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

over the western horizon as she tried to kiss him. “Please stop. Michael, I love you. Please stop this.”

He kissed her. “Sam, I love you more than I can ever say. If anyone tries to hurt you again, I’ll kill him. I’ll die for you. But I ain’t gonna shake this. Trust me, I been trying every damn day.”

“Let’s go to the house. We can talk. Make sense of it. I promise.”

The waves lapped at his feet. The water was brisk, just the way he loved it when they skinny-dipped. Michael didn’t think he’d make it back without losing his dinner. He leaned on her for support.

“They won’t be able to kill him. He’s too smart now. He’ll build an army, no matter how many years it takes. Hybrids and immortals. They’ll kill millions, Sam. Billions. There’s only one thing to do.”

Even in the settling dusk, he saw the tears and terror in her eyes.

“He told us how in the message. You read part of it out loud. Maybe they will figure out how to kill me before the dark drowns them all.”

“You are wrong, sweetie. No. You are wrong.”

He kissed her on the forehead.

“The only ones who can kill him are the ones who created him. He’s waiting for us to try. Somewhere out there, he’s laughing and waiting.”

He wiped her tears. They sat down together, the surf nipping at their heels. The breeze faded. Soon, the night draped them in a sky full of endless stars. He had no idea where to start, but Michael understood what his heart was telling him.

He thought back to the old days. To Albion. To the boy he used to love as a brother. To Jamie.

“I’m coming for you, dude. Get my speed?”

The saga continues now in The Reversing Tide …

The Reversing Tide

The Impossible Future: Book 3

Frank Kennedy

c. 2020 by Frank Kennedy

All rights reserved

PART ONE MISDIRECTION

Yeah, so … I’ve learned a few things about life.

A man ought to know better than to get comfortable. As soon as they pat you on the back and fill you full of ‘attaboys,’ that’s when you’d best send up the radar. Those same boot-lickers sure as hell won’t be around when you fall – and they’re just waiting for the trapdoor to open.

And another thing: Don’t assume you’ll live forever. Be ready to go next Tuesday. If old man Death has you marked up in his calendar, ain’t a thing you can do about it. Just hold on tight, find the biggest, most impossible rollercoaster in the universe, and let her rip. What’s the worst that can happen?

1

System Transport Ship Hadrian

34 million kilometers from Earth

Standard Year (SY) 5357

N ERVOUS?”

Sam Pynn stopped fidgeting and answered the question.

“I don’t know which will be worse: What they tell us, or how long the nightmares stay with me.”

Sam’s Chief of Staff, Patricia Wylehan, broke from a holocube of financials and leaned across her seat. She kissed Sam on the cheek.

“Nightmares? Come now. Your biggest fear is what to tell Michael when you return home.”

Sam grabbed her sixth glass of wine since Hadrian entered full system burst. She was close to the recommended max of alcohol for a journey of this duration. She read the spaceflight guidelines three times before launch, this being her first trip off-world.

“We argued for an hour, Pat. He couldn’t believe I was leaving him out of this. He went on about how he’d been a good boy for the last year and didn’t organize a damn-fool mission out of the system.”

“Sam, you’ve been the voice of reason. Michael knows this. He’s more valuable on Earth right now.”

Sam nodded. “The next few weeks will be a tipping point.”

“And Michael will play a vital role. He’s come a long way, Sam.”

“He has.” She closed her eyes and felt Michael’s arms around her, their bodies intertwined. Eyes of a hunter, lips of a poet, muscles of a linebacker. She chased her fingers through his beard and his dreads. Sam snapped back to reality and sipped wine. “I’m very proud of him, Pat. I remember the day we crossed the IDF.” She faced her Chief of Staff. “Neither of us thought he’d survive here for long.”

“He defied the odds, as did you. Now here you are, minor celebrities with more influence than you realize.”

“Only because the Chancellory hasn’t decided we’re a pair of frauds. Let’s face it, Pat. The Presidiums trust me because they don’t know me. They think Michael’s harmless because they don’t understand half of what comes out his mouth.”

Pat swiped lines of numbers. “Sometimes, a brilliant plan falls into your lap. The best saves I ever made on the battlefield were improvised. Only way to turn defeat into victory is defy the narrative. I’ve never seen anybody defy like you and Michael.”

Sam loved having Patricia close. The former peacekeeper and mercenary recognized when to slip in those ego-stroking asides.

They first met outside the Interdimensional Fold twenty-two standard months earlier, when Patricia was Ophelia Tomelin’s “Chief.” Five months after the fall of SkyTower, an inquest cleared the Chief of wrongdoing but gave her ten days to secure a contract position on Earth or leave the planet for good. Sam hired her an hour after the judgment. Yes, it was a reward for saving Sam and Michael’s lives after an assassin shot them both. Yes, Patricia had no executive experience. Yes, others in the Americus Presidium objected.

Still, Sam knew she’d never find a more qualified candidate. She needed a survivor who held disdain for the status quo and brought fierce loyalty. Like her boss, Patricia learned on the job. These days, no one dared play games with Sam Pynn’s “Chief.”

“Funny thing about