Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller by Brandon Ellis (easy to read books for adults list txt) 📕

“How did—” Anderle glanced at his computer. “You son of a bitch.” He reared back and punched Drew smack in the chin.

Drew lost balance but was held up by the guard. He shook his head like a dog, doing his best to get the punch’s sting off his face. “You hid that shit from me? This entire time I’ve been down here, aliens were flying through our atmosphere?”

Anderle looked satisfied. “Yep.” He cocked his head toward the door. “Get him out of here.”

“Dǎjiǎ zǒngtǒng,” ordered Yu.

Anderle frowned. “What?”

A guard pushed Anderle against a wall and wrestled him to the ground.

Anderle grunted and pushed the soldier off, only to have the man come down with a knee into his stomach. Anderle curled into a ball and his assailant grabbed his hair, pulling Anderle to his feet. Pain swept across his face.

They pushed him back on the ground face first, slapping cuffs on him. They picked him up and shoved him against a wall. Anderle, face scratched, glanced up at a camera, mouthing, “Plan B. Plan B.”

Drew caught it, not understanding what Anderle was doing. He curled his lips, angry at the man who led him here, who trapped him in this White House cave, wanting to shove dirt in his eye when he was already down. “Your Chinese friends here really know how to stay loyal, huh?”

Yu planted his hand hard against Drew's chest and pushed him against the wall, next to Anderle. “Enough this. We not need you. You die.” He pulled out his semi-automatic, cocked it, and pressed it against Drew’s forehead.

Drew closed his eyes.

“Huílái! Huílái!” yelled the guards, moving toward the doorway, their rifles thrust forward.

There T-hacker stood, his sharp business suit on, his perfectly short cut beard, and his twenty-something face glowing.

Yu eased up on the pressure, then brought his gun down, glaring at T-hacker. “You dumb.” Yu motioned for his guards to seize him.

T-hacker backed up, slowly raising a digital device in his hand. The guards jabbed their guns forward, warning him to get back.

“It’s something for you, General Yu. It’s Mya. This is a video of her, for you.”

Drew tensed up. This probably wasn’t good, no matter how it panned out.

Yu marched to T-hacker and went to grab the device. A video was on it with a play icon in the middle. He thought better of it, ordering a guard to take it and press play.

Yu jerked back and so did Drew, craning his head to see what was playing. Anderle, on the other hand, slowly moved over to his desk, cocking his head for Drew to follow.

Drew shook his head and glanced back at the screen. It was a security camera view of Mya sleeping in her bed. The lights went on, the guard sleeping on the stool next to Mya’s bed awoke, disoriented. His gun catapulted out of his hands and clacked on the floor.

Yu’s facial features contorted more at each passing second, anger rising. He grunted words, sharp, curt words.

Mya woke, screaming, then crawled back in the far most corner of her bed, fear in her eyes. Several men in black fatigues dashed in, throwing the guard on the floor, shoving a pillowcase over his head and pulling out rope, tying the soldier’s arms and hands. They grabbed Mya and raced out of the room.

Anderle, standing at his desk, arms cuffed behind him, giggled.

Yu turned and hucked the device at Anderle.

Anderle ducked, the device smashing into a wall, breaking into dozens of pieces, chunks dropping to the floor.

Yu pointed at the open doorway, ordering his troops. “Nǐ zài zuò shénme? Zhǎo tā.”

His soldiers pushed through the doorway, bumping T-hacker out of the way, where he stumbled and fell to the ground. The soldiers dashed into the hallway, heading for the bend in the hall—heading to find Mya.

Bratatat! Bratatat! Bratatat!

The soldiers jerked back and forth violently, their rifles flying into the air, bullets ripping through them, punching blood and innards all over the hallway floor. They fell, lifeless, their body’s slack; dead.

Men in black fatigues emerged from around the corner, machine guns in hand.

Yu turned, his gun pointed directly at Anderle. He pulled the trigger, the gun kicking back, a flash exiting the barrel, the bullet skimming across Anderle’s shoulder.

Anderle dropped to the floor, using his desk as cover.

Bratatat!

Yu twitched wildly as if electrocuted. Yu, much like his soldiers, was dead before he hit the floor.

A young man in black clothing, couldn’t be more than eighteen-years-old, and skinny like most hackers, rushed into the oval office, hot machine gun pointed toward the ceiling.

“We got ’em, sir.” His ashen face said he’d never ended the life of another, and probably never cared to do it again.

Anderle stood, fingers pressing into the sodden mess, where the bullet had grazed his shoulder, cringing. “You extracted Mya too?”

More gun fire riddled the hall outside the oval office. They all instinctively ducked and T-hacker ran into the room.

Anderle jutted his finger toward the gun fire. “Go, help them.”

The young man in black nodded and hurried out of the door, joining his friends lined up against the wall, exchanging fire with Chinese soldier’s out of view around the corner and down the hallway.

A man in black fatigues pointed his gun around the corner.

Bratatat! Bratatat!

His hands and arms vibrated. He let go of the trigger, pulling back, and resting against the wall. Everything about the way he was handling himself said he’d learned the art of war on a video screen and was not prepared for combat.

Drew made his way over to Anderle. “What’s happening?”

“I told you Drew. If the General ever did something I didn’t like, I’d end his life. And that’s what’s going on.”

“Where’s Mya?”

An explosion rocked the hallway. Drew covered his head, then turned, his ears ringing. A cloud of white dust filled the hall, remnants of a Chinese explosive blasting a hole in the wall.

Several young men—Anderle’s men—lay motionless on the floor. Others rushed over, pulling them out of the way, and returned fire.

Drew