God's Bounty Hunter (Biddy Mackay Space Detective Book 1) by T Olivant (reading in the dark .txt) 📕

neglected to give him a lethal weapon.  Instead he had a stungun strapped across his back.  Pointless, of course.  As soon as he got inside he would make sure he was armed with something more dangerous.

It was only a ten minute walk to the compound, even with the heavy spacesuit.  On one level, Kepler could feel the muscles in his thighs trembling, his back spasming and everything else that was wrong with his failing body.  But on the other he knew that he was carried by the winged angel of rage.

He reached the compound and stood for a moment, his hand on the entry buzzer.  Rage had brought him this far, but if he were to achieve his goal, he had to channel that rage with some rational thought, difficult as that may be.  The Augments had not survived the eons without some modicum of intelligence.  If he went in without a plan they would cut him down as soon as look at him.

The portal drive.  That was what Mackay was after.  She had told him in her sternest voice that that was what mattered.  But it wasn’t what mattered most to Kepler.  What did he care if the entire solar system went up in flames?  His days were numbered anyway.

He keyed in the numbers he had memorized into the pad.  Or tried to.  The shakes were so bad now in his right hand that he got a red error message.  Damn.  He shut his eyes for a moment, then raised his left hand.  Four unsteady movements later and the pad went green.  He was in.

Kepler heard the door seal shut behind him and he removed his helmet.  It was strange to think that just a few hours ago he had been jittery with excitement at the prospect of entering this place.  Now the dimly lit corridors had taken on an ominous feel.  He was walking to his death, he knew that now.  And in a waste management plant, surrounded by the smell of rot and damp.  What an ill-fated ending.  Just another disappointment in a life that had turned out to be full of them.

And yet… he shook off the self-pity just as it threatened to control him.  And yet if he could use his final act to bring down the creatures that had caused him this dreadful suffering, then it might just be a chance at redemption.

“What are you doing here?” A voice called from the shadows.

It wasn’t Augustus, just one of the other Augments.  Kepler barely paused as he fired the stungun into the creature’s chest.  His step didn’t falter as he walked past the twitching body and into one of the hibernation rooms.

There had to be fifty Augments inside, all just awoken from their long sleep.  Augustus’s team were dragging them out of their pods where they stood huddling their arms around themselves.  They looked small and vulnerable, but Kepler knew that they would not remain so for long.

“Where is Augustus?” he called to one of the Augments that he recognized from earlier.

“In the next room,” the female Augment with white, opalescent skin called back, not pausing from her work with the newly awoken ones. “The pods there have been more difficult to open.  Some problem with additional locks on the valves.”

“Right,” Kepler said, already turning to go.

“Shouldn’t you be –” the woman’s words died away as he hurried along the corridor.

Kepler found Augustus standing before one of the control panels in a room full of pods.

“Can’t we just blast the things open?” He was yelling to a cowering Bela.

“Not without killing the Gods inside,” she answered, looking at Augustus with the sort of loathing Kepler had thought only he was capable of.

“What are you doing here?” The tall man shouted when he spotted Kepler in the doorway.

“I heard you were having trouble with the pod release valves.  I came to help.” Kepler hoped that he seemed as relaxed as his words.  He shrugged. “All is stable on the detective ship, I felt I was needed here.”

Augustus narrowed his eyes, then gave the tiniest of nods. “It is your poor planning that has failed us at any rate.  You did not provide the code for these locks.”

Kepler’s fingers twitched as he forced his hands to stop forming fists. “Perhaps you could let me examine the control panel.” He walked over to the console in the center of the room.  It was new tech, updated in the last few years, which was no doubt why it had confused the Augments.  He fought the urge to giggle.  It didn’t matter how powerful your artificial brains were when you were obsolete by nearly a century.

“I should be able to do something here,” Kepler said to the others. “Stand back.”

Augustus took a small step backwards and so did Bela.  Two other Augments came to watch him.  Ha!  They thought they were so powerful, but really they were in the palm of his hand.

Kepler hit a few buttons. “Done.”

Augustus hurried over to the nearest pod and peered inside. “It hasn’t done anything.”

“Not that you can see, no.  But you will notice the readouts have turned red.” Just as Kepler spoke these words an alarm started to sound.

“What is that?” Bela hissed, ducking from the sound as if it could hurt her.

“These readouts?” One of the other Augments was staring at a pod with a horrified expression. “I don’t understand?  The God in here is dying!”

“What?” Augustus turned to Kepler in rage. “What did you do?”

“I stopped their oxygen.  Easy to do if you understand the technology.  In about seven minutes every Augment still in their pod will die.”

Kepler grinned so hugely he thought his head might split in two.  The look on Augustus’s face, bewilderment crossed with rage, would feed his soul for a lifetime.

“Traitor!” Augustus bellowed when he finally