The Impossible Future: Complete set Frank Kennedy (freenovel24 .TXT) 📖

detain your collaborators within the hour, including the First Admiral. What you do now will go far in determining their fate as well. I need your sidearm.”

Rayna went from desperate to exhilarated in seconds. She did not understand the intricacies of what just happened, but Perrone never saw this coming. Just like Father.

“Come,” Ophelia told her without slowing down. “I think we deserve a meal.”

Rayna shared a smile with Mentor. “They are assholes still, but she is smartest one. I must come to know her better.”

49

J AMES WAS AS SPEECHLESS AS VALENTIN. Their assumptions died as fast their father ordered the arrest of Perrone, his allies in other presidiums, and every infiltrator in the compound. Emil’s revelations about the price of immortality seemed a mere distraction when he told them of his longstanding deal with Maj. Sexton Marshall and Dr. Ophelia Tomelin. His apology for using dramatics in the communal suite as a stalling tactic struck James as bizarre but sincere. Yet nothing prepared James for the invitation to afternoon tea in the observatory.

Emil and Frances left the suite hand-in-hand with muted smiles, as if this victory was a foregone conclusion.

“It’s what they do,” Valentin told James. “Every triumph, large or small, is time to celebrate. It’s been this way all my life. The spread will be incredible this time.”

Rifters arrived at the observatory, and Solomons laid out a buffet suited for fifty guests. The brothers joined their parents in a domed spectacle resembling a planetarium Jamie Sheridan visited on a field trip to Birmingham. Three-dimensional projections of Collectorate star systems lorded above the feast. Along the sides of the dome, images from each featured colony showed off natural wonders: spectacular terrains from seas and mountains to sunsets in colors he never imagined. Beautiful as they were, he felt the setting was as staged as every other event since he crossed the fold.

“Please, sons,” Emil said with full plate. “Eat. If you’re not yet prepared to sit with us, we understand.”

Smells familiar and strange arose from twenty heated platters. Meats blended with cheeses, seafood raw and spiced, vegetables steeped in creams, fruit sliced as rainbows. James wanted it all, just like the first meal he ate after killing his brother and transforming.

“This is tea?” He whispered to Valentin.

“The best food you’ll ever eat. Trust me, it was the only thing I missed when I joined the Guard.”

“You know they’re trying to butter us up?”

“There’s more about the immortals they haven’t said.”

“The Jewels, too. There are eight more hybrids on other planets. I guaran-damn-tee they’ve heard reports by now.”

“You’re right, brother. Father pays for priority comm channels over the Fulcrum. Faster even than military.”

“You think he’d give us answers if we asked real nice?”

“No, James. I say we wait. Let’s see who else arrives. In the meantime, we take a table far from my parents and eat.”

The food was, as Valentin claimed, spectacular. Taste sensations drew James back to the buffet three times, two plates each, for a bottomless well. They ate in relative silence, but James saw a continuous, low banter between his parents.

Unfamiliar faces arrived – Valentin said they were high executives in the Marks Presidium. They offered polite nods to the heads of the family en route to the buffet. Maj. Marshall and Ophelia trailed them. Neither paid the brothers any mind, but James lost interest in them as soon as Rayna entered with her observer, Misha.

Their eyes locked. James felt a cool, perfumed breeze, the strongest link yet. Even from a distance, he smelled her skin and tasted her lips. They dropped into each other’s minds. He began:

-          Don’t appear anxious. They’ll be watching us.

-          Is good thing they cannot hear us. They dislike what I say.

-          Follow Ophelia and take a plate. The food is good. Sit with us.

-          This is like feast after hunt, but I do not see admiral basting over fire like deer.

-          They do it differently here. When you were in the labs, did you hear anything about the others like us?

-          Admiral said how good soldiers follow orders. I did not listen well. He is gone now. No matter.

- Be ready for anything, Rayna. This is supposed to be a celebration, but something is still wrong. I feel it.

- What is wrong is we came here. What is wrong is I left Ukraine.

- You won’t regret it much longer. I promise.

He saw a wry smile as she took a plate. He watched her confusion as Misha explained the offerings. She filled her plate with raw fish and bread. She and Misha shared words about where to sit, but Misha lost. They separated. Rayna sat across from the brothers, nodded, but ate in silence. When Rayna noticed the colony world floating above, she seemed disinterested.

Is she unimpressed? Is she terrified?

James scanned the room. Maj. Marshall and Ophelia sat away from his parents, which confused him. They were co-conspirators – how long did they work to make this happen? Why not toast victory together? Valentin whispered the same surprise in his ear. There are too damn many questions, James thought.

As if on cue, his father and the major left their tables and joined each other. Emil tapped his fluted glass with a knife.

“I will be succinct, which will come as a great surprise to my long-term associates.” Short, awkward laughter arose from the presidium executives. “Augustus Perrone and his allies posed an existential threat to the Chancellory. While there are many to thank for their efforts, none more so than Major Sexton Marshall, who risked his esteemed career for years to achieve this outcome.”

Emil offered a symbolic side-nod and took his seat.

“I am a loyal soldier of the Guard,” Marshall began. “I have given my life to defend the