Renegade by Justine Davis

Author:Justine Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BelleBooks Inc.
Published: 2019-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 34

WHEN SHE WALKED into his quarters she saw that Drake wore an ex­pression that boded no good. Pryl, Kye, Eirlys, and Brander were all in the room, and none of them looked any happier than her son.

“What is it?” she asked.

They all looked at Drake. Leaving it to him to tell her. The only question was, was it her son they ceded the right to, or the Raider? When she met his gaze, she saw both of them in his eyes.

“The Coalition is building new cannon emplacements.”

For a moment she was puzzled, for they had expected the fusion cannon to be replaced ever since the Sentinels had taken it out. Then it struck her; the emplacements themselves had not been damaged in the raid.

“New, in addition to the existing two?”

He nodded at Pryl, clearly the source of the information. “Two more.”

“Where?” she asked.

“Southeast of the landing zone, and north of Zelos,” Pryl said.

“Which means,” Kye said grimly, “they have everything from the mines to the Racelock and the low valley to Halfhead covered.”

She frowned. “But that also means a lot more frequent moving of the replacement cannon, if it is between four locations.”

“That’s where the really bad news comes in,” Eirlys said, giving her mate a sideways look.

Iolana looked at Brander, who shrugged. “I was passing—”

“Just strolling along,” Eirlys said dryly.

“Exactly,” Brander returned evenly. “I went past the one they’re building north of town, and noticed something.”

“Because that’s what you do,” Iolana said to him, smiling.

His return smile was fleeting, and he went on. “Then I went by the old emplacement to the south. They were working on it, too, even though it had not been damaged.”

“Doing what?” she asked.

“Removing the releasable fastenings and replacing them. With permanent ones.”

She frowned. Making all four emplacements permanent made no sense, unless. . . . Her gaze snapped to Drake. “Exactly,” he said, his voice as grim as Kye’s had been.

“Four?” she asked, feeling breathless. “There will be four active fusion cannons?”

“As a measure of your success that’s pretty impressive,” Brander said sourly to Drake. “As something to look forward to, I’d prefer skalworm eggs.”

“With four cannons, all but one within range of Zelos, they could des­troy it completely,” Kye said.

“What is left of it,” Pryl said gruffly.

Iolana had never wished more than at this moment that her vision would work to order. But it never had, and likely never would. The images came when they would.

“Do you suppose he ordered it?” Eirlys asked. “Major Paledan? He had to know of it, of course, but was it his decision? Or High Command’s?”

All eyes in the room went to Iolana. She had no answer for them; if he had, it was not in the forefront of his mind.

“More importantly,” Drake said, “will he use them?”

“Not unless his hand is forced,” she said.

“You sound very certain,” Brander said.

“I am.”

“You have Seen this?” Drake asked.

“In a way. He carries an image in his mind, of all of Zelos reduced to smoking rubble.”

Eirlys sucked in a quick breath, and for a moment Iolana met her daugh­ter’s eyes.

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.