Imperial Commando (CERBERUS Book 12) by Andy Peloquin

Author:Andy Peloquin [Peloquin, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2021-03-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Nolan had just one glimmer of hope to cling to in the wake of the latest turn of events. If Bennett was among the fallen Project Icarus soldiers, the threat to Jadis would be halved. She’d still be held captive by enemies and taken to locations unknown, but at least the explosives in the neural implant Bennett had forced on her would be neutralized.

That hope died quickly as he and Bex identified the enemy casualties. As he’d feared, Bennett wasn’t among their number. He took pains to remove each helmet and turn up the faces of the dead hostiles to let Taia scan their features. Or, in the cases of those whose faces had been rendered unrecognizable by his Balefire bolts, to tap into their armor’s systems and identify them that way.

All of the enemy dead were survivors of the Project Icarus experiments on Terra Omega. That gave Nolan a measure of relief—the plot hadn’t involved roping in additional forces, which meant he knew exactly how many and what manner of enemy he’d be dealing with.

But not all of the Project Icarus soldiers had been accounted for. Bennett, the most important face on Taia’s list of Doctor Archer’s test subjects, hadn’t yet been crossed off. Not only had he and a handful been absent during the midnight raid, they’d taken Jadis with them.

Worse, they’d apparently taken the bomb, too.

Nolan stood at the entrance to the makeshift walled-off space—a now empty patch of permacrete thirty meters wide and long—that had to have belonged to whatever terrible device had been created for Project Oppenheimer. That absence filled him with a cold dread. Had the bomb already been placed? Had it been hauled away by Bennett and his soldiers along with Jadis, planted in anticipation of the following day’s celebration? If so, Nolan and Bex were on a far tighter clock than he’d expected.

It was just past oh-six-hundred local time; ten hours were insufficient to locate and disarm the bomb, put down Bennett, rescue Jadis, and stymie General Stone’s attempted coup. Hell, Taia couldn’t even find General Stone, somehow.

Nolan hated scrambling. He hated feeling like he was playing catch-up, that he’d been two steps behind the Protection Bureau, Bennett, and General Stone all this time. That was no way to fight. The only way to come out victorious in a battle like this was to anticipate the enemy’s moves.

The only thing that might offer any hope of success was the intel they’d prevented Rolan Descartes from burning.

Nolan hurried back to the place where Bex had spread the fuel-soaked papers and blueprints out on the hangar floor, well away from the bloody pile where they’d dumped the enemy’s corpses after IDing them. Bex was studying the printed documents and plans. Unfortunately, most of the information they contained had been rendered illegible by the liquid. Half of the documents were little more than smudged ink and soggy paper. Those that contained legible intel offered far less insight than Nolan might have wished.

“Any luck?” he asked.

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