The Kali Algorithm (First Draft)

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Welcome to The Kali Algorithm! This is an excerpt from the very start of the novel, and I do hope you enjoy this little teaser. This is my first experience using Wattpad, and I'm more than a little trepidatious putting my work out here, but there's nothing more valuable to me at this point than feedback from real readers like you. Please let me know what you think by voting or commenting.

And just so you know, I've most of the novel written—at least the first draft—so if you do like this teaser and are eager to follow along with Sana's adventure, I'll be publishing additional chapters here on Wattpad.

— C.S.

Thursday, London, U.K.

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It all started with yoga. Which makes sense—yoga was my beginning—the beginning of my day—the beginning of my coping with things after my dad passed—or "disappeared" if you want to take my mom's view on the matter.

Focus on the breath.

I was in London, buzzing, Brexiting, beans on toast, Spring-heeled jack, burka blooming feeling on top of the world London—my first work-related trip and my first international trip in 16 years (well, not counting Mexico), since I was 12, actually, the year we lost my dad, who had so loved to travel, whose work required travel, who met mom while at work on travel....

When telling this story, I have a restless mind.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

It all started with yoga when I was in London to present a paper I'd published on work with machine learning algorithms in a very obscure and esoteric mathematics journal at a very obscure and esoteric mathematics conference attended by, well, you get the idea, right?

Math is my thing, but I know most people get that deer in the headlights look when you say that you not only love math but that you have a Ph.D. in math. And then when you go on to say that you're a data scientist at a multinational oil conglomerate and your job is to use big data algorithms to help find more oil, well, then the deer with his eyes lit just wants to bolt into the woods, especially if the deer is a buck.

At least that's the story I liked to tell myself. To be honest, I was what one might call socially awkward. I'd never had much patience for small talk. I was really only ever totally in my comfort zone when losing myself in numbers or losing myself in yoga.

Which is how I ended up at the yoga studio that second morning in London. I was in math-geek heaven at the conference, but I had yoga withdrawal in both mind and body. But it wasn't the yoga class, really, but what happened right after the yoga class that's important.

After class, wrapped into my calf-length tunic, I'd set off into the bright morning with a jaunty gate that matched my mood—one part post-yoga endorphin rush and one part my ongoing on-top-of-the-world feeling at being in London (where I imagined that people said things like 'jaunty gate').

Everything appeared especially bright, so bright I needed to squint and wished I'd brought sunglasses. I weaved quickly around and by other pedestrians, and was in sort of trance, almost like I was high—not just in the mental-state sense either, but in the physical as well—I had a strange yet awesome sensation of being literally light on my feet, feeling like I was nearly weightless and moving without a sense of effort. 

And it was in that blissfully unaware state that I forgot something very basic about walking in London. Coming to a cross street with the pedestrian signal already flashing, I didn't think twice about easily beating the light to the safely of the center median. Barely slowing, I did a quick look left for oncoming traffic, and, seeing it was clear, stepped off the curb.