Maverick Gambit by Marjorie King

Author:Marjorie King [Marjorie King]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Starscape Media, LLC
Published: 2021-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

18

Sacrifice of a Brother

A flurry of birds swarmed the ship. An alarm flashed on the console. A bullet shot.

Sann’s warning!

TrysKa banked Maverick back to the sky. Something was wrong with the landing spot. Just then a form darker than the night slithered away from the slab into the brush. What was that?

Fire lit up the side of the hill.

“Sann!”

Alex, his head leaning against TrysKa’s seat, gasped. Ximena yanked him back into the breakroom and onto her lap. He curled up in the fetal position.

TrysKa raced Maverick to the hill and filled the guards with plasma fire. Her heart skipped a beat as the bodies blew backward. TrysKa blinked rapidly, and the tears cleared from her eyes, streaming down her cheeks.

She had to save her team.

“Bravo stay low!” Ximena said. “TK, give Bravo cover!”

“On it.”

Brant had crashed out the house’s window and was barreling up the hill. TrysKa laid down a line of fire along the ground behind Brant. A wall of dust billowed between him and the mansion. The guards shot wildly through the brown cloud but didn’t come near Brant.

“Kappa,” Ximena called. “Get to the landing spot, we’ll—”

“No!” TrysKa said. “Something’s wrong with the slab. That’s why Sann shot the tree.”

“Change of plan, moving the pick-up spot.” Ximena swiveled the holograph of the house. “No guards behind the shed. There’s flat ground, we’ll land there.”

“Copy that, Zed,” Knox said.

Brant knelt on the smoking hill next to where Sann had been. TrysKa piloted the ship to Brant and lowered the shields. She opened the ramp, and her controls beeped. Brant had entered the cargo bay. But what about Sann?

“Bravo and Sniper onboard,” Ximena said. “We’re coming for you, Kappa.”

“Copy that, we’re in position.”

TrysKa swung the ship around the storage shed, positioning the ship between the house and Knox. The guards poured around the pool, so TrysKa aimed for the outbuilding and fired. The little structure erupted into singed shrapnel, and the guards fell back.

Her controls beeped again. Knox was onboard.

“Take to the sky, TK,” Ximena said.

TrysKa couldn’t answer with her voice, but she could with her hands. Her fingers glided over the controls with the moves they knew so well. She grabbed the lever and pushed steadily forward. The rocket blasters fired, and the ship entered the cumulus clouds above.

The mist in the screen swam in TrysKa’s vision. She smeared the tears away with the back of her hand.

Save your friends first. Grieve second.

TrysKa pressed the lever forward again. Time to send Maverick soaring. Black space unveiled before her; flames enveloped her. TrysKa and the ship were one, freeing her family from hate and violence, delivering them to safety.

But too late for one.

#

Knox’s boots pounded into the metal floor carrying him to the cargo bay.

Where they halted.

Brant was curled over his knees. In his arms, he clutched a gun, charred black suit, and smoking unrecognizable remains. His shoulders didn’t move. He wasn’t breathing.

Knox’s stomach shifted, the sign that artificial gravity was about to crank up. Knox closed the distance between himself and Brant in one lunge.

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.