The Ghost Pact: A Sci-Fi Horror Thriller (Tech Ghost Book 2) Read online

  THE GHOST PACT

  ©2021 BEN WOLF

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  Print and eBook formatting by Steve Beaulieu. Artwork provided by Dog Ear Design, LLC

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead is coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  Contents

  Praise for The Ghost Mine

  ALSO IN SERIES

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  Thank you for reading Ghost Pact

  ALSO IN SERIES

  More In Sci-Fi

  About the Author

  Praise for The Ghost Mine

  “Wow! The Ghost Mine is a phenomenal story. Ben Wolf excels at so many elements of storytelling, it’s impossible to identify a single gem:

  Richly developed characters; a fascinating and detailed future of machine-human hybrids and deep-space mining operations; an intriguing mystery; shocking-yet-believable twists; breakneck action; and more than a few leave-the-lights-on/eye-watering moments of sheer terror. Now imagine all this in the hands of a deft wordsmith. Man!

  Think Aliens meets Ender’s Game meets Rambo. Taut, vivid, and captivating, The Ghost Mine will leave you breathlessly bandaging paper cuts from flipping the pages so fast. This one’s a definite winner.”

  - Robert Liparulo, bestselling author of the Immortal Files and the Dreamhouse Kings series

  “A snappy, fun wild ride from hell! Wolf’s knock-out novel brings all the sci-fi intensity of Ridley Scott’s Alien movies together with a Michael Crichton style thriller. When space colonization goes wrong in The Ghost Mine, it means a long, nail-biting night of sheer reading delight! Positively unputdownable!”

  - Brandon Barr, USA Today Bestseller, author of the Song of the World series

  “The Ghost Mine is dark and dangerous—sci-fi horror in the vein of Aliens and The Thing. If you like intense pressure, hazardous conditions, and a deposit of gore and treachery, then grab your pickax and a light and dig right in.”

  - Kerry Nietz, award-winning author of Frayed and Amish Vampires in Space

  “Ben Wolf’s latest novel, The Ghost Mine, is a Dantesque trip into hell, complete with demons, spirits, and plenty of evil. If you enjoy tales of fending off fiends in tight, underground places, then jump into this novel.”

  - Kyle Pratt, science fiction author

  “Fans of Aliens, line up—The Ghost Mine is a chilling sci-fi thriller that leaves you wishing you had a plasma repeater ready for whatever horror comes ripping out of the pages.”

  - Steve Rzasa, award-winning science fiction author

  “A brilliantly blended story of sci-fi and horror with heart, romance, and drama that’ll keep you turning pages until the very end.”

  - Daniel Kuhnley, author of Dark Lament

  “The Ghost Mine is one enthralling, edge-of-your-seat ride. Ben Wolf has combined the environment of mining with that of science fiction, space travel and high tech weapons. It is a successful marriage. You cannot put this novel down.”

  - Peter Younghusband, Reviews by Peter

  “The Ghost Mine is a thrill-a-minute roller coaster, only through a far off space mine that will most likely kill you rather than let you finish the ride.

  Okay, so readers will survive the tale, but your expectations will be shredded with plot twists, action, betrayal, and probably lots of death.

  Ben Wolf has crafted an entertaining journey into darkness. Don’t miss this one!”

  - Jason Joyner, author of the Rise of the Anointed series

  “Not only is Ben Wolf handsome , but he’s a damn good writer as well!”

  - Kirk DouPonce, Future Presidential Candidate

  ALSO IN SERIES

  THE GHOST MINE

  THE GHOST PACT

  THE GHOST PLAGUE

  “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.”

  – Proverbs 27:17

  This book is dedicated to Monét Camel.

  Thanks for always keeping me sharp, brother.

  GG, 1984.

  Prologue

  Dr. Hallie Hayes gripped the armrests of her jumpseat as another impact rocked the Persimmon.

  “Status report?” Captain Mitch Dawes called from the cockpit.

  “Shields at 80%,” replied the co-pilot and first officer, a handsome but naïve young lieutenant named Bryant Sokolov.

  “Not good,” Captain Dawes said in return. He guided the small Whip-Class ship through whirls and curls and spins, trying to evade their pursuers.

  From her jumpseat, Hallie could see the distant stars flashing by the cockpit glass with each new maneuver the captain executed. Beams of wide red lasers streaked past them into space, and she shuddered.

  This was real. Not just another drill.

  Another jolt rocked the ship, and Dr. Cecilia Bright, one of Hallie’s fellow researchers, gripped Hallie’s hand. They exchanged a furtive, terrified glance, and both squeezed their grips tighter.

  We can make it, Hallie told herself. Captain Dawes is the best for a reason. This is why he’s on this mission in the first place.

  The next shudder rattled Hallie’s teeth and quaked into her bones.

  “Shields at 64%!” Bryant called. “She’s holding up well, but it won’t last forever.”

  “Damn. Hold on!” Captain Dawes kept working on calculations for a jump.

  Hallie held her breath. Across from her, the other two scientists on their project sat in comparable jumpseats. Dr. Angela Wainwright barely fit into her harness due to her size, but she was generally the nicest, most jovial person Hallie had ever met. Even so, terror now etched her round face.

  Next to her sat Dr. Luke Messa. He was a young guy like
Bryant, about the same age as Hallie, whereas both Angela and Cecilia were older by about ten years. Were it not for Luke’s intellect, Hallie might’ve mistaken him for a soldier based on his build. He, too, clutched the ends of his armrests with white-knuckled intensity.

  Another blast tore into the ship, and this time sparks rained down from the ceiling with the impact.

  The loud hiss of steam escaping turned Hallie’s head toward their cargo safely sealed in a cylindrical containment pod held in a transparent suspension crate. It wasn’t much bigger than a thermos, and blue light from the suspension crate glinted off its chrome exterior.

  It was, without question, what their pursuers were after. It was the only reason worth attacking a science vessel.

  But how did they know about it in the first place? The whole project was top secret, sealed just as tightly as the containment pod itself.

  The “how” didn’t matter now. All that mattered was escaping their pursuers and getting that containment pod to its rightful owners.

  The ship rattled again, and more sparks rained down on them, prickling the back of Hallie’s neck. She brushed the sparks away, hoping they hadn’t singed her skin too badly.

  “We’re locked,” Captain Dawes shouted. “Brace for warp!”

  He pressed his palm against one of the cockpit screens, and the ship lurched toward the stars.

  Hallie’s stomach lurched with it.

  She blinked, and the stars changed. They somehow seemed closer, slightly larger.

  The red laser beams no longer streaked past the ship. Cecilia released her grip on Hallie’s hand, and everyone exhaled a breath of relief.

  “Shields at 58%. Scans show no sign of the enemy,” Bryant reported, his voice far calmer than before.

  “It won’t last,” Captain Dawes grumbled. “They’ll catch up. They always do.”

  Hallie’s heart rate had slowed, but now it sped back up. “What can we do?”

  Captain Dawes and Bryant peered back at her from their chairs in the cockpit. Neither of them spoke at first.

  “Not a lot of options,” Captain Dawes finally said. “Not a lot out this far. That’s why we took this route—less chance of being discovered.”

  “No habitable planets or moons. No space stations or settlements.” Bryant’s crisp blue eyes locked on Hallie, and he gave a slight grin. “Wasn’t supposed to happen like this. A quiet jaunt, they said.”

  “Not anymore,” Captain Dawes said. “We just have to keep running. Jump when we can, evade when we can’t. Give the shields as much time to replenish between bouts as possible. Not much else we can do until we get closer to our destination.”

  “And once we’re in range…” Bryant held up his fist with his index finger extended and his thumb up, as if mimicking a gun. “…pew, pew! The orbital platforms will blow anyone following us clear out of the sky. Or… space, I guess.”

  Captain Dawes continued, “Until then, we—”

  Something blipped on the screens in the cockpit, and they both turned back toward it. Hallie couldn’t see the source, but she’d heard it, plain as day, and trepidation seized her chest anew.

  “They found us already?” she asked.

  Cecilia grabbed her hand again, and she inhaled a sharp breath. Hallie didn’t blame her on either count.

  “No… this is something bigger,” Bryant said. “The thing’s huge… giving off crazy heat signatures. Just the sheer size of it… I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “I have,” Captain Dawes said. “And it may just be that we’ve found our salvation. Chart a course straight for it, Bryant.”

  “Aye, Captain. Looks like… maybe a day? Two at the most?”

  Hallie gulped. Could they last that long?

  “It’s our best shot,” Captain Dawes said. “Our only shot. We’ve got to try.”

  Whatever “it” was, Hallie agreed with the captain. Their mission was too important to fail, and the contents of that containment pod were too valuable to fall into the wrong hands.

  Both Captain Dawes and Bryant looked back at Hallie again.

  She nodded to them. “Do it.”

  1

  Less than one year after leaving Ketarus-4

  “Hold ’er steady, now,” Captain Enix Marlowe said over the comms. “You’re almost there. Nice and easy.”

  Justin Barclay stood at his station in the drill chamber below, listening to Captain Marlowe talking to himself as he guided the Viridian, a Stinger-Class rig, ever closer to the asteroid. The closer they got, the bigger the asteroid loomed in the viewscreen on Justin’s workspace console.

  An array of targeting reticles, some red, some yellow, and some blue, bounced up and down over the image as the rig’s sensors strained to detect stores of copalion and precious metals inside. At a preliminary glance, it looked like they might have found a good one.

  “Show me those claws, Arlie,” Captain Marlowe said.

  “Copy,” Arlie Bush, the rig’s first officer said.

  The grinding and creaking of the rig’s articulated landing gear filled the excavation decks. On Justin’s screen, eight spiderlike legs made of a hyper-strong alloy unfolded past the asteroid and promptly clamped onto its rocky surface. Drill bits emerged from the base of each leg, whirred to life, and dug into the asteroid, anchoring the rig to it.

  Justin flexed the metal fingers of his right hand. Now his job would begin.

  “Great landing,” Captain Marlowe said over the comms, again more to himself than anyone else. “Excavation crew, we’re secure. Start suckin’ out that cream filling.”

  Justin smirked. Captain Marlowe’s line was the same every time they landed on a new asteroid. But it was his ship. He could say whatever he wanted to.

  [You good, JB?] Keontae’s voice said inside Justin’s head.

  “Yeah,” Justin muttered. “Not my first asterodeo.”

  [Chill, man. Your heart rate’s elevated. Just lookin’ out for you.]

  “I’m fine. Might be a big score,” Justin said. “And I don’t need you reporting on my vitals every five minutes.”

  [I said chill, man. Just concerned for you. That’s all.]

  “You say somethin’, Barclay?”

  Justin turned to his right. His shift supervisor, Rowley Pine, was giving him his usual suspicious beady-eyed glare. The guy had a ring of long hair hanging at about ear-level, but the top of his head was shiny and bald, and he had crooked yellow teeth. All in all, he looked more like a serial rapist than a rig-runner.

  “All good, Rowley.” Justin gave him a metallic thumbs-up in lieu of the metallic middle finger he wanted to give him.

  “Then focus,” Rowley barked. It was his preferred tone—at least when he wasn’t growling or grumbling. “Airlock doors are open. Line up the drill, and shoot your shot.”

  “Yep. On it.” Justin gritted his teeth. He lowered his voice. “You mind helping me with this one?”

  [I dunno, JB. You been givin’ me some attitude. Not sure you deserve the help,] Keontae said.

  Justin could almost picture his best friend’s glowing green form standing at the console next to him, folding his arms. But it was just his imagination. Keontae was safely concealed within Justin’s arm, as usual.

  Justin placed his metal right palm on the control screen embedded in the console. It was older tech, but retrofitting new terminals and new controls for the Viridian’s drill would’ve cost more than the old rig was even worth, so Captain Marlowe had decided to make do with what he had.

  “We both know you’ve got the steadier hand,” Justin said as he tried to guide the reticle, now a singular blue crosshairs shape instead of several in different colors, to find the most ideal spot to target on the asteroid’s surface. The reticle bounced and wavered and shook as he moved it.

  The closer he could land it to their quarry, the higher accuracy the drill would have in reaching the asteroid’s biggest reserves. Higher accuracy meant more yield for their work, and more yield meant more pay
in the long run.

  And since they only got one shot per asteroid, he had to nail the shot the first time.

  Justin had run the drill’s targeting for a handful of asteroids now, but he’d only done one of them manually. The other times, Keontae had entered the system from Justin’s arm and nailed the targeting with near-perfect accuracy each time.

  The one time Justin tried it, he’d only gotten 84% accuracy. It wasn’t a bad number, but when Keontae could hit 98% or higher each time, it made no sense for Justin to even try.

  [I’m gonna need more than that, JB,] Keontae said.

  Justin clenched his teeth again. “Fine. I’m sorry I got snippy with you.”

  [And?]

  “And you’re the greatest.”

  [Damn right I am,] Keontae said. [Now sit back and watch the master do his work.]

  A familiar tingle buzzed in Justin’s metal fingertips and palm, and he felt Keontae’s presence leave his arm and enter the drill system. Immediately, the reticle’s wobbling slowed to a soft vibration, and then it went entirely still.

  “What’s the holdup, Barclay?” Rowley barked.

  “Don’t get your dick in a knot, Rowley,” Justin quipped. “I know what I’m doing.”

  “We don’t have time for your bullshit,” Rowley snapped. “Get your targeting set. Shift’s over in a half hour, and I want us balls-deep in this rock before that bell sounds.”