Too Long a Soldier (Kingdom Key Book 3)

by TylerRose.

  “The station is closest, of course, but you will reveal yourself to Earnol,” he pointed out.

  “That’s going to happen sooner or later anyway. It’s inevitable. I’m surprised he’s not figured it out by now. If I do all this and have the rewards from two planets coming my way, there’s not a lot he can do without making himself the bad guy of the Administration. He’d expose himself for the villain he is. Besides, the ship is K’Tran soil. So long as I remain on it, he can’t touch me.”

  “That is true. When do you plan to do this?” he asked.

  “I need to find him first. That may take time.”

  “If it is demanded by the Emperor that he be brought to justice, then Solomon may end up on a penal planet,” Shestna said.

  “That’s why I need a dead or alive price. If Encito demands he be captured alive and extradited to Voran, then the AASTT and Celestial Congress will have nothing to say about a trial or execution. Voran and K’Tran are founding members of the AASTT and Congress in this timeline. Earth has never been considered for membership. Earnol has used that to his advantage. Now I can use it to mine.”

  “You know Voranian law well,” he commented. “And that of the Congress.”

  “I lived on Voran. Of course I know the law. I’ll know more of what we’re facing when I find his base of operations. The factory has to be where he is and he has to have at least fifty K’Tran. Probably more. He hired a K’Tran ship away from the Rosaas. Julian will know more about that, or be able to find out more. You can yourself as well.”

  “I am certain the Rosaas are not happy about a missing ship. Let me open a dialogue with them,” he suggested. “Privately, of course. I’ll find out what they have to say. As the two parties wronged, we can be a united front and force action to be taken.”

  “A neighbor of Mankell’s named Osan was Captain of the pirate ship I uncovered in my timeline. He likely is in this one as well. Might well be the same ship. Also, see about talking personally with Mankell. Some of his people worked on Osan’s ship. His son Curry tried to leave Mankell’s house to go privateering but he wouldn’t allow it. I saw him on the ship here when I remote viewed through a human. Don’t tell Mankell that part yet. I want to confirm it is him.”

  “You intend for your group of seven to take on one to two hundred K’Tran warriors?”

  “We took on more than that in February,” she pointed out.

  “You also had an eight thousand man army to help. You cannot possibly hope to succeed.”

  “Of course we can win. It would be nice to decrease their numbers somewhat before then. Disrupt their complacency. It would be nice to have an army but I don’t. So I make do with what I have. I’ll take them on single-handedly if I have to.”

  He smiled at her with a knowing expression.

  “What?” she demanded.

  “Now I know what it is about you that would have compelled me to marry you twice.” He took her hand, and changed the subject. “How are you?”’

  “I am always fine.”

  “A brave front you show. I think I know better.”

  She shrugged. “What else is there to say? I’m alive. I’m dealing with living. Nothing new there.”

  “If I don’t believe you?”

  “Then don’t,” she shot back.

  “You are an exasperating female.”

  “Thank you,” she grinned.

  “You were reading one of your journals,” he pointed to the book on the cushion.

  “Looking up something I remembered,” she said, and lifted the book to send it back to its place.

  He plucked it out of the air. “Did I read this one already?”

  “No,” she said, and took it physically from his hands. “And you’re not going to read it now.” It disappeared from her fingers.

  Two solid knocks sounded on the door.

  “Tyler, are you okay?”

  “Come in,” she said, not moving a muscle.

  “The system alerted me to an unauthorized presence,” Jerome said, coming in to see her in the window seat with Shestna. “Now I know why.”

  “I did not realize I had to have authorization. Do I get a password?” he teased her.

  “Sorry to intrude,” Jerome said despite his smarting need to care for her.

  “Wait,” Tyler said, and pushed past Shestna. “You in the mood for a drive?”

  “Always,” Jerome said. “Where you wanna go?”

  “Meet you in the kitchen in ten minutes and let’s go find a Rovan factory,” she raised an eyebrow at him.

  His posture altered at the sudden and unexpected request. “You sure you’re up for that? It’s awfully soon after—“

  “We need to do it,” she interrupted him. “I need to do it right now for my own peace of mind.”

  “Can you find it?” he asked.

  “I can now. The scan inhibitor cannot hide him from me anymore. I just need to be close in order to pinpoint his location. I’m ready to get this show on the road.”

  “Okay. Ten minutes.” He closed the door behind himself.

  “I believe this mission is ill-advised,” Landra Ahr said from his place near the corner of her bedroom.

  “Your opinion was not asked,” Tyler said, getting out a pair of jeans and a shirt. “Your objection is noted. Sta, do you want to see the Rovan lab for yourself? You would be the best eye witness. They would not dare question you.”

  “I would, yes; but I agree with Landra Ahr that you are not ready to do this.”

  “Then it’s a good thing neither of you is my parole officer,” she replied on her way to the bathroom and kicked the door backwards to close it.

  She was out in three minutes and heading out the door.

  “I will accompany you,” Landra Ahr informed her, charting the continuing change in her energies.

  They were condensing, as he’d been noticing happened when she was actively using her deepener cognitive abilities.

  “We’ll be heading west of the city,” she said.

  “I will be overhead and maintain communications.”

  “You still got that little hand cannon strapped to your left arm under that cloak?” she asked Shestna as they reached the kitchen.

  “Of course,” he replied.

  “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

  Jerome slipped the nunchuku into the holster on his back and pulled on his black jean jacket. “Let’s do this.”

  She in the back seat, Sta in the front, they went about fifteen minutes west before she said to stop the car so she could get out. She turned to several pivot points, scanning the area, and pointed Northwest.

  “That way.”

  “There’s no road that way,” Jerome said.

  “Zig zag, man. I really have to tell you how to get there?” she sniped, getting back in the car.

  A mile up, right turn, a mile up, left turn. So it went until they were three miles farther west and she needed to get out again.

  “I will sit in the back,” Shestna said rather than slide over on the seat.

  “Wait here,” she said. “We don’t all have to get out.”

  Jerome watched her pivot left and right again, homing in on what she felt.

  “That way,” she pointed. “We’re getting close.”

  “Flying ahead,” Landra Ahr said over the comm system. “I see several farm compounds.”

  “It will have at least three buildings. We cannot go by prep of the fields around because a lot of farmers here get subsidies to not grow anything.”

  “You sure you wanna do this?” Jerome asked her, taking her hand on the seat.

  “Since when is blowing up the enemy’s facility a bad thing?” she countered.

  “Well, yeah; but we might get into hand to hand combat.” They turned right at the corner.

  “And? Shit, J, you’re acting like I’ve never been in a fight. I’m the one ripped a man’s throat out a few weeks ago.”

  “Just checkin’.”

  “Left at
the next road, then another right and we should be really close,” she said.

  “Okay. Landra Ahr, you see anything?” Jerome asked.

  “Negative.”

  Before the next right, she said to stop.

  “You said one more right,” Jerome said.

  “Now I’m saying stop. Landra, come back. You’re too far North.”

  “So where am I going?” Jerome asked.

  She teleported to stand on the roof to get a better look and teleported back inside. “Forward.”

  “Forward it is,” he said.

  To the next intersection and she was on the roof again. “He’s here.”

  “Where?” Jerome said, having heard her and also getting out.

  “Right here in front of us. Landra, do you see it?”

  “Affirmative. Directly over the hill in front of you, down the other side and two hundred yards in. There are four buildings total and my sensors register numerous non-human life forms in all of them. There is an unknown gaseous emission from the space behind the main house. Probably a ship.”

  “What else?” Tyler asked.

  “Several human females. There is activity around them in the barn. Six guards patrolling the yard.”

  “Light guard duty,” Shestna remarked.

  “He’s not expecting anyone to attack out here,” Jerome said, looking at the layout on his telephone screen.

  Tyler headed through the grass and up the hill and they followed close behind with the car on standby for a quick get-away if needed. Nearing the top, they sank down to keep hidden.

  “How we gonna play this?” Jerome asked. “How do K’Tran fight?”

  “We burn it down,” Tyler said. “The gray house is officers and superior males.”

  “Superior? What’s that?”

  “Noble class,” Shestna said. “They do not bunk with lowers.”

  “The smaller house is the factory. The barn is inferior barracks. The fourth is a tool shed.”

  “Where is Solomon?” Jerome asked.

  “On the ship. The ship’s Captain and command crew would also be there,” she said.

  “What’s the plan?”

  “I’m going to teleport directly to the basement of the factory and start a fire. Sta, if you will go into the Officer house and start one, we will split their efforts. The barracks barn will empty. I’ll get the women out and burn that down too. Landra, count men. Get pictures of faces if you can.”

  “You sure you can set a good enough fire to take out the factory?” Jerome asked.

  “Rovan ingredients are highly flammable,” Shestna said. “The building will likely explode when the flames reach them. Make sure you get out of there, Femina.”

  “I’ll walk out the front damn door. Ready?”

  Jerome cocked his .45. “Yep.”

  Normally he would have to be in the thick of the fighting, but this time it wasn’t his fight. It was her retribution. She needed to do this and he was happy to let her.

  He gave her a strong kiss. “Happy hunting.”

  “I count 250 K’Tran in the compound and ship,” Landra Ahr said.

  “I’ma go play with fire,” she said, and teleported to the basement.

  Only one life form was present in the entire building. On the second floor in a bedroom. Not happy to be there, thinking how to get out and save the souls of his friends. She’d get to him soon enough.

  She used a chi gathering exercise to bring up the flame within, igniting a dense, hot ball between her hands and throwing it at the circuit breaker. The box blew apart and the surrounding wall caught fire. Walking up the stairs into the kitchen and she tossed a fireball into curtains as she passed. Through the dining room and there was the factory. It wound through to the living room. She threw fireballs onto the table every few feet and then into the curtains as was convenient. Raw materials, tubes, machines, all the way to the finished product at the end.

  Hundreds of sheets of finished product sat in three piles on a table. She dropped a fist sized ball of flame on two of them and concentrated hard to push them down into the stacks to burn from the inside out.

  She went up the stairs to the second floor. The occupied bedroom was not locked. The door opened, her flame illuminating the room so she could see the young male handcuffed to the bed. She recognized him.

  “Curry?! What are you doing here?” she demanded in K’Tran.

  “How do you know my name?” he demanded back as she opened the cuff around the bed.

  Before he could move, she had it closed around his other wrist and was holding him by the short chain between.

  “I asked you first, Garson Curlein sar Mankell. Answer me or I leave you to die.”

  He squared himself with the use of his formal title. “I…I refused to force myself on a human female. The Captain ordered me kept here.”

  “Good for you. I’ll be sure to tell your father. For now, we have to leave. The compound is on fire and this building is about to blow up.”

  [Sta, ready to pull out?]

  [We have been waiting ten minutes for you to finish. What takes so long?]

  [Be there in two more minutes.]

  She took Curry with her and teleported to the barn barracks. She tossed fireballs all around.

  “No!” Curry blurted. “He is one of mine. Not Solomon’s.”

  She already knew, recognizing Ch’Wik. She teleported the females to a hospital emergency room, and herself and Curry to the small hillside. They appeared and a second later the factory house blew itself to kingdom come. She felt its power almost like an orgasm.

  She pointed hard at Curry and spoke his language. “You speak to no one but your father about this. Not one word and no one.”

  She gave the chain of the cuffs to Shestna. “Take Gar Mankell’s son back to him. “A gift from one he called Zitara in another life.”

  “What, you marry him too?” Jerome teased.

  “Zitara means love I cannot keep,” she told him, not in the mood for teasing.

  She walked down the side of the hill back toward the compound.

  “What are you doing?!” Jerome demanded, and went to look.

  She stood at the bottom, arm pointed forward and writing with flame onto the hillside. When she finished, she walked between the flames up the side of the hill. He reached down to help her the last few feet. She took it and stepped close into his arms. Looking back down to the compound, making eye contact with Solomon, she turned back to give Jerome a deep kiss.

  “See you at home,” she said, and teleported.

  Jerome got into his car and sped away.

  Now we are even.

  Solomon read the glowing words. She had actually added the period for punctuation. Cocky bitch. He watched her disappear, watched Jerome and the mechanoid go their ways. He smiled to himself. She was most definitely not playing according to the rules anymore. He liked it.

  She was in bed and asleep before Landra Ahr arrived to take up his post. A good, solid sleep he wasn’t about to interrupt. He heard the Torino pull around and into the garage about four in the morning, Jerome coming silently into the room a moment later. He stripped down to his skin and got into bed with her. She was very warm, her heat radiating over the bed in waves in time with her heartbeat.

  Holding her, content, he eventually dozed for several hours, and remained until she woke at noon. She rolled into his arms, breasts pressing nicely against his chest as she moved closer. Eyes opening to look into his, she smiled at him.

  “Feel better?” he smiled.

  “Much. Make me feel even better.”

  His fingers grasped her hair to pull her head back for a kiss she returned. When his lips left hers and he looked deep into her eyes, he recognized the expression.

  “I been missin’ you little girl.”

  “Missin’ you too, old man.”

  “Go away, Landra.”

  “You could be polite and ask,” Landra Ahr said.

  As the door thumped quietly cl
osed, Jerome rolled Tyler onto her back for an “everything but” session of hands, mouths and grinding that brought her closer than ever to asking for the final act.

  He didn’t ask her this time. She could have taken Shestna to her bed last night. Instead she had sought out an enemy. She could have asked Shestna to come back after stashing the K’Tran somewhere. She didn’t.

  He left her breathless and sated, having been mauled by the tiger that resided in his soul. Leaving her with one more kiss, he got dressed. She was asleep again before he left. He stood for a moment to look at her. So much was going to change very soon.

  “I’m going out,” he said as he passed Landra Ahr in the Command Center, and headed for Safe Haven for a private meeting with Meechi.

  Roc was there, having stayed over the night, and she rode home with him.

  Midnight and Tylercouldn’t sleep again. In the window seat, looking out into the dark, she kept still and quiet and practiced putting up her own shielding to stop the voices from intruding too much while she listened to more meaningful soft songs like Kiss from a Rose, Stay, and Fly Like an Eagle.

  [May I see you?”]

  She’d not expected him this soon. She moved to the chair. [Yes.]

  Shestna appeared in front of her.

  “What’s up?” she asked in Voranian.

  “I have spoken to my father. He will place a dead or alive price of half a million Ruds on Solomon.”

  Tyler thought a moment before nodding acceptance and approval.

  “Mankell is coming to the station,” he continued. “To collect his son. Until then, Curry sits in a room on my ship. Mankell has requested a meeting with you.”

  “That could be difficult. I cannot be on the station.”

  “No, but you know the station cannot go onto his ship either, it being an official K’Tran embassy.”

  “Okay, I consent to a meeting. What does Earnol know?”

  “Nothing. I refuse to say where I found the K’Tran and the K’Tran refuses to talk to anyone. He barely speaks a word beyond thank you, and yes or no.”

  “Good.” She sparked her lighter. “He’s a good boy.”

  “And hating that he was rescued by a woman. Can we go outside to enjoy the night?”