Fiction Series Book 2) Read Free Page A

just be Internet legend, but scary people believed it and stayed away from CDR.
    They were a prize though. They were working in robotics and AI. CDR was making advances in quantum processing. That was just the stuff people knew about.
    Stealing gold from the Federal Reserve was a huge deal. Finding out what treasures CDR was hiding and stealing one of them would be epic.
    He could go and poke around. Even if he decided the risk was too great, he could still go forward with the Federal Reserve job on the big day. Mark Spencer knew he was pushing his luck and stretching his time and resources thin by even considering this. But it was CDR. Even if he didn’t do anything with them on this opportunity, having a backdoor into their systems might be priceless later.
    Like John, he could not afford to pass this up.
    What could a place like that want for security upgrades? It boggled the mind.
    Mark swallowed and brought the phone back to his ear. “Are you still there, John?”
    “I was about to hang up and call you back,” John said. “So?”
    “I’ll do it, but you owe me big.”
    John let out a sigh that crackled the connection. He said, “Thanks, Mark. You’ll be rewarded well for this, I promise. I’ll e-mail you the details I can. You’ll have to get the rest from them when you show up. I’ll send it all as soon as I hang up.”
    Mark hung up first and dropped his phone back on the metal table top next to his monitor. He laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back again.
    “This is too big,” he said out loud. “Even I can’t pull this off.”
    Mark frowned. He was angry at himself for doubting. Everyone had doubted him his entire life and here he was on the home stretch of the biggest move of his life and he was starting to doubt himself. No, he thought. He wouldn’t allow it.
    Mark leaned forward. His phone and an icon in the corner of his computer screen indicated he had an e-mail from John’s agency. Mark exited from the Federal Reserve system, but he did not go to the e-mail right away. He was no one’s trained monkey.
    Mark searched instead for a particular part he needed for the suit he was building. It was a relatively simple design and concept, but he wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
    After all, the job had just gotten so much bigger.
     

3
     
    “Have a seat, Dr. Kell.”
    Thomas Kell looked around the leather furniture and dark wood of the executive suit. With the pristine white of the labs he was used to at CDR, he had trouble processing that this lavish suite was even in the same building.
    He cleared his throat and lowered himself onto the center of a long, leather couch. It was too soft. The back was too far away, so he started to lean back, but then gave up and leaned forward again sitting on the front edge of the seat.
    Thomas balanced the folders he had brought with him on his knees. He preferred a screen, but the equipment was restricted to the lab, so he had to print out hard copies like it was the 1990’s all over again. He offered to meet with her in the labs, but she insisted that he come up to see her.
    Thomas thought about setting the folders on the coffee table between them, but it was decorated with a large porcelain figurine of a shirtless warrior slaying a lion with his bare hands. There was also a china tea set that looked to be just for show and then some sort of silver case with intricate etchings on it.
    His folders would clash with the décor, so he kept them balanced on his knees and awaited instructions.
    Hazel Conrad sat quite comfortably across from Dr. Kell in one of the bowed back leather chairs. It looked like a throne and Thomas was sure she was sitting a few inches higher than him.
    She was wearing a severe dress with a high collar. It was some color between burgundy and copper. Her hair was grey and stacked on her head in tight braids and buns. There was no way that she achieved that look alone. Thomas had trouble remembering going home to sleep or