by Rob May
The President was rubbing his bleeding knuckles. ‘She had a jaw like a brick wall,’ he complained. He turned to Kat. ‘But you were right on both counts,’ he said. ‘She did try you use the bionoids on me, and I was mentally strong enough to resist them. And I was a good enough actor to fool her. But it’s you Kat, who deserves the medal for that plan! How do you like the sound of the Presidential Medal of Freedom? It’s our highest award.’
‘Can I get one too?’ Jason asked. ‘I was the one who shot her down, after all!’ He was marching past to check on Saoirse’s body.
Kat caught him by the arm. ‘No!’ she said. There was something wrong … there was no blood on Saoirse’s torso.
General Stormkopf had reached the body and leaned over to look. With frightening speed, Saoirse suddenly pivoted upward at the waist and grabbed Stormkopf around the neck. The general let out a gasping choke and dropped her revolver.
Kat knew in that instant what was going on. While everyone else was standing around in shock, she jumped forward and grabbed the general’s handgun from off the floor. Saoirse looked like she was going to rip Stormkopf’s head off, but Kat pointed the heavy revolver at the alien girl’s head and issued a harsh warning:
‘Let go of her!’ she shouted.
And then—as an afterthought—added, ‘Bitch!’
Saoirse’s head rotated to look at Kat. Her violet eyes were now flashing all sorts of colours—red, blue, green—and as she spoke, sparks flashed between her teeth. ‘You’re not a killer, Kat,’ she taunted in a harsh, scraping voice. ‘Not like me. You haven’t got it in you to—’
Kat didn’t bother wasting words with a retort. She pulled the trigger and shot Saoirse in the face.
The large-bore Magnum cartridge blew Saoirse’s skull apart in a shower of sparks. It fell in two halves to the floor: two halves of metal, stuffed with wires and circuitry. Her body fell limp, and General Stormkopf fell away too, crashing lifeless to the floor.
Saoirse’s destruction was accompanied by a sudden rushing of air as the bionoids coalesced in the air just above her body. Then a familiar metal cylinder appeared, fell to the floor and rolled into Kat’s hands. She picked it up and heard a welcome voice in her head:
You did it, Kat, Brandon said.
You can thank me later, she replied. I dealt with Saoirse; you can deal with the Prime!
The bionoids dissipated once more into thin air as Brandon took control. Everyone’s attention was then caught by a tremendous banging and shaking as the Thanamorph Prime went into a fit of agony outside the ship. Its mouth was making shapes, but the sound of its fury didn’t carry inside from outer space. The red glow of its eyes was gradually fading away, and then the Prime fell still, relaxed its grip on the Majestic and fell away dead, floating off into space. As it did so, it broke apart, splitting-up into the thousands and thousands of smaller thanamorphs that had fused to create it.
Soon, there was no evidence left that it had ever existed.
———
Kat and Jason sat together with their backs to the wall, watching people coming and going around the control room. A janitor was sweeping bits and pieces of Saoirse into a bucket. Some of the medical staff were pulling a sheet over General Stormkopf’s body.
‘That could have been me who Saoirse strangled to death,’ Jason said. ‘But you stopped me just in time, Sis. When did you figure out that Saoirse was a robot?’
‘Pretty much at the last moment,’ Kat admitted. ‘That’s when all the little clues finally slotted into place.’
‘There were clues?’ Jason said.
‘When Saoirse fell on top of me in the lift—when she stole the superluminal drive, I guess—I thought she was a little heavy for such a slim girl.’
Jason shrugged, unimpressed.
‘Remember in the gym on board the Proteus?’ Kat went on. ‘She was pedalling away on those bikes for hours without even getting out of breath. And when we were dragging the Captain inside after he got bit, none of us could shift that fat lump until Saoirse grabbed hold.’
‘Hmmm … perhaps,’ Jason conceded. ‘Anything else?’
‘Yep. Her supposed bionoid-proof suit. The real reason that Brandon couldn’t sense her was that she wasn’t alive at all. Also, when I asked her how she had learned English so fast, she spun me some tale about stopping time in her spaceship. Reverse time dilation or something. Well, I thought about that afterwards a bit, and concluded it was claptrap! You can go forward in time by travelling faster than light, Brandon told me once, but you can’t go back.’
‘I’ll take your word for it,’ Jason said. ‘But you couldn’t have been one hundred per-cent sure when you blew her head off. I didn’t think you had it in you, Kat.’
She smiled. ‘Me neither. I guess I have it in me now!’
They sat in silence for a while. Kat watched the elevator doors; she was expecting Brandon to come back up at any minute. ‘There was one other clue,’ she said. ‘You’ll think it’s stupid though.’
‘Go on,’ Jason said.
‘Well, remember when we were playing Scrabble and Saoirse told us that the convention on Corroza is to give all machines anagrammatic names? Well, when I remembered Saoirse’s full name was scratched into her gun, it must have triggered the puzzle-solving part of in my brain. Her name, Saoirse Gassun, is an anagram of what she really is!’
Jason thought for a while. ‘Arousing asses?’ he said eventually.
Kat laughed. ‘No, you idiot: ROGUE ASSASSIN!’
———
Ten minutes later, they left Earth’s orbit and blasted into space. Brandon had sent word—or rather, he had sent thought—to Kat that Discord was beyond repair, and that she should give up the superluminal drive to the crew of the Majestic. At the control console, Morse—having been assured the superluminal drive was plug-and-play—was preparing for the jump across the galaxy.
Kat was going through the various menus with him and the President, when the elevator doors opened and Lieutenant Hewson stepped back into the control room. A forlorn figure was trailing slowly in his wake.
Brandon had showered and changed since his ordeal with the thanamorph venom. He wore a black hoodie, and had dark rings under his eyes. His face was pale with grief, but he was alive, and that was all Kat cared about.
She ran up to him and they embraced wordlessly. Jason followed on behind, and gave Brandon a inappropriate clap on the shoulder. ‘All that time worrying that you weren’t going to be the hero and save the day,’ Jason joked, ‘but you pulled it back in the last minutes of the match. You got to be the hero after all!’
Brandon shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Kat was the hero. She saved us all.’
‘T-Minus ten seconds until superspace!’
‘Superspace? Is that even a word?’
‘It is now, Mister President. Eight!’
Kat, Brandon and Jason moved to the window for what might be their last glimpse of Earth. It was now only a white dot behind them. ‘You’re all heroes,’ Hewson said, standing over them like a proud parent.
‘Seven!’
‘You’re going home, Bran,’ Kat said to Brandon.
‘Six!’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘And I’m glad you three are coming with me. I wish Gem could have come too.’
‘Five!’
‘She is,’ Kat said. ‘We’ll bury her on Corroza.’
‘Four!’
Brandon smiled slightly, and held Kat tighter. Then, without warning, he kissed her hard on the mouth.
‘Three!’
‘So, um, do you have a plan for when we get to Corroza?’ Jason asked, trying to ignore the kiss.
‘Two!’
‘Yeah, I have a plan,’ Brandon said, pulling himself together. ‘When we get home, we’re going to kick some—’
‘One!’
THE END
The adventure continues
in
LETHAL PLANET
The final part of the Alien
Disaster trilogy. Jason Brown finds himself fighting to secure a future for the human race on a dangerous planet where the weather, inhabitants, wildlife, and even the plantlife is deadly. But after a ill-judged joke lands him in a pile of trouble with the head priest of a terrible alien god, Jason discovers that he may not only be the last hope for the human race, but also for the entire galaxy.
Coming soon!
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Also by Rob May
DRAGON KILLER
The first in a series of fantasy thrillers featuring Kalina Moonheart—adventurer, gambler and thief. Kal teams up with a young guard captain to hunt down a dragon that has made its nest on a tropical island, but an unexpected sequence of events leaves her in an impossible situation. She must summon every ounce of skill, cunning and strength in order to survive.
‘An action-packed adventure that left me with a smile on my face.’
‘Fun characters and clever plot twists make this an excellent read.’
‘Rob May will keep you on the edge of your seat, wanting more.’
‘A protagonist that I could identify with and root for.’
‘The rich and consistently solid writing kept me turning the pages. It's hard not to be swept along.’
‘Rob May obviously believes in the old adage of always leaving your audience wanting more.’
‘A real page turner.’
‘Rob May manages to create a dynamic world that evades the clichés of the genre.’
‘A fun and awesome read.’
‘Carefully plotted and meticulously timed; there is never a dull moment!’
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Also by Rob May
LJ
An exciting new serialised modern thriller. Lucy Jane Hardwick is yanked out of her slow student life by a mysterious man, and thrown into a world of spies, guns, fast cars and international terrorism.
‘The detail, pacing and suspense are astounding.’
‘Reminds me of Dan Brown’s stuff.’
‘Suspense, mystery, guns and maybe some 007? Great so far.’
‘The build-up of mystery is fantastic; this is movie material.’
‘The descriptions remind me of Michael Crichton.’
‘Great. Love these short exciting chapters. They are like madder, shorter episodes of 24.’
‘I love this story.’
‘Dear Mr. May. Your book is full of awesomeness.’
Available now!
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Table of Contents
About the Author
Books by Rob May
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
01—NEPTUNE
02—CATNIP
03—CHIMERA
04—CHTEAU
05—MARINA
06—SAOIRSE
07—THANAMORPH
08—PROTEUS
09—CARDIAC
10—PIRATES
11—MAGNETIC
12—LEVIATHAN
13—ICE
14—ALBATROSS
15—QUARANTINE
16—MERCY
17—DELUGE
18—NIX
19—APPLE
20—POTUS
21—MAJESTIC
22—PRIME
23—SACRIFICE
24—EXODUS