Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller Brandon Ellis (ebook reader for comics txt) 📖

energy was drained and instead she slowed. A woman in a skirt, notepad in hand, butted against the wall and out of Rivkah’s way.

But Rivkah’s legs weakened and her feet became heavier. Her eyes wanted to shut. She forced them to stay open. What was in that dart? Poison? A sleeping agent? She skid to a halt and sucked in a thick breath as a handful of guards curled around the corner. Upon sighting her, they went to one knee in front of the launch bay doors.

“Everyone, down. Out of the corridor,” yelled a soldier. A few politicians hit the floor.

A flash from their rifles, and Rivkah dove to the floor as well. Rubber bullets missed overhead. Another shot, and she rolled. She gasped when a sharp sting struck her side.

She eyed a corridor and jumped to her feet, adrenaline taking her legs into another full on run. Another political type, graying hair, thick white beard, and brown eyes strutted down the hall. Deep in thought, he paused when Rivkah came barreling at him. His eyes widened and he put his hands up. He took a step back but not before she lurched at him and snagged the badge from his coat.

“Hey,” he objected.

Rivkah ignored him and rounded a corner. Into a hospital wing, she about stopped when she saw the back of a nurse behind a window. The nurse had black hair pulled back in a pony tail and wore a blue lab coat. She worked diligently on a tablet, and either didn’t hear the commotion outside or had bad hearing, because the woman gave no indication of fright or curiosity.

Rivkah slipped by without being noticed and swiped the badge down the panel at the first door she came to. A utility closet of all places. Mops, buckets, shelves with cleaning products, towels, napkins, bandages, and the list went on and on. The misty smell of mildew could be added to the tally.

The door closed. She twisted in a roundhouse kick, and sent her boot heel through the inside panel on the wall. It sparked and crackled, then fell to the floor. Smoke rose. Hopefully that slowed any access inside the closet.

Above were rafters, and she climbed the metal shelving that held the cleaning supplies, and pulled herself up to a ceiling beam. She slid across the beam to a back corner and into the shadows. Her breaths fast, her hand came to her side. She winced. Wet? She lifted her hand to her face. More blood. She leaned toward the wall and checked her side. A rubber bullet punctured her skin. The rear rim of the bullet stuck out.

Her mom came to mind. A nurse—long dead by strangulation in their backyard when Rivkah was nine, her father the most likely suspect—would most likely have Rivkah bite down on something as she yanked the bullet out.

She had nothing to bite down on but her own teeth. She lassoed her finger and thumb around the bullet’s rim, and dug in. She squeezed her eyes shut. She’d keep her agony as silent as possible. The pain overbearing, she slid the rubber bullet out and set it in her lap. She wanted to grunt, cry, scream, or punch something.

Her body shook and her eyes rolled back. She rested her head against the wall. She did her best to stay conscious, but the blackness took over and her eyes shut. For a moment, she thought she saw her mom’s smiling face, but that too went dark.

17

M-Quadrant, Solar System - Starship Atlantis

“May I help you?” A nurse, blue coat, and a name tag. Her black hair in a pony tail, she held a computer tablet in her hand, and glossed over it before Jaxx attempted to sneak by.

“No ma’am. I have a friend here.” Jaxx motioned toward a hallway in the starship’s medical wing. An hour ago, he watched two orderlies help Shaughnessy walk to a hospital room, and Shaughnessy hadn’t left since.

And Fox, they rolled him on a gurney in a rush to the operating wing. The guy lost a lot of blood. Probably didn’t make it. One less jerk in the world, or on the ship. However one wanted to look at it, but one less negative presence in Jaxx’s life was a win in his book.

No telling where Slade went, perhaps conscious now and doing his best to find Jaxx. Or he was with President Martelle to convince the man that Jaxx wasn’t a vital asset for the Callisto mission anymore.

“Who?” The nurse tapped on the tablet.

“Jon Shaughnessy. I know where he is. I’ll just head to his room.” Jaxx took a step down the hallway.

“Hold on, sir.” She scrolled through her screen. “Yes, right here. He’s doing fine. What’s your name so I can log you?”

“My name?”

She pointed to his ID badge. “I can just scan you.”

Jaxx pulled away. “It doesn’t work.”

“Sure it does.” She reached for it.

Jaxx turned and paced down the hall.

“Sir, I need your information. You can’t do—”

Jaxx put his hand up. “I’m a top official. I have above level security clearance.” He had no idea what he was talking about or if this silly ploy would work.

The nurse grabbed the back of his shirt. “I have to keep my patients safe. I have to check your—”

In one twist, he slapped her hand away and continued forward. She let out a short scream, one in shock rather than fear, then grabbed at him as he reached Shaughnessy’s room.

Up and alert, Shaughnessy blinked at Jaxx several times, face blank as if trying to put the pieces together at the situation in front of him. He sat on a hospital table, the room empty of doctors or nurses. A monitor with a bouncing line and streaming data behind him on a cart, wires connected from it to a band around Shaughnessy’s bicep.

“Jaxx?”

“Sir, you can’t come in here.” The nurse’s arms wrapped around Jaxx’s waist, and if she were strong enough, he was sure she’d pick him up