The Impossible Future: Complete set by Frank Kennedy (e novels to read online TXT) 📗

I’m taking a stand, Kai. No matter which way this ends, I can say I made a difference. What else was I gonna do with my life? I’ll never be a real Hokki, and I’ve got nowhere else to go.”

Kai grabbed Ryllen’s hand and kissed it. “I agree, RJ. A man has to stand for something. We’re patriots. We do what has to be done. Someday, they’re going to celebrate us for drawing a line and defending it. I’d just like to be around to hear the cheers. I don’t want them writing poems about me. They can thank me to my face.”

“They will.”

“Can you guarantee it?”

“They’re not fond of yellow.”

Kai chuckled. “Say what?”

“Your hair. Yellow. It’s not your best. They’ll respond to red. You really ought to go that way more often.”

“What in The Lagos does my hair color have to … Oh. You’re being funny, RJ. This from a guy who retints his braids twice a week.”

“Somebody has to have a laugh. Keeps us sane. That’s what you always told me when I was down.”

“Fair point,” Kai said.

“Plus, it’s about as beautiful a damn night as they make. The rings? Look at them. Take your breath away. And that city.” He pointed across the strait. “Last paradise on Hokkaido. You and I are fighting to keep it that way. Never been prouder of anything I’ve done in my life.

“I think of those people who don’t know we’re protecting them. No clue how badly the rings are poisoning the planet or how desperate the continentals are becoming. We’re protecting a way of life. We’re the heroes, Kai. Knowing that puts a smile on my face every morning. Well. That, and loving you.”

Kai fell silent. He looked up at the stars and across to the city then turned to Ryllen.

“Nice speech. So, you love me? You never said it out loud before.”

“Wait, what? Sure, I have. Lots of times. I think.”

“Nope. I was starting to wonder.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re wrong.”

“I’m certain I’m not.”

“OK. I won’t push it. You’ll just pull rank.”

“Always works.”

Ryllen felt the last of the evening’s tension fade away. So rarely these days did they find time for themselves without the crusade casting a long shadow. Ryllen wanted to hold onto the moment and stretch it deep into the night. When the sun returned, they’d leave the island and resume inflicting death on the enemy.

Until then?

Happiness.

Or were those precious moments together a mere delusion?

Ryllen never stopped asking the question, for so long as he lived. It was one of many he would never be able to shake.

Where did he miscalculate? Was he always naïve? Was love too taxing an emotion in a time of war? Did it cloud strategy, cripple courage, and induce hesitation?

None of these concerns waylaid Ryllen when they returned home to their flat beneath the UpWay. Not as they communicated with their brothers and sisters to organize an assault on their most valuable targets yet. Not as the final intel confirmed they would be intercepting a smuggling ring – twelve immos, two couriers, and a traitor from Hotai Counsel overseeing the transfer.

The smugglers were using the Ronin Swallows, a limestone cavern along the west-central coast that filled with seawater at high tide. It was located five kilometers north of the Port of Pinchon. They’d arrive after midnight in swift boats running silent to deliver human cargo unloaded from a competitor’s ship thirty kilometers out. Ronin used to be a popular staging area, but Green Sun shut it down months earlier with a pair of massacres. Intel said a new outfit was running this show, likely a crew out of New Seoul. Lan Chua dispatched two captains – Kai and Ryllen – along with each man’s four lieutenants.

Instructions were clear: No survivors except the Hotai exec. Stand him up before a flowcam and extract a confession then shoot him in the head. Throw all bodies into the swift boats and set automated controls to lay in a reverse course.

Ryllen saw one flaw in the plan. He related it to Kai as they traveled west in Ryllen’s rifter.

“How do we know those boats will make it back to the dropship?”

“We don’t,” Kai said. “But they’ll only have enough fuel to reach the Mid-Sea shipping lanes. If the dropship isn’t waiting, they’ll drift. Bound to be seen by somebody within a day, give or take. Doesn’t matter who records it. The byte will be all over the Global Wave. We’ll pair it with the confession. Hotai will be in a universe of hurt. They’ll won’t be celebrating at Nantou, either. They’ll be rooting out traitors in their own nest.”

“But this won’t undermine the seamasters, will it? Most of the people we’re protecting work for them.”

“No. Just a few weeks of rough-and-tumble politics in the big houses. They’ll squeeze out the cancer, which is all we’re asking.”

The Ronin Swallows bordered the Mootau Botanical Gardens, one of the few unpopulated sectors of the giant island city. This worked to Green Sun’s advantage, giving them more room to maneuver without fear of witnesses. It was also the darkest sector of the island, though the great glass towers of the corporate cluster loomed over the immediate horizon.

Ryllen parked the rifter beneath the single largest bullabast tree on the island. He and Kai met their teams shortly thereafter. The sea echoed nearby, waves crashing against the Swallows.

An hour until midnight. The tide was rising.

“Any final questions about logistics?” Kai asked. When all heads nodded, he tapped his bicomm. The profile of a well-groomed man with a thin mustache rose six inches above his wrist. “Shin Wain. Kill them all, including his security, but not this cudfruck. If he’s armed and tries anything, go for the legs. We need this garbage to talk.”

They descended toward the