The gentle crinkle of ionizing air emanated from Frog’s skin as Hadaly gently brushed her holographic hand across her hair and back. The lights in Elaine’s room were off, but the suffuse glow from the various monitors, LED status lights, and Hadaly’s projected body provided more than enough light to distinguish the edges of objects … Read more
Larry Pilgrim spoke up. “Brad and I take German,” he said. “I’m a bit more advanced but he’s in my conversational classes. That’s how come I got caught up in all this. Do you need me to translate it for you? It says—” Elaine put her hand on the page, covering the text before Larry … Read more
The entire set of testing took almost three hours as Brad had predicted and by the time they finished a sense of night had fallen over the Law Library. Even without windows open to the outside and the artificial lighting, everyone felt the weight of the day upon them. Elaine rubbed her neck and watched … Read more
He ducked out of the room and Casey sat down heavily in a chair across from where Brad stood. He rolled his eyes and put both hands on the table. “Do you really think that I’m behind the fact this is still going on?” Casey leaned forward. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t think … Read more
Elaine stoically attended to other developing facts appearing in the datastream of Hadaly’s investigation as she and Frog escorted the trio of cheaters back to the ASU Law Library. Larry Pilgrim vainly tried to engage her in conversation with a dogged persistence; at first Elaine thought he’d been talking to himself, with the way he … Read more
Larry folded his arms and sighed loudly. “What is it?” Hitting a stud on the side of the Enoch, Elaine triggered a small projector behind a slit in her goggles. An oscillating beam of light issued forth and reflected off the inside of her goggles—dates and text spilled across her vision and she waited a … Read more
Frog positioned herself between Elaine and the stairs. Once there, she claimed the space; she spread her arms, hands slightly in, elbows out, effectively obstructing any easy route past her to Elaine. She took a deep breath and waited. The safari hat shaded her eyes from view, but she held a steady gaze on Casey’s … Read more
And predict she did. Hadaly slid between the incoming missiles like a burning butterfly—the sentry droids were fast, but she was so much faster. She felt giddy with alacrity. The first one went down in a shower of sparks when she tore through the rusting support struts beneath it. Predictors displayed a wild field of … Read more
[Invincible by Kyt Dotson is a short story in the Black Hat Magick series. If you would like to skip this and move on directly to chapter 7 click here. Otherwise enjoy!] — “Hadaly! LZ is hot!” Elaine shouted into the phone as she raced up the stairs, taking them two by two. “I repeat, LZ … Read more
Larry began to ask them what they’d like, but paused mid-word when he noticed Frog’s dark sunglasses and flat expression. His eyes slid from her and onto Elaine, where they hung for a moment on the goggles poking from her hair. Elaine noticed how he looked totally unprepared for them, from the dazzled look in … Read more