7% and Rising
By Kim Knox
()
About this ebook
For Level Seven Observer Cahn Dal, her mission is simple—on the surface.
Travel 700 years into the past, alter a complicated equation that will assure the continuation of her timeline, and slip out unnoticed.
Except someone else got there first, and he's waiting for her.
Alexander Roen. The man she's loved since she was a teenager, and, to her disgust, she finds she still desires.
Roen, former Level One Observer, known traitor to the Foundation, and hampered by an old injury, needs Cahn's help to find out who's behind a massive conspiracy to alter their timeline. His body isn't too broken, though, to forget his long-denied passion for Cahn.
Cahn reluctantly agrees to help find the one piece of evidence that will solve Roen's puzzle. But when she finds it, barely escaping with her life, they find it isn't the end.
It's just the beginning of a deeper nightmare, one filled with monsters...and death.
Read more from Kim Knox
The Zed Word Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kissed Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lightning in a Bottle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red in Tooth and Claw Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Weaving Words Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder the Lion's Curse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Satin Spar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmergence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDark Immortality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSkin Magic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5At the Sorcerer's Command Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to 7% and Rising
Related ebooks
Spaceports & Spidersilk July 2013 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChild of Mars: The Destin Chronicles, #8 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Turning Wheel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnemy of Man: The Chronicles of Kin Roland, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Scorpion Game Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Turning Wheel: Short Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebel’s Flight: The Obsidian Series, #1 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Sanctus: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Renovo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerfect Limit: Sypricon Masters, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDouble Drop Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThrone of the Dead: Seraphim Revival, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSubterranean Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wrayth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClarkesworld: Year Eight: Clarkesworld Anthology, #8 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The God Particle: Quarterback Operations Group Book 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPawn's Gambit: And Other Stratagems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Source Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHonorable Darkness: Story of Hex and Snip Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSibyl's Orb Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDisciples: Nel Bently Books, #0 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Arc of the Universe: Book Three: The Ascent Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Arc of the Universe: Book One: The Shades Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCourier's Run Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKhizara: Book 1 in the Tokorel Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsColossal: Dark Romance in Deep Space Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNanagin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeverance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings2032 Awakenings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDomain of Zero Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Dystopian For You
Malice: Award-winning epic fantasy inspired by the Iron Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51984 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51984 (Original English Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best of Philip K. Dick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Swarm: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silo Series Collection: Wool, Shift, Dust, and Silo Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Running Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End We Start From Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wool: Book One of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lathe Of Heaven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sand Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aurora: A Summer Beach Read Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long Walk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outlawed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moon of the Crusted Snow: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trail of Lightning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Living Girl on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the World Running Club Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shift: Book Two of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Cheerfully Refuse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Deluge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen of the Tearling: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for 7% and Rising
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
7% and Rising - Kim Knox
1
7% and Rising
Wet and glistening, Cahn Dal’s head slurped out of the gelatin sac.
Shrinking away from her freezing body, the sac formed into a Ball and rolled from her bare skin. It hit the cobblestones with a damp squelch.
Cahn practiced breathing. The hard discomfort of the cobblestones pressed into her face, breasts, abdomen and thighs. Her eyelids struggled against the accumulated sludge coating her lashes and then finally opened onto the darkness of the alley. Fuck. Time travel was a bitch. When am I?
A cool, polite, loud voice penetrated the dark. We have arrived in the year 2456 CE—
Shut up.
It came out in a dry growl and Cahn massaged her throat.
Stupid machine. Unknown animals scrambled, yowling, over the nearby alley wall, metal clattering to the cobblestones in their wake. Screeching voices soon followed. Great, tell the whole world.
With a sigh, Cahn collapsed against the moss-covered wall and wiped the milky filth from her face. Her hand flopped to the ground. The Ball rolled towards her, leaving a trail of glistening slime. Dry out.
Within seconds, a hard, crystalline shell replaced the gelatin. Thank you. Now, go aural, where and when am I?
As I have already stated, the year is 2456 CE.
Its synthetic voice was a sharp burn against her eardrum. Cahn winced and twitched.
"I landed precisely one kilometre away from the desired point, which, for a Sphere of my service and one who is in constant," the device stressed the word, use, is remarkable in its accuracy. In fact—
Yes. Thank you.
Cahn stared down at her nakedness. Clothes?
I would recommend them for this time period.
Why didn’t I get the replicator model? Something that could clothe and feed me.
Cahn climbed to her feet. She’d impressed her tutors with how quickly she recovered from landing trauma. It was the only thing that had impressed them. With a replicator, there’d be none of this stupid running about.
She slipped over the crumbling wall and dropped into the cluttered yard beyond. Keep with me, Ball.
The device muttered to itself.
She stared at the faded lights stretching up into the night. The stink of decay was thick in the air. Cahn winced as her bare foot sank into an unpleasantly soft pile of rotting refuse. What is this place?
The Ball hovered at her eye level, a soft light radiating from its core. Housing Facility Three-Seven-Eight. Recommended occupancy: ninety. Current status: four hundred and fifty-two.
Nasty.
Cahn scratched at her short, wet hair, staring up at the squat block. Locate me something to wear. Within easy reach this time. I am not scaling anything. And make it quick. I’m freezing.
Why was I Associated with you?
the Ball rasped. Dull, rapid Operation. In. Out. In. Out—
"I am standing naked in unknown territory. Have you found anything?"
A refuse collector was murdered two days ago. They stripped the body. His oversuit is in the bin to your left.
Cahn pressed the release on the bin. With a slow sigh and a gush of rank air, the lid dissolved. She winced at the stench of rotten food but reached in and pulled out the black, soiled suit.
The filters are 56% effective.
I noticed.
Cahn dragged on the cold substance, shivering as the synth-material clung to her skin. Now I’m wearing the clothes of a dead man. I hate the twenty-fifth century.
She fixed the collar of the suit as it constricted her throat, flexing her shoulder blades to settle the product over her body and activate redundant filter systems. Her toes curled against the tightness of the oversuit’s bond-soles. She was ready. Right. Let’s go.
Your objective is located 1.01 kilometres north-north-west from this point.
Cahn glared at the Ball as it hovered. Lead the way, then.
There was none of this ineptitude with Alexander Roen,
it muttered as Cahn followed the swift bobbing trail through the rat-infested alleys stretching out around the Housing Complex. He knew what he was doing. He did not insult his Associate. He—
—is a traitor,
Cahn finished. She grabbed the Ball and glared at it. I’ve had this speech for two whole years—
Cahn pressed herself into the dark shadow of the wall. Evasive mode,
she hissed at the glowing Ball. She calmed her pounding heart. Her brain was always the last to kick in after landing. The twenty-fifth century was a vicious place and she was being an idiot.
The muted Ball bled into the wall. Secure. Hidden. She wished she had that power. Its voice pricked at her. Three humanoids: gender inconclusive.
Fuck… Serfs.
Fifteen minutes from sunrise. Their patrol shift is over and they are on their way back to the compound. Possibility of attack: 2% and falling.
Three brown-suited creatures shuffled past. Serfs policed the worst areas of the city. The stench of rotting flesh thickened the air and Cahn forced down rising bile. It was her first brush with the genetically engineered vampires who fed on anyone stupid enough to get caught out in the night.
Cahn closed her eyes. She’d sleep-soaked information about the maniac who had created them half a century before. It was a relief to know that the man had died in 2454, two years before her current time-frame. He’d been eaten by his own experiments.
Minimum safe distance achieved. Roen would have—
Which way?
Cahn pushed herself away from the damp wall. Her Associate always had too much to say. Especially about Alexander Roen. She wished again that it would leave all talk of him well alone.
The Ball streaked along the twisting alleyways, ignoring the side exits leading off to the numerous Living Blocks. The machine was right. In. Out. In. Out. Her superiors always assigned her to the monotonously simple tasks. Ones they considered worthy of her.
Redefining equations with a tiny alteration was that night’s task.
Perimeter shield twenty metres ahead.
The sky grew pale. As usual, she was behind schedule. Landing on the wrong side of the shield didn’t help. The complex web of narrow roads ended abruptly ahead of her. An immense barrier of softly vibrating liquid rose up into the sky, the opaque milkiness melting into the grey of the dawn. Cahn craned her neck up. Fucking hell. Two hundred metres, at least. She scratched at her cold, wet eye. Great.
Roen always had the entry code.
He would. Roen was omniscient.
Cahn took a calming breath. The entry code was the quick, easy way through the shield. Observers like her had to make do with the old and messy methods. She glared up at the Ball. See you on the other side.
"I must