Read Online Broken Pixels (The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 4) by D.W. Moneypenny - Free Book Online

crash, he traveled to an alternate universe and, while there, was involved in a traffic accident.”
    “That sounds like it could be a simple case of contextual dysphasia. You should be able to deal with that without me getting involved directly.”
    “He also mentioned that last week a person named Mara disconnected his head and used it to track down a dragon. It does appear his head was disconnected intentionally—he was not decapitated during the accident that caused his other injuries.”
    “I see. Suspend the interview for now and let Cam know I’ll be with him shortly.” Dr. Canfield shifted her gaze to Mara and said, “Let me guess. You are Mara.”
    Mara nodded and said, “I’m Mara Lantern. This is Sam, my brother, and Aristotle Ping, a friend.”
    “Why on Earth would you remove Cameron’s head? Did you access or tamper with his core?”
    Mara shook her head. “No one tampered with anything. Well, that’s not exactly correct. I met Cam at the hospital after his accident, and his faceplate had been knocked off. When I picked it up, it became animated, and then he contacted me through my phone.” Mara slid her phone from her pocket and held it up.
    Dr. Canfield looked alarmed. “What is that device? Did you use it on Cameron?”
    Mara shook her head and said, “It’s a simple communication device we use in the alternate reality that Cam visited—the one we’re from.”
    The doctor’s face went blank for a second, and her eyes narrowed. “Say that again.”
    “It’s a simple—”
    “No, the last part.”
    “In the alternate reality that Cam visited,” Mara said, then added, “It’s true. That’s why we don’t have synthetic bodies. In the realm we come from, people live out their lives in the flesh and bones they were born with.”
    Dr. Canfield turned in stunned silence to Ping, who smiled and nodded. After a moment, she said, “You people want me to believe that you came here from an alternate reality? To what do we owe the honor of your visit?”
    “We came to return Cam. We couldn’t do anything for him in our realm, so we brought him here to get help,” Mara said.
    “You call removing his head helping ? I call it an atrocity, a crime—and once I find out exactly what you have done to his memory, I will be reporting it to the authorities,” she said.
    Ping stepped forward and pointed to the table. “Dr. Canfield, can’t we have a seat for a few minutes and sort out this situation? Clearly we are not trying to perpetrate anything untoward, or we could have easily abandoned Cam’s body at the hospital and left, but we wanted to ensure that he got the care he needed.”
    She moved to the table and said, “Only because I need to understand what you did to tamper with Cameron’s memory, not because I’m buying any of this alternate universe nonsense.”
    As they moved to the table and took their seats, Ping said, “I would recommend that you allow Mara to recount what happened and, if possible, reserve judgment until she is done. After that, we’ll cooperate with whatever you would like to do, including talking to the authorities. We understand our story is hard to believe, but we have nothing to hide, and our primary purpose for being here is to help Cam. Is that agreeable?”
    “Very well,” Dr. Canfield said. She nodded at Mara to begin.
    “Like I said, Cam was injured in the traffic accident, and the hospital didn’t know what to do with a person with a synthetic body, so they called a friend of mine who is a police detective. He asked me to go to the hospital with him, and that’s when I met Cam.”
    “I’m sorry. Why would a police detective call a teenager to investigate the discovery of a synthetic body in a world where they don’t exist?”
    “I was on the flight that Cam mentioned, the one that crashed into the Columbia River. On that flight, all the passengers—the ones from my realm—were replaced by their counterparts from other realms, except for me.