Oath Breaker (Death of Empire Book 1)

by A. B. Keuser

  “When she passed out? Then he’d pull the knife from her hand, pick her up and return her to the bed. Only to start over again.” She looked at him and he didn’t need to hear any more but she continued. “He wanted her to see it was futile, to believe she needed him to survive.”

  Si shook his head. “We’re not going to let him do that again.”

  “If I know Vôner, he’ll have a set of nanites primed for her. One injection and he’s back in her head. There’s nothing like whispers in your ear to make a sane person think they’re crazy.”

  “You think we’re going to be too late.”

  “I think we’ll be damned lucky if the Dani we get back is capable of making a full recovery. After all she’s lost on this ship, after reliving so many of her memories because you’re alive… well, when your foundation’s been peppered by dynamite blasts, it doesn’t take much to get you to crumble.”

  “They still use dynamite?”

  Mopeña nodded at him, a sour look on the pilot’s face. “On Ruma.”

  “There’s something more about the nanites… the last time, she almost died because of them. She wouldn’t tell me why, and the tech who killed them off couldn’t say, but there’s something in their makeup she wouldn’t tell me about. I honestly thought I was going to lose her.”

  “If we need to, we’ll deal with that after we get her out.” He turned to Willy, forcing his mouth out of its frown. “You think you’re up to helping us out on this mission?”

  “I’ll do what I have to. Hell, she saved my life less than a day ago, I’d be a real asshole if I didn’t return the favor. But you’re going to have to get to Stugg first, or else I’m gonna kill him for you. He almost took my life, tried for my girls’ and ruined my favorite jersey. That shit is vintage.”

  “I planned on having you in an out of the way position… and not because of that.”

  He sent them to the briefing room ahead of him. Adi would already be there, but he wanted to see what Kiori had dug up.

  The weapons locker was a mess. As he stepped through the hatch, he knew what Richter would say if he was still alive—or more precisely what he’d do. But the little weapon’s officer was not as fragile as she looked.

  “Find anything useful?”

  Goo looked out from the locker she was half in and nodded, tossing him a heavy rubber mask. “The Mandalls play dirty.”

  Si pushed a finger through the breather’s opening where a scrubber capsule would go, and nodded. “That’s exactly why we need to return the favor.”

  *

  Si had never had such a small crew in his briefing room… and he suspected he’d never had such an inexperienced one either. None of them were military trained except Adi and himself, but he’d put all his chips on Kiori.

  If the worm programmed into Dani’s tablet was any sign, Lyz could run circles around the best techs he’d worked with—with her legs tied together, he didn’t doubt. And while he’d yet to see Willy’s skills in action, he knew the caliber of people Dani had on her crew… he wished he’d had the opportunity to know the others.

  There wasn’t time to dwell on that now. “Here’s how it’s going to go down. We’re doing a twist on a bash and dash.”

  *

  They descended on Torjunta in the black of night. Mopeña set them down gently in the Mandalls' private shipyard. Lyz had worked her magic on their ident, grabbing a code for a ship Obie confirmed was off world. They left Willy to keep the engines ready and guns hot for a hasty retreat and the four of them moved quickly out the hatch, boots hitting pavement with the lightest of sounds.

  When they made it to the fence line separating the yard from the rest of the Mandalls' weapons manufacturing plant unnoticed, Osiris was willing to believe they’d fallen into a trap. But that wasn’t going to stop him from getting what he came for.

  They broke into two groups as they left the yard, Lyz and Goo headed east toward the facility’s power plant. He could trust them to make enough of a ruckus to distract Mandall’s people while he and Adi got in and took Yella out.

  He could still hear Lyz’s grumbling as he told her the split. If things were different, he would have sent Adi with Kiori… but things weren’t different, and he needed a trained soldier with him. He needed someone who was clearheaded enough to not run into the middle of a firefight unless she was able to get out clean. Hell, if he was honest, he wasn’t the one who should be going in after Yella either. But he could trust Adi, and relying on her was the way they were going to get out of this.

  He followed the directions Obie told him would lead to Yella’s bio-signature. It was a warehouse meant for storing product before shipment, and according to Obie, it was only half full.

  Adi tailed him as they rounded the warehouse’s corrugated walls, the rivets holding them in place were meant for easy take-down, in case they made something too big to fit through the doors. Si didn’t bother with that, he cracked his plasma torch and drew himself a door.

  Adi caught the panel before it fell inward, the small suction cup in her hand saving them from a noisy announcement.

  They skirted the neatly stacked rows of crates inside, each marked with the Pääom brand.

  “You’d think they’d been expecting another war… what the hell could they need this many guns for?”

  Si shot her a look that he hoped drove home his implied “Shut up.” The last thing they needed was to get nabbed by some halfwit security guard before they got halfway there.

  Winding through the stacks, they made their way to the opposite wall as quickly as possible. The stairwell Obie pulled up on her schematics hadn’t been moved. They climbed silently into the catwalks above the Mandalls’ merch. Most importantly, above the lights.

  They were virtually noiseless as they moved toward the empty side of the building, but the space was far from silent. The argument that bounced up to them among the rafters held a pair of familiar voices.

  The trio came into view as the crates thinned, and Si saw Yella, sitting limply in a chair.

  “Ever since the PNC started broadcasting that data, we’ve been having weird power fluctuations. Hell, an armada could land in the back nine and we’d only know because our hair got scorched by their thrusters.” Franklin Mandall had not aged well.

  Vôner seemed to be amused by the brothers' plight. “I don’t see how this is my problem. I came for her, and now I’m leaving.”

  “Not until you help us get this sorted out.” Theo half raised a hand, but as the official’s eyes fell toward the fist, he clenched it and pulled back. “There’s a lot of our people who weren’t against the Pääom from the get go, but they weren’t one hundred percent for it neither. We could be facing our own set of riots. Hell, there are a few ships out I don’t ever expect to see again.”

  “Let me make this clear. You jumped on the Pääom’s bandwagon because you saw it as an easy way to turn a profit. Don’t think we’ve forgotten that you were playing both sides at the beginning. Don’t think I will ever forget that you chose to keep her whereabouts from me. You were expressly commanded by the Pääom to notify me at once and detain her. How long did she work for you?”

  “I—” Theo sputtered.

  “Don’t bother with your lies,” he pointed to the mangled body of Stugg on the floor. “That boy was more of a patriot than any of you could ever hope to be. Sadly, that seems to be what happens to true patriots.”

  “Stugg served three masters, and wasn’t smart enough to keep that juggling act in the air. Someone was going to put him down eventually. This was just his time.”

  Vôner said, “And now it’s our time to leave. Would you like me to kill you? Or do you want to see if your workers are going to do it for you?”

  Si laughed at that, unable to keep silent any longer. “Or I could kill you all now and save everyone the trouble.”

  His voice echoed in the expanse. The three men turned quickly at the sound, looking about the warehouse for any sign of him. Si decid
ed he was rather fond of the building’s acoustics. He sounded good in “echo.”

  “So you really are alive, you old bastard. Why don’t you come down and we’ll have ourselves a reunion party.”

  “What’s going on?” Vôner said, looking back at the brothers, “Who the hell is that?”

  “You wouldn’t remember him by voice alone, would you kid?” Theo spat the last word at Vôner as though it was a curse.

  “Of course he wouldn’t. He was stuck on diaper duty, clearing out the school system of all the dangerous dissident children while the rest of us were fighting a real war.” Si leaned on the rails and looked down at them, studying the reaction. “Well, me and your other brothers. They were real men, not like you two piss swilling cowards.”

  “If they were the real men, then why are we the ones who are still alive?”

  “You’re still alive because up until this point you hadn’t done anything to really piss me off. But my, how easily things change. As for your question, Vôner. My name is Osiris Bowlin and I am your comeuppance.”

  “Bowlin is dead. Everyone knows that.”

  “I’m not dead, I’ve just been asleep for a very long time. And I’m here to get back something you’re trying to take from me.”

  Theo’s eyes leveled on Yella as a sneer crossed his lips. “This is about Cholla’s daughter? Hell, she was still in college when you disappeared.”

  “And I still love her like family.” He caught Adi’s raised eyebrow, but wasn’t willing to admit to more—not for the Mandalls’ enjoyment.

  A wide smile spread across Vôner’s face. “Danielle Cholla is a war criminal and a fugitive of the law. She’s subject to sentencing by the head of the Pääom’s disciplinary division.”

  “News flash, I’m a war criminal, and technically a fugitive of the law… or I am by you and your government’s definition. But when the tide of what’s coming recedes, I can assure you. We won’t be the ones seen as criminals.”

  “You call us the cowards, show yourself,” Theo called out.

  “I could do that… and one of you might get it in your head to take a cheap shot at me. My crew would kill you, and I’d have a bit of a bruise from impact, but Yella might get hurt. I want her out of the way first. I’ll send someone down to retrieve her. If you want your time with me, you’ll let them pass undisturbed.”

  “Fine.” Vôner said with a broad smile and looked back to the Mandall brothers, as though daring them to object.

  He nodded to Adi who ran back into the stocked portion of the warehouse and he watched as she swung herself over the railing, using the boxes on either side of the aisle to slow her descent.

  She pulled her gun up into position and slowly stepped out of the shadows. Three sets of eyes fixed on her as she stepped forward, pulled the blade from her boot and sliced the bonds holding Yella’s wrists together.

  He watched silently from above, feeling more helpless than he’d care to admit.

  Theo Mandall moved forward and Si lodged a bullet in the concrete a pace in front of his feet. “Stay where you are.”

  Adi slung her gun to the side and picked Yella up in an awkward, over the shoulder shrug. Her free hand going back to her trigger as she backed away.

  Si didn’t watch where she went, Adi had orders and she’d stick to them.

  “She’s out of the way, show yourself.” Theo yelled the words into the dark warehouse.

  Vôner laughed and scanned the darkness. “Yes, come out, come out, wherever you are.”

  Si sneered at the singsong taunt, but did as he’d promised. They watched the stacks of crates as Osiris passed over them and made his way down to the first landing of the open stairwell behind them.

  He leaned on the railing and watched their backs as Frank’s hand moved toward the pistol tucked into his waistband.

  “I wouldn’t if I were you.”

  The three spun toward him, two with hate etched on their faces, the last with awe.

  “Now you’ve got me. What do you want?” Si was fairly certain he already knew the answer to that.

  Vôner stepped out in front of the Mandalls before they could speak. “I want you to die and stay dead this time.” He tossed something toward Si and he knew what it was before it had a chance to connect with the support beams below.

  Si had never ran so quickly in his life as he fled back up the stairs and down the catwalk, hoping he’d be far enough away.

  “You idiot, what are you doing we’ve got Chem—” was the last thing Si heard as the warehouse erupted behind him, the catwalk clattered and his feet found thin air.

  He fell into the chaos, his hands grasping for anything that might save him.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Dani’s eyes fluttered open to the sound of boots scraping on pavement. Ash and ichor hung in the air. Her vision blurred at the smoke and the dull buzzing in the base of her skull was crying out for a heavy dose of painkillers.

  She let herself drift back toward the darkness, but a pair of red rimmed eyes stared back at her. Her eyelids snapped open and her hand flew to her neck.

  Pain killers couldn’t help her now.

  The scraping boots were her own, she watched them for two seconds before she put two and two together. She was being dragged. If the tingling was right, she was going in the wrong direction.

  Pulling away, she twisted onto her hands and knees and pushed to her feet, fists at the ready. Face to face with Adilyn was not where she expected to be. “What the hell?”

  “We came to get you out, let’s go.” Adilyn grabbed her around the arm and tried to pull her away.

  “I can’t.” Dani turned back to the warehouse, half of it was gone, the other half was a burnt out shell. “Where is he?”

  “He’s inside. I got you out, the blast had me on the ground… I can’t imagine what happened to the four of them inside.”

  Dani shook her aching head. “He’s not dead.”

  “You can’t know that.”

  But she could, and she did. She knew that with a certainty she’d only ever felt once before.

  Ignoring Adi, she ran back to the warehouse, picking her way through one of the torn openings in the metal flesh that had once covered the structure. The interior met her with a cloud of noxious smoke. Flickering lamps clung to the hole-peppered ceiling with stripped cords.

  The warehouse’s catwalk had hit the floor, smashing anything beneath it, but the sloping walk gave Dani a quick path across the decimated space. She pulled herself along it, eyes probing the dust and smoke-filled air, scanning the debris. The catwalk ended in a mangled twist and she stepped quickly off.

  The smell of green hay accosted her nose and she made for the wall quickly. He had to be here somewhere, and he had to be alive. She wrenched the gas mask from the broken med kit on the wall and pulled it over her face.

  Her eyes fell on a pair of black boots sticking out from beneath a collapsed roof plate. And she moved through the shattered and smoldering boxes and melted weapons to pull the rubble off him.

  Adi caught up and helped, together they managed to flip the panel over on itself and they let it slide to the bottom of the rubble pile as Adi turned him over.

  Si’s eyes fluttered as he coughed out a breath. Pulling a gas mask from his waist and wrenching it on.

  “Status?” Adi asked as Dani’s eyes traveled over the surrounding rubble.

  “I’m fine… save for some broken ribs and the inhalation sickness I’m sure is percolating in my lungs.” He met Dani’s eyes and she was able to spare him a halfhearted smile before she moved to a higher vantage point. “You two are okay?”

  “That’s arguable. Dani wouldn’t listen, she came back in for you. Swore you were alive.”

  Dani looked down at them, realizing that was the only thing Adi could have thought. “No. Sorry. I mean, I’m grateful you’re alive, but I didn’t know you were. You’re not who I came back in for.”

  “He had time to inject you, then.” The look on h
is face, even though the strange cast of the gas mask’s visor broke her heart.

  “Lyz has been talking again.” She gave him a weak smile he couldn’t see, trying not to let the hopelessness of it all send her to tears. “The nanites anesthetize upon injection—which was why I was out.”

  “Yella, I don’t know how I survived that blast, much less how he did.”

  “PPSS,” She said, and then remembered they’d been out cold—literally—for too long to know what that was. “Pääom Portable Security Shield. This looks like a sticky charge blast. And a PPSS would have saved him from any damage. Besides that, I know he survived, I can feel him.” She hated having to admit that.

  Dani didn’t comment on the sour look that put on Si’s face. It didn’t set any better with her. She rubbed the back of her neck as the nanites bit at her more eagerly.

  “He’s moving away from us.” She picked her way down the rubble slope and sifted through the rubble in the open air. Beneath her foot, she found pieces of the chair they’d tied her to, splintered and smoldering.

  Si grabbed her by the arm, forcing her to stop. “Then let’s take that as a blessing and get out of here. We’ll find someone to deactivate them and you’ll be fine. Like you were before.”

  “I wasn’t fine before, Si, I was barely managing. I kept myself ten steps ahead of Vôner and thought that would be enough. It’s not, it never will be. I have to kill him.”

  “Yella, you can’t.”

  She knew Lyz would have told him that part too… and the other things. Turning back to the rubble, she couldn’t look at him. There was too much destruction, the state of the warehouse a perfect reflection of how it felt in her brain.

  She looked over his head, knowing he was probably right. “I can try.”

  “If you need him dead, we can do it later. We need to get out of here before the authorities, or worse, Mandall’s goons get here. They’re…” Adi’s voice trailed off as Dani searched through the rubble.

  Theo Mandall’s remains were mangled and scorched almost beyond recognition… everything but his head. “It must have been inside the PPSS.”