Counter Clockwise by Elisabeth Flaum

Author:Elisabeth Flaum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure, heroes, assassins, alien planet
Publisher: Elisabeth Flaum

The Academy was Tafari’s crown jewel. A dazzling cluster of bluestone towers situated on a hill at the center of town, it housed some of the finest technological minds in the galaxy. Every scientist and engineer of any renown had studied there, and half the artists too. I could just see its highest pinnacles over the plainer structures of the market road; they teased the eye like a mirage. Riana gazed at them in wonder.

“That’s our destination?” she breathed.

“That’s it,” I said. “The Reiziger clan’s seat of power. I’ll say this for your mother, Wil, she has some lofty aspirations.”

He muttered something under his breath. I clapped him on the shoulder.

“Come on, then. We’ll be there in time for lunch.” And maybe, I thought, a little something for my troubles.

Just then a troop of armed mercenaries jogged past us through the crowd, black boots kicking up fresh flurries of pungent red dust. They made for the dome gate at speed, where they set up a hasty blockade. One of them muttered into a communicator, while others ran probing eyes over the crowd.

“Time to vanish,” I said, urging Wil and Riana into a narrow side street. More soldiers began to fill the main road behind us. Complaints rose from merchants shouldered aside, commuters and tourists thwarted. The narrow street opened into a wider, more meandering way, faced with factory store-fronts and peopled with workers in rough clothes. Several cast suspicious glances toward Wil’s finery. Shrugging out of my cloak I draped it over his shoulders. My own clothes - tunic, vest, and breeches in unremarkable browns and grays - would draw no comment.

“Hang onto that burqa,” I told Riana as she made to disrobe.

“I can’t fight like this.”

“If we aren’t spotted, you won’t have to.”

Grudgingly she obeyed. I adjusted the cloak’s hood to shield Wil’s face, and steered my charges toward the distant shimmering towers. When the road turned away, I found another; street by street, block by block, we advanced on our destination.

As we approached the outskirts of the Academy’s more fashionable environs, the crowd around us abruptly parted. A troop of mercenaries loitered at the crossroad, staring fiercely at each passerby. One caught sight of Wil as he peered out from under his hood: glancing down at her wrist computer and up again, she opened her mouth to shout.

In a single fluid move, Riana scooped a fist-sized stone from the road and flung it in the merc’s face. With a howl of pain she fell. Her associates turned toward her, taking their eyes from the road.

“Run!” Riana hissed.

Grabbing Wil’s arm I bolted back the way we had come. Shouts filled the air, and the shriek of blaster fire. Bystanders screamed. I risked a glance backwards as we dove into the shelter of an alley. The mercs swarmed from their post, their weapons trained on Riana’s inert form lying in the dust. Not one of them looked our way.

“Is she dead?” Wil asked. Tears streamed down his face as I urged him onward.

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.