Storm Shades Read Online Free PDF Page A

Darwin barks at her, signaling that she’s clearly missed whatever question he had been asking her. His patience really was starting to wear thin.
    “Sorry, boss. I’m here.” She waves over at her colleagues in the distance.
    “So? You nearly done or what?” Finn folds his arms and taps his foot against the dirt floor as if he’s going to be late for a hot date.
    “Almost. The Geiger’s picking something up over that way.” Sofie points towards the woods at the edge of the canyon. “I just need a few more minutes to check it out and see if it’s anything we need to be worried about.” She doesn’t add that if the readings from the Geiger counter are correct then there’s a serious amount of gamma radiation coming from the woods.
    “Alright, we’ll start packing up while you take a look. You have thirty minutes but keep your comms open. I want you to check in if you find anything. Don’t do anything stupid.” Darwin’s voice is firm in Sofie’s ear, but there’s also a note of concern. He believed in the buddy system, but the team just wasn’t big enough for that. Cutbacks had affected the entire company, not just their division.
    “Roger that, boss. I’ll be as quick as I can.” Sofie heads off in the direction of the woods, re-adjusting the thick field jacket she was wearing. It was state of the art, lined with metal to protect against the most dangerous radiation. She knew that if the readings were right, then she’d only have a few minutes to get in and get out before she risked contracting radiation sickness. She figures that the Geiger must be malfunctioning and that there’s no way the readings she’s picking up are right.
    Most half-intelligent scientists would have doubled back and told the team about the off-the-charts readings and come back with hazmat suits and the whole 9 yards. However, sometimes Sofie’s scientific curiosity was more powerful than her common sense. So, she advances on the woods, making a note as the counter in her hand clicks and signals radiation levels going up and up.
    As soon as she crosses over into the woods, the counter falls silent and the arrow on the dial settles on zero. She shakes the machine, wondering if it’s a piece of tech that has gone past its “use by” date. She carries on, moving further into the woods, and the counter spikes again and then falls silent.
    “What the…?” she looks between the counter in her hand and the dirt underfoot.
    “Sofie?” Darwin’s voice in her ear is crackly, but she can still hear his worry.
    “It’s nothing. I’m fine,” she assures him, as she squats down and starts swiping the dirt away, exposing the dark rock underneath. “The Geiger’s busted.”
    The rock under foot is virtually black, and it has a crystalline quality to it. It has the same quality as the source rock that she’d found and sent on to Jennie the day before. She doesn’t need a lab to tell her that this isn’t anything that she’s seen before, which in itself is amazing. The woods are silent—except for the crackling every now and again of the broken counter. It takes longer to pick a sample out of the ground than she had thought. Whatever this mineral is, it is seriously strong , she thinks. As she manages to prize a small section free, she feels the first drops of rain on her head.
    “Sofie....Rep...Report.” Darwin’s voice is getting more broken as the rain gets even heavier.
    “I’m on my way back.” Sofie pockets the sample and hurries back in the direction she’s come in. But after a few minutes, she doesn’t come to the outskirts of the canyon as she’d thought. She doesn’t see her team. She’s still in the woods. “Must’ve taken a wrong turn,” she muses, as she takes out the compass that all members of field teams are issued. She holds it up, but the arrow keeps spinning and spinning as if it were possessed. “Lot of good you are.” Sofie stuffs the useless compass back in her jacket and heads off in