Read Online Killswitch by Victoria Buck - Free Book Online

underground here pulled from excess power generated by the town’s solar panels. Mel had gotten it started. The exoself had made the deal permanent—two computers worked out the details for the illegal harnessing of electricity.
    These people didn’t like to lie, but they didn’t mind a little stealing. Not that it mattered to Chase. Right now he was less concerned with what the believers did to keep themselves lit up, and more concerned with the image that kept lighting up in front of him.
    Kerstin hadn’t shown herself again. It wasn’t her—it was just an image. She hadn’t spoken to him—it was all in his head. But why did it happen?
    He scooted down in the bed and pulled the coverlet up to his chin. He had to at least try to sleep. He closed his eyes.
    Ciel Bleu Domaine . The painting filled his dreams. Open land, hills on each side. The bluest sky he’d ever seen. Mel and Mom were packing boxes with food. Others loaded the boxes onto a truck. But they were all out in the open, not in a cavern under the old museum.
    His father stood with him. “Remember where they go, son.”
    “What do you mean?”
    The sky filled with S-drones and they began firing on the people.
    “Dad, we have to do something!”
    Mel and Mom were gone. People he recognized lay dead on the ground. Others seemed to dive straight into the hillside, as though it were water and not earth. The truck vanished through the hillside.
    In the middle of the green field, Kerstin, wearing the same red dress, seemed to float. “Darling, it’s only a matter of time.”
    Chase jumped from the bed. The coverlet fell to the floor. Sweat poured from him. He turned a circle. No one was there. Six thirty—he’d slept four hours. He dropped to the floor and sat with his head on his knees.
    For twenty minutes his mind wandered through the open green field. But he was alone. No believers. No Mel.
    No Kerstin.
    He rose from the cold floor and grabbed a clean shirt and towel. He’d been supplied with a few necessities. A razor and other items waited in a small box. He pulled the razor out, along with a toothbrush, and left his dark room to walk the quiet hallway to the dormitory-style bathroom. Seemed no one was up. Although the day’s assigned kitchen workers must be preparing a sparse breakfast. The lights hadn’t come on anywhere in this area.
    He didn’t bother turning on the bathroom light—no need to use up the power when it was just him. Standing before a cracked mirror, he wet his face and rubbed on a little soap. The water, cool and in no hurry to fill the metal sink, was the bonus of an abandoned building with its own well. No luxury of a modern laser blade or a container of prep gel. He took the razor and shaved his face clean.
    The trickle of a tepid shower did little to revive him. But the exoself was up and running. The morning report gave no indication that the teens now safe in the underground had been reported missing by their families. Odd that no one was searching for them.
    No message from Robert after Chase sent out the cry for help. “No surprise.” Kerstin had not been slinking through his processors either. “Maybe it’s over. Whatever it was.”
    He put on the same jeans he’d taken off, pulled the clean shirt over his head, and brushed his teeth.
    The hallway was lit and a couple of men entered the bathroom. Chase nodded a greeting. They both smiled a bit, but said nothing. He returned his personal items to his room and then headed to the command center.
    Amos sat alone at a station.
    Chase joined him. “Nobody reported anything about those kids, Amos. What do you think that means?”
    “Maybe the cops told them to wait a day or two before filing.”
    “Yeah, I guess that’s standard.”
    “Why’d you shave off the beard?” Amos asked. “I thought that was part of your disguise.”
    “I don’t need a disguise. Everybody here knows who I am.”
    Amos smiled. “Is this your way of telling me that you’re not going