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

tugged at her robe. “I wasn’t expecting you until five. I’ve only begun to prepare …”

Celia waved her off. “Do what you must, Ester. Finnegan, I asked you a question.”

“I’m sorry, love,” he said. “I hope my absence didn’t give you a start.” It did. “I was restless. Then I remembered that in the time I’ve been here, I’ve yet to see the dawn. I hear it’s quite beautiful.”

“It’s also an hour away,” Celia said.

“Yes, well, I still struggle with these long days. Ester tells me that some newcomers don’t become acclimated for years.”

“She’s correct. But you won’t be here much longer, so it’s no matter. Once the Guard has restored order, you’ll return to Boston and manage your affairs. Speaking of which, I trust you’ve taken care of the matter we discussed earlier?”

He held his pose without any inkling of unease. Celia was impressed. Maybe he was too impressive.

“Samantha Pynn,” he said. “You were right. She was disturbing the peace. If I’m correct, the matter should be in hand any time now.”

“If I checked with my people in Boston, they would confirm this?”

“By monitoring activity at my estate. Yes.”

He set down his café and came to her. She thought he looked rugged. Black silken shirt, pressed white trousers. He wrapped his arms around her and applied a firm kiss. She placed a hand over his heart and dreamed of being young again.

“What do you say we watch the dawn together?” He whispered.

“Perhaps another time, my love. I appreciate my sleep. Coming?”

“I’m dressed, and I’ve had my café.”

She kissed his hand and retreated. It seemed so innocent. Yet Celia knew better. For the first time, she knew better. When she felt his heart, it beat like a young boy madly in love. Yet there was no love in this man. It beat out of anxiety. The heartbeat of a traitor.

54

Harrisboro Prefecture

 

M ICHAEL WOKE TO FLAMES AND A JABBING headache. An arm tugged at him. Only as he shook off the disorientation did he realize Carlos was trying to stand, using Michael as leverage. All about him, distorted metal, sparks, and flames presented an unfamiliar kind of hell. Carlos bled down the side of his face but seemed unaware as he rose.

“Dude, help me up,” Michael said between vicious coughs.

“What happened?” Carlos seemed genuinely lost.

“Think we crashed. Don’t you remember?”

Carlos lapped a hand over his bloody cheek and looked at the result, unimpressed.

“Michael?”

“Yeah, dude, it’s me. Give me a lift.”

Carlos tottered, but Xi Lan Pao swooped him up before he fell. As Michael broke from his fog, Maya Fontaine bent beside him.

“We have to go,” she said, soft but urgent. “They’re coming.”

As he pushed up, Michael felt a sharp twang in the nap of his back but rose through it. He concluded he was otherwise intact.

What used to be the uplift’s hold was contorted, with the bow section smashed and twisted upward, as if it had rammed into an impenetrable force. Blood dripped from a gash in the bow. That’s when he saw a body mangled inside. He tried to make sense of the moment and realized who was missing.

“Is that the pilot?” His stomach churned. “Where’s Hans Bricker?”

“You need your rifle,” Maya asked.

He put his horror aside and searched for his blast rifle, which he found under a smashed seat cushion. Both his laser pistols remained in their pouches. Outside, the distinctive whirrs of laser fire and the continuous grunt of blast rifles create a cacophony far removed from the drifting opera at their last “landing.”

A familiar face stepped into the rubble. Hans, who rescued them earlier, wasted no time with inquiries about their health. His blast rifle at his side, Hans offered a terse nod.

“I see you’re up. We need every gun. Now.”

He must have seen Michael’s pall when glancing the body up front.

“Dana didn’t make it,” Hans said, too fast to suggest he cared. “And we won’t either if we don’t hop to it. We’ve got seconds.”

Michael’s first steps were excruciating. The pain in his back intensified. Push through it, Cooper. Carlos stumbled alongside in Xi’s care, like a child just seeing the world for the first time. And what a world it was.

The uplift had smashed into a monument at the center of a city square. Smoke rose and weaved around the tall, narrow tribute that otherwise seemed undamaged. This monument was a tribute to the fallen of SkyTower, the same model erected in dozens of cities across the world. The irony did not escape Michael.

Chaos descended in all directions. Smoke billowed from the lower levels of high-rises along the broad avenue approaching the monument. Panicked citizens scurried, alarm systems blared, and the spotlights of emergency vessels approached. Yet they were not the immediate threat, as Michael soon realized.

Laser fire erupted to his far left, from the avenue running perpendicular. Figures in black raced toward them, weapons open. Beyond them, a Scramjet laid across the avenue, flames erupting from its nacelles. It had to have been their pursuer since the mountain escape. But brought down as well? How?

The answer came quickly. The other uplift that rescued them outside the concert hovered directly above. Laser fire erupted through the open portal, targeting the assassins, who in turn bobbed and weaved while returning fire. The city square lit up in deadly streaks of red, blue, and yellow.

“Take cover,” Hans said, directing them behind the wreckage of his uplift.

Michael turned to Xi. “Get Carlos out of here.” Then to Maya and Hans. “We have to help. Follow me.”

Michael raced toward a landscaped island with a high embankment, Maya at his side.

“No,” Hans shouted. “There are too many.”

Dropping into position, Michael ignored his rescuer and glanced over the embankment. He positioned his blast rifle,