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

waiting. In the meantime, I have my daughters to deal with. They are trying to play with these slave children we just brought to the moon.”

“Pick two their age and let them play.”

Craig rolled his eyes. “There is so much wrong with that idea. They will feed my children tales of sorrow and fear. They’ll talk about their parents and how they were ripped away—”

Slade put his hand up. “Send two slaves—any two you want to Dr. Andrea Cross’s quarters. She’ll rewire their brains so you can keep them as playthings for your kids. They’ll be like toys. They won’t mention a thing about their parents, because they won’t ever remember having parents.”

“It’s not going to be that easy.”

“Nothing is easy.” Slade crossed his arms. “Get used to it. Anything else, Mr. President?”

“No.”

Craig’s hologram disappeared.

Andrea touched the back of Slade’s neck, then slid her hands up inside his shirt, then down his spine. At his lower back, she wrapped her arms around his sides and to his stomach, resting her head against his muscular upper back. “Bad morning?”

If he could only go back in time and not get drunk with her, not kiss her…wait…kissing her. Letting her think she was all that he wanted and had him around her little finger would be his ticket to getting whatever he wanted from her. At least, for a while.

He twisted around and gave her a long kiss. He moved his lips softly, and slowly, away from hers, and stared deeply in her eyes. “I’m sending you on a mission.”

She pulled away, letting him go. “Oh? So soon?”

“After Craig sends you two slaves and you rewire their brains for me—” Slade paused, seeing the suppressed surprise on her face. “I’m then sending you, along with Craig’s secret service guards, on a ship to Earth. You’ll pick up another shipment of children. But that’s not all. I’ll ask the Kelhoon to let us use a few of their Zompawans. They’ll go with you as well. They are shape-shifting ETs, so you won’t know which one is which, or who is the secret service and who isn’t. You got it? The Zompawans will be at your beck and call.”

She went in for another kiss, pulling back when he continued talking.

“You’ll be extracting my son, Drew Avera, from Earth as well. Do you understand?”

Andrea looked down. Her peaceful glow and romantic demeanor changed into a hardened, no-shit doctor. Something Slade was all too familiar with. Dammit, he’d played her wrong.

“Got it, Slade. And how long have you had this planned?”

He needed her onside. He had to add a bit of sugar to his sour. Just enough to keep her curious and coming back for more. “You’ll be leaving after you work on the slaves that Craig sends you. You’re the only person I trust with this mission. It’s that important to me.” He ran his fingers through her hair, resting his fist in the nape of her neck.

Andrea eased herself toward Slade. The move was slight, but she was game for whatever was on offer. Just a couple more teases and she’d be compliant again.

“I’m serious,” he said. “You’re going to be my eyes and ears, as well as my Surgeon in Chief.”

“What’s the time frame before I leave, then?” Her voice had shifted back from clipped and business-like to the more agreeable bedroom tone she dialed up when she was ready to play.

“Two hours. And in three days you’ll be coming back to Namuh Farms here on Callisto with twelve children and my son. You’ll be changing Drew’s brain chemistry while en-route from Earth’s E-Quadrant to Callisto’s J-Quadrant. We’ll be in contact before you commence the brain chemistry transformation so I can tell you what memories I want in Drew’s head.”

She stood on her toes, rising up for a kiss.

Slade put his finger between their lips. “There’ll be plenty of that when you return. Now, go. And be careful. The Agadon are attacking Earth. You need to get in fast and under their radar and get out faster, with my precious son.”

Andrea smiled. Slade’s work was done.

6 J-Quadrant, Solar System - Nearing East Rise, Callisto

Jaxx rolled on the frozen ground, onto his front, and brought himself up to his knees. He touched his face. He was bleeding. He wondered if he had a black eye. The force with which he went through the cockpit windshield should have killed him. If not, the blow into the hill surely would leave him crippled, if not dead.

He was Jaxx, though. Some kind of mutant with ridiculous powers.

A starfighter zoomed overhead. It was an Agadon craft. It banked and circled around. It was surely coming to end his life.

He stood and twisted around. The transport was on fire, crackling in the cold wind, the front end smashed to shit.

“No, no. Zara? Kiyo-zan?” He ran over to the blazing craft, fanning the heat away from his body the best he could. It did nothing. “Zara! Kiyo-zan! Answer me. Are you alive in there?”

What a stupid question. They couldn’t have survived such a crash or hear his words over the roaring flames.

Hooooooooj!

An Agadon ship came in for a landing, descending quickly. About ten feet up, it slowed and hovered, rocks rocketing outward in all directions the closer its landing skids came to the ground.

With a resounding crack, the Liberty’s transport ship’s side door opened and flew off its hinges. Zara’s leg was extended through smoke that billowed out of the opening.

“Help me, Jaxx. Will you?” asked Zara.

Jaxx rushed over, grasping Zara’s soft, strong paw. He leaned back, pulling with all his might. Zara slid forward, Kiyo-zan laying over her other arm like a rag-doll, either dead or unconscious. Jaxx pulled her out of the wreckage.

A crunch of icy rocks underneath heavy feet filled the small gorge, followed by a metallic laugh.

Jaxx spun on his heels, his arms up in a defensive fighting stance, his body ready to deliver a load of pain to anyone standing in his way.

“Taz?” Jaxx