Renegades by Thomas Locke

Author:Thomas Locke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction;YAF056000;YAF056010
ISBN: 9781493411771
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2017-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

24

Sean was awoken by the sound of a giant BONG.

For a single heart-stopping moment, he was back at the Academy, about to reenter the nightmare of arrest at the hand of interplanetary cops, there to drag him back to prison . . .

The second chime found him standing beside his bed, heart pounding and breath coming in tight gasps. He fought off the urge to transit to safety. He told himself he was free—the trial was over, the charges dropped.

A third bong, and the one-armed colonel who had introduced him and Dillon to transiting stood in the middle of his dining area.

Carver said, “I never thought I would see this place again.”

Sean did his best to fit his heart back into its proper position. “What are you doing here?”

“That’s precisely what I want to ask you.”

“I got arrested,” Sean replied. “And imprisoned. And put on trial. Or did you miss that news?”

“I missed nothing.”

“Really nice of you to visit us, by the way.”

“I was ordered to stay away,” Carver replied.

“Who by?”

A second voice replied, “By me.”

And there he was. Elenya’s father, former Ambassador to the Lothian system, now a senior mover and shaker in the Assembly, stood beside Carver. Anyon grimaced as he surveyed the loft. “I had forgotten how this place is so . . .”

Sean cut him off with, “Homelike. Cozy. Welcoming. At least to the people who belong here.”

Anyon sighed but did not rise to the bait.

Sean decided whatever it was that had brought them here required pants. He said to Carver, “Make coffee. Give me five minutes.”

Sean carried his ire and a change of clothes into the bathroom. He tried to tell himself that the Ambassador had ample reason to dislike his home. Anyon’s daughter had fallen in love with an off-worlder here in this loft. And then she had offered to divorce her family when Anyon and his wife had tried to pry them apart. Only now Elenya was gone. And confronting the Ambassador’s disdain only rubbed salt in Sean’s open wound.

He took his time showering and shaving and dressing. But his anger only strengthened with each passing minute. Anyon and his wife had detested Sean’s relationship with their daughter from day one. Sean had long suspected their opposition had played a major role in driving Elenya away.

And then there was the other issue—how Anyon had wanted to erase Sean’s and Dillon’s memories. Steal from them the very concept of transiting. And all the worlds they had come to know, all the adventures, his every memory of loving Elenya.

Sean brushed his hair, tucked in his shirt, and decided it wasn’t all bad, Anyon showing up like this. Truth be told, what Sean needed most on this foul day was a quarrel.

But when he emerged from the bathroom, Anyon disarmed him with just four words. “We need your help.”

Sean was surprised enough to confess, “Of everything I might have expected to hear from you, that doesn’t make the list.”

“Our need is desperate,” Carver added. He and Anyon were seated at the dining table directly below the skylight.

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