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

her edge after moving here.

“Maybe …”

He quickly dismissed the idea of talking Sam into moving back to the Pacific. He heard her words already: I’m not going to hide away.

Fair enough. But things would have to change if …

Michael’s reverie cut short. He wasn’t sure if it was instinct or a matter of having walked these corridors so often, he memorized every detail. Every painting. Every sculpture on a pedestal. Every shade of fabric lining the floors. Every …

The splotch of blood was no bigger than a thumbprint, but it was distinguishable on a paneled wall at an intersection between the north wing and access to both the observatory and the rear balcony overlooking the rose gardens. He bent down; the sheen told him this blood was fresh.

“The hell?”

He spied the rear entry doors and a disfigured lump at their base. He gave verbal instructions to raise the lighting. The house complied. Though he could not see the face, Michael knew the lump was the body of a man. His heartbeat spiked.

Closer. Steadily closer.

A huge black stain dominated the man’s back halfway down his torso. Exit wound.

Laser exit wound.

“Holy shit.”

Michael tapped his amp. “Sam. Sam, where are you?”

Nothing.

“I need you to take my stream, Sam. Come on now.”

Michael stood over the body.

“No. This is not happening.”

He turned over David Ellstrom, whose open eyes bore witness to nothing. From the looks of his chest, the blast had to have come from point-blank range.

Again, with the amp. “Sam. Sweetie. Where are you?”

He opened a cube and ran his fingers through to lock in on Sam’s receiving signal. For an instant – but no more – Michael lessened his panic. She was outside on the rear balcony. She was moving, albeit haphazardly.

When the instant passed, Michael pushed off and sprinted through the double-door and the gallery until he saw enough to allow full-on panic to consume him.

They weren’t a hundred feet away: two familiar “children” dragging Sam, whose feet slid across the surface as she hung limp in their arms.

The instant Michael stepped outside, Brayllen Helmut pivoted and revealed a laser pistol in his free hand. He fired. The blue bolts skipped off the balcony around Michael.

“Brayllen. Rosalyn. Stop! What the fuck are you doing?”

They never answered, but they didn’t have to. He can strike anywhere without warning.

Michael needed no explanation. James snuck in a Trojan horse bearing two confused children no one would ever suspect.

“Please drop your weapons. You can’t get away with this. Please. There’s no place for you to run.”

This time, Rosalyn responded by firing shots. Her aim was way off, but Michael ducked behind a giant stone planter as Brayllen opened fire again. He hoped someone would hear the shots and come running with weapons, but if these two killed David without setting off alarms, why would anyone come after the bastards now?

Michael tapped his amp and sent out a message hitting anyone inside the property’s cascade shield.

“I need help. They’re trying to take Sam. South balcony. Bring weapons. Now.”

He dodged between planters and drew closer. The twins were not making much progress. How did they expect this to end?

Michael stood, raising both hands in surrender.

“All I want to do is talk,” he told them. “I know you care about Sam. She gave you a home. Please. Brayllen. Rosalyn.”

The lowered their weapons but did not drop them. Michael wasn’t sure what would happen if he moved in closer.

He didn’t have to wait to find out. A monstrous crack of thunder preceded a blinding flash of light along the balcony’s edge. Michael looked away, regained his vision, and saw a ship hovering in front of the kidnappers. Its entry port pixelated open.

Inside, two children younger than either of the twins raised blast rifles and fired at will. The flash pegs embedded and smashed objects all around Michael.

He dared not run. Michael saw enough to know he’d never survive. And if a peg caught Sam …

It happened too fast. The ship, with the words Spearhead emblazoned on its bow, descended in place. Two boys with rifles hopped off and stood guard as the twins hoisted Sam into the ship.

Laser fire erupted from behind Michael, ricocheting off Spearhead then catching a child soldier square in the chest. Michael turned.

Joseph Doltrice took a firm aim as laser bolts flew past.

It wasn’t enough. Not even close. The surviving soldier dragged the other boy’s body to the ship as Brayllen and Rosalyn, now safely onboard, dropped Sam and provided cover fire.

Michael had nothing. No weapon. No strategy. No words.

Soon as the last child slipped onboard Spearhead, the bulwark pixelated. The ship spun as if on an axis.

Seconds later, as Michael made one last, hopeless dash, a wormhole exploded over Spearhead. The thunder threw him backward, and the ship disappeared.

Michael fell to both knees.

Joseph stopped firing and ran to Michael’s side.

“I don’t understand,” Joseph said. “What just happ …”

Michael bellowed with steaming fury, loud enough to be heard many properties over.

I should have known. I should have known.

“Oh, God. Why?”

Michael had nothing. Without Sam, he had less.

76

Lioness

 

S AM HEARD FAMILIAR VOICES CLOSE BY. But her eyes seemed locked shut, and their sheer weight told her this must be the middle of a dream. She was being raised, carried, and then laid out upon a board. No, a table. An examining table. What were they saying? She’s been asleep too long. You gave her too big a dose. She’ll be fine. It was likely the aperture effect. It lingers in some.

Aperture? What lingers?

They were close. She felt their breaths. They were calling out her name. The last time someone called to her …

Didn’t she hear Michael