Men of Bretton by Richard Fox

Author:Richard Fox [Fox, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, Military, Action & Adventure, Space Opera
ISBN: 9781625799883
Google: waAbEQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2024-11-05T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Lambert jammed his cane against the sidewalk as he focused on the metal doors to the auxiliary void port where the Izmir was docked. His bad leg ached from the brace and blisters had risen from him moving at the fastest pace he could manage all the way from Central.

He felt like a turtle trying to outrun a wolf as the sound of sporadic fighting had grown from the headquarters building and spilled into the surrounding city. He’d shared a rather tense but silent robo-taxi ride from the nexus point. None of the other passengers had seemed aware of the tragedy that had befallen the Hegemony, and most of them had seemed quite drunk or otherwise inebriated.

The usual police bots on the stretch of road from his drop-off spot were missing, which made the sense of dread from the darkness around him even worse. Ahead, two men went to the access doors of the void port and banged their fists against the biometric readers, then turned away.

“Not a good sign,” he said between pants, “not a good sign at all.”

A citywide lockdown made perfect sense to him, but just who was in charge of anything to make that decision wasn’t an answer he had.

“Hey. You,” a gruff voice said from an alleyway as Lambert passed.

Lambert continued on, in case there was some other “you” that had been addressed.

“He thinks he can run?” another man said. “Get over here, cripple.”

Lambert stopped. There was no use in exhausting himself further. He turned around.

Two large men stepped from the shadows, both in Hegemony army uniforms but with all the patches torn off.

“Who you loyal to, cripple?” one with a lit cigarette in his mouth asked. The other circled behind him.

“I’m afraid I don’t follow,” Lambert said. “I’m just trying to get back to my ship. Loyal to my need for a drink and a little sleep.”

“This one’s got jokes.” The other man kicked Lamberts’s cane into the gutter. “You like jokes, Chester?”

“I’m not in a jokin’ mood either.” Chester puffed smoke into Lambert’s face. “See, things are different around here now. No more Hegemony to make us soldier slaves. So are you Hegemony or are you not?”

Lambert feared there was no answer that would satisfy the men, who seemed bent on a little retribution against anyone they could blame for their lot in life.

“I am a man of Bretton.” Lambert bent his chin to the planetary crest on his lapel. “It’s a bit of a better place than this.”

His good leg trembled from bearing so much weight. He’d succumb to his disability in a most humiliating fashion in the next few minutes.

“Wait, Bretton.” Chester plucked his cigarette from his mouth. “Ain’t that the—”

There was a snap and Chester’s head canted hard to one side. Blood spurted from a bullet hole and the large man crumpled to the ground.

“Oye, wait a loving second!” The other man raised his hands. He went down from two more snaps from the alleyway.

A chubby man with a

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