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

drawer. Only pens and paper. He opened a cabinet. Not there either.

He closed his eyes.

“What are you doing? We need to hurry,” said Camila.

He put his index finger up. “Let me concentrate. I’m not thinking correctly. I have to locate the key.” He started whispering to himself, as if reading a manual. “Yes, it was on the fourth page.” He brought it to memory. For a genius, having a photographic memory had its good and its bad. The bad; you remember what everyone has said about you. The good; you remember exactly where you saw the spare keys listed on a ten-page document you once read in Ethan’s office because you were bored, waiting for Ethan to get out of a meeting.

Drew pushed Ethan’s desk chair aside and lifted the carpet mat. A shiny brass key was underneath. “There it is. Now, to the box.”

He hustled to another room. The key shined from the sun’s light through a window as he slipped the key inside the black box’s keyhole. With a twist, the box opened.

He needed an efficient, low gas mileage car. The hybrid car’s key, the thick, black and bulbous key head, hung between a dozen more keys.

“Got it. Let’s go.”

Several cars were parked on the showroom floor, though only one hybrid. He walked over to the passenger’s side door and opened it. He glanced at Camila across the room. Mya was smashed against her hip. Her mom was her comfort. “Camila, step inside to your new—”

Guns popped off.

Glass shattered, splintering toward them, and papers flew in the air. Bullets ricocheted off the ground and center showroom beams. Drew, Camila, and Mya hit the deck.

Drew covered his head, then looked up in hopes that his companions were safe.

Mya was on the floor in front of Drew. He grabbed her and crawled backwards, pulling her along with him behind a wide, steel beam.

He leaned against it and held Mya tightly. To his side, a corner wall had been splattered with bullet holes.

A squeal, sharp and intense, split the air. Was that Camila? He peeked around the beam. Camila was crawling toward them, her face full of tears. She grasped for her daughter, her mouth twisted in pain. A trail of blood was in her wake. She wasn’t holding the baby.

23

M-Quadrant, Solar System - Starship Atlantis

The monitor steadily beeped as Rivkah stepped forward. She touched Fox’s neck and curled her fingers. A moan vibrated between his lips and he stirred. His bandage stamped on his stomach. A small amount of blood soaked through in the center.

“Slade… why did you do… that? You shot… me.” Shaky breaths slid out his nose as if pain cranked up a notch at each exhale. He rolled his head on the pillow. “You could…have killed…me.”

Rivkah cocked her head to the side. She lightened her grip around his throat. “He shot you?”

“Don’t play me the fool. You…know…exactly what you did…Slade.” Fox licked his lips. His eyes moved left and right in quick succession behind his eyelids.

Either the anti-pain meds were getting to him or he had a tendency to talk in his sleep. The man obviously thought she was Slade.

She stepped away and let her hands fall to her sides. “Why do you think I did that?”

“Because you’re a fool.”

“What would you have done if you were in my situation?”

“Nothing. And everything.”

What the hell did that mean? She cleared her throat. “As colonel, I order you to be as specific as possible. I value your thoughts.”

“Slade, you don’t value shit. That’s why you threw everything and everyone under the bus to invade.”

“Invade where?”

“Shutup.”

Rivkah pursed her lips. An invasion could take place anywhere. It could be countless planetary systems that Slade had invaded in the past, assuming Fox spoke about the past.

“What did I throw under the bus?”

“Your God damn oath. Everything that made you human. I might as well call you a Kelhoon.”

The Kelhoon, a mixed race; half lizard, half human. Rivkah scanned her memory. Did the Kelhoon have the ability to warp a themselves into humans? Did they have that technology? Was Slade a Kelhoon? She snorted. Dumb thought. “Again, be specific, soldier. What did I do that you don’t like?”

“You’re a traitor.”

It didn’t take a brain scientist to know that, and Fox knew it too. “I’m not a traitor.”

“You turned an entire program into traitors.”

“Who?”

Fox stirred. “You know who.”

She wanted to pull out her hair. This was getting nowhere. “You are the one who convinced me.” She didn’t know where she was going with this, but any change would be good.

“The hell I did.”

“The program was your idea.”

“It was solely yours, you son of a bitch.”

“It was you who convinced the Global Safety Administration to turn on its people.”

“What? I did nothing of the sort. And that’s not what I’m talking about.” He curled his lips downward. “I’m talking about the SSP, you dipshit.”

What did Slade do with the SSP? “Those are humans. How does that make me and them a traitor?”

“You aligned them and the Kelhoons against an unknown.”

Bingo. “How the hell did I do that? That was you.” At the moment, she could make up anything to get some answers. It was almost fun. “I should call you the traitor.”

“Stop lying. I’m just relieved the SSP hasn’t confirmed your arrangement.”

“My arrangement to align the SSP and Kelhoons?” That had been done on more than one occasion, so why would that suddenly piss off Fox?

“Stop echoing me. You hate echoes.”

She leaned a hip against his hospital bed. “I see. And what are we going to do if I successfully align the two against the unknown?”

“You’ll kill the Atlanteans.”

“The Atlanteans? Are they the unknowns?”

“You bet your shiny ass they are. Again, don’t play me a fool, Slade.”

Rivkah went rigid. Atlanteans weren’t real. They were a myth and part of Jaxx’s vivid imagination. Jaxx had a screwed up fascination with them, so what was Fox talking about? Unless…

“You mean the Atlanteans on Callisto?” That was Jaxx’s contention. That before the deluge twelve-thousand some odd