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

“Yeah, I ran across Rayna. She told me before she died. Guess those assholes wanted their prizes to be safe before they wiped out the city. Goddamn, Maya. They were snatching babies. Hybrids, yeah. But still. How is it you survived?”

“At first, he wanted to use me for leverage.”

“You mean to steal the babies while he kept guard, so to speak?”

“Something like that. Michael, I talked him down. There was a firefight with the immortals. Nilsson protected me, but like I said, he doesn’t have long. Please, Michael. See him. We wouldn’t be here without him.”

He despised another delay and felt Sam’s hope fading with each passing minute. But Maya was right. Without Nilsson’s help, they’d both be dead on Tamarind.

The habitat dome was empty save for a bed without covers and a single chair. Nilsson lay sprawled on the bed, the mattress steeped in his blood. At quick glance, Michael saw the damage and had no idea how the man still lived. He took three flash pegs to the abdomen. His face was bathed in sweat, and his breathing was labored. Nonetheless, Nilsson was conscious. He forced a smile of relief when he saw Michael.

“Cooper. I’m glad you made it. The others … they didn’t survive.”

“I know. It was Percy Muldoon. He fought to the end. Gave us time.”

Nilsson grabbed Michael’s hand with a fierce grip.

“I tried, Cooper. I tried to follow orders. That was my job. They fucked us. You understand?”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else from those assholes. What are we gonna do about it, Major?”

“You. Cooper … Michael, you do it. You’re a leader. I saw it in you from the first days. There are things you need to know.”

“I’m listening, Major.”

“Even if they lose today, they’ll keep coming. Yes? I know how to stop them.”

Michael listened to Nilsson’s confessions. Afterward, Michael processed the intelligence and made sure Maya stored the data on her admin stack. She would have to act as a backup in case Michael didn’t survive his next stop. Nilsson never lost consciousness.

“Major, I have to go,” Michael said, holding his hand. “If this is the last time we talk, I want you to know something. You didn’t follow orders a hundred percent of the time, and I couldn’t be more grateful. You saved me. Maybe there’s a chance now for me, Sam, and a lot of kids who deserve another shot. It was an honor.”

He left Nilsson with a side-nod salute.

Maya pointed Michael to the habitat dome where she saw a giant of a man slip in during the firefight. It was only a glimpse, she said. She wasn’t sure if anyone was with him.

“Stay here,” he warned. “Stay alert.”

“Take care, Michael.”

“Time to put an end to this shit, once and for all.”

72

M ICHAEL KNEW HE FOUND THE RIGHT habitat dome because of what lay outside. The last of James and Rayna’s children, the gangly boys who carried their sisters to the stage, were shot to pieces. They lay slumped against the base of the dome, their blood smudged along the wall starting from where they fell. Michael thought they were executed. His gut told him who pushed the trigger.

“You poor kids. At least you won’t see what I do to your father.”

The door was open. The lights were on.

Michael entered with both rifles primed to fire.

Like another dome he visited, this was decorated for royalty. Two giant beds with silk coverings, furniture ornately carved and padded, shiny trinkets and wall decor. Plush carpet. More shiny things. The trappings meant nothing to Michael.

He smelled the creature. Burnt flesh?

The door slid shut, and the lights dimmed.

“Here we go, dumbass,” Michael whispered.

The creature stood at the dome’s rear, leaning over empty cribs.

He wore a full-length golden jacket, fresh as new. But the jacket did nothing to hide the disaster above his neck. James’s long mane was gone, his scalp burnt, the remaining skin leathery gray and blistered. His left ear was not there. The burn pattern extended along his neck and across his cheek. The eyes, however, were untouched and as frightening as the last time Michael saw them. The red pistils in the corners glowed between shades of red and orange.

“Where is she? Where is Sam?”

James forced a smile. “You come into my home, and that’s the first question you ask, Michael?”

“And I’ll keep asking until you give me a fucking answer.”

“She’s close.”

At least he knows. Michael’s bitterness deepened.

“What did you do to her?”

“I saved her, Michael. I was walking through the fire after the slews hit. There she was. And much to my shock, she was alive. She woke up.” He moved away from the cribs. “I didn’t know she was immortal. I asked the Jewels. They told me. They also told me about you. The truth about all three of us.”

Michael remembered how Trayem Hadeed phrased it: “The three-winged beast of the impossible future.”

“Where is she, James?”

“Closer.”

James’s frightening eyes glanced past Michael.

Was it true?

He couldn’t handle another trick, another disappointment, another near miss. He holstered his weapons and surrendered to hope.

“Michael.”

He retracted his helmet and swung around. Michael melted like the first time he saw her.

In the dimmed light, Sam was beautiful in ways he never appreciated before. She was wiser and stronger, a grown woman whose love he barely deserved. She was all the goodness left inside him. And he refused to live another day without her.

“Hi, babe.”

He kissed her like it was the first time. He wanted it to be as real, as magical, as full of possibilities. More important, Michael had to convince himself this was not a dream. The journey was over.

“I love you,” they told each other between thick, wet kisses that might have gone