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

become exceptionally paranoid, but if Rayna was headed down the same road … No. He wasn’t going there. He knew better than to try reading between the lines.

Everything – including that promised home world – depended upon stability at the top and trust from the ranks.

Another Spanish phrase dropped in from his previous identity, but Ulrich shooed it away like a pest. The last thing he wanted was more “therapy” from Brother James.

Rayna did not speak on the final jump home. They landed in the docking bay of Lioness minutes before James and Valentin returned on a Scramjet, escorting a liberated immortal. The five of them met as the automated dock loaders secured their ships.

“Success?” Valentin asked.

“Of course,” Rayna said. “You would expect less? And you?”

“A spectacle, but our army has grown for when we need them.”

“And this child?”

James stopped his brother with a wave.

“A brave boy who has also joined our army. Isn’t that right, Rikhi?”

The child was plainly agog, his eyes flittering between the giant hybrids and the grandeur of a cruise liner.

“You don’t have to speak now,” Valentin said, pointing to a woman entering the bay who was neither hybrid nor immortal. “We have someone who will ease the transition. Her name is Ophelia Tomelin. She will take good care of you and explain how things work.”

The boy did not want to let go. “This is my new home?”

“It is. For now.” Valentin motioned Ophelia closer. “Go with her, Rikhi. You’ll fit in here like you never did in Peshawan.”

Ophelia took the boy by his other hand and tugged until he let go of Valentin. Ophelia didn’t say a word. Did not smile. Did not acknowledge the Jewel hybrids she once fought to preserve.

Ulrich used to love her. She coddled him while he was still a compliant tool of the Chancellory. Somedays, he thought she wanted to set him free. But he didn’t see as much of her after James broke the conditioning program and took charge of the hybrids himself. Ulrich worried about her.

“A good day’s work,” Valentin said. “How soon before we break Chancellor streaming protocols for public viewing?”

James said, “I’ll review the footage myself and make the necessary alterations. I want the other colonies to understand what we’ve done, but not with every specific.”

“Is good to plan limited exposure,” Rayna said. “Perhaps next time, you give me chance to be speaker. No?”

James batted a half-smile at his wife. “Perhaps I will. A little work on your broken Engleshe, and I have no doubt you’ll be a brilliant speaker.”

Valentin smirked, as did Ulrich, but Rayna stiffened her shoulders and walked away.

“Throw her a bone, brother,” Valentin said. “Your wife becomes erratic when she is kept from the action for too long.”

James slapped his brother from behind. “Don’t remind me. I didn’t think her pregnancy was ever going to end.” He pivoted to Ulrich. “How did she behave during the mission?”

Ulrich chose his words with care. “Oh, very mindful of the details. Purposeful. Conversation limited to mission parameters.”

“You twist the truth well, Ulrich. But I’m sure if anything difficult were to arise, you’d have the courage to tell me?”

“Of course, Brother James. I serve you above all others.”

“What do you say we share a drink to our victories? I have many things to do afterward. Many plans. Many places to go.”

Ulrich would have asked what “many plans” and “many places” meant, but he didn’t bother. One simply did not ask James such questions. One waited until he provided the answers.

19

Pynn compound, Boston Prefecture

22 days after attack on Vasily Station

 

M ICHAEL RACKED UP TEN KILLS since entering the civil war – three by self-defense, seven by assassination. Most of his assignments targeted assassins before they took down Chancellors whose allegiance might favor Solomon equity. Even as he saved Chancellors, he despised these jaundiced, vengeful people for the cowardice of going after enemies through hired guns instead of face-to-face. They shielded themselves behind bureaucracy and alliances. They ordered murders that rarely took place in public.

No armies. No uniforms. No long-term strategy.

No one – neither Chancellor nor Solomon – knew when their deathblow would come. Instead, a war brought on after losing the colony Hiebimini and its treasured brontinium decades ago spiraled into a neverending cycle. Some suggested this is how the Chancellors might disappear from history – annihilation at their own hands. Those whispers rose as fears of bigger, more daring strikes intensified. And if the Unification Guard ever took sides …

“I get it,” he told Sam, as she prepared for another trip to the Great Plains Metroplex, the governing home of the UG. “It’s neutral territory, so they say. But how do you know it ain’t a smokescreen?”

“For what, sweetie?”

“For the Admiralty to decide which alliances have the best chance to come through this in one piece then take direct action against the rest. They could do it. End the war in weeks. They’ll create a few fireworks, scatter the bodies here and there. But they’ll have all you people back on the same page, like it or not.”

She finished her hair. “You people?”

“Yeah, sorry. Came out wrong. But what if the Admiralty decides, ‘Hey, we can’t protect them from the terrorists, so maybe it’s time to show them we’re good for something?’”

“If there was a threat, we would have heard. Either through my connections, through Finnegan Moss, or even through the equity movement. After all, Solomons are everywhere. Rikard said it himself: ‘Solomons are the true eyes and ears of our civilization.’ I’ll be fine, Michael.”

She wrapped her arms around him. “I know we vowed to fight together, but this is Chancellor diplomacy. Your presence might compromise both my Presidium’s alliances and the equity movement. Finnegan agrees. You did speak with him?”

“I