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

Jaxx tried, again, to shield Rivkah. “Cole, please leave.”

Cole laughed.

Rivkah hissed, “Move out of the way, Jaxx.”

“No.”

“Move. Out. Of. The. Way. I can take him.”

Cole gave another hearty laugh. “I’d suggest you do as she says. I can kill two birds with one of these stones.” He patted his weapon.

Rivkah pushed Jaxx to the side.

Cole roared. “Bye, Rivkah.” He pulled the trigger, firing a cluster of plasma blasts.

Rivkah dropped to the ground, then lunged toward Cole. She kicked his chest, fast, strong.

It would have taken out anybody. Anybody not in a titanium exo-suit. Anyone not named S.A. Nick Cole.

Cole didn’t budge.

Rivkah fell back, slightly dazed.

Jaxx lurched froward and pushed Cole’s weapon as the man pulled the trigger. Chunks of concrete blasted from a building’s side wall.

Rivkah rolled to the side, kicking at his knee, which ought to have brought him to the ground. Again, he didn’t budge.

He slammed a forearm across Jaxx’s shoulder, taking Jaxx off his feet and to his back. Cole shifted away and magnetized the rifle to his back. “This thing just gets in the way.” He yelled and jumped toward Rivkah. She dodged as Cole came down with a crushing two-handed blow, taking a nice chunk of tarmac with him.

Rivkah lifted her fists in a Muay Thai stance. She gave Jaxx a side glance. “Jaxx, you pansy. Help me.”

Jaxx put up his hand. “Cole, if you don’t hurt Rivkah, I’ll come with you peacefully.” He had a plan and it had nothing to do with going back to the Secret Space Program. Hopefully, Rivkah could still read his mind.

“That I can do,” Cole responded. “We go now.” Hey threw an index finger at Rivkah. “Don’t move a hair, or Jaxx gets it.” He motioned toward the craft. “Get on board, Jaxx.”

As Cole gestured to the ramp, Rivkah jumped on his back. She pulled the rifle off and pushed off. Landing on her feet, she aimed at Cole. She hesitated. It was a powerful weapon. The kickback might knock her off her feet, if she wasn’t firmly planted.

Cole jerked away, swiping his arm outward. “You persistent little bitch.”

Rivkah pulled the trigger and bolts connected with Cole’s chest armor, spinning him on his side, sliding him across the pavement. Sparks flew and he left one hell of a skid mark. When he stopped, he didn’t move.

Rivkah ran up the ramp, stopping mid-stride. “Jaxx, what are you waiting for? He’s not dead. He’ll be up and at ’em in seconds. Let’s go.”

Jaxx held the laptop close to him and looked at the wall that shielded the secret elevator that went back to Shaughnessy’s room and, minus Slade and Fox, to his dream work.

Cole started to move.

His choice was made, not by Rivkah or himself, but by the man who might wreak havoc on him—Cole. The door shut airtight, and Rivkah keyed on the holographic display console and the dropship lifted into the sky.

47

June 10thOver Wichita, Kansas

Rivkah was tired, her eyelids heavy. She did everything she could to keep them open.

She flew the Oospor Class-9 Dropship at near low orbit. To any star gazer, her highly-sophisticated technological ship would look like a passing satellite.

Even with Rivkah’s ability to master just about any ship, this ship was so sophisticated she and Jaxx couldn’t figure out how to make it fly any faster than a commercial airliner. It had too many holographic buttons and, without a ship manual, they were working with their knowledge from their experience flying SF-13 Air Wings. The Air Wings were easier to fly and that was saying something, because Air Wings were advanced. Or, maybe it was the powers that Jaxx gave her that dumbed her down.

Rivkah nodded off for a second, then woke with a start. She took a deep breath and thumbed over her shoulder. “I’m taking a nap on the hospital bed back there.”

She walked to the bed and lay down.

“I guess I’ll assume controls?” Jaxx was being a sarcastic ass. She wasn’t used to that type of tone from him, but she was being an ass herself and Jaxx was probably tired of people pushing him around—that’s if Underfoot Black treated Jaxx remotely close to how Rivkah was treated.

He moved over to her seat.

She lifted her head, giving him a deathly stare. “No shit, Sherlock.” She wanted to cut him like he cut her every single night. The same dream. Every night.

She couldn’t help it. Everything that came out of her mouth was fueled with hatred and fire. He’d left her to melt, to burn, to die. She wanted to strangle him on the spot, but something prevented her. Some deep, abiding drive; a drive so compelling, it felt like a mandate. Made no sense.

If I touch him—hands around his neck, squeezing the trachea, breaking his hyoid bone, cutting off his air supply—the powers come back. She flexed her shoulders, fighting off a yawn. She didn’t want to appear vulnerable in front of him. It was too much, the exhaustion was going to win out. Maybe I could just shoot him. Close range, but no physical touch.

She smiled. Her eyelids fell. She faded off to sleep.

Captain Fox stood next to Rivkah’s starfighter, several high-ranking pilots next to him. They saluted Rivkah as she inched the starfighter closer to the launch tube. She didn’t know if what she was doing was right, but she sure as hell knew that what the Secret Space Program was doing was wrong. They were destroying an entire civilization because they were greedy, power-hungry bastards, something she only thought corporations were capable of, not the military. Taiyo was chock full of gold, silver, crude oil, and minerals she’d never heard of that the Kelhoon and the Secret Space Program could profit from for hundreds of years.

You live and you learn. I signed up to a lie.

Rumor had it, Jaxx defected to the Taiyonian’s side. Rivkah convinced the admiral that she was the only