Recon- the Complete Series by Rick Partlow

Author:Rick Partlow [Partlow, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, fantasy
Amazon: B074RHVF3R
Goodreads: 36044302
Published: 2017-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

I spasmed against my seat restraints, eyes flying open, and I instinctively knew I’d blacked out from the g-forces. I looked around and saw that Wellesley had done the same and was still out. Kane was stock-still, effectively part of the shuttle’s computer system. The rear view and threat readout in the main display screen showed that we were nearly ten kilometers from the ranch house, well out of the firing arc of the aliens.

My eyes danced around the display, hunting desperately for the countdown from the strike package, until I saw a much more dramatic and definitive answer to that question. Streaks of white-hot plasma descended out of the cloud cover like a swarm of meteors, each of the two dozen spears of light actually a three-meter long tungsten rod that weighed hundreds of kilograms.

They struck simultaneously and a dome of fire kilometers high expanded out to engulf the entire canyon in a blast as powerful as a fusion warhead. The glowing hemisphere faded and a mushroom cloud climbed high above the canyon, carrying with it the vaporized remains of Carmen Ibanez, Brandy Yassa and Cesar Torres. They were gone, as if they’d never been.

I leaned forward into my hands, and to my surprise, found myself whispering a prayer for them. Mom had raised me an atheist, but Gramps had been an old-fashioned Catholic, and I’d gone to mass with him many times over the years. I wasn’t sure I believed, but I was sure he did, and I was sure he’d want it. As for Yassa and Ibanez, I didn’t honestly know, but it wouldn’t hurt.

I frowned as I felt the shuttle nosing upward, the thrust increasing as the boat gained altitude.

“Take us back to Freeport,” I instructed Kane, my voice rasping and husky.

“No can do,” he said. I glanced over and saw him still staring forward, expressionless. “Remote override taking control. Can’t fight it.”

Trina Wellesley was awake now, and she was smiling thinly.

“That would be the Medellin,” she told me, her voice in control now, her demeanor calmer. “That’s my lighter, in high orbit,” she amended. “When I unlocked the controls, I activated an emergency alert. They took control once we were out of the canyon and they’re bringing us into a docking orbit with them.”

I’d tucked the pulse pistol into a storage pouch in the side of my chair. I pulled it out and levelled it at her face.

“Unless you get back on the comms and tell them not to,” I corrected her.

“If you shoot me, Mr. Callas, they’ll still bring you on board, and when they access the on-board security monitors, they’ll see that I’m dead and they’ll gas this ship, then hit it with sonics just for good measure. If you’re lucky, you’ll wake up in confinement. If you’re not, you’ll never wake up at all.”

“You’d still be dead,” I reminded her, trying to be as calm as she was, but feeling my lip curl into a snarl. “And we have all the way to orbit to think of a way to stop the shuttle.

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