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

from the holowindow. Rather, they were echoes carried on the wind. The ground shook.

“The towers are falling,” Valentin said. “They were supposed to protect us when all else failed.”

James hesitated. “This is not possible.”

Valentin opened a holocube and made an announcement.

“Attention, all troops. The Unification Guard invasion has begun. Take defensive positions. When the enemy approaches, fire at will.”

The undecided among the immortal soldiers scattered at the order, leaving the amphitheater as if there was no standoff. The original six, however, formed a phalanx between the hybrids and their Admiral. James grabbed his gangly sons and positioned them between their father and many blast rifles.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

“Give it up, asshole,” Michael shouted. “You’re a dead man.”

Michael regretted the words as soon as they crossed his lips. He lost focus on what mattered most. He gave in to the rage.

Valentin warned him. Trayem Hadeed warned him.

Rayna was too fast. She held Sam by the hair and pushed her forward as if displaying a commodity.

A Ukrainian shashka blade carved a path across Sam’s neck. Michael’s horror gave the Cossack time to drop Sam’s body and leap away, skirting his round of flash pegs.

If Michael screamed, he didn’t hear it. Instead, he called on the beast who assassinated Chancellors in cold blood, who endured endless beatings to become a soldier, who slaughtered Mongols like they were animals, who killed six children to leverage a new ally.

Rayna. James.

Every hybrid and their kids.

His war began.

69

H YBRIDS FELL WHEN MICHAEL’S AIM PROVED TRUE. The rest moved with lightning speed. The amphitheater became a killing ground, but it was not the massacre Michael craved. In the chaos, some escaped with or without their children. James took a barrage of flash pegs from point-blank and stumbled yet threw the smaller soldiers aside as if they were toys.

Michael switched his targeting system to focus upon the composite energy of the Jewels. He spotted Rayna. She was on the move toward the closest domes. He wanted to pursue, but Valentin needed him.

The younger brother begged James to surrender.

“There’s nothing left for you,” Valentin shouted. He wasn’t firing his weapon. Michael didn’t understand. “All the Berserkers will die.”

“Traitors first,” James said.

The giant creature who once roamed a backwater Alabama town as Michael’s ‘No. 1’ released a breath of fire. Valentin leaped as if anticipating the moment. Yet the concentrated yellow cloud pursued him. The Admiral closed his helmet before the fire overtook him.

Michael squared both rifles on James and unloaded.

The flash pegs hit their mark, shredding his chest and abdomen.

No blood. The creature stood defiant.

However, the fire cloud dissipated. Smoke rose from Valentin’s body armor.

James zeroed in on Michael and clenched his fists. He unleashed a savage thunder. For a second, Michael’s rage was garnished with terror. He fired repeated volleys of paired flash pegs to cut through the most difficult armor. Yet James wore an armor of a different kind inside. The Jewels glowed blue beneath the monster’s skin.

Michael opened his amp. “Go,” he told Valentin. “Take your soldiers and go. Win the fight. I got this asshole.”

He wasn’t sure Valentin received. The Admiral was slow to move. The six soldiers stumbled to their feet and ran.

“What you gonna do?” Michael shouted as James’s eyes were consumed in a volcanic glow. “Nuke me?”

“I am a god. You have no idea of my power.”

He did. The image of their final moments on first Earth held Michael close. With a touch, Jamie Sheridan turned a forest into ash.

“How about them?” Michael pointed to four bodies in festive clothing. Two adults, two children. “Were they gods, too?”

“They were my people. You’re next, Michael.”

“You might be right.”

A strange sense of relief flooded Michael as he gazed toward the city center. Three Guard attack ships emerged from folded space. They showered JaRa with energy slews.

“Can a god stop that?”

Michael considered running, but where? The closest dome was too far. The bombardment was too wide, the ships too fast.

The best strategy was none at all.

It won’t end like this. I came too far. We’ll be together.

“And another thing,” he shouted. “You are the ugliest motherfucker I’ve ever seen.”

The molten-hot energy weapons crashed into the amphitheater. He holstered his rifles as the ground burst open. All that stood between a wall of flame and Michael was his armor. He was flying.

*

Valentin was ashamed. He should have been more aggressive. He should have ended this farce of a ceremony before it began.

Now Samantha was dead, and James shielded himself behind Valentin’s nephews because he knew the truth: Valentin didn’t have the stomach for killing those boys.

It worked for a few necessary seconds. Valentin had the shot – clean between his older brother’s ghastly eyes. Yet the chaos broke his concentration as Michael opened fire on the hybrids.

James released the boys, who ducked and ran toward the broad avenue into the city. Two of Valentin’s soldiers did what he could not. They opened their weapons on the leader of Salvation. Peg after peg, but James was undaunted. He appeared to be absorbing the explosives rather than being blown apart by them.

This can’t be. You’re mortal.

Which is what James always insisted.

He made a fool of me.

“There’s nothing left for you,” Valentin shouted. “All the Berserkers will die.”

He didn’t believe those words anymore. The towers were down.

“Traitors first,” James said, his lips puckered.

Valentin knew this move. How many times did he watch James execute his enemies with a kiss? Valentin leaped as the fireball chased after him.

The flames ate away at the outer layer of his armor. The fire cloud became like a cage. Valentin tried to fight it, but James’s breath wrapped him tighter.

What