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

gravity and air pressure inside a stasis field. It’s designed to hit you like a bomb and rip you apart from the inside.”

“That’s horrifying. How big is the field?”

“I got no intention of finding out. But why is it so far away? Wait …”

He reset the DR29 parameters to scan up to ten kilometers for similar configurations. In seconds, the first matches arrived. Soon, he saw a stunning pattern.

“It’s a network, but it’s not like those towers. There’s at least fifty of these positioned in zigzags around the perimeter. Some are close as five hundred meters from the settlement, and the farthest are … well, like this one. It’s another defense system. They don’t have the numbers to fight an enemy on multiple fronts, so they’re using these like a minefield against a ground assault.”

“They’re not exactly hidden like mines.”

“No. But I get the feeling they don’t have to be. Like I said, we’re dealing with some hardcore shit. I can’t wait anymore. Sun’s about to come up, and I need to make my move. When I give you the signal, haul ass.”

She asked what signal, but Michael wasn’t paying attention. He locked his blast rifles over his forearms. Inside, he manipulated his fingers into prime aiming and firing positions. The weapons became him. Symbiosis. Michael loved when that happened.

He commanded the DR29 to lock on to all possible targets.

Wait for it. The one on the right. He’s moving. Anticipate position. Behind the machine. One more. She’s about to appear. Good. Now. Three steps, leap, flat landing. Move your arms like a fucking squid. Do NOT hit the machine!

The targets were not hapless Mongol rogues, but Michael wasn’t giving them a chance to prove any more effective.

He made his move, lightning-fast, and unleashed a precision barrage of flash pegs toward the only vulnerable part of their bodies.

One by one, they jerked and fell, holes opening in their heads, red splashes of liquid expelling from the far side. Blood splattered against the machine, which otherwise appeared unharmed.

Michael pivoted toward the rifters and waved Maya to follow.

She was furious – more than he ever saw – when she caught up.

“Don’t even say it,” he told her. “What did you think I was going to do? Have a chat with them? Look. They’re immortals. They’ll get over it. I did. Now let’s go.”

“This is reckless, Michael. They have stream amps. It won’t take long before someone realizes there’s a problem.”

“That’s what I’m hoping.”

She tried to hop on a rifter with Michael, but he pushed her back.

“No. You take that one. We’ve got a better chance on separate rifters. Look, I’m gonna amp you a guide path. Throw open a cube. You can toss the data straight into the guidance web. I’m familiar with this model rifter. We had one on Sam’s estate.”

She jumped on the other before realizing what Michael was up to.

“Are you separating us?”

“Yeah, and we don’t have time to argue. There’s something I gotta do, and it’s a little nuts. You can’t be there. These coordinates will give you a visual on the settlement, but you’ll be out of the line of fire.”

“Michael, I …”

“Trust me,” he said, tapping his amp. “You have the coordinates. Go. I don’t know how quick these kids regenerate.”

Maya’s peaceful, stoic exterior rarely betrayed her emotions, but Michael saw something unprecedented: A stare of utter disdain.

She’ll get over it. If she doesn’t, at least she’ll be alive.

He tossed his DR29 flight path into the rifter’s guidance web and grabbed hold of the steering arms. Michael didn’t stick around to see if Maya followed instructions. The quicker he departed, the sooner she’d come to her senses.

He flew east, toward the sun that peeked its head over the high plateau. Then he turned sharply south over the Bengalese River and headed toward a waterfall.

56

S AM NEVER TALKED SO FAST; she expected to lose Valentin at any second. Reminding him of the schism with his brother was one thing, but convincing him of a deadly threat posed by both the hybrids and the Jewels was another. At first, he seemed less concerned about what Sam learned through the J’Hai than about the man who entered her dome.

“Describe him again,” Valentin insisted.

“Old,” she said. “Very old. Not a hybrid or an immortal. If I had to guess? A native.”

“What? A Hiebim? And he conveniently gave you no name.”

“Valentin, there’s no other explanation. How else could he be here? He said he’d been spying on the city since it was settled. That’s how he got to me undetected.”

“And this Hiebim who shouldn’t exist gave you a white cube that dissolved on your tongue and took you back in time a million years.”

She saw where this was headed.

“Valentin, do you believe I’d tell you a story like that if it wasn’t true? What do I have to gain?”

“More to the point, what do you have to lose?”

“Valentin, despite everything you did with James before you came here, I know you’re a decent man. I’ve seen it. You protected me when I arrived. I know you hated what Rayna did to me. And I know you love those children. They look to you like a father. I’ve gotten to know some of them. If you don’t deal with this now, they’re all going to die. The hybrids will kill you all. And if they don’t, the weapons in those towers will. The Jewels won’t protect you if they believe you fight for the hybrids. When the Guard arrives, they’ll have the easiest invasion in history because nobody will be left to resist.”

If that didn’t convince him, she was sunk. Sam had no more passionate card to play. The vast catalog of data and memories from the J’Hai continued to