A Covenant of Thieves by Christian Velguth

Author:Christian Velguth [Velguth, Christian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-06T22:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Two

NPAFE Camp

Axum, Ethiopia

“What’s going on?” Estelle’s voice, groggy and thick, broke the silence for the first time in what felt like hours. There were excited voices coming from outside, shouts both near and far and the sounds of people running. It had been going on for a while, but she seemed to have only just noticed it.

“Not sure.” Kai had been listening carefully since it began. “But if I had to guess, I’d say Rick found some way to upset K’ebero’s apple cart.”

Booker raised his head, blinking as if coming awake. The oppressive heat of the shipping container had sapped the energy from all of them. “And…is that a good thing?”

Kai shrugged. “More like an inevitability.”

“But doesn’t that mean --” Estelle whispered.

The door to the container burst open, flooding the space with blinding light. Kai, who had been expecting this for a while, had his eyes narrowed when it happened and so wasn’t completely blinded. He could make out the armed figures standing in the opening, Booker struggling to get to his feet, Estelle hurriedly pulling her blouse back over her head.

“Out!” barked a voice. “Now! Get up!”

Kai stood, taking note of the parts of him that still twinged with pain. Booker helped Estelle get up. “What’s going on?” the FBI agent demanded.

“Your time is up,” said another soldier. It sounded as though he were grinning. “Now we get a show.”

The opposite end of the container opened, making all three of them whip around. Beyond the shining white square of sunlight they could hear something like the roar of a stadium, whistles, and even a few sporadic gunshots.

Well, Kai thought resignedly. It’s not as if this wasn’t going to happen.

Two soldiers were moving in from the front of the container, brandishing their rifles. “Move, now. Outside.”

Estelle stumbled away from them, Booker keeping a protective hand on her arm. Kai snatched his sweat-sodden shirt from the floor and pulled it on, leading the way out into the open air. “Grab your shirt,” he told Booker.

The agent blinked. “Does it matter?”

“Adds another layer of material for claws and teeth to slice through before they get to your skin. Probably won’t make much of a difference, but it won’t hurt either.”

Booker’s face drained of what little bravado he’d had left, and he quickly gathered up his shirt.

Any escape from the mugginess of the container was a small blessing, despite the circumstances. They stepped out into a wide circular patch of dirt -- the interior of the arena. The curving wall that surrounded them was made of more shipping containers, one layer atop another, stacked to a height of more than twelve feet. Curls of razor wire ringed the inner edge of the wall, forming a protective barrier for the spectators that had gathered behind it. It looked like all of K’ebero’s army was here to watch the spectacle, perched atop the shipping containers. Some had bottles of tej and food wrapped in paper, others held up phones and devices to record the event.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.