The Extraction (The Claudia Belle Series Book 1)
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The Extraction
The Claudia Belle Series
C. S Luis
THE EXTRACTION
THE CLAUDIA BELLE SERIES
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FIRST PUBLISHED 2017
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ALL CHARACTERS AND EVENTS IN THIS PUBLICATION ARE FICTIOUS AND ANY RESEMBLANCE TO REAL PERSONS, LIVING OR DEAD, IS PURELY COINCIDENTIAL.
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Copyright © 2017 by C.S LUIS
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without written permission from the author.
First Edition: April 2017
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN-13: 978-1543241846
www.FACEBOOK.COM/THECLAUDIABELLESERIES
TWITTER: @CSLUIS2
Blurb
Claudia, I whispered into her mind to get her attention, she seemed dazed, absorbed in her thoughts. An easy thing to happen between like- minded individuals like us.
I used to talk to your grandmother this way. She blinked up at me almost immediately.
“Did you say something?” she asked. I gazed right at her. Claudia...
She rose, pulling away from the table. “I’m not doing this with you.” she said.
“You don’t have to be afraid.” I said, regretting my attempt to invite conversation between us.
“I’m not afraid,” she said turning back to me. I felt a shock, a sort of vibration hit me suddenly and I felt lightheaded. I gazed over at her, she was stronger than I had thought. And she hadn’t even realized it.
Contents
1. Proem
2. The Man in Blue
3. The Belle’s Ring
4. The Connection
5. The Arrival
6. A New Home
7. Claudia
8. Claudia Belle
9. High School Acquaintances
10. The Man in The Black Suit and Red Tie
11. The End is always the beginning
12. Michael McClellan
About the Author
Also by C. S Luis
1
Proem
30 years earlier—In a secret facility, location unknown…
* * *
“Maya,” the voice beckoned.
Maya opened her eyes to find herself alone, but she heard the voice as clearly as she saw the linen sheets covering her body. She sat up and looked around the empty white room. It was a tiny room, a cell, just like the many other cells lining the outer hallways from each side of the corridor. She knew its dimensions by heart. She saw it in her dreams when she wandered alone, unseen, lost and searching. Searching...
“Maya,” the voice hissed.
“I hear you” She responded. “And I feel you.”
This time, the voice was as soft as a whisper: “Then come to me.”
She pulled the sheets away, lowered her legs out of the bed, and sat there upon the side of the mattress, glaring at the glass entrance and the white walls. Nothing about the appearance of her room coincided with a typical cell, but it was still a cell, and she was its prisoner. Her bare feet touched the cold marble floor.
She was dressed in a white uniform, with red lining the outer side of her pant leggings and collar. She didn’t know what that meant. Color seemed to indicate something about her place among those here. There were strange markings on the side of her cotton-sleeved garment. They seemed to signify a rank. She felt like a zoo animal looking out of the glass as she took a step forward and came to stand before it.
“Come to me, Maya. Please,” his voice begged. “I need you more than ever. Don’t let them keep us apart any longer. I want you close. Come to me. Please.”
How many days had it been? How many years? She tried to count them by the markings that lined the side of her bed. There were 17 maybe 18, she couldn’t be sure.
“How? I can’t--” She began to beg, but then her lips froze as she heard his voice again. It was so clear. So vivid.
“Yes, you can. You have far more power than you realize. Trust me,” he said.
She wanted to ask, why now? Why her? She could feel it in herself: the urgency to be with him. Was it destiny? Was it a link? A connection? What was pulling her forward on this path?
* * *
Her head spun around toward the other end of the corridor; a few lamps lit the hallway from each end, making it difficult to clearly see the inside of each individual cell across from her own. She was sure they were all asleep; she couldn’t sense them as she could sense him, but if they were awake, she’d be able to hear their thoughts.
Above the cell glass entrance was a red light, a sort of alarm system that would alert them if she tried to open the door.
“Don’t be afraid,” the voice called.
She put a hand to the glass, and at once, the red light above became green. Then, slowly, the door opened. She hesitated, waiting to hear sounds from both the guardians that patrol the corridors or the sirens that would warn them of her escape, but nothing happened. And once she felt comfortable that no one was coming, she took a cautious step forward towards the entrance, standing very still at the doorway.
“Maya, hurry. There’s no time to waste,” the voice hissed.
She sensed it traveling down the corridor, so she sprung from the doorway and into the dim hallway to follow it. She felt it ride up the vent over her head at the end of the corridor. The metal door in front of her was large, and there would be no point in trying to open it when there was a better way. Above her, the vent began to rattle; the screws slowly popped out and fell, each one landing lightly with a thud in her right palm. Then the lid popped and dropped over her.
She caught it quickly with both hands and placed it on the floor. She then quickly leaped high into the air and inside the tiny opening, disappearing into the darkness.
“I’m coming,” she whispered.
Her senses would lead her to him.
The vents were like a labyrinth of twists and turns, opening to lead into other rooms and other corridors with guardians walking the dim halls, looking for those curious little ones like her out of bed. She didn’t like those brutes. They wanted to do naughty things to her and the others. But he wouldn’t allow it, and neither would the men in the black suits, the ones carrying metal weapons that they called guns.
She crawled into the vents, struggling as she did, managing a few turns at a time. Her face and clean white uniform both became covered in dirt. There was no time to waste as she moved on her belly, struggling to the sounds of things she feared. Ahead his voice continued to whisper, “don’t be afraid…”
She knew there were only two things to fear: being alone in that cage, that cell, and never being with him, never seeing him, never feeling him as she had once hoped to.
“Yes, my love. Once you are here, we will be together forever, and no one will ever separate us,” his voice encouraged.
She had never seen him, but she knew him. In her dreams, she knew him. He was always there in her dreams, but it wasn’t the same as physical contact. Their union was in spirit only, and it was a union she longed for, but one that angered him each time—for he could not be with her as she knew he desired.
She stopped as her sleeve became caught in the side of the vent wall; a nail ripped at her uniform, and she tried to pull it away but was having a hard time doing so. Then, in her struggle, she heard voices. A vent nearby carried the sound up to her.
There were two men talking somewhere beneath her. She pulled at the sleeve until it finally came away, ripping her uniform. She pushed on towards the vent where the voices were fi
ltering through and lay flat on her belly pressing her face against the grates.
The room beneath her was large and white with a lot of equipment, and there was a container holding a figure within it. A slim figure dressed in a leather, scaly uniform was inside the container. The figure was clearly visible; even through the foggy glass. His dark hair was matted, and his skin was as pale as paper. He seemed to be in some kind of suspended animation or in a deep hibernation state of sleep.
She put her hand over her mouth—it wasn’t her beloved it, the voice that summoned her, this position, but she still felt like she knew him.
“Careful,” the lab assistant warned. She watched as the other man carefully took a sample from the mechanical arm.
A man in a white lab coat wearing a black shirt and red tie delicately dropped it onto the slide so he could arrange it under his microscope. Then, he reached over for the pipette filled with another substance.
He watched, waiting.
“They’re splitting!” The lab assistant exclaimed.
The embryo had split. Carefully, the man in the white lab coat lifted the petri dish to move to the next phase of the experiment. Maya caught sight of what appeared to be synthetic wombs. Beneath the microscope, he grasped one egg and then the other, settling them into separate synthetic uteri. The embryo seemed to attach almost immediately.
“Congratulations Dr. Nicholson. It appears the embryos have implanted.” Said his lab assistant. Maya didn’t like the man in the white lab coat. She sensed malice rooted deep in his heart.
“Perfect,” the man in the lab coat said. Maya could see he was preoccupied with the samples in the womb as they grew rapidly.
“This can’t be! It’s impossible--It’s growing rapidly, like I’ve never seen before. Do you realize what you’ve created here, Sir? We must inform The Company immediately…”
But the man in the white lab coat didn’t seem surprised. It was hard for Maya to gauge his full reaction from up in the vent.
“At the rate it’s growing, we can have a full-grown child within hours. This is monumental—” The lab assistant rejoiced. She couldn’t understand why the other man wasn’t as excited at the amazing sight; something troubled her about the man in the white lab coat. It seemed he didn’t like the idea at all. And she feared she knew why.
The lab assistant turned away, prepared the samples, and proceeded to extract the remaining test tubes, when suddenly, from behind, the man in the white lab coat picked up a metal box and swung it hard to the back of his head. The lab assistant dropped limply to the ground, instantly dead. The other man had not suspected a thing from his quiet employer.
Maya managed to stifle a cry with her hand over her mouth. She watched as the man in the white lab coat walked over to the container and glared at the form inside.
“You’ve served your purpose,” he said, and then he swung the black metal box against the side of the panel, destroying the keypad. Maya watched him smash it repeatedly until the pad was sparking and smoking.
Maya wanted to scream, wanted to do something, but she was stuck hiding in the vent. The man in the white lab coat suddenly darted his view up to the vent, and gasped as she sensed their eyes meet in the obscured shadows. She was sure he was looking right at her, staring very hard into her deep dark eyes as he smiled up at her. For a moment, she couldn’t move; she laid there frozen, her lips still trembling as she stared into his cold eyes.
The man in the white lab coat gathered the synthetic uteri carrier, a large glass case, and moved away, tipping over chemicals on his way across the lab. It rose in flames, destroying every last bit of evidence.
* * *
Then, an alarm sounded and lights began to flash everywhere; a voice began to sound throughout the corridors. The man spun around and darted out of the room with his metal box. When Maya was sure he was gone, she started hurrying to the destination where she had been headed to before this strange scene captivated her attention.
* * *
Alarms rang out. Red lights flashed urgently from everywhere; she trembled as she reached an area she had never been before. She knocked open the vent and dropped down, looking all around; in every direction, she found containers housing figures, all in a state of hibernation or sleep, just like she had witnessed in the other room.
“Maya.” She heard him, and she started moving swiftly through the containers that rattled as she stepped past them.
The alarms continued to sound, and a female computer voice soon came from all around:
“Alien life forms have been detected. Alien life forms have been detected in the proximity of sector 10. Possible contamination breached.”
She hurried, sensing him closer than she ever had. She had to stop for a moment, so weakened by the emotions running rapidly inside her. He was drawing her near. The containers continued to rattle, and she feared they would explode. But she couldn’t stop the senses driving her mad, so she took a step closer. They had been kept apart; all her life she had only sensed him, communicated with him through strange devices, through thoughts, but never had she felt him in her arms.
She dropped to her knees. Behind her, she heard a container crack, then another, and she spun around, watching as the rest began to smoke and shatter. A smoking icy mist now covered the facility.
The voice on the intercom spoke again:
"Alien life forms detected in the holding facility. …Alien life forms detected in the holding facility. Containers 5, 6, 3, 2, 9, and 4 have been breached. Containers 7, 8, 10—have been breached. CODE RED! All containers in the proximity of sector 12 have been breached! All containers in the proximity of sector 12 have been breached!"
Maya slowly looked around and saw them for the first time. They were beautiful. Their pale faces were crowned with matted locks of hair, and all of them were dressed in dark leather scaly clothes. She couldn’t stand as they came to surround her, but she wasn’t afraid; there was no fear, only desire in their purple eyes. She could feel the desire, but she was not theirs to have.
“Maya.” She heard his voice as he leaped before her and now stood in front of her, extending his hand. The other pale beings scattered away, vanishing into the misty corridors of the building, darting into the shadows to wreak havoc on their captors and find their own kind.
“Maya!” She looked up at him, his eyes so inviting, large, and rewarding.
“We’ve been kept from each other for far too long, my love,” he whispered. She reached for his hand, and he pulled her to him, gripping her tightly in his embrace. He hungered for her, but his strength kept him from ravaging her. He gasped, merely squeezing her close, tracing his face down her neckline, and savoring her scent.
She collapsed in his arms, not sure why she was so weak. She couldn’t resist him, and she could sense his desires long before she found the image of herself beneath him.
Suddenly, the intercom went off again:
“Alien life forms detected in sector 10. All prisoners’ cells have been breached!”
The alarms continued behind them; they were in the quarters of her sisters. They were freeing her sisters, but she wasn’t afraid for them.
“I’ve waited for this moment for far too long, to feel you in my arms, to have you by my side. My beloved Maya, they will pay for keeping us apart.”
He lifted her in his arms, gazing towards the ceiling above.
“Burn it down! Destroy everything!” He screamed. The ceiling above fell away, and through the gap, Maya could see other beings were ascending into the sky, and with them, they carried girls she had known as a prisoner in this place: friends and sisters.
“Mates,” Quinn corrected, and then he darted into the skies himself, holding her tightly in his embrace, tearing through the remaining ceiling wall. Maya only saw the building, her prison, one last time as it burned and exploded. The skies were crowded with the angels of her dreams, and she closed her eyes, letting the protective arms of her lover carry her away.
2
February 2011, a year earlier, somewhere in Chicago, Illinois, in an undisclosed location
A black Lincoln pulled into a dark deserted parking lot of an abandoned building; a black SUV and two dark green hummers followed it. Immediately, two men dressed in black suits emerged from the Lincoln's rear door. Next to them, a squad of 10 men, equipped with assault rifles and military gears, stepped out of the two dark green hummers. From behind, a white van stopped, and two other men wearing lab coats jumped out. At once, two of the squad troops retrieved a large incubator from the back of the white van. They carefully set it on the pavement.
"Tell me where?" A man in a dark blue suit asked, speaking into an earpiece pinned to the side of his ear.
He emerged from the front passenger seat, wearing dark tinted sunglasses. He removed the eyewear, narrowing his large green eyes up at the building with a smile, as the squad of troops raced towards its entrance.
"The building seems empty," the man in blue said. At once, another man's voice answered from the other end of the receiver.
"We both know appearances can be deceiving.” There was a brief silence. “Secure the building and report back."
"As you wish,” the man in blue replied, moving forward and directing the two troops carrying the incubator to move out.
Two men from the unit grabbed a hold of the incubator and walked towards the entrance as the squad sergeant led the team inside the building.