The Impossible Future: Complete set by Frank Kennedy (mini ebook reader .txt) 📕

They took positions on the go-order. Two casualties among the mercenaries. Minimal losses. Their families will be compensated. Part of the deal.”

“What deal?”

“Ophelia and her Chief would not work with me without compensation and guarantees. Their rationale should be obvious.”

“What did you give them?”

“Protection and prestige, Ms. Pynn. Dear Ophelia maintains control over her project, and Patricia Wylehan walks away with a small fortune. She can settle anywhere off-world and live her days without taking arms against the Chancellory. I cannot erase her shame as a failed officer of the Guard, but I can free her of Earth, and that is no small reward.”

“That’s all she needed? Money? After what you did to her unit?”

He stopped and stared. “Do I detect moral qualms, Ms. Pynn? I thought Walter and Grace taught you better.”

She glanced at James, who seemed indifferent. At the very least, in no hurry to her defense. Behind him, Michael shrugged. He mouthed the silent words “I got nothing.”

She had little more, as if she was starting over, entering this world for the first time.

“Fine, Admiral. Great. So, I’m an idiot. But I’m not brain-dead. What did you gain by wiping out Emil Bouchet’s security team?”

“The same thing any good soldier earns when he lures the enemy away from his base of operations: A way in.”

He tossed out a holocube. It opened with an external shot of a giant structure looming well above the clouds and extending to the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Perrone focused on the brothers.

“This was not an easy decision for Valentin and James, but they each have special motivation. They must hold the sins of their father to account.” They nodded as he spoke. “Emil Bouchet has not left SkyTower in twenty years. He is well protected but also unaware I have been chipping away at his defenses for years. Thanks to my compromise with Ophelia, he risked his primaries. In effect, he gave away the keys to the front door.”

He double-tapped his amp and threw open a second holocube, which displayed a grand room with elegant furniture, vaulted ceilings, and sculptured lighting arrays. The view panned over.

Another festooned officer entered the frame.

“Maj. Marshall,” the admiral said. “Your report?”

“Excellent news, Admiral,” said Sexton Marshall. “We have secured the Bouchet compound. Minimal casualties.”

“And our hosts?”

“Awaiting your pleasure, sir.”

Marshall pointed and the holocube followed. Sammie did not recognize these people sitting on a couch, but the family resemblance was clear enough. Emil and Frances Bouchet. Sammie glanced at James, who gave no hint of emotion. After everything he went through with Tom and Marlena Sheridan, after agonizing over their deaths, she assumed he would show something. Joy, relief, anticipation, even rage. The old Jamie would have bundled them all.

“Very good,” Perrone said. “Emil, Frances! Wonderful to see you both again. And I have fantastic news. Both your sons are alive and well. Look at them.” He shifted the cube. “Soldiers of the Guard. A matching set. And so keen to speak to you on matters of great sensitivity. Yes?”

The parents said nothing. Maj. Marshall did.

“We await your arrival, Admiral.”

“Indeed, Major. A good and dutiful friend, as always.”

He closed the cubes and leaned in to Samantha. He grabbed her by the chin.

“You may be a Chancellor by birth, but you are also a child. Do not forget.” As Sammie let the verbal dagger bury deep, Perrone switched gears to James. “And now, for your present. What do you say we meet the other Jewel?”

39

J AMES DARED NOT EXPLAIN HIMSELF to Michael and Sammie, not when Holland, Valentin, or Perrone could disrupt his plans in a heartbeat. He wanted them to understand what he’d become and where he was headed. James blinked and strode beside Ignatius.

“I’m closer than I could have imagined. If my father has the answers Perrone promised, I’ll have a real chance to finish this.”

He walked alongside Ignatius through a street of the nuked city. Ashen sculptures of human remains lay scattered amid the rubble.

Ignatius sighed. “And if he does not? What then?”

“Then it means the admiral lied.”

“You heard what Michael said about honest Chancellors.”

“I’m not sure who to trust. One of them will turn on us, I’m sure of it. Perrone, Ophelia, Emil. There’s another move coming. If I don’t anticipate it…”

“You did not mention Valentin. Is he beyond reproach?”

“Yes. What we share is unique. He will be with me, whatever I decide.”

“And if your decision is to kill your father? Will he join you in plunging the knife through Emil’s heart?”

“If I prove our father needs to die, then yes. He will.”

Ignatius scooped ash. It fell through his fingers.

“You may be right, but I also think it won’t matter.” Ignatius ran his hand across James’s cheek, painting it gray. “She’s coming, James. She’ll be in front of you in minutes. When you see her, the changes in your life will dwarf these past few days.”

James pushed the other Jewel from his thoughts during the madness of the past few hours, but she was always there, niggling around in the back of his mind. Her presence never disappeared after she crossed into this universe and entered his dreams.

“Why?” James asked. “I already know what she is.”

“Precisely the problem. Like you, she can do THIS.” He pointed to the destruction. “But like you, she is an altered human coexisting with a life form of potential far beyond the human imagination. You are the only two of your kind in a hundred light-years. You will not be inclined to destroy what might literally be called a soulmate.”

“I’m stronger than you think, Ignatius.”

“Are you? There was one other like you. Like her. He walked the path possessing the wisdom of the Jewel. He struggled to the last day of his