Xenotech Rising: A Novel of the Galactic Free Trade Association (Xenotech Support Book 1) by Schroeder Dave

Author:Schroeder, Dave [Schroeder, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Spiral Arm Press
Published: 2015-05-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

“Secret operations are essential in war; upon them the army relies to make its every move.” ― Sun Tzu

My phone had warned my van that I was on my way so it was softly making bassoon noises and waiting at the curb for me when I left VIGorish Lab’s headquarters. It was just past 3:00 p.m. I was very glad to be out of the building and putting distance between myself and Anthony Zwilniki. On the way to the public feeder road on the edge of the V-Labs’ complex I was stuck behind more than a dozen converted school buses repainted in VIGorish Labs’ color palette of black, electric blue and white. They had pulled out of the rear parking lot of the headquarters building and were trundling along slowly, sounding like a string bass section on tranquilizers. I could make out several pink humanoid shapes in the back window of the bus directly ahead of me.

“Please magnify 10x,” I told my van. The windshield switched to an enlarged view of my surroundings. I took another look at the back window of the bus in front of me and could see several men and women wearing pink camouflage body suits like the ones I’d seen in the military simulation tubes at VIGorish HQ. If each bus was full and held fifty passengers that meant there were at least six hundred people being trained. That’s enough to be the nucleus of an impressive private army. For all I knew they could be a private army with VIGorish Labs training them for an oligarch or a smaller nation-state. Still, I hadn’t noticed any unit identification on the military trainees floating in tubes in the lobby. Some oligarchs might opt for keeping a low profile but elite forces for nation-states tended to show the flag and identify their affiliations proudly.

The only identification I’d remembered seeing on the pink camouflage body suits was a subtle VIGorish Labs’ stylized cylinder logo on the shoulders embroidered in deep pink thread. Maybe the body suits were standard issue for anyone getting military training at VIGorish? James Bond’s familiar theme music started playing in my head, unbidden. Maybe Tony Zed resembled a Bond villain in more ways than one and these people were his private army? I hoped not. The articles about him in the business press didn’t make him out to be any more or less of a sociopath than the average CEO, but I wasn’t looking forward to whatever he wanted me to do for him starting on Sunday.

The more I thought about it, the more I was sure that I didn’t want to be working for Tony Zed in any capacity. I’d call him or email him soon and let him know that I wouldn’t be working for him, no matter how much money he offered. The guy made my skin itch. I’d wait and talk to Tomáso first before resigning from the gig, however. Tomáso might want me see what more I could find out about Zwilniki before cutting connections completely.

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.