Critical Dawn Read Online Free PDF

the need to sleep,” Pippa said.
    Charlie gathered up the files and placed the bead in his wallet. “Come on, you can sleep in the truck. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
    “Fine, fine, but let’s stop off at the apartment first. Let me feed the cat and get a change of clothes.”
    “Excellent!”
    Charlie escorted Pippa out of the bar, his heart racing with the excitement of everything. With the electrocution and odd behavior, he knew humans couldn’t have made the bead, and he was going to go to its source and find out what the hell was going on himself … with Pippa by his side. Things didn’t get much better than that in Charlie’s world.

Chapter Four
    Ben leapt from his seat and raced out of the Operations Room. He was thrown against the corridor wall after the ship jolted. Space turbulence or a meteor shower, he thought. This happened occasionally. Deep space wasn’t quite the smooth cruise depicted on 21 st Century movies. It was an incessant rumble with the occasional bumps and rattles.
    He skidded around the entrance of the common room. Erika sat hugging herself, shaking.
    “Are you okay?”
    “What was that, Ben?”
    “There’s all kinds of debris out there. Relax, it’s nothing we haven’t been through before.”
    She pointed to the internal wall. “Didn’t you feel it? Before the bump, I heard a bang below. The wall vibrated.”
    “Probably the same thing. Don’t worry about it.”
    “No. I was sitting with my back against—”
    Ben was lifted off his feet and slammed against the wall. Erika screamed, grasping her chair. Plates and cups fell from thedish drainer and smashed on the floor. The whole place seemed to shudder.
    An electronic alarm started to loudly pulse, drowning out Erika’s cries. Ceiling lights flickered. The common room door started to steadily slide shut. It was probably an isolation procedure in case of a fire. Ben hadn’t seen it before.
    He didn’t want to get trapped inside. Maria might need his help in the Operations Room.
    Ben dove to the door and held it open with the sole of his boot, using the opposite side of the frame for support. He strained against the power, but was slowly losing the battle.
    “Quick, jump under my legs,” Ben said.
    “What’s happening? Where we going?”
    The force increased as the door mechanism’s pitch grew louder.
    “Just do it, Erika. I can’t hold on for much longer.”
    “Shouldn’t we stay–”
    “Do you want to get trapped in here?”
    Ben’s words seemed to propel her into action. She dropped to the floor and slid underneath his quivering right leg. He immediately jumped to the side and rolled away. The door sprang across and hammered closed with a thump.
    He pulled Erika to her feet. “All hands on deck. Come on.”
    The Operations Room door was closed. Ben peered through the thick plastic window, which had frosted through age. He could just make out the blurred figures of Maria sitting at the console and Ethan standing over her. He thumped his fist against the plastic. The two inside both turned. Maria ran to the window and shouted something. He couldn’t hear a word above the alarm blasts, shook his head, and gestured to his ear. She pointed to the console. He couldn’t see clearly past a few feet.
    “Is there a way to open it? An emergency switch or something?” Erika said.
    “No, they’re controlled externally. We might have a fire on the ship. Wait here.”
    He opened a cupboard next to the supply hatch and rummaged through the tools. Ben grabbed a wrecking bar and returned to the door. Erika was trying to communicate something through the window.
    “Stand back. Give me some room,” Ben said.
    He’d got used to the squashed confines, but now it felt like the walls were closing in. Ben faced his first real situation. The bellowing alarm and blinking lights had made the place come alive in a way he hadn’t witnessed before. The prospect of having more excitement in his life suddenly became a lot