Read Online Cristal - Novella by Anne-Rae Vasquez - Free Book Online Page B

telling
herself to calm down. She had never shared personal information
about her father with anyone other than Harry.
    “But I know he’ll be back.”
    “I understand. My older brother went MIA
when I was in the Army,” he said.
    Cristal noticed his other hand clenched into
a fist.
    “Missing in action?”
    “Yes,” he said in a quiet voice, and then he
turned his head to look out the window.
    She put her other hand on top of his. She
knew how it felt to have a loved one go missing.
    He cleared his throat, and said, “Okay,
let’s talk about what happened today.”
    He gently pulled his hand away from
hers.
    “Yes, let’s do that.”
    She leaned back and folded her hands in her
lap.
    “I don’t think that there was an
earthquake,” he said quietly. “I know you feel the same way.”
    She let out a loud sigh, just as the shop
owner walked towards them with their drinks.
    “Thank you very much,” she said, relieved to
have a moment to think of an answer.
    “Do you mind turning on the television?”
Kerim asked him.
    “Sure, I didn’t even bother checking if the
cable was working.”
    He went to the counter and grabbed the
remote. He pointed it towards the large flat screen TV hanging on
the wall, and pressed the button to turn it on. The local news
station came up on the screen. The anchorwoman was speaking, but
there was no sound. He pressed the button to turn up the
volume.
    “…reports from Manila, Rome, Gaza, Haifa,
and Vancouver confirm that earthquakes occurred at the precise time
as the one that hit Manhattan at 1:25 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
today.”

Chapter 11
Want Some Answers
    IT WAS SEVEN HOURS AFTER the earthquake. Dr.
Saeed, dressed in his white lab coat, over black casual slacks and
a Ford dress shirt, and wearing his Boss glasses on top of his
head, stood at the front of the classroom alongside Harry. His hair
was combed back and his face was clean-shaven.
    His real name was Dr. Saeed Nariman but
students had such a hard time pronouncing his last name, so he
asked everyone to call him Dr. Saeed instead. Out of all the
professors, Cristal always thought Dr. Saeed was the most stylish
prof at the university. Three video chat windows were opened on the
projection screen. Cristal was sitting on a stool in the first row
of lab tables. Gabriel sat beside her with Kerim on the other side.
Joanna sat front and center of the tables, positioned in clear view
of Harry, purposely blocking Cristal’s view.
    Cristal entertained the thought of reaching
over and smacking the back of her head. Kerim’s knee hit hers.
    She turned to him and mouthed the words “What?”
    He tossed her a half grin.
    Is he reading my mind? She shivered at the
thought, and then focused her attention on the screen.
    Serena was speaking. Her dirty blonde hair
was swept up with a clip. From what Cristal could tell, Serena was
in what looked like her bedroom.
    “I was at the location as requested for my
mission. The news reports have confirmed that it was the precise
epicenter of the earthquake. I also confirmed that there were no
early warnings as reported on the HEWS Seismic webpage. For those
of you who are not familiar, HEWS is the Humanitarian Early Warning
System.”
    Serena glanced down at her notes.
    “I have further confirmation from
seismologists around the world that no one expected these
earthquakes.”
    In the other video chat window, the
Martinelli twins, Rinaldo and Angelica, codenames Red Fox and Venus , were agreeing.
    Cristal was eager to hear what Rinaldo had
to say. It was hard to resist liking him. His wavy brown hair,
hazel brown eyes and Hollywood smile, not to mention his quaint
Italian accent, made the other Truth Seekers, mainly those of the
female persuasion, rush to his assistance when he needed help in
the game. In real life, at only five-foot-nine, he had no trouble
attracting high-fashion models who towered over him.
    “Yeah, it was pretty crazy here in Roma,” he
said, “Angelica and me