It worked. Her breathing steadied. Grace touched her sword. Her fingers knew the shape of the hilt. She’d be able to hold it right even in the darkest parts of the universe. Running her hands along the scabbard, she found the katana’s curve led her right.
Right it is. Trust your blade. Grace bunched around the corner, barking her elbows and knees. It was just discomfort, unlike the cloying panic of moments ago. After a few more minutes of wriggling, her fingers found the edges of another access port.
Closing her eyes tight, Grace drew a hands-length of steel, touching the blade between two of the clamps holding the port shut. Electricity arced, the contacts shorting with a snap. The panel popped open, and Grace risked opening her eyes. Brilliant white light streamed in, and with it, the noise of machinery. Air recyclers. The hum of pumps.
She’d made it.
Slipping from the pipe, Grace crouched on the floor of the maintenance room, waiting for her eyes to adjust. The brilliant light became a normal luminance. There were no alarms in this section. She put the access panel over the pipe, sealing it tight.
Sword in one hand, Grace pressed her palm to the door’s panel. It hummed, opening before her. She was inside the Empire base.
Luck was with Grace. The maintenance room was at the base of the Empire barracks, alongside a jail. Cell after cell stretched ahead of her, the corridor promising a spare hellhole for her if she failed.
It also meant Cam was here.
She walked the corridor, checking the 2D displays on each cell. They featured a video feed of the inside. Most were empty. A few held people she didn’t recognize. Two held faces she knew.
She found Leslie Casque first. Grace let her fingers drift near the comm controls before letting them fall. Talking to Leslie would buy her nothing but pain. And if he was here, it meant the Empire bottled him up after finding her. He’d get everything he deserved.
Cam Redwood was in another. Grace turned the comm on, leaning close to the speaker. “Cam?”
The video feed showed him jerking from his bunk in startled wonder. He looked unharmed. “Ayako?”
She smiled, even though he couldn’t see her. “Call me Grace.”
He shook his head. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“You’re not wrong.” Grace glanced along the corridor. So far, no one had come to check. If her luck held, they’d be searching for an intruder, not factoring in access through a tiny pipe. That trick’s unlikely to work again once the Empire tightens security. “I’ve come to get you out.”
“You can’t. This room’s sealed, and there’s like a million soldiers between you and the exit.”
Grace nodded. “I can’t yet. I’ll be back before you know it.” Her fingers lingered on the comm controls. She wasn’t sure why. Waiting cost her opportunity.
“I’m not worth it.” Cam’s shoulders sagged. She could feel his defeat/hopelessness through the wall. “I’m a swindler. The universe carried my debts for a spell, but now it’s come calling. Time to pay.”
Grace thought about how Cam probably told the Empire everything he knew about her already. Maybe which hotel she stayed at, and which starship she came on. Those secrets he held because he set you free. “You’re right. It’s time to pay.”
She snapped off the comm, turning away from Cam’s bewildered glance. Emotions would be her undoing. Grace needed focus to finish this, and Cam was a chain on her thoughts. She ran from his cell, heading for the exit.
The run to Max’s office involved knocking out six guards. While Grace wanted nothing to do with her father, the men and women of the Empire were often good people. They didn’t deserve to die.
The first two she encountered as she left the elevator on the level Cam’s plans said held the data vault. The pair goggled at Grace as the elevator doors hissed open. She darted out, the blade of her sword whispering as it cut air. Grace sliced twice, shearing through the chin-straps of their helmets. One raised a blaster, so she kicked him in the groin, and as he went down she hammered her sword pommel in the back of his skull.
His partner tried for a punch. Grace weaved to the side, grabbed her opponent’s arm, then snaked her legs up to lock around his neck. With a twist of her torso, the man spun through the air to crash into the unforgiving decking.
Grace kipped to her feet. Time to move. Downed guards would draw attention, either as someone found them or they failed to report in. She snared their ident badges and ran.
Two more waited before a sealed door. The airlock they guarded promised riches, because only fools guarded a valueless area. She rounded a corner, took in their crouched position and leveled plasma rifles, and jumped.
Blue-white plasma raked the metal where she’d stood. Grace threw her sword, the gleam of steel reflecting plasma fire as she wall-ran. The sword hilt clunked under the chin of a soldier, the flash of the blade causing the other to fire wild, plasma chewing the ceiling.
Grace kept running but rejoined the floor, sliding low under the fusillade of plasma. She impacted the guard, nimble fingers finding the release for his plasma rifle’s battery pack. It clattered to the deck, glowing with heat. Grace spun the weapon from the soldier, swinging it like a bat. It clanged against his helmet and he dropped, out cold.
Ident cards opened the door. Grace scooped up her sword and sprinted forward. Ahead, two more guards ran from a side room. One didn’t have his helmet on. The other didn’t have a rifle, a sidearm in her hand.
Grace eyed the corridor. Above them, a fire suppression system waited. Beyond the pair, another airlock door. She threw her sword again, the blade thudding into the ceiling. The fire suppression system squawked, then rained gray foam. She leaped to the side as plasma fire tried to find her with white-hot fingers.
She reached the pair, an elbow to the unhelmeted one dropping him like a sack. Grace ducked in close to the other, slipped under her raised arm, and got her elbow around her opponent’s neck. Eight seconds of pressure to the carotid artery would do it. Four seconds passed as fire retardant foam rained while Grace rode her opponent like a bucking bronco. Four more seconds and she lowered the unconscious soldier to the deck.
She wouldn’t be unconscious for long. Carotid pressure knocked you out fast, but you woke up quick too. Exactly what the situation needed.
Grace palmed the airlock’s controls, dragging her opponents through. She didn’t want them to suffocate in the foam. Placing her foot on the wall, she jumped, retrieving her sword, then she set off. She dragged the guard she’d choked out with her after stealing the airlock.
Ahead, Max’s office waited. It held the data on a secure console.
Inside, she wiped foam from her face and hair, then slipped a data sliver into the secure console. The console was silver-bright metal and Guild-spun glass, attached to a holo stage in the middle of the desk. Grace hefted the guard into Max’s chair just as she started to wake up. Bleary eyes opened, wide enough for the console to recognize an Empire ally, the console unlocking.
Grace slammed the soldier’s head against the deck, knocking her out again. She winced as her opponent’s head lolled, but it couldn’t be helped. A headache for the woman versus a spell in one of her father’s reprogramming facilities for Cam? The math was easy.
Console unlocked, Grace copied the information she’d come for to a data sliver. Almost time to go. You’ve got to do one more thing. Grace tapped on the console’s keyboard, checked around the small office, then opened the door.
Outside, Max Conyers waited. The giant wasn’t in power armor this time, wearing Empire fatigues and an armored vest. Without his helmet, she could see his face. Strong, wide jaw. Eyes of blue, but hard, without the friendliness of Cam’s. He was clean-shaven, without scars. He held a plasma rifle, pointed at Grace’s head. “Grace Gushiken.”
Grace smiled. She didn’t know why they made it so easy.
Chapter Four
Grace waited a few short minutes for Max to wake up. She’d found restraining cuffs on his belt after sh
e’d cut his plasma rifle in half, knocked him out, and dragged him inside. Pulling the giant across the floor took work. He was a hundred and forty kilos of non-compliant muscle.
She used the cuffs to bind him to a conduit against the wall. Grace used another set of cuffs from the guard she’d knocked out to chain her to a desk. While she waited, she examined her sword for damage. The blade held no marks. Her cuts were perfect.
Max groaned as he came to. Grace waited for his eyes to open and focus on her. He jerked his restraints as expected, then snarled, “I’ll have you killed.” He paused, considering. “Or I’ll kill you myself.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You’ll have Cam Redwood released and all charges dropped.”
Max laughed. “Why would I do that?”
Grace held the data sliver containing the stolen information. “I have the plans for your super-soldier program here. You’re the first, aren’t you? A prototype of genetic engineering. This is what’s so valuable.”
“You’ll never make it out alive.” Max’s eyes roamed, seeking allies. There were none to be found.
“Getting in was easy. Getting out’s even easier. In return for giving you back these plans, you’ll let Cam go. And you’ll forget about me.”
“You’re insane.”
“I’m motivated. It’s easy enough to forge the right trail.” Grace put Ayako’s stolen ident cards on Max’s desk. “You won’t be blamed. It’s a case of false identity. You thwarted an attempt to steal Empire secrets. I imagine actions like that deserve a promotion.” Grace waited as Max worked it through. She imagined the wheels turning in his head. The files showed not just physical modifications for strength, but mental adaptations for ruthlessness. Max would make the call that best served his interests.
“And if I don’t?” Max looked to the door as if hoping for rescue. None came.
Grace shrugged. She put a small explosive charge beside the data sliver. It was one she’d stolen from the secure box in Starfire’s lock-up. “You die.”
“We die, you mean.”
“I’ll be fine.” She offered him a smile, like a fox outside a henhouse. “What’ll it be?”
“I’d like to not die,” Max admitted.
“Great.” Grace held up the comm she’d taken from his belt. “Give the order.”
Cam’s release came as a surprise to everyone. Grace watched him on Max’s console holo. He left the Empire barracks, rubbing his wrists, a look of vast confusion on his face. Cam kept turning to look at the soldiers who hurried him out, as if expecting a cosmic mistake to be remedied at any moment.
Grace let herself out by prying the back wall of Max’s office loose. Behind it was standard hull metal. Shimmying along the narrow gap led her to an empty room, inside which sat uniforms bearing the Empire’s falcon. Donning one, including the helmet, she walked out the front door in the confusion of soldiers trying to get inside Max’s office.
It took them a long time. She rigged the door with the explosive, meaning they’d need to dismantle a wall to get inside. True to her word, she left the data sliver on the table. Max Conyers would get his promotion.
And, most likely, a thirst for vengeance. But that would wait until tomorrow.
Grace found Cam in his quarters. They were cramped and old, smelling of damp. Inside, she took in the small bed, its rumpled sheets, and a dispenser that hadn’t seen much use.
Cam sat on the only chair in the single room apartment, eyes wide. “You got me out.”
“I did.”
“They’re going to kill us.”
“They’re not.” Grace offered him a smile. It was a rare, true smile. No mask, no lie. “Have you checked your messages?”
“No.”
“You should.” Grace moved to the dispenser, telling the machine to make tea. Hot, sweet, and strong. It burbled while Cam opened his personal console.
He gave a sharp intake of breath. “These … this … you got the plans!”
“I did.” Grace brought the tea to Cam. “Drink this.”
“What’s in it?” He eyed it.
“Tea. A little honey.” Grace leaned against the wall. “Now you can sell the plans. Make some coin. And give me my fifty percent.”
Cam nodded, eyes roaming the console’s display. After a moment he closed the little unit, sipped tea, then met her eyes. She felt his caution/wariness. “This was just business for you, wasn’t it?”
Grace chewed that over. Cam risked everything for her. Business she could do without getting him out. He was a loose end. She should kill him. But Grace knew she wouldn’t. She’d met so many bad people, one with a tiny bit of good made her feel hope.
How to answer him? Grace couldn’t let him in. That way lay madness. She reached inside for a mask to hide her feelings. One with the hard eyes of her father, and the blank expression of her mother. Grace pulled it on. “Yes,” she lied.
Cam nodded, then stood. He offered her his hand. When she shook it, he said, “Thanks, partner.”
You’ve finished Dragon’s Run. I hope you loved it!
The next story in The Empire’s Rogues is Ganymede Plunder. We return to Nate as the starship Cataphract crashes on Ganymede. It holds a dark and terrible weapon, and all the wrong people want it. An excerpt is included at the end of this book.
[https://www.books2read.com/GanymedePlunder]
WAIT. Don’t go!
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Review Dragon’s Run on your retailer and Goodreads [http://hit.mondegreen.co/ReviewDragonsRun]
FYI, an angel gets its wings for every five-star review.
About the Author
Richard Parry worked as an international consultant in one of the world’s top tech companies, which sounds cool, but it wasn’t all cocaine parties. He lives in Wellington with the love of his life, Rae. They have a dog, Rory, who chases birds. The birds, who have the power of flight, don’t seem to mind. Richard’s online hood is:
www.mondegreen.co
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Also by Richard Parry
The Ezeroc Wars
The Ezeroc Wars universe is big (and growing!). Get the reading guide here: https://www.mondegreen.co/ezeroc-wars-reading-guide/
The Empire’s Rogues
Nathan Chevell and Grace Gushiken are destined to meet, saving the universe from the vile insect-like Ezeroc. Becoming heroes is hard work; read their tales before they meet, forging their names among the stars.
Rogues 1: https://www.books2read.com/GanymedeSteel
Rogues 2: https://www.books2read.com/DragonsRun
Rogues 3: https://www.books2read.com/GanymedePlunder
Rogues 4: https://www.books2read.com/DragonsBargain
Rogues 5: https://www.books2read.com/GanymedePlague
Rogues 6: https://www.books2read.com/DragonsRescue
A colony world goes dark.
When Grace Gushiken and Nathan Chevell of the Tyche are hired to deliver a new transmitter for a downed Guild Bridge, they find the Absalom Delta colony deserted, its people enslaved by the insect-like Ezeroc. The aliens have descended like locusts on humanity, consuming all in their path. No one is safe. Even the Republic Navy is powerless against them. The ship and her crew need to test their skill and their luck to survive. Will Grace and Nate be able to work together to get away? Or will fears and rivalries from the past destroy humanity’s hopes, ceding victory to the Ezeroc?
Tyche’s Journey
Book 1: https://www.books2read.com/TychesFlight
Book 2: https://www.books2read.com/TychesDeceit
Book 3: https://www.books2read.com/TychesCrown
&nb
sp; Tyche’s Progeny
Book 4: https://www.books2read.com/TychesDemons
Book 5: https://www.books2read.com/TychesGhosts
Book 6: https://www.books2read.com/TychesAngels
Tyche Origins
An empire falls.
Before there was a Tyche, the crew were scattered. Nate wore the Emperor’s Black. El helmed mighty destroyers. Hope joined the new Republic’s reclamation projects. Kohl fell in with the Yakuza. And Grace was a prisoner. Grab their origin stories as they become the heroes the universe needed them to be.
Collection (origins 1-6): https://www.books2read.com/TycheOrigins
Or get them à la carte…
Origin 1: https://www.books2read.com/TychesFirst
Origin 2: https://www.books2read.com/TychesChosen
Origin 3: https://www.books2read.com/TychesHope
Origin 4: https://www.books2read.com/TychesFury
Origin 5: https://www.books2read.com/TychesGrace
Origin 6: https://www.books2read.com/TychesGravedigger
Future Forfeit
Not sure where to start? Get the reading guide here: https://www.mondegreen.co/future-forfeit-reading-guide/
It’s 2150AD. There hasn’t been a corporate war… until now.
Mason Floyd is an augmented syndicate enforcer at the top of his game. His job is asset protection and acquisition, no questions asked.
Company tech is stolen on Mason’s watch. Rival megacorps want it, and they don’t mind killing him to get it. Framed for the theft, Mason runs. He tangles with off-grid rockstar Sadie Freeman on the grimy seam between the powerful and poor. Together they uncover a secret an entire city died to keep.
Dragon's Run Page 3