Death Match by Chris Bunch & Allan Cole

Author:Chris Bunch & Allan Cole [Bunch, Chris & Cole, Allan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy, High Tech, Space Opera, Fiction & Literature
ISBN: 9780748125906
Google: OiSUITFBKfUC
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2015-06-20T23:00:00+00:00

Official Denials

Suppressed Evidence

Rumors Circulating Following

Personal Theories.

Another case:

THE SECRET YEARS

System Politics

Murders Ordered First AM2 Supplies Provided by Philanthropic Foundation Instituted.

Yet another:

THE “CIBOLA” EXPEDITION

Scientific Journals

Expedition Suggeste

d As Possibility

No Other Info Available

No Hard Data Could Be Found

Personal Theories Only

Sten realized what he was looking at. He didn’t know—and suspected Mahoney didn’t either—if these cases held The Secret that would destroy the Eternal Emperor—or even A Secret that might help. But he did know these cases contained enough dangerous data for the Emperor to be willing to sacrifice most of the Imperial Guard to recover. These were the notes for the never-written biography.

After the Eternal Emperor had been assassinated by the privy council, Mahoney had found it expedient to retire, and begin plotting the destruction of the council. As a cover he announced that, in deep mourning for his old leader and friend, he would write the Eternal Emperor’s complete biography. At first, just a cover. But as he had told Sten, Mahoney would have been quite happy being an archivist instead of a general, and so his files got larger and larger, more and more thorough.

The thought floated up: perhaps if Mahoney had become a researcher he would have lived longer. But he shut that idea out.

The cover had become a fascination, as Mahoney discovered that all biographies of the Eternal Emperor were fraudulent, either authorized or unauthorized. Deliberately false data had been given; incompetent writers, researchers, and foundations had been encouraged while capable ones were shunted aside.

Mahoney found many, many versions of given events, versions that had been deliberately created by the Empire and used as red herrings.

Sten had wondered what the Emperor had been trying to hide, and Mahoney had retorted, “Damned near everything, from where he came from to how he got where he is…I’ll just mention two of the murkiest areas, besides where the clot the AM2 is. First is that the son of a bitch is—or was, anyway—immortal.

“And the second thing is…he’s been killed before.”

Sten had scoffed—and Mahoney had offered to show him the files sometime. But events moved too fast and too bloodily, and the one time Sten had thought about those files, he had decided they were certainly explosive, and that anyone interested in staying on the Emperor’s fair-weather side would probably be wisest not even considering their existence.

Or, as the Z-grade livies put it, just after the scenarist had failed to come up with an even vaguely believable explanation for all the drakh he had come up with earlier, “There are some things in this universe, boy, man was not meant to know.”

All right, Sten thought. But this time man’s gonna find out.

Because Mahoney, in a way, died for these files.

Sten got to his feet. He started to key his com, to order the Victory to send down a cargo lighter and some strong deck apes. He—or somebody. anyway—would begin analysis when they reached their intended destination, Sten’s intended base of operations.

“You’re my friend, aren’t you?”

Sten remembered Forte—and, when he called the Victory, he told them to send down a bubblepak stretcher, with the interior controls sealed.

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