The midnight shower beyo.., p.38
The Midnight Shower (Beyond the Impossible Book 3),
p.38
Perhaps it was the new skin talking. Perhaps it was the accumulation of everything he wanted to lock away and forget.
“No. Not Ryllen. He’s dead. Better he stays there. I was created to be immortal. My creators called me Royal. That’s who I am.”
“Understood. Do you wish to attach a family name? Your creators were Bouchets.”
“They designed me, but they weren’t my parents. No. Just Royal.”
“Hmm. Royal. Might be an appropriate name for a general.” He grinned, Cheshire-like. “Someday.”
Always with the qualifiers. If Royal learned nothing else in their short time together, it was Shin’s routine tendency to hedge his message.
“How do I remove the armor?”
“Tell it what you desire and grab it.”
“Off,” Royal said.
He felt it loosening, the heartbeat disappearing, before he yanked at the armor. It peeled away like cheap plastic wrap. He crumpled it in his other hand then tossed it back into the tube.
“That is incredible. If it can do all you say, this armor will best the shit out of everyone. The Chancellors, the Talons, and the Swarm.”
“It will. In time. Now, if you please.”
Royal followed Shin back to the navigation circle, where the ship’s co-pilots – one Brahman, one Zwahili – monitored their progress. Royal and Shin returned to their comfortable high-back swivels.
“Not to sound impatient,” Royal said, “but how much longer?”
“Three standard hours,” the Brahman replied.
“In Worm? Just how far outside the Collectorate are we going?”
Neither the co-pilot nor Shin answered.
“Still playing coy. You’ll have to trust me at some point.”
Shin crossed his legs and reached for a pipe.
“Yes. At some point. I think we’ve been quite generous, all else considered. We allowed you to indulge your revenge fantasy. Which, I should point out, involved slaughtering the innocent. My lieutenants generally avoid such detestable chores. They question your motives, as they should. But they are loyal to me and in particular, to Amayas. They will do as ordered. Amayas, on the other hand, is certain to be far more critical of these events.”
“I’m not worried. He’ll see how valuable I am.”
“He will have to weigh your value against the mess you left behind on Hokkaido. The instability you created will impact the Alliance. Ya-Li Taron was an imposter who made a fatal error: He always believed he was the smartest man in the room. Still, his short-term accomplishments cannot be denied. Without him at the center, Hokkaido’s new reality will soon collapse. Amayas put great stock in the Hokki role for the Alliance. He will be furious with you and not especially pleased with my role, either.”
“He’ll forgive us. You’ll see.”
“Why such confidence?”
“One name. Bonju. He controlled Ya-Li. Ya-Li controlled me. But I’m the only one who knew Bonju face to face. I think I know what he’s planning. If I’m right, Amayas will need me and a new army.”
“If you’re wrong?”
“Eh. At least I’ll get a new skin out of the deal.”
“Why do you care? Your body has regenerated how often?”
“Regenerated means I died. I’m tired of dying. I want to live an entire year without some asshole killing me.”
“Ah. The inconvenience of death. For you, ten to twelve minutes of irritation. For the rest of us, a journey without return. I think your complaint will fall upon unsympathetic ears.”
“I don’t expect sympathy. You’re human. I’m not. Speaking of which, you promised an update on Exeter. Have you found him?”
“Possibly, but he’s far beyond your reach.”
“Best he stay that way. He’ll have a better shot at living a normal life. He deserves it.”
“I’m surprised. You don’t seem eager to find him.”
“I’m not. I used to think I loved him, but I’m seeing clearly now. I only loved one man, and I gave him justice. More or less.” He glared at Shin until the Inventor’s top lieutenant shifted uncomfortably. “You do realize, Shin. When all this is done and I can walk away from the war, I’m going to kill you, too.”
Shin pulled on his pipe.
“You will try.”
Royal waited for a beat then released the most satisfying laugh in longer than he could remember.
This is going to be so much fun.
“What about Scylla? Where are they? Do they pose a threat?”
“To the Alliance? No. To themselves? Well, just say they have already overplayed their hand. Ignore them, Royal. As you told me yourself, that part of your life is over. Leave Scylla to the Chancellors. The rest will take care of itself.”
“I hope you’re right. It’s a powerful ship. There are smart people onboard. Tremendous soldiers, too. They could get in the way.”
“You speak as if they’re the enemy. Yet they were your friends. Your comrades in arms. The people you convinced to make the journey.”
“No. That was Ryllen Jee. He was a dog. I’m Royal. My mind is clear. I know what matters. Those people aren’t the enemy. They’re memories. I’m done fighting memories.”
Shin offered his pipe, which Royal accepted.
“Perhaps I made the right decision on Huryo, after all. You have most definitely evolved.”
“Not evolved. Learned. Right before I died in the pond, I realized the answer to the most important question the Scroll asked of me. Why do I kill people without remorse? It’s simple. They feel nothing for me.”
“That seems … harsh.”
“Truth. One truth opens the door to the next. I’m opening many doors. That’s why I’ll make a great general for the new army.”
“So you can slaughter millions without a care?”
“No. I intend to be their hero.”
47
Five months later
Sixtieth floor, Hotai Counsel
P ARK DOON RAN OUT OF APOLOGIES. Now, he had nothing left inside except the boundless misery of regret. What had they done? Ya-Li and Weeb dominated his nightmares. He should have died at their side. Every decision he made after sitting behind Signet was another knife in the festering wound. They called him incompetent. They called him traitor. He hid up here with his family. He was an accidental President who watched the Hokki people tear themselves apart down below and around the world.
The seamasters took advantage of the chaos after the last slaughter at the Taron estate. They pushed Park to the edge. They deserved his retribution. His response felt like justice.
He was wrong. About revealing the scheme to poison the continent. About thinking he could sustain Hotai’s new pricing and payroll policies. About thinking the love for Ya-Li Taron would translate into love for Park Doon.
But above all, about the Splinter.
Why did they never see it? Ya-Li was the most brilliant man he ever knew, but even Ya-Li never suspected.
Now, it was too late. No way to take it back. No way to restore the pride and unity Hokkis felt for the briefest time.
The dark monsters hovering above Pinchon buried those conflicts of the past five months. Park counted ten smoke plumes rising across the island. Nantou Global burned from the fortieth floor upward.
They came minutes before noon, heralded by thunder on a cloudless day and emerging out of nothing. Three capital ships a hundred meters long held stationary positions while dozens of smaller, reptilian vessels darted across the city.
“I always thought we were doing the best for our people. What happens now, Father?”
Len-Ho laid a nervous hand on Park’s shoulder.
“In ancient times, they would pray for a miracle.”
A guard with a blast rifle entered the office.
“They’ve landed on the roof, President Doon. We’ll hold off them as long as we can.”
“Thank you, Lin.”
Park turned to his father.
“You need to hide in the suite with the others.”
“I will stand here with my son.”
“No, Father. The family will need you. If … if …”
I will not cry. I will be strong.
“They won’t hurt my family. I’m the one they want to see.”
“You don’t know that, Park. They haven’t communicated with anyone, not even the government or the KumTaan.”
“C’mon, Father. Don’t deny the obvious. Please. Go into the suite, or I’ll force you.”
There was nothing left to say. He pushed Len-Ho away and pointed. His father complied but stopped in the door’s threshold.
“It was not your fault, Son. None of this. I love you.”
Soon after, the sound of blast rifles and the reverberations of a weapon Park had not heard in half a year collided near the rooftop stairs. Park climbed those same stairs on a spellbinding night when Huryo eclipsed the Kye-Do rings and the Splinter allowed twenty million people to see across the divide.
It was beautiful.
The firefight did not last long.
Park stood beside his desk and watched as soldiers in body armor both green and bronze aimed their arms-length weapons, scanning the massive suite for the last shred of an enemy. They appeared to ignore Park as they stood at ease. One tapped his helmet.
“Clear.”
Whoever came next kept Park waiting. He studied the soldiers, who were tall and Anglo-European but for one who appeared more Huryan than Hokki. Their faces were scarred and their hair shaved off but for a square tuft upon their skulls.
Two figures entered the office. A stout woman wore a clean, tight uniform in the same color scheme as the soldiers but decorated with metals over the chest. She wrapped her hands behind her back. Someone followed, his head concealed beneath a hood.
The woman stopped in the bowl beneath Signet. She wagged a finger at Park and pointed to the floor directly in front of her.
“Now,” she said.
As he approached, Park sensed a familiarity. She was Hokki, no doubt. She elevated her chin in the manner befitting the elites of Haansu. She bore no scars but did wear deep red lipstick and a strong cake of rouge. She sealed her graying hair in a bun.
She was a ghost. I know you.
He stood before this woman but could not look her in the eyes.
“Good day, President Doon. I am General Hoija Taron. Third Aerial Assault Brigade. I am here under official directive from the Supreme Admiralty of the Swarm.”
Hoija Taron?
The last time he saw this woman, she took a point-blank hit from Ryllen Jee’s blast weapon at the wedding. But this wasn’t her. Not even close. Park wished it was.
“I will be direct, President Doon. This is a beautiful city. I would be ever so disappointed to burn it, especially since it has no defenses of any kind and no one to come to its rescue. You are alive for one reason. You played no small part in making it possible for me to take this city. Though you are less competent than your late partners, you will have to do. Follow our instructions, and you live. Your family lives. The rest, you will leave to us. Turn away when you feel compelled.”
“I don’t … I don’t understand. How is this possible?”
Another voice responded.
“Oh, I think you know the answer.”
Park looked up toward his desk. The cloaked figure caressed Signet.
“I always wondered what it would feel like,” a man said.
He threw back his hood.
Park’s knees buckled. The man wore a sloppy beard and bore the mild weather of middle age. Still, there was no doubt in Park’s mind.
No. This can’t be real.
General Taron grabbed him before he fell.
“President Doon,” she said. “May I introduce you to my nephew. Governor Ya-Li Taron.”
The ghost reborn smiled at Park and took the executive seat.
“I feel like I know you so well,” he said. “Pardon the general’s formality, but Ya-Li was my birth name. I am known to many as Bonju.”
This concludes the first movement of the Beyond the Impossible series. Do you want to know what newly-renamed Royal will do next? What about his role in the burgeoning conflict? What about the warship Scylla, where Kara Syung and Ham Cortez are searching for the Inventor? What about the Chancellors who have vowed to take back the Scylla? What is the Origin? And what will Hokkaido’s fate be now that the Swarm has arrived?
Learn answers to these questions and more as the saga continues through 2022 and early 2023 with Books 4 through 9 arriving on Amazon.
I really want to know what you think. First and foremost, I’d love to see an honest review on Amazon. You would be helping out this writer so very much. You can also contact me directly at www.frankkennedy.org, where you can also sign up for my newsletter and receive two free books. I’ll appear in your Inbox once every three weeks with lots of goodies and updates. You can also follow me on Amazon to be notified when my other books are released.
Frank Kennedy, The Midnight Shower (Beyond the Impossible Book 3)
