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

by Terry Mixon

  Where had Master Calder found one? Had he had it all this time?

  The pinnace peeled away, going right over the bright lights of the city. The building’s vid feed would have recorded it clearly.

  Realization hit her. This was the perfect frame. No one other than the visitors had vessels capable of reaching space. With that provocation, it would be perfectly clear who’d attacked who. Brilliant!

  Abigail got on the com to her assistant, who she’d insisted wait for Olivia’s meeting to be over before leaving.

  “Get me the military liaison. A Fleet pinnace just killed Coordinator West. I want atmospheric fighters scrambled to take it out. To take them all out. I want Fleet gone from Harrison’s World before dawn. Do you understand me? Get him on the line now!”

  Chapter Twenty

  Olivia watched the vid feed with a sick stomach. She’d sent those people to their deaths. Her guards had been going to bring Abigail to join her at the crash site where William went down. People who’d been with her for years. Now they were all dead.

  “I need to contact the security forces and have Abigail picked up,” she said dully.

  “Actually, are you sure that’s the best idea?” Mertz asked. “I’ve had some unfortunate experience recently with coups. King has probably been planning this for a while. If you talk to the wrong person, she’ll know you’re alive and try again. At this point, they think you’re dead. You’ll want to keep them thinking that until you take them down.”

  She looked over at him in the other seat of the car she’d borrowed for the trip. “I can’t just let her get away with this! She’s going to be consolidating power right now.”

  “It’s your call. I suggest if you’re going to let them know you’re alive, go big. Make some kind of general broadcast. Notify your ruling council all at once. And while you’re doing that, I need to call my people and get them moving. It won’t be long before she takes a swing at us.”

  Olivia shook her head. “You really don’t understand how this works. She’s already started purging the government of people loyal to me. I need to make my calls right now and pray it isn’t too late.”

  She pulled out her com and made a call to her office. From there, she could get the word out quickly. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t connect. She tried the backup number she’d had a very bright resistance tech install and she was into the automated system at her office.

  “This is Coordinator West. Authenticate me. Sigma Alpha three five seven.”

  “Identity verified, Coordinator,” the computer said. “How may this unit assist you?”

  “Code red. Execute emergency plan Omega.”

  “Executing. Primary connectivity unavailable. Switching to secondary. Secondary unavailable. Switching to tertiary. Connected. Transmitting. Transmissions complete. Wiping system. Goodbye.”

  The line went dead, but that was all according to plan. Emergency messages had gone out to every council member not associated with the conservative alliance. It might be too late for some of them, but many would get the word in time and go to ground. She hoped. It had also notified contacts within the resistance. Then the computer had purged itself.

  Unless everything had gone to hell and Abigail had more reach than Olivia had ever suspected. If so, she’d hunt Olivia down, erase all the gains of the last decade, and kill a lot of good people.

  She returned her attention to Mertz. He was just wrapping up his own emergency call.

  “They tried to attack the pinnace at Lord Hawthorne’s estate, but it was on alert. It’s on its way back to the island we have under our control. It can’t make it to pick me up, but that’s fine. I’m not going anywhere until I know what really happened to Kelsey.”

  She felt herself frowning. “But William’s car is destroyed. They found their bodies in the wreckage. I’m sorry, but she’s gone. And so is my oldest friend.”

  Just the thought sent her spirits sagging. She forced the savage sorrow aside. She didn’t have time to grieve.

  “You don’t know Kelsey like I do,” Mertz said. “She’s surprisingly hard to kill. How far away from the crash site are we? And, where can I get some different clothes? I stand out like a sore thumb in this uniform.”

  “There’s a town close by. I know some people there. They can have clothes ready by the time we arrive.”

  Olivia called ahead to the diner and gave the correct code phrase to identify herself. “I need some casual men’s clothes. We’ll be there in ten minutes.” She made an estimate of his sizes and included that before she disconnected.

  “I should make the call now to get the prisoners released,” she said. “I don’t want them caught up in the middle of this.”

  “Hold off on that. Right now, King has bigger fish to fry. And, I ordered them to make their way out after dark.”

  “Excuse me?”

  He smiled. “I spoke to them briefly before we left. They’ve already discovered a way out. In fact, I’m somewhat surprised that you didn’t recognize that I was speaking with Meyer at the port. He had to rush back into the camp and shave to have any hope you wouldn’t recognize him.”

  Olivia felt her eyes widen. She put the images of the man at the port and Force Master Chief Meyer up side-by-side. Definitely the same person.

  “I’ll be damned. I never would’ve imagined someone from the lower orders could be so clever.”

  “You shouldn’t let your prejudices get in your way. People can be smart no matter what their background. When we have time, I think I need to tell you a story.”

  “Would this be about how you aren’t really who you say you are? I figured that out already. I knew for sure the moment that you said you’d been to Terra and I realized that you were actually on Invincible.”

  It was his turn to be shocked. “Yes, we really do need to talk. First, though, we need to find Kelsey, and hopefully Lord Hawthorne.”

  * * * * *

  Sean put his com unit away. Mertz had wanted him to wait until dark to get things rolling, but he really didn’t know how much they’d accomplished. It would be better to start everyone moving now. Then he’d have enough people in the port after dark to commandeer several grav lifts and get the exodus done in one go.

  And, contrary to what Mertz probably wanted, Sean would be taking a team to find the missing prisoners. He knew where to find the bastard that had run the camp. The trick was going to be getting in to snatch him, but Sean had a few ideas.

  First, he needed to get the plan in motion.

  He found Ross and Newland. “There’s been some kind of attack on the coordinator and Admiral Mertz believes it’s time for us to decamp. I want to appropriate four grav lifts.”

  Newland grunted. “I figured we needed to do that before too long. That’s going to screw with their delivery schedule and that’ll draw attention pretty damned fast. Once the foreman for that section of the dock gets wind of the delay, it won’t take him long to figure out something is squirrelly. We’ll need a distraction that won’t draw the camp guards’ attention.”

  Ross smiled. “A fire would be too flashy, as would an explosion. What about a grav failure on a loaded lift that’s just departed? The damned thing would sink and spread containers all around the harbor.”

  Sean considered it for a moment. “That’s as good as anything I can think of. It would get attention, but not the kind that would get prison guards all excited. We’d need to have our people staged and ready to go in the buildings outside the fence. How long to get them out there?”

  “An hour should be enough,” Ross said. “We’ll get everyone moving and let the last few people get dinner ready. If we hit the docks closest to the camp, we can get everyone to the loading area without too much risk. We’ll just have to stun anyone in the warehouse.”

  Newland shook his head. “Too open. They’d be right on the lift deck for the guards to see.”

  “Well, then,” Sean said. “We’ll just have to focus the guards’ attention at the critical mom
ent. Leave that to my team and me. Go get everyone moving. This could go bad any minute.”

  Sean left them to it and rounded up his shore team. They met in one of the barracks. In the shower, of course, though they kept their clothes on.

  “Gentlemen,” he said, “the time has come for us to decamp. Timing is critical, and while we don’t want to draw the guards’ attention too quickly, we’ll need to provide a few minutes of entertainment to get them all looking away from the port. I don’t suppose anyone brought explosives back from the shore?”

  They shook their heads. One man, the scrounger, spoke up. “Explosives are harder to get than crappy weapons, sir. We have some civilian stunners and flechette pistols. Maybe we can cause them some grief with those.”

  “I’m not sure I’d want to get them shooting at us, Corporal. All in all, I’d prefer to escape without them knowing we’re gone for a bit.”

  “What about the air patrols?” one of the others asked. “If we stun the two men in one of the vehicles, they’ll figure it was a mechanical failure and get into search and rescue mode.”

  Hmm. SAR might be just what they needed. “They might see the beams. And those stunners are short-ranged weapons. Probably not that accurate, either.”

  The man nodded. “We can tune out the color. If we focus the beams as tight as possible, we might be able to tag someone flying low and slow. It would have to be a two man team to get the lookout, too.”

  “And are any of the guards patrolling that low?”

  “Occasionally. Some of them like to show off.”

  It wasn’t the best of plans, but he supposed they could light one of them up with flechettes if they had to. “Okay. We’ll set up on the far side of the camp. I’d prefer the thing to crash on the other side of the fence, but we don’t have a lot of choice. As long as everyone else gets away clean, I can deal with that. Which two men are staying with me?”

  * * * * *

  Jared looked over the town as their air car came in for a soft landing. It wouldn’t have been out of place in Avalon’s agricultural districts. The driver stayed in the car while Olivia led Jared inside. He’d taken off his jacket, to reduce the number of people that might recognize his uniform.

  Something smelled good, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten in a while.

  Despite what he’d told Olivia, he felt hollow inside. The crash could’ve killed his sister. He was putting on a good face, but it could all be true. He prayed it wasn’t. That would be a disaster, personally and professionally.

  Olivia went to the counter and put in an order for food. The man behind it leaned over and said something to her. She stiffened and then sagged a little.

  Jared saw something very much like joy in her face as she came over to him. “They got out of the car here. They’re okay.”

  He closed his eyes for a moment. “Thank God. If they’re here, who was in the car?”

  “Some poor people who were providing cover for them. Stunt doubles, as it were. It doesn’t look as though you’ll need that change of clothes just yet. We won’t be under observation as we make our way to them. Come on.”

  To say that he was surprised when she handed him a bag of food and led him into the freezer was an understatement. The secret tunnel under the diner was even more of a shock.

  “What the hell is down here?” he asked.

  “That’s going to take a while and I think that it would be best to get together with William and Miss Bandar for that explanation.”

  They boarded the grav train and ate as it bore them into the darkness. The food was good, but he couldn’t remember what it tasted like as his mind swirled. What was this place? One of the planetary defense centers? Something else?

  It only took ten minutes for them to make their way to another station and disembark. The large armored door failed to open when they arrived.

  Olivia tried it again and frowned. “That’s odd. It should’ve opened right up. And I’m not getting ahold of anyone inside.”

  * * * * *

  Kelsey smiled at Captain Black and William. “I’m glad that we were able to settle that so easily. Computer, restore access to everyone affected by my earlier instructions.”

  “Done. Coordinator West and an unknown visitor are at the station and requesting admittance. They signaled during lockdown.”

  “I hope that’s Jared with her. That would make explanations much simpler.”

  William headed for the door. “I’ll go get them and be right back, Highness.”

  She scowled at him. “That’s going to get old fast. I thought I told you to call me Kelsey.”

  “So you did, but that was before you told me who you really were. One simply doesn’t chat up their social superiors in a public setting. Perhaps in private. We’ll see.”

  He left and she shook her head. “What about you, Captain Black? Can I get you to call me by my given name?”

  The dark skinned man smiled a little. “Is that an order? I’m still not even certain I’m in your chain of command.”

  “I think we can work that out,” she said as she gestured for him to sit beside her. “I’m curious. How did a senior Fleet officer become a member of the resistance?”

  Black sat and regarded her for a moment. “They caught me young. My father is a member. After I joined Fleet and passed the security screening, they felt out my allegiances. Once they were certain I was fully committed, they used some hardware here to overwrite the code in my implants to allow me to be their spy. I was down here when the axe fell, so we faked my death for official purposes.”

  “Wow,” she said. “That sounds exciting. I’m sure our scientists will want to compare notes to see if your code matches what we’re using. But that will come in due time.

  “As for whether you’re in the same Fleet as my Empire, I think being a member of the resistance counts for a lot. With my brother being a Fleet admiral, I think I’m going to go with yes. Unless you have some reservation, of course.”

  He inclined his head. “My allegiance is to the Empire, but Lord Hawthorne and Coordinator West are going to have to tell me if this counts. If they get behind you, I will, too.”

  The door slid open and William escorted Jared and Olivia West in. Her brother rushed to her side and pulled her into a hug. “I thought we’d lost you.”

  She gave him a confused look. “I told you we were going to be incommunicado for a bit.”

  William looked grim. “And things have happened while we were. Abigail King shot down my car. She killed everyone. She tried to kill your brother and Coordinator West, too. It seems that we have a coup in progress.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Sean watched as the people under his command slipped out of the prison camp one small group at a time. The remaining personnel kept moving around the open areas enough to simulate the correct number of prisoners for the guards.

  The marine armorer used the time they had left to modify the stunners. With the color inducer bypassed and the range boosted to the maximum, this might just work.

  He asked the question that had been bothering him while the man worked. “How do you know what to do? I didn’t think we had any of these weapons.”

  The man grinned. “I knew some people on Athena. They slipped me the tech manuals and a few pistols to study. One neural disruptor and one flechette pistol, as well as a maintenance kit. I didn’t tell the LT, but she might have guessed. I have no idea if she reported it up the chain. It’s too late to ask her now.”

  That was the damned truth. He sighed. When he’d read Mertz’s report on how many people they’d lost fighting against the Pale Ones, he’d been certain the man was a colossal screw up that had gotten most of his people killed for no reason.

  Now that he’d seen how many of his crewmates they’d lost, he knew the truth. Mertz had pulled off a miracle. Breckenridge’s task force had started with a heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, and two destroyers. They’d lost all three cruisers and most of the people on them.
/>
  In hindsight, it was obvious who the incompetents were: Wallace Breckenridge and Sean Meyer. It was too late for his former captain to learn from his mistakes, even if he could, but Sean was determined to make up for his own failures.

  “You did exactly right, Corporal,” he said. “And your foresight might save thousands of people. You can count on me recommending you for a damned medal if we make it off this planet alive.”

  The man started putting the stunner back together again. “If it’s all the same, sir, I’d rather you didn’t. I didn’t exactly do it for the right reasons. I was— “

  “It doesn’t matter,” Sean said, guessing what the man’s original intent had been. “I’ve learned a few hard lessons over these last few weeks. It doesn’t matter why you did the right thing. Just that you did.”

  He looked out at the sun. “It’s about time for us to make our move. What are the possible repercussions of your modifications?”

  The man finished putting the weapon back together. “The pistols might burn out, but they should get one shot, minimum. I was real careful, so hopefully they’ll still be accurate. These things have no recoil, sir, so aim right where you want to hit. No leading and no dropping of the shot with range.”

  Sean picked one of the pistols up. “How will we know when they’re close enough?”

  “If they’re close to the fence, these should reach them.”

  “Good enough. Come on.”

  They went outside and joined the people moving around the camp. Command Master Chief Ross fell in beside them smoothly. “Things are on schedule and I have some good news.”

  Sean smiled. “I love good news. Tell me more.”

  “We’ve seen one of the air patrols that has a history of making close passes. We’ve moved as many people out as we dare. Our people are standing by to make their move on the cargo lifts as soon as I give the signal.”