Read Online Atlas (The Atlas Series) by Becca C. Smith - Free Book Online

didn’t come close to Turner’s presence, it had to eat away at him, no matter how close they were.
    General Clifton stood up and walked past Kala, avoiding her as he exited the room. She was surprised she didn’t hear him huff from pouting. She couldn’t believe what a baby that guy was.
    Of course, now she was left alone with Mister Scary . General Turner didn’t say a thing, he simply stared at Kala. She waited patiently for him to make his move. Turner was the one with the real power and Kala was sure he was the man who would ultimately decide her fate.
    SMASH!
    Kala jumped out of her chair as Turner violently flipped over the table between them, crashing it against the wall. It was so shocking that Kala didn’t know what to do. Rage fired hot in Turner’s eyes. Kala knew this was it. General Turner was going to reach for her neck and squeeze until she died.
    But instead, he just stood there, his eyes boring into hers.
    Kala couldn’t move. The chair behind her teetered and fell on its back from the force of her standing. It was an eerie CLANK in the silence.
    “What aren’t you telling me?” Turner seethed.
    Kala knew he wasn’t the kind of man that liked secrets. She suspected the reason he was in the position he was in today was because he knew how to extract information when necessary.
    “You’ll think I’m crazy,” Kala blurted out the words before she could stop herself.
    A part of Kala desperately wanted to tell someone of her insane hallucinations, but her boss? She knew it would be a huge mistake, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “I blacked out, and I was drinking coffee with the President and he told me I’d have to do something horrible to save the world and he said he was Atlas and that I was the new Atlas and then I woke up,” Kala rambled like the crazy person she felt she was.
    After a few long moments, Turner started to laugh. Really laugh.
    Hearing and seeing him so amused by her confession made Kala really think about what she had just said. To her surprise she found herself starting to laugh, too. Saying it all out loud made it sound like exactly what it was: ridiculous.
    Turner reached out and shook Kala’s hand warmly. “This was what you were hiding,” he said it as a statement of fact. Somehow, he was able to tell that Kala had told him everything she knew.
    “Now that I said it, it sounds idiotic, doesn’t it, sir?” Kala felt comforted by Turner’s hand in hers, like he was her lifeline to sanity.
    Turner gently pulled his hand away and waved to the flipped table. “We can all be a bit dramatic at times.”
    Kala smiled and felt like she could tell General Turner anything. There was a warmth to him that reminded her of her foster dad. He oozed a charisma that made Kala proud that she was a part of his team. Of course, seconds before, she had been terrified of the man, but seeing him look at her with relief and kindness made her wonder how she could have ever been scared of him. She guessed the mixture of both were the reasons Turner was in the position he was in today.
    The General motioned toward the door. “Dismissed, lieutenant.”
    Kala saluted and was about to turn around to exit when Turner added, “People have been known to black out using the phase-suits, and this was the first time they’d been used jumping into a moving plane. The air pressure alone could have caused you to black out.”
    Kala nodded in appreciation at Turner’s explanation to make her feel better. “What about hallucinations, sir?” She thought she’d ask the source. As much as Kala would love to blame the air pressure and the phase-suits, it didn’t explain why she was still hallucinating.
    Turner thought a second, then shook his head. “You just had a bad dream. It wasn’t real or a hallucination.”
    Not wanting to admit her current predicament with the clocks, Kala saluted General Turner once more and left. As she walked down the hallway, Kala wondered how long it would