Ghosts of Empire (Book 4 of The Empire of Bones Saga) (30 page)

They also couldn’t dodge another of those bomb-pumped lasers until Baxter brought the drives back online. If there was one more down there waiting for them to travel to the right part of the sky, they were dead.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Abigail felt trapped. Yes, previous administrations had built the council building to withstand a riot and she had security units all around it, but she was sitting here waiting for Olivia to strike. Her now-discredited ex-boss had to take action against her—and soon—if she expected to have any chance of winning this fight.

She thought many bad things about Olivia West, but stupidity was not one of the woman’s failings. She
would
strike back, probably with more force than Abigail’s advisers thought possible. Someone would defect and support the woman. Bastards.

The problem was that Olivia could be anywhere in the city. Hell, anywhere on the planet. And Olivia could find Abigail any time she chose.

That needed to change.

“Have the guards gather our guests,” she told her assistant. “We’re moving them to a safer location.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “It’s hard to imagine any place on the planet more secure than this building.”

“I’m sure the citizens blown up by the nuclear bombs felt quite similarly.”

“A point, I grant you. Where will we be going?”

“The farm. I already have guards on site and no one knows about it. They can’t find us there. If they’re stupid enough to attack this building while we’re gone, so much the better. That could work out in our favor, too.”

Her com signaled. It was Master Calder. She gestured for her assistant to go. “Get everyone moving. I’ll join you at the vehicles as soon as I make arrangements.”

Master Calder’s image appeared on her screen when she keyed the accept button. He seemed pleased. Almost jovial. “Yes, Master?” she asked.

“I wanted to take a moment to congratulate you on turning this situation around, Abigail. I’m very impressed. Moving Operation Damocles up was a risk, but it seems to have paid off. The stations are gone and we’ve critically damaged the Fleet superdreadnought. It will enter our atmosphere and burn up in a very short period of time. Well done.”

She preened inside at his words, but only allowed herself a small smile. “Thank you, Master. I’m very pleased to have made that operation a success. Once I find Olivia West and kill her, we’ll have undisputed control of the planet. Do we know where the other Fleet ship is?”

“Our scanner readings are limited from the surface, but I believe it’s at Boxer Station or one of the flip points. Now that they don’t control the bombardment platforms, we can initiate phase two of Operation Damocles. That’s the reason I called. I won’t be available while it’s in progress, so you’re going to have to lead the conservative alliance until I put an end to these rebel interlopers.”

Abigail had no idea what phase two entailed, but if it was capable of taking out the remaining warship, she was all for it. Victory was within their grasp.

“I’ll take care of everything, Master Calder. You might want to have anything you don’t want damaged out of the capital. I’ve come up with a plan to deal with Olivia once and for all.”

He listened to her explanation, nodding his head as she wrapped up. “An excellent ploy. I’ll notify everyone. Give us an hour before you act.”

“That may not be possible,” she said. “I won’t be the one initiating the events.”

“True. Do what you can and give everyone a warning once things kick off. I’ll talk with you shortly. By this time tomorrow, the last decade will be only a bad memory. We’ll claim our future and restore the Lord to power. Until then, good luck.”

“To you as well, Master.”

Once he ended the call, she went out in search of her assistant. She found him discussing the new plans with the chief of Council Security. That worthy had been secretly in her pay for quite a while, though the blackmail material she had on him was more than enough to assure his cooperation. If anyone else knew his dirty little sex secrets, he’d never see the outside of a cell.

The man bowed as she joined them. “Coordinator.”

She’d arranged a farce of a council meeting an hour ago to impeach Olivia and install herself as their newest head of state. Finally.

“Chief Yancy. I want the prisoners moved out to a facility my assistant will designate. Quietly. I don’t want anyone to know they’ve been moved.”

He nodded. “I’ll see that it’s done, but some people are going to see them being moved inside the building. I can minimize that by clearing the area around the parking bay, but people will notice.”

“So see that anyone that knows goes along for the ride. You’re imaginative. My private file on you makes that abundantly clear. I don’t care what you have to do, or who you detain to make that happen.

“Also, I’ll have a special delivery coming in later today. Grant the people bringing it full access to the vault. They’ll be incorporating some new equipment. It’s very secret, so no one is to hamper them or attempt to inspect anything. They’ll seal the vault when they finish. Understood?”

He bowed again. “Yes, Coordinator.”

“Excellent. Now, I’ll be going out in advance of the prisoners. Let’s get things set up so that no one is aware that I’m gone.”

Her assistant smiled. “I have just the thing, Coordinator. If you record another public address, we can send it out after everyone has left. Mention that you’re staying in the council building until you capture the criminals behind this despicable deed. Then everyone will see what you expect them to see.”

“I like that. Let’s go take care of that little detail and get the hell out of here.”

* * * * *

Kelsey was exceptionally glad once she got to shallower water. The light filtering down from above made walking through the muck easier. Once the silt changed to sand, it became simple.

She wasn’t sure what people would think when her head broke the surface, but that turned out not to be a problem. The beach was deserted.

The city in the distance was burning. Based on the number of air cars she saw, the people that could were fleeing, most likely afraid of radiation or a second explosion. Those that weren’t running away were heading
toward
the city. People there needed rescuing. That covered both sides of human nature.

With no one standing around to gawk at her, she popped her helmet and took in a deep breath. The smell of fire dominated even the salt of the ocean. Her suit’s built in rad detector was reading higher than normal background, but not outrageously so.

It would be worse the closer one got to the city. Many, many people would die before they could get adequate medical treatment for radiation sickness. The Rebel Empire’s rejection of medical nanites would seal their fate.

“Ned, can we bring down the medical nanites from Boxer Station and help these people?”

I’m afraid not. They require implants to function. Civilian implants are fine, but they take time to build and install. These people don’t have that kind of time. Realistically, every ship and medical center on this planet will need to make rad pills as fast as they can. It won’t be nearly enough, but it’s all we can do.

The realization that millions of survivors would still die crushed her, but she didn’t have time to mourn them now. She linked her implants to the Fleet com and saw that Ross was still in range. Kelsey breathed a sigh of relief and called him.

“Princess Kelsey?” he asked.

“Command Master Chief. I’m glad to hear your voice. Are you okay?”

“We’re fine, but we feared the worst when you didn’t answer our calls.”

She looked back out over the waves. “That’s what happens when you sink to the bottom of the ocean. Where are you?”

“We’re in the outskirts of the city. We’re digging people out of the rubble and using the lifts to get them out of the radiation zone.”

She hadn’t expected anything less. “What are the radiation readings? I don’t want anyone staying longer than they can tolerate. Medical care is going to be hard to come by for a while.”

“We’re good, actually. The buildings in the city center took most of the damage and shielded the suburbs from a fair share of the fallout. Also, we have rad pills. The military cordon around the island is lifted and we have pinnaces inbound with medical supplies and more troops.”

“What about
Invincible
?”

“They’re alive, but the ship is damaged. They need to get the drives back online as soon as possible to avoid entering the atmosphere. Once the pinnaces drop off the medical supplies and marines to help with SAR, they’ll join the rest going up to help.”

“Give one my location. I’m going up. I’ll be the short woman in powered armor.”

“Will do, Highness. Ross out.”

She only had to wait a few minutes before a pinnace came swooping out of the sky and landed near her, blowing sand in every direction.

Kelsey charged up the ramp and grabbed on as it lifted off aggressively. The bay was empty except for one marine acting as the crew chief.

“Highness, the pilot asked for you to come to the flight deck, but I don’t think you’ll fit.”

Not a chance in this armor. “I’ll take the marine command console and call him from there, Sergeant.”

She strapped herself to the wall behind the console and opened a channel to the flight deck. A Fleet officer with a headset on appeared. That was new. He must have implants.

The man glanced at her. “Princess Kelsey, Admiral Mertz asked me to brief you. We’ll be docking with
Invincible
in about twenty minutes.”

“Lay it out, Lieutenant.”

“The ship’s drives are offline. The admiral doesn’t think they’re going to be operational soon enough to help. He’s ordered the crew to prepare to abandon ship while we use all the small craft to try and shift their course.”

The idea made sense. When they’d found
Courageous
, they’d had to stop her spin with a pinnace. A lot of them working together might be able to affect a ship as large as the superdreadnought. If they had time.

“What are the chances?”

“
Invincible
gives us maybe thirty percent.”

“Not good enough. There has to be something else we can do.”

“If you have any ideas, Highness, I’m sure the admiral would
love
to hear them.”

“I’ll think about that. Get up there quick while I take care of one last thing.”

* * * * *

In the end, Sean hadn’t had to stop the marine from giving the man the closest shave of his life. The prisoners hadn’t been able to give them a decisive clue, but they’d obviously told her everything they could think of that might be relevant.

The best piece of information they had was something the woman had overheard one of the Deputy Coordinator’s guards mention. He’d said something about “the farm” and another man had quickly shut him up. So, their comrades were probably somewhere outside the city.

With all the nuclear explosions, that might be for the best.

All they had to do was figure out where this farm might be located. For that to happen, they needed information that he didn’t know how to acquire.

His civilian com chirped. It was an unknown number. He considered not answering it, but decided that Ross or the admiral might have picked up a new unit.

“Hello?”

“Commander Meyer,” a female voice said. “This is Coordinator West. I hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time.”

He blinked in shock. She was the last person he’d expected to be calling him. He almost disconnected, but if she were tracking them, she already had their location.

“No, this is a perfect time, Coordinator. We’re just sitting around mulling over a problem. What can I do for you?”

“I have a favor to ask. And, before you become overly concerned, I’ve formed an alliance with Admiral Mertz and Princess Kelsey. Yes, they’ve read me in on your secret. I’m not sending anyone after you. You’re perfectly safe.

“Well, unless the security forces catch you first for all the damage you caused in that wild ride through the city. Have you considered a career in racing?”

More like the demolition derby. “If things don’t start looking up, I might. What can I do for you, Coordinator?”

“I need some people skilled in combat to undertake a rescue operation under fire. Princess Kelsey said that you might also need my help in finding the lost prisoners. I’ll give what help I can in any case, but there are some important people that need saving, too.

“She and Admiral Mertz have more pressing matters to attend to and you’re the senior Fleet officer left on the planet. His Fleet, anyway. There are a number of your marines available, but only if you agree.”

Sean considered her offer and decided he had nothing to lose by sharing what he knew. “I’ll need to make a call first. Who are we rescuing and why don’t you have the people to do it?”

“The military is sitting out my struggle with Abigail King. I have some skilled fighters, but we’re talking about storming the planetary council building. It’s a fortress. Abigail has a number of my allies in that building and I’d like to get them back alive. And put her on trial for mass murder, too.”

He snorted softly. “There’s nothing I’d like more than to make that woman pay. Not only for what she did to my people, but for what she did to yours. As I said, I’ll call you back once I see what I can find out. Do you know anything about a farm that might be associated with King?”

“Not off the top of my head. You make your call and I’ll make a few of my own. Then we’ll see if we can’t ruin Abigail King’s day.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Olivia had a brief conversation with her tech wizard and started the woman searching for data on any farm that might be associated with Abigail. By the time she had that in motion, Commander Meyer had called her back.

“I’ve spoken with the marines on the ground,” he said. “They managed to get through to Admiral Mertz. I have his blessing to help you.