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

He spent the next hour, reading and re-reading the documents his mother had secured for him. It was all official. Very succinctly outlined. Very matter of fact, but it boiled down to a simple hypothesis. Slade believed the oceans were rising, the planet was going to be uninhabitable, and he needed to evacuate the Government, the Administration, and other key players.

No citizens.

Not in round one, round two, or any evacuation round thereafter.

Slade didn’t want anyone to know what he was doing because he planned to leave the majority of the human race behind. He had a bunch of arguments, about the sanctity of the Constitution and the need for good government and their chances of survival, but he’d found a “tidally-locked moon” and planned to go there.

Within days.

Drew didn’t have much time.

46

June 9thSt. George’s, Grenada

The elevator opened and they stared at a dark alleyway. It had been a while since Jaxx had been outside. He was glad it was dark.

He gripped the laptop as Rivkah shoved him forward by the barrel of her rifle.

Out of the elevator and into the warm heat of the night, Rivkah threw the rifle back into the elevator. A few seconds later, the elevator dinged and closed. A cement wall moved in front of it and hid the doors.

She was street-smart and could handle herself. That was a brilliant move. Walking around with a large weapon was a dead giveaway that something bad had happened, was currently happening, or was about to happen. She probably wanted as few eyes on her as possible.

“Move, Jaxx.”

Jaxx faced Rivkah. “Look, I’ll hand you the laptop and you can get going. I need to get back down there.” He attempted to step around her.

She blocked him. “Not a chance. You’re my ticket to safety and you’re going to…” She tilted her head, staring into Jaxx’s eyes. “I keep hearing your thoughts.” She put her hands in a fist. “No, I feel your thoughts. What are you feeling now?” She gave a humorless grin. “Right. You have no freaking clue what’s going to happen next. But you want to know more. You can’t help yourself. You want on this project because you think the entire Universe will reveal itself at your doorstep. The glyphs won’t decode themselves, and you’re the one who can.” She prodded him in the chest. Hard. It hurt. “You don’t know a lot, do you, Jaxx? There are gaps. Gaps in that little cranium of yours.” Her finger moved up to his forehead. She kept jabbing.

“There are gaps, you’re right. I’ve been trying to fill them, but Donny has been keeping me on a tight leash.”

“Who the hell ever had you on a leash?”

Jaxx shrugged. She knew a version of him he was only just getting to know.

Rivkah gasped. “Holy mother of all dogs. You really don’t know.” She fought to catch her breath. “If that isn’t the biggest, most cowardly way out I have ever heard of.” She got up in his face. “I don’t knoooooooooooow.” It was a whiny voice, meant to insult.

It did.

“Fine. Here’s what happened. You were supposed to have my back. But you left me for dead.” She paused.

“Sorry,” said Jaxx.

“It gets worse. You left me in a burning starfighter. Alone. To die. Only I didn’t die, did I? I survived. Crisped to the core.”

Jaxx scratched his temple. “I saved you. I risked my life to save you. I donated my blood to revive you. You’re not remembering things correctly.” He wanted to say he thought she was nuts, but that wouldn’t get him anywhere.

She spat on his foot. “That was the first time Jaxx. Yeah, you saved me.” She threw her hands in the air. “Whoopty-doo. The second time. When you up and defected. I went after you. You shot me down.”

He had no idea what she was talking about. She snagged the laptop bag out of his hand, not waiting for a reply. She bounced it a couple of times, gauging the weight. “Heavier than I imagined. Must be industrial strength.” She scrounged through the bag, ripping the inside Velcro compartments open. “What’s this?” She pulled out a fist full of US dollars, mostly twenties. “That’s not enough.”

“Enough for what?”

“To fly off Grenada.”

“I’m not going.”

She pulled out several credit cards. After reading the name inscribed on them, she gave Jaxx a wicked smile. “You’re coming with me.” She held up the credit cards. “Jon Shaughnessy’s name. You could pull off being a man, couldn’t you, Jaxx? If you really put your mind to it?” She pointed over his shoulder. “Now go, before I drag you to the airport.”

“No.” He folded his arms. He wasn’t moving. If she touched him, things would go bat shit crazy like they did last time, causing an uproar, waking up an entire city block. He knew it and because he knew it, she knew it.

The woosh of a craft overhead had them both crouching in seconds. The ground rumbled as the ship lowered.

An Oospor Class-9 Dropship hovered in front of the alleyway, a man in armor stepping down the short ramp. “Orders keep changing,” boomed the guy’s voice. “First, Slade, and then grab this pot-head piece of shit, and then to Jax. I like this order.”

“Cole,” said Jaxx.

“What the hell are you doing here, Agent?” Rivkah stepped up to him. The woman had no fear.

Cole went for his IP-9, demagnetizing it from his titanium armor and yanked it over his shoulder. He aimed it at Rivkah. “I’m here for Jaxx, not for you, Rivkah.”

Jaxx stepped forward, shielding Rivkah. “What’s this about?”

“I’m taking you back to the fleet, Jaxx. Though, I’d rather see your eyes rolled up in the back of your head and your shitty, little coward’s body laid out in a casket.”

On each side of the alleyway stood two-story buildings. Behind them, at the base of a steep Fort George hill, was a concrete wall. Cole was in front of them. They had nowhere to go.

Rivkah sized