by Sam Ryder
“Try not to worry.” I said the words with confidence, because I’d finally figured something out.
“How can you say that? He threatens to kill her all the time. And if Belenie doesn’t obey him…”
“She will,” I said. “Bel won’t risk your daughter’s life. Anyway, your daughter’s life isn’t at risk.”
“What? You don’t know what Atticus is capable of.”
“Yes. Yes, I do. But he won’t kill your daughter.”
“Why not?”
I finally figured out the man’s tell—the sign that he was lying. If we played poker, I knew I could annihilate him. His nostrils had flared slightly when he’d talked about using his daughter to force Belenie to heal his soldiers. Part of it had been true—he would threaten his daughter’s life to force her obedience. But when he said the part about slitting her throat, his nostrils had flared slightly. I’d seen him do it before, and I thought it was just his sadistic side getting excited. Except the last time he’d done it, it had turned out to be a lie too. Which meant this time was a lie.
Yes, he hated that his daughter was an Ender like her mother. But he didn’t hate her. He couldn’t, not when she had a part of him inside. His own arrogance wouldn’t allow it.
That was his weakness. She was his weakness.
“Trust me,” I said. “We are going to destroy him.”
Epilogue
I took a deep, calming breath as I stared at the city of Rome off in the distance. A buzz hung in the air. Everyone around me pulsed with energy.
It wasn’t time to make our charge into the city yet, so everyone milled about, trying to stay relaxed. Before we left Paris, I stood in front of everyone and riled them up, but also urged patience. Neither the battle nor the war would be won in a single day or night.
I remembered the assault on Moscow during the Nor-Kor-Russian War. It took weeks, and even then, there were lingering foes hiding like snakes in the city.
“Don’t waste your adrenaline on anticipation,” I’d told my soldiers before leaving Paris. “Save it for the actual fight. In between, do whatever you need to do to rest and relax.”
I had to follow my own advice. But whenever I closed my eyes, I saw my version of the vision that Gehn described to me. I saw blood running through the streets of Rome. But in my vision, the blood came from the Rising militia. It poured from fallen bodies that we struck down en route to the palace of Atticus. The deeper I went into that vision, I imagined smoke wafting from Alpha and Beta’s barrels as I emptied their chambers into Atticus’s chest. Then the blood was his.
I always wondered how deep Gehn went into that vision, and if she ever saw anything else that indicated whose blood was running the most freely. In my vision, it was never my own, and it was never from any of my troops. Which was impossible, but what I needed to see.
Some might have called it “overconfidence” or “cockiness.” But to me, it was my conviction, the trust I had in those around me. I would have their backs and they would have mine.
Gehn tapped me on the shoulder, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“You okay?” she asked. “I appreciated her always being aware of where my head was at. As I’d promised, we’d enjoyed a final night of intimacy before we’d left Paris. Hannah had joined us. Adi too. It had been the only thing that had managed to temporarily fill the void Belenie had left. Even in our ecstasy, however, we’d all missed her.
“Just picturing what we’re going to do,” I said. “Running through the plan.”
“That’s not all he’s thinking about,” Adi said, sidling up beside Gehn.
I laughed, glad for the distraction from the violence plaguing my thoughts. “True,” I said. “When this is all over and we get Bel back, we’ll pick up where we left off. Peace will feel damn good.”
“Mmm, is that a promise, Cutter?” Hannah said, joining the other two.
“Do I ever say anything I don’t mean?”
Hannah and Gehn looked at Adi. “Not as far as I’ve been able to Read,” she confirmed. “What you see is what you get with him.”
“Then we’ll hold you to your promise,” Hannah said, roping an arm around me. She was a helluva woman, and tenacious as hell in a fight, which scared me a little. Both she and Gehn would be part of the charge on the city—they’d insisted—so I’d need to keep my eyes on them. It wasn’t that I didn’t think they were capable, not at all, just that I couldn’t bear to lose them too. At least I knew Adi would hang back from the initial wave with her healers, prepared to swoop in like guardian angels and care for the wounded.
“Okay,” I said. “It’s almost time. I need to speak to Simon first though.” The women nodded and went back to their preparations.
I headed over to Simon, who was watching the city intently. “Everything set?” I asked. He nodded. “How many?” I asked.
“Six,” he replied. “My team slipped them deep into the city. They managed to get one close to the Rising headquarters but couldn’t get too close. Too many of Atticus’s eyes and ears out there these days. And we don’t know how many members of the Insurgence they are aware of at this point. Me and Vega for sure, but the others?” He shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. But one explosive is right across the street from his headquarters. The others are spread out such that they’ll create plenty of chaos. The long fuses are lit. Thirty minutes in total.”
God, I love having a bomb guy on our side. The idea for using the bombs as a distraction was all Belogon’s, but it was Simon who had the spies to pull it off.
“How much time do we have left before they blow?”
“Two minutes?” he said. “Three at the most? And they’ll blow big, not like those shitty white grenades they used on us.” He let out a devilish laugh.
“The second we see the smoke or hear the explosions, we charge,” I reiterated.
“We’re ready,” he said. “My people are in position. Are yours?”
I patted him on the shoulder. “We’re ready.”.
Belogon was reviewing the attack formation with his most trusted troops, those who would lead the various regiments. They scattered as I approached.
“Simon says there’s only a few minutes at most.”
Belogon nodded. “Good. It’ll be different this time, I can feel it. We are more prepared. And we’re the ones with the tricks. We have tire spikes for their vehicles. Snipers to shoot the drivers before they can really get going at speed. Everyone knows their responsibility. We have a real chance now.”
I gritted my teeth in excitement. “Just get me to the palace,” I said.
Belogon nodded. “Hell yes,” he said. “We’ll escort you as far as we can. You’ll have a human shield and cover fire the entire way.”
I hated that good men, mostly Enders, would have to die to keep me alive, but I tried to focus on the greater good. No casualties was a pipedream. We just needed to make our casualties count as much as possible, make everything worth it for peace.
Simon joined us. “As discussed, there’s a back entrance to the Rising’s headquarters,” he said. “It will be heavily guarded, but maybe some of the men will be diverted to deal with the attack and the bomb damage. If we can breach the security, it’s a straight shot up the stairs to Atticus and his chambers.”
“And you’re sure he’ll be there?” Belogon asked.
Simon smirked. “Atticus is a coward at heart. He’s the kind of leader who can’t do, he can only tell others to do. When things get hot, he’ll barricade himself in up there until it’s over.”
“I want to go with you,” a voice said from behind us.
I spun around. Keenak stood there, a fierce look on his face.
“Keenak, you don’t need to do this,” I said. “We’ve got it covered.”
“No,” Keenak said. “I want to. I need to.”
I admired Keenak’s gumption, but at the same time I didn’t know what he might do when he came face to face with his son. Could he really watch him die, ev
en if he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger? At the same time, he’d signed up for all this back in Geneva when he didn’t have to. Some of the information he’d given us about his son had played a major role in our attack strategy.
“Fine,” I said. “But you can’t slow us down. If we lose you, we lose you.”
I wasn’t being disrespectful. Keenak was an old man. This was war. We had to deal in reality, and sometimes reality didn’t care about a man’s pride. He steeled himself. “I know,” he said. “I’ll keep up.”
With a final nod, I moved to the front of the line, staring toward the city, enjoying the final moments of silence and peace before all hell broke loose.
God, I hope this works. I don’t know what we’ll do if this one fails.
I glanced over at Gehn. She wore a fierce expression, but I knew her well enough to see the pain behind it. Her sixth sense was surely firing, making her ill at the knowledge of all the bloodshed to come. Before I could comfort her, the silence was shattered by six concussive blasts that shook the very earth beneath our feet—BOOM! BOOM-BOOM! BOOM! BOOM-BOOM!
Smoke billowed into the air over the city, multiple mushroom clouds that swarmed the blue sky.
I raised a fist in the air, holding it for a second before dropping it sharply. “Charge!” I roared.
~~~
Book three in the Endworld Saga, God of Ends, coming in early June!
Love men’s adventure fiction? Check out two other awesome series by the same author:
The Monsterslayer Saga by Sam Ryder
AND
Conquer by Aron Stone
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