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

He waited for …

Valentin froze. His amp sent a familiar vibration through his brain.

No. Not now.

He wanted to ignore it. He took slow steps forward, but the amp was insistent. The vibration intensified, and his vision blurred until Valentin had no choice but to tap the tiny node implanted forward of his right temple. His holocube opened to the captain who supervised the Dacha program.

“First Specialist Bouchet, cease operations and prepare for extraction. You will …”

“What? No. Captain, I’m almost upon him. I have to finish …”

“Negative. Prepare for rendezvous with Admiralty Scramjet in less than thirty seconds. You will turn over your weapon to the ground officers and re-uniform onboard.”

“Admiralty? Sir, I don’t understand. This is my last chance before I return to the Oberon. I …”

“Negative, First Specialist. You have been reassigned.” The captain sighed. “I know what this chase meant to you. I am sorry.”

The holocube disappeared. The whisper of a Scramjet’s Carbedyne fuel nacelles preceded a whoosh. The crab-like mobile transport rose above the escarpment and fixed spotlights upon Valentin and the crippled quarry who lay twenty meters away. The Scramjet hovered before unleashing a yellow energy slew which turned Valentin’s target to ash.

He cursed. “Cudfrucking …”

Valentin consumed his anger and stood at attention as the Scramjet landed within ten feet. He saw the red dragon-like insignia of the Unification Guard’s Admiralty embedded on the side. The entry cascade dissolved, revealing three silhouettes. The two on either side stepped off, their blast rifles at rest. They wore the thin, crimson bodysuit of combat – something rarely seen on or near Earth. He handed over his knife.

They stood silent next to Valentin and faced the third silhouette. They overshadowed Valentin, who long ago conquered the sense of inferiority generated by his meager 6-foot-9 frame. He followed them to the entry.

Medals shined and stripes of honorarium glowed before Valentin recognized the face of one of the five most important commanders in the forty-planet UG fleet. He stepped onboard and offered the obligatory side-nod. Valentin caught his breath.

“Admiral, I am at your beckon.”

“Yes, you are, First Specialist.” Rear Admiral Augustus Perrone extended his hand in a surprising gesture. “Valentin, yes?” Valentin nodded. “Outstanding. I have one question, peacekeeper.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are you fond of your family?”

Valentin’s heart skipped. “Excuse me, sir? I mean, yes, sir.”

“And what of your brother?”

“Sir, I have no brother.”

The admiral laughed. “Then your reunion will be fascinating.”

Valentin could think of nothing to say. This made no sense.

“Re-uniform, First Specialist. We are about to go into battle. If I am correct, your brother might pose a considerable problem.”

3

J AMIE GAVE OPHELIA TOMELIN AN ORDER, but she did not have the chance to express her indignation. The ground jolted, sending both of them onto their backs. The cavern rumbled – above, around, and from what Jamie sensed, deep into the Earth beneath them. The small round drones bobbed and whirred. The glistening lattice walls crackled like sheet ice unable to bear the weight.

Behind them, the tunnel without support lattice or lighting collapsed. Jamie lifted Sammie, whose right shoulder was blackened by the assassin’s weapon, and turned to Michael.

“Time to high-tail it, Coop,” he said, struggling to find balance on the shuddering ground. “Can you take her?” Michael nodded, wrapping an arm around Sammie while fumbling with his gun.

“What the hell, J? This shit’s all coming down on us.”

“Not yet, dude.” His eyes scanned every possibility. The Jewel guided him as it had since the forest chase near Ginny’s Creek and inside the Austin Springs Police Department. It showed him every detail, five steps ahead. “Take her out, but steady. Keep the gun aimed. There’s more of them. I’ll be right behind.”

He caught Sammie’s dazed, drifting eyes. For an instant, she moved her lips, and Jamie thought she tried to say, “I’m sorry.”

There she was: The innocent, love-struck girl he knew in Albion, always hoping to please. Not the trained killer who lied to him for years.

We missed our chance, he thought. Jamie accepted that he’d never find his way back into her heart. “We will show them the way home, then the dark will follow.” Even now, as the cavern rumbled and the Earth prepared to bury them alive, Jamie could not escape Lydia’s warning. Smug, manipulative Lydia.

Dammit, J. Focus. You will do this.

As Michael and Sammie stumbled forward into the tunnel, Jamie examined the guard hit twice by the assassin’s weapon. Blood trickled from the man’s ears, and he wore a twisted smile, as if confronted by life’s cruelest joke. But his eyes – locked in a deathly stare – said he posed no threat.

Jamie lifted the weapon – a silver, oblong device not much larger than an oven mitten but without the arching five-finger design. Yet it wrapped over the dead man’s left hand, as if he were born to it. Jamie remembered Mr. Harman’s shop class – for which he managed a D – and recognized this as a titanium alloy.

He tugged at the weapon until it gave. He jiggered until it slid off the man’s hand, leaving a viscous fluid behind. Jamie understood: survival required adaptation. He tucked the pistol between pants and waist, then took a reassuring breath before sliding his right hand inside the titanium weapon.

“No,” Ophelia said, now regaining her balance. “Take your hand out of there now. The bio-fit will reject you. You will lose your hand. James, we have to leave. I promise, I’ll take you to your parents.”

Jamie ignored her as the weapon’s internal systems engaged, a liquid filling the spaces between his fingers. And then, a green pulse flashed twice through the titanium surface. An energy spike sent a directive through the nerves in his arm, until reaching a destination at the rear of his