The Forever World by Ethan Rhodes

Author:Ethan Rhodes [Rhodes, Ethan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

15

Zane peered around the Dracon Walkway, where hundreds waited in line for use of the Principal transport device. It was nearing the end of the day on his current home planet, and even though he’d been gone for a couple of weeks, he felt like a stranger here. His wrists were bound, and everyone gawked at the criminals being ushered through the square.

“Follow my lead,” Julia hissed. The soldiers had already removed Zane’s duffel, but hadn’t inspected it.

“I don’t like the sounds of that,” he said.

“We were tourists. Manifest—”

“Stop talking!” the Gral soldier said. “Don’t make me muzzle you.”

Julia gazed around the city as the sun set. The lights encased in the white streets came to life when the sensors were tripped. It was obvious how advanced Dracon was in comparison to the worlds he’d recently visited, yet Zane found he preferred the rustic approach.

His current dilemma flushed all thoughts of the world’s structure from his mind when they reached the Moderator tower. This was serious. These security officers thought they were Freza and Tarem, who’d apparently done something very wrong. Would they be any more forgiving to learn Julia had only swapped IDs with that couple?

Zane examined the top of the structure, high into the sky, and recalled his recent conversation with Carl Rogers.

“Inside.”

Zane’s wrists buzzed with the electrical current as he attempted to shift his arms lower. He’d never worn these before, and felt a new admiration for anyone that had.

Instead of heading to the private elevator, they were taken into a dark hall and down a set of stairs. The Gral soldier stuck close, and at the bottom of the steps, Zane noticed Crystal was no longer with them. He pictured a team dismantling the robot, checking her surveillance footage. Their time on Ten would be incriminating.

“Freza, you’re in there.”

For a second, Zane didn’t remember that was supposed to be him. “I’m not Freza.”

“Take a seat.”

Julia caught his gaze as the door shut, sealing him in.

Zane sat at the desk, peering around the dreadful room. The walls were stone, with damp moss clinging to the cracks. Water dripped from a fracture in the ceiling, and he wondered if this was done by design. The rest of the building was immaculate, so he suspected they’d created an illusion for the sake of their interrogations.

His request for a lawyer had been denied, which didn’t surprise him. Zane assumed Joshua Scott was curious about what had happened to them since their departure from Earth. His aunt too, considering the sum of credits he’d thrown her way. Neither had reached him on his External Personal Assistant, which raised a lot of red flags.

Zane had spent most of his life tied up in his own thoughts. During his mother’s parental absence, he’d found ways to entertain himself. At their home in the Happer States, he’d played in the forest alone. Zane would trudge through the dense thicket, getting scratches on his arms from the thorns while he pretended to engage with a horde of Gral on a distant war-zone planet.

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