Thieves' Guild Series (7 eBook Box Set): Military Science Fiction - Alien Invasion - Galactic War Novels

by C. G. Hatton

  “How did you find it?”

  “Cross referenced the coordinates you went to. No way we could have ever found it without those. Seriously, NG, even the Man buried it.”

  “What’s this cube?”

  “No idea,” Badger sent. “No mention of it. The kill switch?”

  “How’s Hil?”

  “Still out.”

  “We need him awake. We need to know what he saw in there.”

  He cut the connection and resisted the urge to pull a gun under the desk. “What do you know of the Seven?” he said.

  Itomara didn’t react, face impassive, staring back intently then thinking clearly and purposefully, ‘If you truly can read my mind, know this: the Seven were dealt with the way they were for a reason. Trust me, however monstrous these Bhenykhn may seem, know that the Seven are more dangerous to humankind than any living and breathing enemy could ever be.’

  NG felt cold. “Elliott is Aries. You knew.”

  “No. How could I?” Itomara said, holding his head high. “It has all been buried for a long time, Nikolai. I speak truth when I say I did not know it had returned and was masquerading as the one you know as Elliott.”

  “But you recognise this?” He pushed forward the cube.

  Itomara gave a curt nod. “I know of myths and rumour, Nikolai. I am Order. You are Thieves’ Guild. Whatever is happening now does not change that we are long standing enemies. You know all about keeping secrets… one has to live with the past, with the errors of our ancestors, and move forward. We face what we must as it presents itself to us. You have a war to fight. Hope that Elliott has gone and taken the others with him. My hope is that he did not invite these alien aggressors into our galaxy. For then, we truly are lost.”

  Media came in as the contingent of the elite guard escorted Itomara out. He wanted the old guy on the Man’s ship, contained, working with Badger to see what they could figure out. He hadn’t complained.

  NG sat down.

  “Marrek is here,” Media said. “He’s in the hospitality suite. We’re racking up quite a guest list, Nik. Can I call you Nik?”

  Tired as he was, he couldn’t help but smile. She was buzzing.

  “Call me whatever you want.”

  “We have the Imperial Ninth and Eleventh in place, bristling. Winter is gathering its main fleet. And Ostraban is about to commit his own flagship.”

  He didn’t want to know how she’d arranged that.

  “Jameson is setting up sleepers Earthside, and Pen is doing the same Wintran. The rebellions on Kheris and Dejourne are on fire. Redgate is spilling over and we have active cells in place in all twenty main target positions. And Ballack has arranged trade embargoes that are insane.”

  “Does he know about that?”

  She had a gleam in her eye. “Not all of them.”

  He didn’t want to deflate her but it wasn’t enough.

  She didn’t need to read his mind. She narrowed her eyes and squinted at him, conspirator to conspirator. “What?”

  “It’s not enough.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Marrek is here now?”

  She nodded.

  “How much cash do we have in the coffers?”

  She raised her eyebrows, thinking they’d been spending an awful lot lately, blown a lot of assets. “Right now? Not enough.”

  He put it on the table anyway.

  Marrek was totally different to Faro. Much younger, more brash. Here on a chit he owed Evelyn and amused that he was even entertaining the idea of talking to NG.

  “Two billion,” NG said. “You run a contract for us and you take the price off my head. And we’re done.”

  Marrek sat back in the chair, making himself comfortable.

  ‘Don’t waste time here, Nikolai. This idiot wanted Faro out and you did the dirty work for him. He owes you. Make it fast.’

  It was a lot of money but it wasn’t like they’d ever need to pay it. Not once the Bhenykhn attacked.

  “Striking the contract on you doesn’t negate the warrant that’s out there on you,” Marrek said with a smirk.

  “I’m aware of that.”

  The guy narrowed his eyes, needing to put something on the table himself. “You do know, don’t you, that I wasn’t in on that fiasco Faro pulled on Devon?”

  “If you had been, you’d be dead,” NG said simply.

  The new leader of the Assassins’ Guild laced his fingers together across his chest and nodded sagely. “Who do you want killing?”

  “His Royal Imperial Majesty the Emperor Wu of Earth.”

  Chapter 29

  They were regarding him with outright reproach now, almost anticipating where this was leading and some even making up their mind, fixing their resolve even though they had no idea of the current situation. He should not have expected less.

  “We have our own legends similar to the story of Pandora,” she said. “They do not end well.”

  “You could have warned him, stopped him,” one accused.

  “No,” he said, defensively. He had never been able to stop Nikolai once the boy’s mind was set. “That I would not have done, believe me.” He would not admit it to these, but even if he had wanted to, needed to, he couldn’t have. Nikolai was beyond stubborn. He was curious and wilful. A dangerous combination. He might as well have waved a red rag at a bull and asked it not to charge. Throwing Sebastian into that mix was like throwing gunpowder into the fire. But without them, without the two of them working together, there would have been no hope at all.

  •

  Leigh appeared from somewhere and followed him back to the Man’s ship. “You’re insane,” she whispered fiercely at his side.

  “What’s happening with the virus?”

  “You know what’s happening with the virus. You’ve read the reports we sent over. Eighty-twenty on the new variations. Not in our favour. We can get fifty-fifty if we revert back to LC’s original strain. Jameson’s doing well. Duncan and LC don’t have many others to work with yet. When did you last get some sleep, NG?”

  He opened his mouth to answer but couldn’t figure out when it had been. In the cell on Io. He might have dozed off for an hour or so.

  “Do yourself a favour,” she said softly. “Go get some sleep. The galaxy can wait.”

  He didn’t want to and he couldn’t admit that when he did, he dreamed of chains and poison, way too close to feeling like a flashback rather than a nightmare, and he really didn’t want to know what had happened. Right now it was just another distraction he didn’t need.

  “I’m fine,” he said and pushed through into medical.

  Hilyer was hooked up to life support, numbers scrolling that made no sense whatsoever.

  It was weird to see the heart monitor pulsing when he couldn’t sense any life in the kid, no aura, nothing.

  “We’ve tried what we can,” the medic in there said. “We can’t push him too far because we have no idea how he’ll respond.”

  “Give me five minutes.”

  It felt like his whole life was cut down into five minute chunks.

  The guy nodded and left.

  “He seems stable,” Leigh said, checking the machines and the settings on the pod. She ran a hand gently along the scar cutting across the kid’s ribcage, thinking back to how he’d flirted with her as she was patching him up on Erica. “He’s hot.” She peered closer at the stats. “Very hot.”

  Anyone infected with the virus ran hot. It made them stand out a mile.

  NG rested his hand on Hil’s forehead and closed his eyes.

  Sunbeams were cutting through the branches. He perched on a fallen tree trunk, calm, breathing in the fresh scent of pine. He turned, looking for Devon.

  Something appeared, casting a shadow that cut out the sun.

  He stood, turning round as more and more great looming shadows closed in on all sides. The sunlight was obliterated.

  Chains flew through the air.

  He couldn’t get
out of the way.

  One wrist then the other was entangled and yanked aside. He fought it, couldn’t get free, couldn’t see. Someone was yelling…

  He woke, sat up, soaked in a cold sweat, heart racing, hands trembling.

  It took a second or two to recognise where he was. His quarters on the Man’s ship. He’d crawled here after using everything he had spare to give Hilyer a chance of breaking out of the state Elliott had thrown him into. He didn’t even understand the damage, never mind how to fix it. The kid was alive. That was something.

  The Senson was pulsing with an urgent request for his attention. He sat there, not wanting to acknowledge it, vaguely aware it was Evelyn.

  ‘This is no good,’ Sebastian hissed. ‘We need to be ready, Nikolai.’

  He took control with a simple shove, laughing.

  NG sank into the background, nothing left to fight with.

  ‘Don’t be a fool. You don’t need to fight me. Just let me have some fun. Don’t you get that yet? You need to lighten up, Niki my boy. We have aliens to fight, not each other.’

  He watched from a distance as Sebastian got up, ran a shower and wandered around the cabin, picking up bits and pieces and looking at them as if he’d never seen them before. He called Evelyn, told her to meet him in the mess on the Alsatia in ten and took a fast, cold shower.

  It was tempting to drift back to sleep.

  ‘Do whatever you want,’ Sebastian muttered as he dressed. ‘I’ll let you know when I’m done.’ He rubbed at the red marks on his wrists as he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, giving a theatrical shiver.

  It was strange to see how bad the damage had been from this vantage. ‘Did you see what happened?’ NG thought.

  ‘With the Bhenykhn?’ Sebastian laughed. ‘What do you want me to say? You don’t want to know. Leave it at that.’

  He didn’t bother to grab any weapons and walked out.

  LC was waiting at the main airlock.

  “Go back to medical, Anderton,” Sebastian said, walking past.

  ‘NG?’ the kid thought.

  ‘I’m fine. Let him play.’ He had no idea if LC could hear him or not, but the kid just frowned and followed them out and into the lift.

  He could see his reflection in the elevator door. Sebastian was standing taller somehow, holding himself differently. Leigh was right. It wasn’t just the eyes that gave it away.

  ‘Do anything to hurt anyone and I will fight you,’ he thought.

  Sebastian smirked. ‘Relax, I just want something to eat. You seem to have been neglecting that simple pleasure of late.’

  He was going to tell Evelyn. NG felt a flutter of panic, deep inside. He almost fought back then, except Sebastian whispered, ‘She needs to know. If we are going to beat the Bhenykhn, Nikolai, she needs to know.’

  ‘Then let me tell her.’

  ‘I intend to.’

  The lift stopped and they walked out into Ops, LC trying to keep up behind them, still limping slightly, thinking they were screwed if Sebastian had taken over for good.

  ‘He hasn’t,’ NG thought. He wasn’t going to give in that easily.

  ‘Stop fretting. Relax, will you?’

  The mess was busy. A hush descended as they walked in, heads turning. He could feel Sebastian drawing energy from every body in there, subtly, pulling in what they needed, not taking too much from any one individual. He hadn’t realised how drained he was, how fatigue was becoming such a constant he wasn’t noticing how bad it was getting until Sebastian flooded him with energy. It was like overdosing on Epizin.

  ‘Except this won’t kill you,’ Sebastian laughed. ‘You should do it more often.’

  He had been. More than he was comfortable with. It was one thing to drain down bastards like Angmar Rodan, something else when it was their own people. That always felt like stealing.

  That got a deeper laugh. ‘How ironic… You are Thieves’ Guild, Nikolai. And you worry about stealing? You did it on Erica. Why so sensitive now?’

  Erica had been battlefield conditions. That was different.

  ‘No difference,’ Sebastian teased.

  Evelyn was there already, alone at a table, nursing a bottle of water. She looked up as they joined her.

  Sebastian sat and leaned forward intently. “I need to eat,” he said. “Anderton, go get me some food, willya? Anything. Something hot.”

  LC looked at him and looked at Evelyn.

  Hal Duncan sidled in next to them. “Grab some for me too, bud,” the big man said casually, thinking, ‘NG?’

  ‘Floor him if he does or says anything to hurt Evelyn,’ he thought.

  Sebastian chuckled inside. ‘Lighten up.’

  LC got up reluctantly and went off to join the queue, other field-ops gravitating towards him to get the latest on what was happening. It wasn’t everyday that NG and Evelyn turned up in their mess. It wasn’t often these days that LC was down here either. Evelyn was watching as Fliss gave him a hug and asked about Hil.

  ‘How touching,’ Sebastian murmured. ‘Evie still has a thing for him. Hardly appropriate now, is it?’

  She turned back and looked at him. “We need to talk,” she said, unsettled that he’d asked to see her here and not sure what else it was that was setting her on edge.

  “So talk,” Sebastian said.

  “Here?”

  “Why not? We need to move the surviving casualties into a research facility. There’s a secure base we can use. Liaise with Morgan on it.” He chuckled to himself again. ‘How was that? Did that sound like something you’d say, Nikolai?’

  Christ, it was like dealing with a child.

  A manic child.

  On drugs.

  Evelyn nodded. “Okay.” She was sceptical, trying to figure out what it was that was wrong.

  “What else?” Sebastian said.

  She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “The Assassins, NG. Do you realise what you’ve done?”

  “Started a war, hopefully.”

  She opened her mouth to object but closed it as LC returned, setting down a tray and easing himself into a seat. He dished out soup packs and beer, another bottle of water for Evie.

  Sebastian grabbed a beer. “We need Earth to mobilise its whole navy, Evelyn, not just a fleet or two. And we need Winter to react. Setting up the Wintran coalition as the bad guys who try to assassinate the Emperor is the fastest way to achieve that end.”

  She opened her mouth again.

  He cut her off by raising a hand and waving a finger at her. “We need them here. If you don’t want to lose the rest of your precious guild then we need them here… before the Bhenykhn mobilise and attack us. Because then, sweetheart, we are done.”

  He popped open the beer and took a mouthful.

  She was staring at him. “NG…?”

  Duncan butted in. “Why don’t we take this somewhere private?” He switched to direct thought. ‘Had your fun, yet, Sebastian?’

  ‘I’m just starting.’ His tone had an edge to it.

  ‘Don’t,’ NG thought.

  “Let me eat my soup,” he said out loud.

  Evelyn was looking at LC, sending privately through the Senson, “What the hell is going on with NG?”

  LC glanced at him and glanced at Duncan.

  The big man replied on the same link, “Bear with him. Let him eat the damned soup and we’ll get him back onto the Man’s ship. Come talk to him there.”

  NG couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten anything. He watched as Sebastian grinned and stuck the straw in the pouch of soup, taking a sip and sucking in more energy from the troops and field-ops sitting nearby. He couldn’t deny that he needed it. And he wouldn’t have done it himself.

  ‘I know,’ Sebastian murmured. ‘We are going into battle, Nikolai. Be ready. I don’t want to end up in chains again.’

  He finished the soup, drained the beer and stood up with a flourish. “Shall we?”

  Evelyn stood.

  Sebastian relinquish
ed control with no warning.

  NG blinked, staring at her, grabbing the back of the chair to steady himself.

  “What’s going on?” she said quietly.

  “Come onto the Man’s ship,” he said. “There’s some stuff I need to tell you.”

  From the way she looked at him, it almost felt like she knew.

  Duncan stood and slapped him on the back.

  ‘Thank you,’ he thought.

  ‘Any time.’

  He took her into the Man’s chambers, lit candles and poured her a goblet of wine. Time was different in here and he wasn’t sure how long this was going to take.

  He sat at the desk and looked up. “I need you to set up a command centre on the Alsatia. We need to get ready.”

  She was looking right into his eyes, wondering if she’d imagined it. She nodded. “Just tell me what you need.”

  “I need you to understand something,” he said quietly. “It wasn’t me that killed the Bhenykhn on Erica…”

  They ended up talking about Devon again. And Martinez. That was hard.

  They polished off two bottles of wine then she leaned forward on her elbows. “It was Sebastian in your office, wasn’t it? When LC got hurt. Before you left.”

  He nodded.

  “Why would he hurt LC?”

  He stared into his goblet. “It’s complicated. The Man…” He didn’t know what to say. It was hard to explain any of it without sounding insane, without being disloyal to the Man. “He didn’t handle us well.”

  “Is Sebastian here now?”

  “Always.”

  “And he always has been?”

  “Yep.”

  “But you didn’t know?”

  He shook his head. He could hear that she was thinking he’d been lied to, far worse than anything he’d lied to them about. She was feeling bad that she’d been so shit to him.

  “What now?” she said, swirling the last of her wine around the bowl of the goblet.

  “We fight the Bhenykhn.”

  She didn’t say anything, thoughts swirling round her mind. She was thinking back to the FOB, when she’d realised it was him captive down there and he was alive, and not knowing if he’d been killed or if they were going to make it back, thinking she’d just got him back and she was going to lose him again.