Lost Planet 01 - The Lost Planet Read Online Free PDF Page A

neighborhood didn’t look like the kind of place where anyone would live.
    â€œHe has an apartment above his lab.” Mina rushed down the street, glancing at the tops of the buildings like she was looking for snipers.
    â€œIs this place dangerous?”
    â€œThis is an abandoned district. There’s no perimeter fence here. Normally when the sun is setting, the Zinnjerha are no danger because they go underground at night. But they’ve been acting against their nature for the past two weeks. Keep moving.”
    After a minute they stopped in front of the boarded-up window of a dilapidated building. Like many of the others, it was decorated with a patchy mosaic of rust and spray-painted symbols.
    â€œDr. Silvestri, will you let us up?” Mina asked the solid wall. Chase gave her a dubious look, but moments later a segment of wall swung inward like a door. Ahead of them was a dark stairway leading up. The air inside had a sharp chemical tang.
    Dr. Silvestri appeared in the doorway at the top of the stairs. “Mina, what’s wrong?”
    â€œI had to remove him from the compound.” She spoke confidently, addressing the doctor like an equal. “He was becoming a threat.”
    â€œI wasn’t threatening anything!” Chase protested.
    Dr. Silvestri came down and met them midway on the landing. “Let’s go into my lab. Hi, Chase.” He opened a door on the side of the staircase, giving Chase a squeeze on the shoulder, but his worried smile made Chase’s stomach plummet. It didn’t look like he had good news.
    â€œDavid, is everything okay?” came a woman’s voice from the apartment.
    â€œIt’s fine, Anna,” he called back up the stairs, closing the door gently behind them. Track lights flickered on overhead.
    His lab was a long, narrow room lined with high tables. Strange machines filled the space, some whirring, others silent and covered in plastic sheets. A scattering of medical devices and flat metal screens covered the tables.
    â€œI wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Chase blurted out before Mina could say anything. “I was just trying to…” He realized he couldn’t say, trying to look for a way to escape the house . “I found the video of how I showed up outside.”
    Dr. Silvestri nodded in a distracted way. “I don’t think you need to worry, Mina. I don’t think he’s a threat to us.” He leaned against a table and rubbed his forehead, frowning.
    â€œWhat is it?” she asked.
    â€œHis microchip.”
    The word brought Chase a mix of excitement and fear. “Did you get more information? Do you know where I’m from?”
    The doctor kept speaking directly to Mina as if Chase weren’t even in the room. “The data on it is fairly corrupt, and also highly encoded, so I’m having trouble retrieving any information. But the technology…” He paused and glanced over, like he didn’t want to say this in front of Chase.
    â€œWhat is it?” asked Mina in a low voice.
    â€œIt’s extremely similar to Parker’s,” the doctor told her quietly. “The design is … I’m almost certain it’s Asa’s work.”
    A connection to Asa? Maybe this was why he’d shown up at the compound. Chase’s mind immediately began twisting and testing the name, trying to find any memories to fit it into, inventing an entire history with a stranger named Asa Kaplan. It was impossible to imagine, but so was everything else with a blank memory.
    Mina hadn’t responded, fixing the doctor with her implacable stare, although it didn’t seem to bother him as much as it did Chase.
    â€œHave you been able to contact Asa yet, to tell him what’s happened?” he asked.
    She shook her head. “I’ve queued up a message, but he’s out of range this week—I’m not expecting him to be reachable for two more