Warlord Conquering (The Great Insurrection Book 3) by David Beers (best historical fiction books of all time txt) 📗

had been captured by six people. Ares would have laughed if he wasn't so aware of the shame he'd brought his family.

He didn't understand why Alistair hadn't Clipped him, but he thought it was probably a mind trick. If Alistair gave them a bit of freedom, maybe he thought they would give him the information he needed.

If he truly believed that, the man was a fool. Modified and massive, he was dumber than a sack of potatoes.

Ares had learned how to tell time without clocks in the Academy. He knew he'd been here just under twenty-four standard hours. He'd dozed for a bit to keep his mind on point and spent the rest of the time on his back, staring up and remembering his father's words.

If there was any chance to return honor to his family, he’d have to remember.

The elevator started moving in the tunnel outside his cell. Ares turned his head to the right but didn't get up. After twenty-four hours, the Commonwealth had heard Alistair’s insane message, and plans were in motion. There was simply no way Alistair could hold this ship. Ares wasn’t worried about him, but about the Myrmidons.

They were something he couldn't predict.

He watched the elevator descend and stop in front of him. Alistair stood on the other side of the glass panels. The hellish animal was at his side. Ares didn't stand. The man's hands were bruised and swollen but healing quickly. That was the modification. The anger and fury that had possessed him before were gone.

Ares had known that man as Odin, but the criminals he ran with now called him Prometheus. By either name, Ares knew him well.

This one was Alistair Kane. Measured. Smart, but not witty. Not someone who rushed to decisions, but once they were made, he held firmly to them.

The two personalities were opposites in many ways.

The elevator panels opened, then the glass panels partly opened, but one of the Subversives had damaged them in their mad rush to free Alistair.

A short bridge rolled out through the gap, and Alistair squeezed his hulking body through the opening and into the cell. The animal waited on the other side of the bridge, but his eyes never left his master.

Ares turned his head to the ceiling again. He said nothing and showed no emotion.

Alistair walked to the ledge in the cell and sat down, then leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. "I need the passcodes, Ares."

Ares blinked slowly. "This is where I say, ‘What passcodes?’"

Alistair sighed. They both knew what passcodes. On interstellar missions, each Primus, Fleet or Titan, was given passcodes to the ship that allowed for self-destruction, not just for the ship they were on, but for the entire Fleet if necessary. Veena had them, but so did Ares. In case Veena died and the entire fleet was captured, the Ascendant preferred destruction.

Why Veena hadn’t used them when Alistair took over the ship, Ares didn't know.

"I don’t have time for games," Alistair said. "I need the codes. I imagine all three of you have them, but I decided I'd come to you first since we have history." He shook his head.

Ares chuckled with his hands resting on his stomach. That fit with his father's lesson because it wasn't real emotion. Truthfully, he wanted to kill Kane, but he knew trying to do so right now would be futile. "I'm not giving you anything, Alistair. We both know you're in an untenable position, and if you don't kill me, the dreadnoughts coming for this ship will. You have nothing to threaten me with."

"I'm not here to threaten you. I'm here to offer you your life. If you give me the codes, I'll make sure you live."

He turned his head to look at Alistair. "Do you think so little of me, that I'd sacrifice my honor for my life? I'm not you, Alistair. My honor is everything. The only reason I haven't tried to commit suicide is I still believe I'm going to kill you."

"That's what you think, isn't it?" Alistair asked. "That I have no honor?"

"Look around you, man. You've got two Primuses in a brig on a hijacked dreadnought, and you're trying to get codes to destroy the Commonwealth dreadnoughts coming for you. I'm not sure you ever had any honor. If you hadn't created that monstrosity out of your body, I would have already killed you. You're not the man I thought you were."

Alistair stared at the floor, quiet for a time. When he turned back to Ares, the man's eyes weren’t pensive. They were hard. "I don't hold you at fault, Ares. You're only following orders, and that's all you've been doing your whole life. I do hold those above you responsible, though. You are a tool, but they are the carpenters. The ones wielding you took everything from me." The last sentence was almost a snarl.

Alistair stood up. Perhaps he was Prometheus at that point. Ares wasn't sure who he was speaking to.

"They took it all, and for what reason? Because I let some parents live? Because I didn't cut them down as the order told me to?"

He walked to the edge of the cell, his back to Ares. "I don't hold you responsible, but if you stay on their side, Ares, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to bring it all down, everything the Commonwealth stands for. I'm going to stand over the Ascendant as he says his last words. You decide which side you want to be on."

Ares closed his eyes. "I already have."

There was silence for a moment, then Alistair responded, "So be it."

Ares heard his cell wall close.

Chapter Two

“The Ascendants have never understood anything. Even my father was a fool.”

—The AllSeer

Ajax, the Myrmidon of the Superior, had watched the pod streak across the blackness of space. He'd realized the humans had tricked him, and true anger grew within the creature. It had all been a setup—probably even that they had felt the AllMother.

Ajax didn't overreact. He didn't