Red dust gods and assass.., p.20
Red Dust (Gods & Assassins Book 1),
p.20
“I’m not sure the risk is justified. We have a defense shield. Soon, we’ll have a militia.”
“Oh, you should hear Theo’s thoughts on the matter. He found especially colorful language to describe my stupidity.”
“Royal, we can handle whatever the Horax throws our way.”
“True. But I want the best chance to rout the enemy. Turn the desert into a killing field. This is Phase One, my friend. We need to build our kingdom on a sturdy foundation. When the Horax show up to punish Lumen for her betrayal, they’ll face two enemies. Whatever we think of that damn cult, they have no love for the cartels. A decisive victory and soon will guarantee our alliance.”
Moon offered me a cigar, which I accepted. He used the end of his left thumb to light it.
“Cardinale’s men will be dead in what? About a week?”
“The timing should work to our advantage, my friend. The tribute was supposed to be deposited by tomorrow. When it doesn’t arrive, questions will be asked. Vincente and Mando, being Cardinale’s chief enforcers, will be dispatched. Except they’ll be in no condition. I’d say we tip them off about the poisoned lentil stew in, oh, four days.”
“Will Lumen keep her word?”
“She promised comm silence. We’ll see.”
I had to admit, living in the company of people as untrustworthy as myself energized me.
“Plus, Moon, there’s an extra benefit to having these particular assassins in our midst. We don’t know this cult’s endgame, but it must be one hell of a corker. They’ve managed to scrub virtually every reference to themselves on the global stream. Talk about well connected. And whole teams of assassins? They’re desperate to keep their secrets. I want to know the bottom line. Don’t you?”
He would’ve answered but for a turn neither of us saw coming.
Moon tucked the cigar in his mouth and said his pom was vibrating. As he reached inside his jacket, I felt a similar vibration.
“This can’t be good,” I said.
“The beacon from 40-Cignus?”
“Possibly. But …”
We flipped open our poms, and up popped a proximity alert from our defense shield – the one we left in place at the Fort of Inarra.
“Company.”
“Well, shit. We knew it might happen.”
The secure cams opened from six angles inside the fort and one from a hundred meters outside the western perimeter. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one followed us then expanded the holos.
“OK, my friends. And who are you?”
They descended from the darkness and landed inside the fort like feathers. They extended their rifles, green laser scopes leading the way. I adjusted the sensors on the secure cams to search for details. These assholes wore black body armor with no distinguishing features.
The wide shot revealed a vessel hovering above, roughly the size of a United Naval Forces troop carrier. It too ran dark.
“How many do you estimate?” Moon asked.
“Two dozen.”
They’d find nothing but mattresses and a few empty liquor bottles. That, however, was beside the point.
“Looks like the President had a change of heart,” Moon said.
“Maybe.”
“They paid us so we’d let down our guard.”
“Maybe. Zero in best you can. Look for any distinguishing features. Do you recognize the make of rifles?”
“Could be UNF standard-issue. I’m not sure.”
“Might also be Special Intel. Or mercs. Either way, they knew where to find us. That narrows down the suspects considerably.”
“Royal. The timer.”
Moon pointed out the automatic sequence wherein the shield allowed visitors to penetrate before opening fire. Only we had the power to stop the countdown.
“Is it crispy critter time, my friend?”
“We need to send a message, Royal.”
The digital counter fell to ten seconds.
“I’m inclined to agree. She should have known better.”
If the President did give the order, she miscalculated. Badly. The timeline guaranteed our relationship for another year. She wasn’t ditching us so easily.
I knew where she worked.
The counter hit zero. The defense shield, undetectable to earlier scans, burst into life. It showered the interior of the fort with a web of lightning. The beautiful, twisting voltage searched for two dozen targets. It didn’t miss.
It never missed.
We lacked audio, but the vids told a complete story. The invaders’ armor melted as they ran like rabbits escaping a forest fire.
Then their bodies exploded into large chunks.
The lightning followed their remains and set them ablaze. It was lovely theater, graced with a menagerie of special visual effects. When the voltage died and the fort turned dark again, the cams showed smoldering masses.
I focused on the wide view. The troop transport moved away from the fort. Seconds later, it catalyzed an aperture and jumped into a wormhole.
“That won’t go over well back at HQ,” I mumbled.
“Lesson learned.”
“Oh, they’ll be back. Humans are stubborn motherfu …”
A new aperture opened. A much larger ship emerged. Was it UNF? I zoomed the cam to search for identifiers, but the rest happened too quickly. The ship fired a wide spread of missiles.
We lost transmission from the ground cams. The wide view shook as a fireball rose where the Fort of Inarra had stood for over a thousand years. So much for ancient history.
“There!”
Moon pointed southeast of town, where a yellow flash rose above the flat horizon. It would not go unnoticed.
Indeed, I heard townsfolk shout. Seconds later, a faint rumble rolled through Desperido.
“That’s going to be a tricky explanation,” I told Moon. “For the sake of argument, let’s play dumb. See how far we can stretch the lie.”
Desperidans knew nothing of our connection to the fort. Now they never would. One awkward thread eliminated.
The warship came about and entered an aperture.
“OK then.” I closed my pom. “Looks like somebody is pissed with a pair of fallen gods.”
Moon shoved the device into his pocket.
“What now?”
“Well, we can’t exactly show up at Amity Station demanding to see the President. ‘You destroyed our home! We’ll sue you!’ Yeah, no. That ain’t gonna do the trick.”
“I don’t think you’re taking this seriously enough, Royal.”
“What I’m doing, my friend, is stepping back. If we hadn’t moved away, there’s a distinct possibility we’d be dead. We’re fast but we’re not invincible. Whoever did this had a two-pronged plan. They intended to kill us, evac the team, then destroy the evidence. Instead, they wiped away any evidence of their failure.
“You and I have talked about causality for two millennia. We know time better than any human. What if this event was always embedded in the timeline? What if our escape to Desperido was meant to be? Do we have Esai and Emilio’s greed to thank for our lives?”
Moon pulled hard on his cigar and thought about my message.
“You’re saying we’re just … lucky?”
“No such thing, my friend. You know that. What I’m suggesting is that our plan is going exactly according to design. I also don’t believe the President ordered this.”
“No one else knew where to find us. That was the whole point of 40-Cignus.”
I wagged my finger. “Ah. Two people knew. The President and her security chief. The man at her side the day she met with me.”
“You think he did this on his own? Why?”
“Not him. He has too much to lose. Only the President knows we’re the wolf and the serpent. She also has a large staff. She’s surrounded by advisors. She has close, personal contacts in the UNF and SI. Only one has to know she’s paying for freelance help.”
“Who?”
I stared at Moon, waiting for him to realize the underlying truth. His eyes ballooned at the absurd reality.
“Q6?”
“What’s the best way to destroy a galactic government, Moon?”
He nodded. “From the inside.”
“We know Q6 is coordinating a multi-planetary uprising. The kind of power he’d need is …”
“He’d have to be close to the President.”
“Inner circle. Hidden in plain goddamn sight. The Prez doesn’t know she has a Brutus in her midst.”
“Who’s that?”
“Eh. It’s an ancient analogy. If this is Q6, he’s a double agent. He’s part of the team of intermediaries between us and the Prez. Now he’s scared shitless after seeing our latest intel. He called on his own resources to take us out. He thinks we’re just a pair of well-paid human assassins. Otherwise, he’d have been more cautious.”
“No matter who’s behind it, they know we’re not dead. They’ll keep searching.”
I shrugged. “I’d bet some heavy credits on it. But where do they look? They’ll have nine hundred light-years to cover.”
“Royal, if you’re right about Q6, our next job for the Prez will probably be a trap, but she’ll be clueless.”
“Sounds fun, my friend.”
“It will be different. That’s for sure.”
I thought about the coming days and weeks. The inevitable fight heading toward Desperido. The potential traitors in our midst. The barbarians in the Presidential suite.
Wow. What a life.
The sky was clear, and the galaxy was more beautiful than I’d seen in ages. I could name every visible star. I’d seen many born in the early days and others flame out toward the end.
Eh. What exploits compared against those?
“Half a league, half a league, half a league onward,” I recited. “All in the valley of death rode the fallen gods.”
Moon studied me like I’d lost my gourd.
“You should study more,” I said. “Forward, you gods! Charge for the guns. Into the valley of death rode the fallen gods. Humans to the left of us, humans to the right of us, humans in front of us.
“Boldly they rode and well into the jaws of death. Into the mouth of hell rode the fallen gods.”
Nice.
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How and when will the Horax attack Desperido? Can Lumen and Vash be trusted? What are the Children of Orpheus? Who is behind the destruction of the Fort of Inarra? Will Royal’s ambitious plan for Desperido come to pass?
Continue “Gods & Assassins” now in Book 2: Silver Skin. The entire series is available on Amazon. And please, would you take a moment to kindly leave a review or star rating for Red Dust? It would make this author so happy!
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Frank Kennedy, Red Dust (Gods & Assassins Book 1)
