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

Michael refused to relax.

“Don’t move,” he said. “You go for your weapon, and I’ll kill you.”

She obeyed, extending her arms and turning slowly.

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

“I have a right to be here,” she said, pointing to her crest. Michael didn’t recognize it at first in the muted light, but Maya did.

“DayWatch. Sweetie, you might have access, but you don’t have a right to be here. You’re not a judge.”

“No, she’s not,” Hans said, entering from the opposite side of the office. He nodded. “But she knows what’s she doing. These are InterLegis Transport Contracts.”

Michael knew the term from his flight licensure process.

“Shit. We’re all in there. Every Solomon pilot, technician, and comm specialist in the NAC.”

“And every Chancellor who contracted with them, even for a single flight,” Hans said. “This is privileged, archival data, but useful if you’re planning to leverage it.”

The woman didn’t lower her arms, but Michael knew she wanted to reach for her gun, even if she was outnumbered.

“I know who you are,” she said, her voice halting but arrogant. “You are part of what’s going on outside. Ruining our city.”

“What do you care?” Hans stepped closer. “Half this city could burn, so long as you took your prize.”

“We give you Solomons an ounce of dignity, and you want to take a pound of our flesh,” she told Hans. “Yes, I’m planning for the future. When the Guard puts Earth on military lockdown, the future changes. I will not be DayWatch the rest of my life.”

Maya sighed. “Oh, sweetie. Don’t you understand? Solomons are taking nothing from you. Chancellors like you are doing all the work for us. You’ll leverage those contracts to the Guard for what? Mass roundups and executions? Arrest rival Chancellors as collaborators and traitors? And your mediocre descendancy will rise. Is that your plan?”

“You are smart, for a Solomon.”

“I’ve known Chancellors like you.” Maya nudged closer. “The second you leverage, another will up the ante, and you will not be able to compete. History might be about to change, sweetie, but not how you think.”

“Or for you.” The woman pointed to her skull. “I’m listening to everything on the DayWatch local streams. Guess who’s coming in time for a late dinner?”

Michael, Maya, and Hans shared a tense second caught in each other’s glare.

“They just received the dispatch order,” the woman continued. “The UGT Desolation. They’ll be here within minutes. Almost a thousand peacekeepers to put you filth in your place for good.”

Michael chose to call her bluff. “You ain’t helping your case for walking out of here alive.”

“Stating facts. You’re forgetting, I’m DayWatch. I can help the three of you escape your predicament. Give me one minute to finish this data transfer, then all leave quietly. You go your way and I …”

She convulsed as a laser burnt a hole through her right lung. She fell back against the desk and tapped her head then crumpled.

Michael lowered his weapon. “Sorry,” he told the others. “I really hate these assholes.”

Hans dropped his lasers and nodded in firm agreement. However, as they moved closer to Michael’s victim, the woman twitched. She opened her eyes and fixated on Michael. She forced each breath.

“They’re here,” she said, blinking twice.

Maya finished her with a headshot, but Michael felt sick.

What the hell did I just do?

“She gave us up,” he said. “They know exactly where we are.”

“DayWatch and assassins both,” Hans replied. “I guarantee they’re amped in. And if she’s right about the Desolation, they do, too.”

“How do we get out of this?”

“The lift, but there’s only direction.”

Hans didn’t need to say it. They ran.

Out of the office, through the reception, to the lift, their weapons raised in case they weren’t fast enough. The tube opened empty.

Hans verbalized their destination. “Level twenty-two.”

He tapped his amp and opened a cube. “Oliver, your status?”

They rose halfway to their destination before the pilot of the second uplift responded. He landed safely; they were disembarking, bringing on two fighters with larger munitions.

“Your people are OK,” Hans told Michael and Maya. “Oliver, home in on my position and take off. We’re about to try something stupid.”

“Staying alive is never stupid, brother,” Oliver replied. “Mom would say the same thing.”

Michael felt Maya nudge up close. She didn’t like this plan, either.

58

Landing bay, Lioness

The Salvation Fleet

V ALENTIN WAS WAITING AT THE UPLIFT when Brother James arrived with his sons. The boys unsettled Valentin. At this rate, the lanky creations who looked like rubber stretched too thin would reach shoulder-high to their father in weeks. Benjamin and Peter flanked James, as if his personal guard.

“They think they’re ready to fly,” James said. “What do you think, Admiral Valentin?”

“I don’t know. Astro-mechanics is a complicated skillset, even with the aid of a navigation cylinder. But the quantum algorithms of Slope travel?” He pivoted to Ulrich Rahm, who stood at the uplift that would pilot James to Spearhead. “What say you, Ulrich?”

He laughed. “Much harder than it looks,” Ulrich told the boys. “But if you have half the insight of your father, you’ll be flying in no time.”

“But if we’re on our home world soon,” Peter asked, “will we ever have a chance?”

James snapped. “A discussion for another day, son. Ulrich, show the boys around. Uncle Valentin and I need a moment.”

Ulrich led the boys, who clapped as if about to receive a shiny birthday present, into the uplift.

“Their growth is astounding,” Valentin said. “It’s as if they’re receiving your transference almost daily.”

“I know. I haven’t touched them in a month, not since you saw us in stellar dome.”

“Are you worried?”

“Not yet, brother. I’m following the Jewels’ design.”

“I see. And does their design include this trip to