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

“Keep your voice down, and keep up the pace,” said T-hacker, glancing over his shoulder.

“My guys are waiting for us at the end of this tunnel. We’ve got four Range Rovers ready to drive the shit out of here,” explained Anderle. He picked up his pace, his breathing heavier. He looked behind him, worry in his eyes, probably imagining Chinese soldiers coming out of the shadows and shooting them full of bullets.

“What do we do when we get out of here?” asked Drew.

“We have another Range Rover being chased and riddled with bullets by the Chinese right now.”

“What do you mean?” said Drew. He stepped into another puddle.

Anderle let out a nervous laugh, the phone he carried for their light shook. “We have many safe-guards set up. We hooked up another Range Rover with a manikin a long time ago. If anything went wrong, we’d drive it remotely with T-hacker’s phone. It actually drives itself, but it’s fitted with explosives. Once they disable it, they’ll check for me inside and badda-bing, badda-boom. They go up in flames. In the meantime, we’re driving off in our own Range Rovers, me and my hacker boys, safe and happy.”

Anderle was a genius, but a fucking nut job to boot. “Why would you choose a Range Rover for our getaway and a Range Rover for your fake getaway?”

Anderle lifted his shoulders nonchalantly and pushed out his lower lip. “It’s my favorite car.”

“If they see a second Range Rover, a third, and forth, maybe even just an hour after we drive off into the sunset, they will check it out immediately. You pick a different car and they might bypass it, thinking it’s just another American driving down the damn road.” How stupid could the guy be?

Anderle paused, thinking for a moment. He shrugged it off. “We got this. We’ll be fine.” He put his hand up. The end of the tunnel was coming near. “Where are the rest of them? Where are the other Range Rovers?”

At the end of the tunnel sat a white Range Rover covered in dust and dirt, as if it had been there for months without anyone touching it, which was probably the case. Early dawn light sprinkled past the lip of the tunnel. Beyond was a gravel road surrounded by ferns, grasses, and trees.

Drew stopped dead in his tracks, his stomach falling. His body turned cold. “No, no. Mya’s gone?”

Anderle walked over and kicked the wall, pulling his hair way too violently. “Son of a bitch! They took her. Our guys turned tail and ran.” His arms went rigid by his sides, his hands in a fist, his shoulder’s up toward his ears. “We needed her. They knew that.” He jabbed his finger in Drew’s face. “She is more powerful around her dad and we need her to be powerful, way fucking powerful.”

Drew pushed his hand away. “She is just an eight-year-old. You piece of shit. You used her and look where it got her.” He reared back, ready to throw a punch.

T-hacker grabbed Drew’s hand, preventing him.

Drew shrugged T-hacker off of him and ran his hands through his hair, thinking. “Where would they have gone? Can we locate her? Find her, or something?” He started pacing, his hands going numb. This wasn’t even his own daughter and he was having a panic attack. Was it because she was his responsibility and he screwed up? “Why do you need someone like her? Who cares if she’s powerful.”

T-hacker shoved the phone in Drew’s face. “This is why.”

The screen saver was a picture of a blackened sky with dozens of vessels shaped like diamonds, whitish-blue hue glowing off of them. They were dropping what looked like red energy balls on a city. The city was on fire, the buildings crumbling apart, people running, dying. Was that New York?

“That’s London,” came Anderle. “Those things are appearing over hot spots, mainly older ancient sites, like pyramids. This one materialized over Stonehenge, and then moved on, attacking everything in sight.”

Drew walked to the Range Rover, then picked up his pace, finding himself in a full out run. He didn’t know how to feel about any of this. First China was taking over. Now another damn monster was on the loose in the form of alien spacecraft, killing everything. Mya has superpowers? “We have to find Mya.” He didn’t know about this so-called superpower Anderle claimed she had. All he saw her do was heal a guy’s nose.

He reached the Range Rover, placing his hand on the door handle.

An explosion rocked the area and Drew hit the ground. The tunnel shuddered, a ball of flames erupted somewhere past the lip of the tunnel and on the gravel road. He stood, feeling the heat blast against him. He bolted to the edge of the tunnel and looked out. A Range Rover was on fire a short distance away, the front completely blown to shreds, the back intact, but wasting away in an inferno of flames.

No one survived that. They couldn’t have.

He took a step backward when the Rover’s back door opened. And out walked Mya, crying loudly, walking toward the tunnel, her face contorted in a spasm of sobs. Her hands shook. Her legs wobbled. She fell to her knees and collapsed.

Drew carried his feet as fast as they could, pumping his arms up and down, his breath coming heavy. Rocks kicked up with every step.

He slowed when he came up to Mya and bent down. She was asleep, breathing slowly, but not a single scratch on her, or any burn mark. “What the hell?” He went to pick her up. His hand singed and he pulled it back. She was as hot as a campfire.

23

Edge of M-Quadrant, Nearing Jupiter - Starship Atlantis

Ken pushed the storage room’s door open, leading them out into the Starship Atlantis’s lowest deck. “Go, go.”

More than four dozen politicians, dressed in their best business attire and wearing helmets,