Socket 1 - The Discovery of Socket Greeny Read Online Free PDF

until my leg hit the chair.
    “You will, soon.” Wink .
    No one winks when something really shitty is
about to happen. Right? “Should I be worried right about now?” I
looked at Mom. She was still cold. Walter offered a smile that,
compared to Mom’s, was like the sun.
    “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you
grown up. I look forward to working with you.” He squeezed my
shoulder, made eye-contact with Mom, and then was through the door
from where he came, closing it behind him.
    Mom opened the door to the stairs.
    “Wait, what just happened?”
    “There’s a lot to explain,” Mom said. She was
itching for that moody. “I’ll tell you everything on the way.”
    “We’re not going with him?” I asked.
    “The facility is a long way from here,” she
said. “But it won’t take long to get there.”
    “We’re flying?”
    “No.”
    Now what in the hell does that mean?
     
     
     
     
Wormholed
    The parking attendant was waiting out front
with the door open. Mom took the first left turn and then another
left down a narrow alley wedged between tall buildings. No one
would notice it from the street, and if they saw it, wouldn’t think
to drive a car down it. It ended at a brick wall and backing out
would seem impossible without swiping a door handle. There was a
garage door on the left, which would’ve been directly below the
office.
    I had a feeling we were going wherever
minty-man Walter Diggs went, although getting back in the car for a
trip around the block made no sense. Mom had a whole life of
secrecy. When she wasn’t home, I’d go through her files, look under
her mattress and through her closet to find out what she was doing.
Now the gig was up and I was minutes away from everything. I always
thought it would be more fun to find out.
    The garage door opened and she eased into the
lightless space as the door closed behind us. “This is going to
feel funny,” she said.
    “You mean funny, ha-ha?” I answered. I was
starting to squirm. The falling feeling was coming back.
    “We’re going through a wormhole, like a
puncture in the fabric of time and space.”
    “Where we going?” I said, almost casually.
Why not? Today wasn’t making any sense, why not finish it with a
trip through a rip in time. And space.
    Mom laughed, sort of. It was mostly a hiccup,
but not a smile, and certainly no joy.
    A door in front of us began to open, blue
light spilling out. “Close your eyes,” she said. “And make sure
your tongue is pushed against the roof of your mouth.”
    The blue light engulfed me. I clenched my
eyes shut, grabbing onto the door. I felt like one of those
cartoons getting steamrolled flat as paper. Thought I was going to
scream, then puke. I didn’t see blue. I didn’t see anything. My
lungs were burning and I gulped for air, drooling on my shirt when
I realized we were through.
    “Oh, Jesus,” I blurted.
    It was night. We were still in the car,
although it wasn’t moving. Instead, we were idling on a flat piece
of ground with miles of boulder-strewn wasteland ahead of us
without a road in sight. At the far end was a sheer-faced cliff.
The full moon revealed streaks of ochre like ancient blood stains.
It stood like a monolith, like God had plopped down a massive block
of granite and said, “End of the world, fuckers.”
    “This society has existed for as long as
history’s been recorded.” Mom took a breath and touched the center
panel. Lights appeared on the speedometer, holographic images
illuminated the dash with maps and data and green dots and red dots
and bullshit that looked more like a fighter jet than car. “We
protect humankind from extinction.”
    “From what?”
    “Once upon a time, it was natural disaster
and plague and wars. In this era, the threat of extinction comes
from humans.” Her eyes appeared deeper-set in the moonlight and the
glow of the instruments. “Humankind lacks understanding. As a
species, we are still in our infancy. Out potential is