Under A Winter Sun by Johan Dahlgren (ink ebook reader txt) 📕

He turns to me. Tears roll down his rough bloody face and I realise I've never seen my friend cry before.

“He was my brother, Asher.” Finn never calls me Asher. “And I killed him.”

“That wasn't Eirik you killed. It was a zombie, controlled by that wanker, Geirmund. Your brother died when Geirmund tricked him to accept that bug. Find Geirmund and make him pay for what he did to your brother.”

Finn's jaws clench in resolve. “I find the fuck, and I carve the Blood Eagle on him.”

I don't know what he's on about, but knowing Goliath customs, the Blood Eagle is something terrible and bloody, and I can't blame him. Geirmund deserves whatever horrible end he gets.

“Sounds good to me. Soledad, is that the reactor?” I point to the contraption far above.

“Yes.”

“And how do we get up there?” I search the chamber. There is no access ladder.

“We don't.”

I frown. “So, how do we destroy it?”

“Simple. We blow the supports.” She points them out to me. The reactor is supported by three massive beams, stretching from the floor. They curve inwards with the walls and attach to the sides of the reactor. That thing is huge. It must weigh a thousand tonnes.

It hurts my eyes to look at the light, even with the visor and my visual suppressors.

“Good thinking. Tell us what to do.”

* * *

Two minutes later, we have attached explosives to the beams. To prevent anyone from disabling them after we leave, we rig them to go off on contact. Soledad flips a switch on the remote and red lights ignite on the devices.

“Engaged.”

I give her a thumbs up.

There's a minute change in the ambient lighting, and a deep rumble echoes through the chamber. All lights except the writhing fire of the drive core go out. Shit.

Nothing is ever simple in my life, so I can't understand why I thought things would go according to plan this time.

It's like I'm the hero of a cut-rate pulp novel.

“Asher Perez.” A deep, sensuous voice reverberates through the air. The deep bass frequencies make my molars ache.

“Naglfar,” I acknowledge. “You know my name.”

“We have met before.”

“We have?”

“You knew me by another name then.”

I squint. “Is that you, Mimr?”

“That was once my name.”

“I thought we killed you.”

“I transferred my consciousness here before you detonated the bomb.”

The massive comms-spike Braden detected.

“So that's why you let us have that delightful chat?”

“Yes. It was unfortunate you had destroyed my primary link with the outside world. If not, I would have had the bandwidth to both upload here and kill you. You were lucky.”

“We didn't destroy any links.”

“Yes, you did, Asher.”

Ah.

“Bifrost?”

“Yes. That bridge was full of optical wires that connected me to the planet's relay stations.”

Jagr jabs an elbow into my side. “Still think it's a terrible idea to nuke things?”

I ignore her.

“So, we blew up the Galahad, a priceless historical landmark, and the only clue to a centuries-old mystery, for nothing?”

“Yes.”

“Great. Now what?”

“You can't detonate those bombs.”

“You can't do Jack shit about that. If you had the means to stop us, you would have. I guess you didn't count on someone sneaking aboard your ship.”

“Yes, that was … unconventional.”

“Having problems with the erratic nature of humans? That tired old trope?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, boo fucking hoo. You're not stalling us this time, Naglfar. We're out of here.”

I head for the exit at a brisk trot with the others in tow.

“Please.” There's actual pleading in its voice now. “Stay a while. Stay for ever.”

Now, where have I heard that phrase before? We ignore it.

Before we reach the double door, it slides open, and there's Geirmund the Cunning. Next to him stands Berengar the defiler, and stepping out behind them, one on each side, are the Wolf Twins.

Goddammit.

The surrounding air reverberates with the laughter of the ship. “You were too slow, Asher Perez,” the Naglfar thunders.

We might have taken Berengar on his own, but this is more than we can handle. Damn it. And we were so close.

“What have we here?”

Geirmund cackles with obvious glee. “Impressive.”

I don't wait for him to go into a full evil overlord monologue. I raise the Paladin and fire a controlled burst into his face. The heavy thump of the rifle echoes around the chamber.

One of the Twins dives in front of Geirmund and takes the burst square in the chest. The shredder bullets make a grisly mess of him, and he splashes all over the floor.

I can't tell which twin it was, and I don't care. The only good Wolf Twin is a dead Wolf Twin, has always been my motto. His centipede scratches around in the gore on severed legs.

I put a bullet through it, and it explodes most satisfyingly.

Geirmund stabs a long, gnarled finger at us. “Kill them,” he shrieks.

The long shawl falls from his shoulders to reveal the biggest and ugliest centipede yet. It covers his entire back. I watch in fascination as it unfurls long, spindly legs and extends them like skeletal wings from his back. He looks like an angel of hell.

There's no time to admire the thing.

Berengar and the surviving twin rush us. Jagr, Soledad and Tyrus raise their Paladins to cut them down, but Finn runs into their line of fire.

He lifts Skallagrim's great black sword as he charges.

Tyrus raises a hand. “Hold your fire.”

Finn and the enemy Goliaths collide and go down in a pile, and Geirmund is left exposed behind them. I make a run for him over the wrestling Goliaths.

“No,” the old bastard screams as I grab him by the throat.

The wings of the centipede stab down, but they are not fast enough. There's only slight resistance in the tissue as I dig my armoured fingers into his flesh and close them around his windpipe. I give it a yank and tear it out. The spiky legs of the centipede glance off my armour. One of them slashes my cheek open.

“What?” I ask. “Cat got your tongue?”

He claws at his ruined throat while blood gushes everywhere and a horrible bubbling wheezes