Zombie Road | Book 8 | Crossroads of Chaos Simpson, A. (new books to read .txt) 📖

be reprogrammed for a new user. If they were activated anywhere other than inside a dedicated facility, the user would be obliterated. No one had been able to recreate a safe box and after a few messy failures, no one else was trying. Jessie face hardened as he let his hands slide down to rest on his guns.

“No charge.” He said quickly. “No trouble. No charge.”

“Cool.” Jessie said brightly. “Thanks.”

Maddy strode through the curtains to the busy pathway first as Jessie backed out, keeping an eye on them if they decided to get brave. If they thought a pair of antique blasters or stolen bracelets were worth fighting for.

They didn’t and he hurried to catch up.

“Where did you get that gun?” he asked. “And where did you hide it?”

“It wasn’t real.” She said and wiggled her fingers. “The collector should have an answer by now, let’s see if he has a buyer for the coins.

25

Double Cross

The Collector hurried the two reptilians out of the alley when they tapped on his back door. A decade ago he’d set the brothers up with new identities as a favor to wipe some debts he’d made with the wrong people. With his slate cleared and everyone on friendly terms again he’d hired the pair over the years for various strong-arm jobs. They had done well; they weren’t the usual dim-witted toughs he hired for dirty work, and they had the backing of the Consortium to help if it was needed. Together they had made a lot of credits for themselves with low-risk robberies and occasional kidnappings, paid the Consortium their small cut of the ill-gained credits and everyone was happy.

“She’s very, very dangerous.” He said and wouldn’t elaborate exactly how. “Watch them from here, I need you to get a good look at her, then follow them to their ship. You need to destroy it when they are in deep space, cloak her with electrostatic polymers and house her in a titanium box charged with negative polarity.”

“We don’t have that kind of equipment.” Prashad said in his vaguely snakelike voice. “What you’re asking will be pricey and will take days to assemble. It will also kill her, as I’m sure you know, so I don’t know why you want the box. Why the precautions? Who is she? What is she carrying that is so valuable?”

“No questions.” Chala hissed. “Do you want the job or not?”

“Depends on what it pays.” Drashad said. “Percentage or flat fee?”

“Flat fee.” Chala said. “Twenty thousand credits plus expenses.”

Both of their eyes shimmered a different hue of brown for a moment, an expression of surprise.

“What if they don’t wander from the shipping lanes? We’ll get spotted shooting up their ship. We’ll have to change our transponders again.” Prashad said. “That will cost extra.”

“Fine.” Chala agreed. “I want her, you understand? Don’t take shortcuts, do everything I told you and you won’t have any problems.”

“What do you want us to do with the male?” Drashad asked. “You need him too?”

“No, leave him. He’s nobody.”

The doors opened and he saw them enter through the mirrored glass.

“Remember.” Chala warned again. “Do everything I said or she’ll take you out. Don’t underestimate her.”

26

Ancient History

When they returned to the ship, they were five thousand credits richer and had a much better understanding of how the galaxy worked. Jessie’s’ ears had picked up much but Maddy had picked up more. She could process a hundred different conversations in a hundred different languages at the same time.

They sat in the little kitchen area as Jessie examined the bracelets and Maddy consulted their newly acquired maps.

“Your system is inaccessible.” She said and brought it up in a 3d hologram. “The jump gate used to be here but it was destroyed.”

She was pointing to a spot on the far side of Saturn.

“That’s not where I came from.” Jessie said. “There are too many planets.”

“This is what it looked like before the war.” She replied. “The maps haven’t been updated because no one has been there for eons.”

She zoomed in and they saw Earth, Venus, Maldek and Mars as they had once been. All had thrived and were dotted with cities, the earth he knew as a blue ball was shrouded in protective clouds. Now Mars and Venus were uninhabitable wastelands, the Earth had one of its atmospheric layers gone and Maldek was completely destroyed, nothing left but an asteroid belt. The power of the ancients had been unbelievably immense.

“What’s with all the clouds on earth?” he asked “Why is it covered?”

Maddy considered for a moment, searching for any data she had of the system and consulted every tidbit of knowledge Jessie had ever read or absorbed. Most he had long forgotten, but it was still in his subconscious mind. Humans stored everything they ever learned but a vast majority of it was lost in the imperfect filing system of their brains.

“It was a water canopy.” She said. “It blocked most of the radiation from the sun, caused a greenhouse effect and the entire planet was lush and verdant. Life was abundant. It was destroyed during the wars and your world was deluged with water, killing most of the inhabitants.”

“You mean the great flood? Noah and the Ark?” Jessie asked.

“Yes, most of your oldest writings tell of the event but your knowledge is incomplete. There should be more but there isn’t. You didn’t pay attention during your studies.”

Well, that isn’t breaking news Jessie thought.

“How long would it take to get there?” Jessie asked. “I mean, if we set the thrusters to full blast and took off today?”

“Many lifetimes.” She said. “Without a hibernation pod, you would die of old age. With one, you would arrive to a planet you didn’t know thousands of years from now. It may be thriving; it may be dead. You are a warlike people so it is difficult to say. Your only option is time travel and that is also almost impossible.”

“But is it doable?” he asked. “Is there any way