Chapter 1

Minerva Wong wiped her sweaty palms on her pants and then tried again.

“Line 5467,” she murmured out loud as her fingers tapped the keyboard. Her eyes fastened on the blue computer screen in front of her as if her life depended on it.

Well, maybe not her life but at least her very sanity.

“You didn’t see anything.” She bit the corner of her lip, squinting harder at the screen. “Not a thing,” she repeated under her breath as she successfully inputted the code for Line 5467 and started on the next line. What was it that came out of the fissure?

“Ah!” She slammed her hand on the space beside the keyboard and dragged her fingers through her long dark hair. Her scalp tingled from the deep scratch of her nails.

She couldn’t erase it. Couldn’t get it out of her mind. After the explosion in the lab, something came out of the fissure.

Something tall. Something huge. Something inhuman.

“No, no, no.” She jumped up from the desk and paced in a circle. “There was nothing there. Just a trick of the eye.”

The silence in the office mocked her.

Minerva sighed and leaned her hip against the desk. The chaos from earlier in the day had finally eased up but still it lingered like the heavy drizzle of rain after a hurricane.

The higher-ups continued the ongoing investigation into the incident. Under the command of Director Stettler, most of the personnel had vacated the premises immediately after the explosion. Minerva meant to obey. No one challenged Director Stettler unless they had a very short life-expectancy. She’d gone back to her cubicle to collect her things ... and couldn’t leave. Shock and fear had seized her body with a vise-like grip, holding her captive in the vacant office.

What was that thing? How could it move so fast?

Minerva wished she had a rational, reasonable explanation. Fog had filled the cavity of the lab after the explosion—where had the fog come from?—so perhaps in all the pandemonium...

“Don’t lie to yourself, Minnie. You know you saw something, and it definitely wasn’t human.”

A voice came out of nowhere. “Lies feel so much better though, don’t they?”

Minerva bolted upright and scanned the dark room. “Who’s there?” The pulse at the base of her throat pounded like a piston.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Human. A human voice.

Instantly, she shook her head. Of course, it was a human voice. Who else ... what else could it be? “Who is that?” Something moved from the corner of the room. A dark shadow that came forward into the low light. She gulped, remembering the unnerving shadow she’d seen in the lab when all calamity unfolded.

For, of course, the shadow had a bulky, hulking quality to it. Still had the same silent tread, as if it glided along the floor. The more the shadow came into view, she saw it was a man. A man with shoulders twice the size of hers. Hefty. She could probably sit on one of them and still have wiggle room. When the low light landed on his beard, she let loose a pent-up sigh.

“Joshua, you scared the daylights out of me.”

“Sorry, Ms. Wong,” Joshua Dennison gave an apologetic lift of his shoulder. He stepped fully into the light and her eyes skidded over his broad frame. The dark blue janitorial uniform with its VEIL patch on the left breast pocket stretched against his chest. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Minerva rubbed at her temples, feeling the beginning throb of a headache. “Don’t worry about it.”

He came closer. “What are you doing here so late, Ms. Wong?”

She arched an eyebrow. “I could ask the same of you.”

Joshua tugged on his ginger-red beard. “I was hiding, Ms. Wong.”

She stopped massaging her temples. “You were? From what?”

His hand dropped down to his sides and framed his bulging, muscular thighs. “I don’t know. When everything went straight to he—, er, heck, I thought I saw something pass by.”

The breath left her lungs in a whoosh. “What did you think you saw?”

Joshua’s chocolate brown eyes looked down into her own, reflecting the same unease inside of herself. “Something big. Something that ain’t ... ain’t ... right.”

Minerva clamped her hand over his hair-roughened arms. “I did too!”

His eyes widened. “It moved so fast, I wasn’t sure. I thought I was just seeing things.”

“Joshua, I thought the same thing. I thought I was going crazy.”

“Then we both caught a crazy germ, Ms. Wong.”

Her lips curved into a tiny smile. “Maybe.” Without conscious thought, she rubbed his forearm back and forth. The warmth of his skin burned her palm and spread throughout her in a delicious way that made the tension leave her like the aftereffects of a hot bubble bath. “So you’ve been hiding all this time?”

“Something like that.” His eyes strayed to her hair and then lingered on it. “One of the other janitors got sick halfway through his shift so I accepted the offer to do a double shift. I should have refused.” He reached out and lifted the ends of her hair off her shoulder.

For a moment, Minerva froze. Why was he touching her hair? Furthermore, why wasn’t she disturbed by it? They’d never had a casual conversation. Just the barest exchange of polite nothings.

Her bewilderment increased as she stood by and let him caress her hair. Why wasn’t she bothered by it? And why was she starting to like it?

“I grew up in a rough part of town with my foster brothers. We’ve seen gangs and violence and I’ve been plenty scared before. But that ... whatever that was...” He rubbed the ends of her hair between his thumb and forefinger. “That’s unlike anything I’ve ever...”

Minerva wondered when she would start to feel offended by this breach of protocol. “I know.”

“Your hair’s real nice, Ms. Wong.” Joshua’s voice deepened. Its timbre sent an unexpected thrill down her spine.

“Thick and silky like a real expensive bed sheet.”

“Thank you, Joshua,” she grinned, ridiculously flattered by his rather awkward comment. A bed sheet indeed! Well, he was like a thick, comfy blanket. She had the wild desire to burrow into his body, and wrap those long, strong arms around her. Hold him close.

She froze. What in the world was going on?

Her gaze collided with his. Within the chocolate brown depths of his eyes, she saw reflected the same confusion she experienced. At the same time, they jerked away from each other as if scorched by hot flames.

Heat of a different sort flowed over the planes of her face. She was sure she was as bright as a tomato.

“My apologies for being improper, Ms. Wong. I’m so sorry.” Joshua backed away, his hands raised as if the police held him hostage. “I didn’t mean to—to—”

“It’s all right, Joshua.” She hugged herself, rubbing her upper arms vigorously. Now that she wasn’t taking in the heat that flowed from Joshua’s body, she felt cold. And bereft. Strangely bereft.

“I don’t want to lose my job, Ms. Wong. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

“It’s okay, Joshua,” she hastened to assure him. “I am not offended. If anything, I was being rather forward.” She gestured vaguely. “Rubbing your arms like that. You’re the one who can file a report for harassment.”

“It felt nice. Haven’t been touched by a woman in a long while. Few years in fact.”

Minerva blinked.

Joshua’s powerful body turned into a statute. His cheek bones flushed. “I’m sorry, Ms. Wong. I don’t know what’s come over me.”

His discomfiture was so obvious she felt a little bit of pity for him. “It’s okay. I think we’re all a bit frazzled by the events of the day.”

“Yeah.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I mean, it’s been that kind of day.”

An awkward silence, one rife with incoherent undertones settled between them. Minerva’s eyes grazed over Joshua, noticing for the first time, with something that felt suspiciously like feminine appreciation, his smooth bald head and bearded cheeks. They framed a face made attractive by proud flaring nostrils and heavily lashed eyes.

Why hadn’t she noticed him before? Was it just because of this strange day?

Today was supposed to be the day. The day she’d worked toward for the past few months. When the VEIL facility made history. A simple experiment, which should have been the simple creation of entangled photons, had exploded, opening a fissure into another...

Place? World? Nothing?

“Well, I’ll let you get back to work, Ms. Wong.”

She started and then wanted to crawl under the desk. She’d been caught staring. How adolescent!

“Thank you, and again, please don’t worry about it.”

Joshua nodded and retreated into the shadows. She stared at his broad back until she couldn’t see it anymore and then fell back into her seat.

When did Joshua Dennison, the janitor, begin to be so good-looking?

What was he, a cave man? What business did he have grabbing her hair like that? Just because it looked as soft as a black bed sheet didn’t mean he should have reached out and touched it.

Joshua leaned his head against the coolness of the wall outside the door of the office. “What a day,” he moaned. What had possessed him to ... to ... invade her privacy, her personal space? Sure, in the past, on those rare days when Ms. Wong worked late in the office, he noticed how pretty she was. She didn’t have the kind of beauty that would bowl a man’s back over like Neo in that movie the Matrix. But what she did have was a kind of understated prettiness. The kind that could look cold and distant on some women but on her, it made her look like a doll. A petite doll with that pale, white soap skin.