Axler, James - Outlanders 004 by Omega Path (v2.1)

Author:Omega Path (v2.1) [Path, Omega]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

When Kane heard that single soft word, spoken in a tone he knew well, he shushed Salvo into silence. His ear filled with comm-link chatter, curses, orders, instructions to countermand those orders, demands to find Salvo. When he heard a profanity-salted reference to the renegade Mag making his escape in a hitherto unknown elevator, he repeated Grant's voice signal, but in English, with a great deal more heat. "Shit!"

Salvo and Domi stared at him uncomprehendingly but with anxiety shining in their eyes.

Grimly Kane told them, "Grant's on his way back up. The Mags are on the alert. They're trying to find you, Salvo. Time to start earning your keep as a bargaining chip."

Swallowing hard, Salvo replied, "When they can't find me, they'll raise Abrams."

"Yeah, up one link in the chain of command. So?"

"So, Abrams won't look at me as hostage material." Salvo lifted his hands in a lame, resigned gesture. "I framed him, used him as a pawn in my plan to expose Lakesh. It didn't work. Baron Cobalt saw right through it."

Kane stared at him in baffled anger. "That makes more sense than being punished for your task force's fuckup in Idaho. Do you know where Abrams is now?"

Salvo nodded. "Here, on A Level."

He squared his shoulders, trying to focus on Kane in the gloom. His voice held an accusatory note. "It was your fault the frame didn't work, Kane. You damn near chilled Abrams in Dulce, so trying to convince the baron he was your clandestine partner-in-sedition put the skids on it. He believes I'm your partner."

Salvo uttered a bitter, incredulous laugh. "Me. Your partner. Anything you touch turns to shit, Kane."

Acknowledging the comment with a scornful chuckle, Kane said, "If you have no value as a hostage, you have no value to me."

He gestured toward Domi. "Give me the Copperhead."

Salvo bleated in fright, tried to turn, but Domi hammered him to his knees with the butt of the subgun. Fiercely she whispered, "I chill him, for what he did to my people."

Kane managed to control his hate-fueled fury long enough to consider the girl's words. Salvo had deceived him, manipulated him, tried to trick him into standing aside while Baptiste and Grant were terminated. The man was directly responsible for his exile, for the loss of his identity and life path.

But Salvo had overseen the murders and mutilations of Domi's people. The outlander girl did not have much of a past, but what there was of it, Salvo had ruthlessly expunged. Kane nodded to her. "Do it."

Domi jammed the bore of the Copperhead against the back of Salvo's head, where it joined with his neck. In an extraordinarily calm voice, he said, "No guts for chilling your own brother. I should have known."

The remark was so odd it didn't penetrate Kane's rage-clouded consciousness for a moment. When it did, he waved Domi back and demanded, "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"It's the main reason Baron Cobalt thought I was in collusion with you, Kane. Something you never knew, something I thought no one knew but me.

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