Jade: Earth's Last Hope Against the Undead Read Online Free PDF

smile faded. “Oh yes.” Then he
grinned again. “Lions, tigers and bears.” He raised an eyebrow. “Oh
my.”
    Jade wasn't impressed with his theatrics.
She only cared about one thing at the moment. “Where is Trent?”
    The doctor scanned the walls of the
conference room, staring at one chart in particular. Jade tried to
discern its purpose, but couldn't. Although she thought she saw her
name listed there, she wasn’t in the mood to try and deduce what
this meant. She felt like fighting this particular morning.
    “ He offered to go on a reconnaissance
mission for us?”
    “ Reconnaissance? What kind of
reconnaissance?” Jade asked.
    The doctor grunted, pushed his glasses up
higher on the bridge of his nose. “Would you be terribly upset if I
told you now was not the time to discuss Trent?”
    Jade rose and quickly chucked her apple at
the doctor. The fruit struck him in the cheek, knocking his glasses
loose. They fell to the ground, a red mark formed under the
doctor’s eye.
    “ That’s what I think about waiting,"
she said. "If you’ve done something to Trent—”
    The doctor stumbled to the floor and picked
up his glasses. He straightened one side and replaced them on his
face. Now he appeared nervous, but ever patient.
    “ Trent is fine, I assure you,” he
said.
    He went to a corner of the room and
retrieved a long decorative wooden box. He sat it on the table with
care, opening the lid so only he could see its contents. From the
box, the doctor removed a long white-handled sword with an equally
white scabbard and purple sash. The doctor carried the sword over
to Jade and placed it before her.
    Jade ignored the sword. Instead she picked
up a pear and bit into it. The doctor went to his own plate, picked
up an apple and bit into it.
    “ That’s a nice sword,” Jade said,
taking another bite. Her mouth overflowed with the fruity flesh,
juices running down her chin. “Is it yours?”
    “ No.”
    Without hesitation the doctor threw his
apple at Jade.
    She leaned forward, dropped the pear and
seized the handle of the sword. As she drew the weapon back, she
removed the sword from the scabbard with a ping of metal. And
before the apple could reach her, she'd used the blade to sever the
fruit in half.
    What just happened?
    The doctor stared at her, his amusement
obvious.
    A confused wrinkle formed on Jade’s forehead
as she spoke her question aloud this time. “What just happened? I
don’t know the first thing about swords.”
    “ Yes, yes, of course.”
    “ But how?” But then it occurred to
Jade. “Did you—what did you do to me? Did you screw around with my
head?”
    The doctor seemed pleased with himself. “No,
dear. We merely programmed the training inside of you. The blade
was custom-made far away from here. It's silver tipped, so you can
kill both vampires and zombies alike.”
    Jade rose from her chair, infuriated. “I
didn’t ask for any programming. I was happy with who I was.”
    “ Yes, dear.”
    She turned, flustered by what had happened,
yet oddly enough she couldn't leave the sword behind. She was
attached to it, bound to it, and she knew why. “And this, as well?
This sword, did you program me to need it?”
    The doctor shifted, slightly uncomfortable.
“Yes.”
    With that, Jade took her sword and
disappeared down the hall. She would wait in her room for Trent’s
return. And when he returned they would leave this place once and
for all. They were better off without these people, their fight, or
their plans and deals. She couldn't have cared less what bargains
they'd made with the vampires. Besides, she wanted to be alone with
Trent and this place would never allow for such a thing.

    She heard Trent return late. He entered his
room without even looking in on Jade, and that alone made her
curious.
    Quickly, Jade made her way to Trent’s
door, her sword strapped to her back, and knocked lightly.
When he didn’t answer, she tried the door. It opened easily and she
walked in to