Edge World (Undying Mercenaries Series Book 14) Read online

  Kattra’s face transformed. All along, she’d been looking at me like I was a stinking shit-house rat.

  But for now, she was beaming. It was a wicked expression, but overall I considered it to be an improvement.

  -55-

  “How do we accomplish this miracle?” Kattra asked me.

  We were standing over a messed-up pile of teleport harnesses. Some of them had blood on them, some were slashed and hanging—none of them were in prime condition.

  I knelt and poked around in the pile. “This is all you’ve got?”

  Kattra frowned. “There must be forty units there. Are you a tech, or not?”

  “Nope, not really.”

  She made a sound of exasperation. “What’s the use of this nonsense then? We can’t hack them quickly. They’re imperial-made, from the Skay side of things. They don’t—”

  My hand shot out, and I gripped her arm. She looked shocked. A blade appeared in her hand.

  Just as fast, Della appeared and stepped close. She was armed too. She looked pissed off, but I wasn’t sure right away who she wanted to kill more, me or Kattra. I suspected it was a combination of both.

  “Is this some kind of a sex-attack?” Kattra asked me. “I’ve heard that your males were aggressive, but this timing seems—”

  “No, no,” I said, laughing and letting go of her. “I just was struck with a thought. You said these rigs are of Imperial design, right?”

  “Yes, imbecile. I don’t understand why my statement might lead you to assault me, but—”

  “Look, look. It’s important, because we can get the coordinates quickly if you’re right. Get out the Galactic Key I gave you.”

  She eyed me for a reluctant second or two, then she produced the key. I was glad to see it was unharmed.

  I reached up a hand, making grabbing motions.

  Kattra showed me her teeth, but she finally placed it in my hand. “I would assume you only wish to steal it back and flee—but I think I know what you might be planning.”

  Nodding, I leaned over the best-looking of the teleport rigs. I touched the device to the harness lock, and sure enough, it unlocked immediately. The straps clicked and fell open.

  Next, I put it on. Running the key over my tapper and the interface wire on the harness, I plugged it into my tapper and right off, the screen on my arm lit up.

  I whistled long and low. “It works! This unit is out of battery power. In fact, by this error code I think the battery must be defective. Here, I’ll pull a battery out of one of the other units…”

  Working for a few minutes, I soon had a half-charged kit that was fully functional. In fact, an indicator light on the control pad was blinking. The suit was already trying to return to its point of origin.

  “Frisky computer on this thing,” I said, holding down the override button. “Della, give me your stealth suit.”

  “What?”

  The two women looked at me in surprise.

  “What did you think? That you were going with me? We only have one stealth suit. Besides, we have to do this fast before they get their act together. Come on, Della.”

  While I rudely snapped my fingers and made twirling motions in the air, indicating she should hurry the hell up, she took her stealth suit off, and I pulled it over my head. She seemed almost as reluctant to part with her invisibility mesh as Kattra had been to let go of the Galactic Key.

  Speaking of which, when I was shimmying into that tight mesh and activating it, Kattra suddenly released an un-ladylike squawk.

  “McGill! You have my gift! Don’t you dare—”

  “Sorry,” I said, taking my thumb off the override button. The suit immediately began to throb, and the room filled with glimmering blue light. “I need the key to do this mission properly.”

  “This is a base trick,” Kattra complained. “I find myself yearning to kill you yet again.”

  “You should get used to that,” Della suggested.

  A moment later, I was a ball of energy. I couldn’t hear the women any longer, and that was a solid relief. They both seemed to be all fussed-up about something or other.

  Steeling myself, I jumped through space for less than second. That was a good thing, as I didn’t want to end up way out in the middle of nowhere.

  When I appeared with a glowing afterimage effect bothering my eyes, I realized right off I was still on Edge World. That was a blessing—but it was the only one I was getting today.

  The world was bright. Very bright, and painfully hot. Reaching up with a hiss, I closed my visor. That made an audible click.

  Two saurian heads turned when they heard that click. One of them gargled something and pointed to where I stood, invisible. Five more heads turned after that.

  I was surrounded. I’d appeared in the midst of an encampment of sorts. All around me were hot, stinking saurians wearing nothing but harnesses and weapons. Their big scaly balls dangled low as they all swung around to look at me. Unlike lizards back home, these reptiles kept their prominent genitals on the outside of their bodies.

  Naturally, I knew that saurians liked it hot. They were from a hot world, one that averaged around sixty degrees C most of the time. To them, the bright side of Edge World must seem pretty homey.

  Freezing in place for a few seconds, I dared not move. My hope was they’d forget about the glimmer of blue they must have just seen, and the click of my visor slamming shut. For a few seconds, as they stared and puzzled, I thought maybe my simple plan was going to work out.

  But then, one of those damned lizards let his curiosity get the better of him. He was an officer—a centurion—and he stepped steadily closer. He shuffled over the burning, blinding sands in my direction. His big feet left monstrous prints in the dust.

  Footprints.

  I glanced down in alarm, and I immediately saw that, sure as shit, my feet had created some very human-looking footprints. The glaring light, the fine, sifting dirt—the environment made this effect stand out. It would be obvious to anyone who looked at the sands under me that someone was standing there, or recently had been.

  But fortunately, none of these dummies had looked down. At least, not yet.

  The lizard centurion was looking right through me in fact, but his approach was unerring for all of that. If he kept coming, he’d soon walk right into me.

  Then I saw him throw his snout high and watched him sniff the air. That’s when I knew the nature of my problem. Like many creatures, saurians had a better sense of smell than any human had ever possessed. The centurion knew something was wrong because my scent was lingering in the vicinity.

  Getting desperate, I readied myself to strike and run. With luck, the enemy would be confused. I knew that wouldn’t last long, however. Each step I took would leave a very clear footprint behind.

  It was one thing to have a single set of human prints appear in the dust, it would be quite another to have these prints appearing in rapid succession, leaving a little sound and scent behind with each step I took. They might even figure out I was stealthed and start running after me.

  Still, I braced myself to attack, as I didn’t have a better plan. Under the stealth suit, my combat knife slid quietly out of its sheath, and I gripped it tightly.

  “Centurion,” said a familiar voice. “Why are you not ready for the second wave? Don’t you retarded lizards know I’m not paying you to make eggs with one another?”

  It was Armel. He was right here, supervising the commando attacks personally. That only made sense, as teleport suits didn’t come cheap. He wanted to make sure his lizards didn’t waste them.

  Armel came walking up from my right, I turned my head, but I didn’t dare to make a sound or twist my feet around.

  The centurion sniffed the air again, full of suspicion. He reached up and touched the translation device at his throat.

  “There is something wrong here. A bad-scent. A bad-sound.”

  “What kind of scent?”

  The big nostrils twitched again
. “Human.”

  Armel snorted. “You’re smelling me, you cold-blooded moron. Now, stop wasting time. Are your troops ready for the second attack?”

  At last, the centurion turned away from where I was standing. He looked at Armel, and I could be wrong, but I wasn’t seeing any love in his eyes as he gazed at his commander.

  “My warriors are ready. They will die honorably.”

  “That’s not what I want. I want you to kill that bitch-queen of theirs. Kill her daughter as well, if you can catch her. With Kattra out of the way, we shall sweep the rest of Varus aside with our next assault.”

  “As you command, Tribune.”

  Armel made a flipping gesture with his hand, urging the centurion to get on with it.

  There weren’t as many lizards teleporting out this time. On the first attack there had to have been five hundred or more. This time there was less than half that. Most likely this was because we’d damaged too many of their teleport rigs, or because Armel didn’t want to risk more of them on an assassination mission.

  I felt an urge to teleport back and warn Kattra. She wasn’t expecting the enemy to come for her personally.

  While the lizards assembled in ranks nearby and began a countdown, I reached up to the control pad with a stealthy hand. If I could teleport out first, I could warn the Shadowlanders.

  Unfortunately, my rig didn’t light up. I touched the pad—then I pressed it harder and even gave it a little shake.

  But nothing happened, because my rig’s battery was out of gas. Damn. I hadn’t had time to recharge it—or at least, I hadn’t taken the time.

  “Unit, away!” Armel shouted. “Fly with my blessing, and kill that witch!”

  He was in fine spirits. He threw his arms high, like a shaman saluting an elder god. All around him, the desert lit up and pulsed with blue light that was even brighter than the glaring eye of the sun overhead.

  When they’d all gone, I rushed him. My feet crunched on the sands, but it wasn’t much of a sound. What with the sighing winds and the recent hubbub of the teleporting lizards, I doubted he would even hear me.

  I ran up behind him, blade lifted high. I planned to grab him by the air hose and stab my blade into the seam of his armor under his neck. With a hard thrust and a bit of luck, I could kill him before he knew what was happening and called for help. After all, one assassination deserved another.

  My plan almost worked. I got close, but he began to turn around to see what the sound of tramping boots might be behind him.

  Altering my grip, I decided for a frontal thrust. He turned his body, and I could see his confused expression inside his faceplate. He didn’t get it—not quite.

  Reaching Armel, I rammed my blade into that crack where his helmet met his chest piece. By anyone’s account, I’m powerful man. To make sure the blade went home, I held my knife in both hands.

  It must have looked quite shocking, coming out of thin air, a glittering blade making a deadly thrust. His eyes flew wide.

  My knife chunked into him. He stumbled back, arms wheeling, and he went down on his can.

  Smiling, I glanced at my silver blade, expecting it to be wet with his blood—but it wasn’t.

  Looking back down again, I saw Armel struggling back to his feet. He was cursing something awful.

  “Assassin!” he called out. “You will pay for this evil act!”

  That’s when I decided to toss caution to the wind. Sure, there were other saurian troops around. A few dome-shaped bubble tents sat no more than a hundred meters to my west.

  But I didn’t care. He had to die. If the assassins he sent to kill Kattra succeeded, the best counter I could muster would be killing him. If our side would be disrupted, well, so would theirs. They probably wouldn’t even order the next attack until he crawled out of whatever revival machine he had operating out here in this sunbaked hell.

  With a single motion, I threw off my stealth suit. Lifting my morph-rifle, I aimed it at him.

  At point-blank range, with my weapon set for close-assault mode, it could spray a shocking amount of power bolts. Steel, titanium—any such normal material would be penetrated and burned through.

  I released a long burst, blowing him right off his feet again. He was lifted up and tossed back this time. He landed in a sprawled position, and he rolled onto one side.

  Assuming he was dying, I approached him.

  To my surprise, he turned to look at me. He wore an angry expression, but there wasn’t any blood riming his teeth.

  “McGill,” he spat. “I should have known.” Painfully, he got his feet again.

  That’s when I noticed something I should have seen right off. Any fool would have realized….

  He was wearing black armor. It was cut in a different style, but there could no longer be any doubt as to its nature.

  Armel was kitted out in a full suit of impenetrable armor from Glass World.

  -56-

  “McGill?” Armel repeated. “Do you know that you are, without the slightest doubt, the most irritating man alive?”

  “That’s what everyone tells me, Tribune.”

  I considered spraying him down again, but I passed on the idea. Already, the camp had to be alerted. Shooting him a few more times would be fun, but it wouldn’t accomplish anything.

  Instead, I walked over to where the lizards had been kitting up. I dug into a pile of harnesses and found one with a fully charged battery. This wasn’t hard, as they’d obviously been recharging their rigs since they’d returned from their last attack.

  Seeing what I was doing, Armel followed me. He shot me in the back. The bolts spanged loudly on my back plate, but they couldn’t penetrate my armor any more than I could get through his. He emptied his magazine, but all I did was stagger a few steps.

  “You done fooling around, Armel?” I asked him.

  “I don’t believe it…”

  He walked up and examined me. “This is not our make… has Earth done this?”

  I laughed. “Why did you think we went to Glass World in the first place?”

  He lifted a black-gloved finger and shook it under my nose. “Don’t worry. I can kill you. Just give me a moment.”

  I slid the battery pack into place and put my thumb on the control pad. In the meantime, Armel calmly searched among the teleport harnesses at my side.

  “You will not escape,” he said. “I will not have it. I will not be humiliated by a retarded ape yet again.”

  “Uh…” I said, growing kind of curious.

  He was digging around, and he pulled out a charged harness, the same as I had. He didn’t put it on, however. He held it in the air and worked the controls. Baring his teeth, he adjusted the coordinates on the rig carefully.

  “You know,” I laughed, “you’ve got me wondering what you’re up to, but I just don’t have time to see what kind of shenanigans you’ve got in mind, Armel. Maybe next time.”

  Armel straightened. He’d finished his preparations. His hand was on his control pad, as was mine.

  “No time, eh?” he asked with a nasty smile on his face. “Such a pity, but I understand completely. Please, be my guest and proceed.”

  I thumbed the teleport launch button—but nothing happened. Frowning, I looked down at the rig.

  Armel cackled at me. “Such a fool. Such a moron. Your idiocy would embarrass a macaque. Even those who shit in their hands and throw it at others would not claim you.”

  “Uh-huh…” I said. But as I watched him, a light bulb went on inside my dim brain. “You must have some kind of security system on these, right? Biometrics?”

  “Something like that. The point is, you’ll never be able to—”

  He broke off as I produced the Galactic Key and ran it over the control pad. All of a sudden, it lit up.

  “What are you doing? What is that device—?”

  “Sorry Armel, but I’ve got to be on my way now.”

  Grinning at him, I pressed the button. The world began to shimmer.
>
  Armel’s face lit with an insane fury. I knew that expression, I’d seen it before on a lot of people faces—especially women. He was really pissed off.

  It was a crying shame, as I would have liked to continue our little talk and seen if he’d really come up with a way to penetrate a suit of impenetrable armor. But it was too late for all that fun stuff. Once the teleportation process began, I was sort of in-between two locations. I wasn’t exactly with Armel on that lonely stretch of desert anymore, nor was I back at the Shadowlander town, either. I was somewhere in-between.

  Just as I blinked out, I saw him thumb the activation switch on the rig he’d been fooling with. Then he dropped it on the ground, and it began to flash blue as well.

  I didn’t get the point of all that. After all, he wasn’t even wearing it. Where was he sending it to?

  That’s when I felt something—something kind of funny. When I say funny, I mean sick-like.

  I’d felt this sensation before—and it wasn’t anything good. Something had gone wrong inside my guts.

  Arriving back at the Shadowlander camp, I found myself in the middle of a pitched battle. The dome that served as Kattra’s throne room was in flaming tatters. Around my feet a half-dozen bodies were scattered. They were Kattra’s counselors, and they were all dead.

  Farther away were the lizard commandos. Half of them were dead, too. They’d run smack into Helsa and her combat drones, which she’d wisely brought back into her home town to protect her mother.

  Unfortunately, her mother Kattra hadn’t survived, but the lizards weren’t doing all that well either. They were dying off fast. The drones were just too wicked, too powerful.

  Naked except for their weapons and teleport rigs, the saurian commandos had destroyed a few drones, but now they were surrounded and overwhelmed.

  The first thing I did was take a staggering step. I felt a sickening pain in my guts when I did so.

  Oh. I’d almost forgotten. That strange feeling I’d experienced as I’d left Armel’s side… In one horrible second, I knew where the other teleport harness had gone to.