Oath Breaker (Death of Empire Book 1)

by A. B. Keuser

  “At least they’ll be able to identify him.”

  Danielle…

  Dani turned. There was no one there.

  You’ll die without me.

  The whispers had been the worst part before… and they’d only started after she’d put two parsecs between them.

  “Where do I find you, you bastard?”

  “What?”

  She ignored Si’s query as she searched through her memory for where Vôner would have landed his ship.

  He wasn’t humble enough to use the shipyard, like others were supposed to, and there wasn’t space in Frank and Theo’s private hangar… unless they’d made room. But they weren’t the type to bow down—even to Vôner.

  You’re running out of time.

  “I’m running out of time.” She pulled the pistol from Si’s hip and sprinted toward the main house.

  The three story structure was the Mandall brothers' palace within their factory compound, and it had a yard large enough to land the sort of ship Vôner could manage on his own. That had to be it. Besides, parking on their lawn and scorching the grass with his thrusters was an easy way to remind the Mandalls of their place. And reminding people of their place was Vôner’s favorite pastime.

  She rounded the corner of the refinery at a full sprint and saw she was wrong. The main house lawn had been replaced with a pool since the last time she’d been here. She used the house’s fence to stop her momentum and stared at the glittering water. She pulled the mask off in irritation and tried to figure out where else he could have landed.

  You’re so close, my love.

  She grated her teeth at the endearment, but knew it had to be right; the tingling in her head was down to a manageable hum, so she had to be close. But where?

  She closed her eyes, rubbing at the static pain in her temples. And then she knew.

  The ground blurred as she ran for the old combine and ore processing facility. The Mandalls had outsourced that process after the war, and hadn’t bothered to tear down the disused buildings.

  She slowed as she turned the corner and saw the beetle-like little ship. Vôner waited for her on the ship’s ramp as she stepped up to the long metal tread.

  “I knew you’d come.”

  She stared at him, his mouth forming into a sickly smile beneath his red rimmed eyes. They traced down her body and stopped at the gun.

  “You’re not going to shoot me, Danielle.”

  She pulled the trigger and her brain was flooded with pain, jerking her body backward. The bullet glanced off the ship’s hull meters away from Vôner. The second bullet was closer, but the pain was more intense. She dropped her to her knees, pressing her palms to her eyes but never relinquishing the grip on her pistol.

  Vôner stared down at her, a placid apathy on his face. “I know, darling. It’s difficult since we’ve been apart for so long, but you must know, everything I do is out of love.”

  “Bullshit.” Si’s voice echoed off the nearby combine’s metal siding.

  She turned to see Si and Adi behind her, both of their guns raised and ready to do what she couldn’t. “I’ve seen a lot of things done in the name of love, but this takes the cake for most twisted. No one who loves Yella would sit by and watch as she deals with the pain you put her through.”

  “But you will.” Vôner’s smile faded and he stared past Dani with a blank expression.

  “Fat fucking chance.”

  “You have to.” A smile blossomed on Vôner’s face. “My little friends crawling around inside her head will get very upset if you hurt me.”

  “What are you talking about?” Adilyn’s gun was leveled at the official’s eyes, her gaze bouncing between her target and her captain.

  “Ah, there’s always one left out of the loop, isn’t there?” He turned to Adi with a leer. “Simply put, there are scads of nanites running around in dearest Danielle’s head. They’re connected to my mind bot. She can’t live without me. Kill me, and you kill her.”

  Dani fought through the heavy breaths she gulped in, sitting up on her knees, she turned to Si. “Do it.”

  Si lowered his rifle and shook his head at her. “Yella, I can’t.”

  “If he’s bluffing, we get off this rock, if he’s not… I’m willing to make that sacrifice. I can’t live like this.”

  “He won’t shoot me, dear,” Vôner said, holding his hand out to her. “He’s afraid.”

  Dani shrank away from his reach. “Adi, do it. Shoot him. Please.”

  They don’t love you enough to kill me.

  “STOP IT.” She screamed at him. “Stay out of my fucking head!”

  A shot rang out across the yard, and Dani turned to look at Adi, to thank her, but a searing pain in her shoulder stopped her. She clutched at her arm as the pain laced down her side. Her back hit the metal walk and she coughed as her vision swam with stars, both real and not.

  Vôner swore somewhere behind her but her mind couldn’t process what he was saying as the nanites assaulted her. Strong arms wrapped around her and she looked up into Si’s face as dark spots dotted her eyes.

  Si stuck her with a pain hypo, and the needle stung as it bit into her skin, but the pain receded enough that she no longer felt she was going to throw up. Not enough that she could speak.

  Vôner sat against the bulkhead in the hatch opening, blood spattered behind him, a bullet hole in his shoulder. She mentally cursed Adi for missing.

  “Oh my God, did I hit her?”

  Nial rushed to her side and Dani managed to put the pieces together as Si explained the extent of Vôner’s control.

  “I thought he was bluffing.” Adi said, pissed.

  “Well, at least you didn’t test that theory.” Si glared at the boy, but Nial didn’t seem to see anyone but her.

  “I am so sorry, Dani.” Nial stroked her cheek as though it would help.

  You know your only choice, love. Come to me.

  She glared at Vôner, unable, unwilling to respond. She knew he was right, and as much as she hated it—hated him—she’d do what he wanted. She’d climb onboard that ship and leave the three around her behind. Because none of them were willing to let her die, and she wasn’t strong enough to fight the nanites, not again—she hadn’t been strong enough the last time.

  She pushed her way to her feet, using Si as a crutch. She turned into him, resting her forehead on his chest as she tried to get her breathing back to normal. “I have to go with him, Si. I can’t kill him, you won’t… and I can’t survive being away from him with this tech in my head. Not again. It’s worse this time.”

  She gave Adi a brief smile as the engie pulled Nial away from them.

  “We’ll find a way, Yella. You don’t have to do anything.” Si’s grip on his pistol tightened and loosened as though he wanted to shoot everyone there.

  “I wish I was as strong as you think I am, but I’m not. Shoot him now. If you don’t, I have to go with him.”

  “Either way, I lose you.”

  “I know.” She pulled in a ragged breath, the ripples of pain competing with the gnawing sadness for the right to make her the most miserable. “I’ll go with him, and I’ll find a way to get him out of my head. It’ll take a while, I don’t doubt that. I can survive the torture he put me through. The Abolitionists can’t lose you. Not again.”

  She let her hand fall from his and turned to walk up the ship’s boarding ramp. Vôner met her with a gloating smile, and she knew he’d make her pay for that goodbye.

  As she neared him, Vôner reached out, dragging his fingertips across her chest a display of power, not desire. He traced the wings of her ravens. “Her only option is to be with me, Osiris. Remember that, and move on with your life…. you don’t have long before I find you again and kill you.”

  “Vôner,” As Si called to him, Dani turned and saw the raised pistol. Her heart clenched and she mouthed a silent thank you to him.

  “You’re not going to shoot me.” Vôner laughed as his hands moved for the
hatch controls.

  “You’re wrong on two counts, I am going to shoot you. And there’s always another option.”

  The blue-gray bolt of the pistol tore through the air and Dani watched her freedom slice into Vôner’s chest as the world crumbled to darkness around her.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Si watched them both fall to the ramp, Yella pitching forward, Vôner back. He let out a heavy breath that stung at his broken ribs.

  “What did you do?!” Nial screamed, running past him to crouch protectively over Yella.

  Si couldn’t find it in himself to answer, luckily he didn’t have to. Adi had been right behind the boy and pushed him off her, “He probably saved her life, you asshat, now move.”

  Swinging Yella up onto her shoulder, Adi turned and looked Si in the eyes. “I’ll get her back to the ship this time. I swear it.”

  “I never had a doubt.” He turned to Nial and gave him a once over. “You look an awful lot like your uncle Jarrod, kid. I hope you’re made of the same mettle.”

  The kid glared at him as Adi moved to his side.

  “Listen, you love her, right?” She said. “I don’t doubt you’d shoot me right where I stand if it meant keeping her safe.”

  “I’d do anything to protect her.” Nial said, glaring at Si like he would try to keep them there.

  “That’s good, because that blast that killed your uncle Theo busted up my ribs,” and a few other things he wasn’t going to get into—God, he hurt all over. “So I can’t carry that ninety-pound sack of shit. But Yella needs him on my ship, or the bugs he put in her brain will go crazy when they’re out of range of his mind bot.”

  The last two words drained all the color from the boy’s face. “You need me to carry him?”

  Si fingered the broken ribs on his side, grimacing. “Yella does.”

  “Why do you keep calling her that?” Nial spat the words accusingly, as though Si had mistaken her for someone else.

  Si shrugged. “It’s what I’ve always called her.”

  He picked Vôner up in the same fashion Adi had done with Yella, though he grunted a bit more, and turned back. “How long is always?”

  Adi let out a petulant sigh and pointed toward the ship yard. “Long before the war, okay? Let’s get moving.”

  That admission shut the boy up, or maybe it was the weight of the Pääom official. They moved through the streets as quickly as they could, Adi in the lead, and Si bringing up the rear. He made sure the boy thought it was because he didn’t trust him. But that wasn’t the whole truth. He’d trust the kid as long as Nial thought they were working in Yella’s best interest. Each step—hell, each breath—sent pain rocketing up his chest. This forced march was going to kill him before any of the hundreds of people who wanted him dead had the chance to carry it out with their own hands.

  What a disappointment.

  A shadow stepped in front of them and Adi stopped, her gun supported on her hip. “Move along grafter, we don’t want a fight, just came for what was taken from us and now we’re leaving.”

  “Not with Osiris alive, you’re not.” His breathing was labored as he blinked at them and Osiris knew what had happened.

  “Frank, glad to see you survived.” Si tried not to choke out the words as he caught his breath. “As for me dying… well, no one’s succeeded yet. What’s your plan?”

  “A bullet to your brain.” Two in the brain pan…

  “Not real smart, gramps.” Adi said, flicking on her rifle’s laser site with her thumb. The red pin point floated about his chest.

  “Gramps? I’m three years older than you, Adilyn. Remember? You were frozen. I just got burned.” He stepped forward and in the sickly glow of the lamp overhead, his face was a marred and red lump. His left eye was gone, his mouth half-twisted into a grotesque, permanent smile.

  “Dad?”

  “Nial, come away from them. They’ll kill you just like they killed all of my brothers.”

  “Is that true? Did you kill them all?”

  “No, it’s not true. I mean, I killed most of them. But Jarrod was my friend. And the lump you’re carrying took out Theo.”

  “Jarrod was your friend.” Frank spat, or he tried to, Osiris wasn’t sure he managed it. “If he was such a friend, why did you kill him?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Jarrod’s alive?” He coughed heavily, pink matter coming up with the sputum.

  “No. Like the rest of my crew—save for Adi and myself, He died because of Pääom actions.” It was fudging the truth a little, but he didn’t want to deal with questions about how a ship could kill a person—intentionally.

  “I’ll make you pay for the others, regardless.” He raised his gun and Nial stepped between them.

  Si was too shocked to say anything as the father lowered his gun. “Damn it, son. Get out of the way. We’ll deal with the others later.”

  “No.” Nial stood unmoving in front of Si. “I’ve spent a long time pretending what I’d heard about you and Theo wasn’t true. You’re my dad, how was I supposed to take that kind of shit? But after what you did… you don’t tie a woman to a chair and beat her. I don’t care how much of this damn planet you own. I’ve seen for myself just how you run this place… and I want no part in it.”

  “Problems, Boss?” Kiori sidled up to Si silent as a shadow, her dark eyes assessing Franklin Mandall as Lyz joined them, her neon red hair a flare against the dark night.

  “Maybe. You finished your part?”

  “Charges are set… we can create a pretty big distraction if we need to. But we probably won't. Sounds like most of the Mandall employees are pretty upset by their current contract with the Pääom.”

  “Well, we might want to give them a show then….”

  He turned back to the conversation and stepped in front of Nial. “Listen, Frank. You can let us go, and only lose half your face, or you can try and stop us… and lose your life.”

  “I’ve never surrendered in my life. I don’t plan on doing it now.”

  “I’m not asking you to surr—”

  He raised the gun, took aim at Si’s chest, and his throat opened in a flash of silver. The gun discharged as Frank fell forward, its slug slicing through Si’s calf muscle before the old man hit the ground face first.

  Si turned away, looking at Nial. “It was a blessing, kid. He was disfigured and showing clear signs of phosgene poisoning. This was a quicker death.”

  Lyz caught Si as he listed sideways and he gave her an apologetic smile as Kiori moved silently over the body to retrieve her throwing star. She wiped it on Frank’s shirt before slipping it into the pouch at her belt.

  Turning back to look at Si, Adi said, “Well, aren’t we a strange sight. Let’s get back to the ship before anyone else gets in our way.”

  Adi led them away and with Lyz and Kiori on either side of him, Si was able to keep up.

  They made it to the hatch without anyone else dying.

  Inside, with the hatch closed, Nial dropped Vôner on the deck plating. Si knew what was coming and he turned to watch Lyz’s eyes grow wide.

  “What in Hell is he doing on the ship?”

  “More importantly, now that he’s on the ship what are we going to do with him?” Adi put the safety on her rifle and slung it over her back.

  The intercom chimed and Mopeña joined the conversation. “You want me to take off? Or are we going to sit around and chit chat until someone with bigger guns gets here?”

  “I told you what this guy did to Dani. Why would you bring him back on the ship?” Lyz poked him in the chest and he couldn’t hide the wince as the petite redhead accosted him.

  “Who’s the new guy?” Kiori asked, nodding her head toward Nial who’d leaned against the bulkhead and was waiting for answers as well.

  “I can’t answer you all at once.” He said finally. And they shut up. “Willy, get us out of here. There’s nothing left for us to do. We may as well rendezvous with the Abolitionists and see how the ne
w galactic order is going to shape up.”

  “Right-o, Bossman.”

  “Next, I’ll answer the rest in order of importance. Firstly, this is Nial Mandall, he’s either signing up for the Abolitionist movement, or he’s stepping back off the boat.”

  “I’ll go wherever I need to, to make sure Danielle’s safe.”

  Lyz slid a glance toward Si and he chose to ignore it. “Adi, I need to get Vôner into a cryo capsule before he wakes up. I need him on board, but I need him neatly out of the way. Since we can’t dispose of him like the virus he is.” He turned to look up at the ceiling. “Obie, whatever you do, make sure he doesn’t die. He hard linked his brain to Yella’s, so she feels his pain—literally.”

  He looked to Lyz to make sure she understood he’d answered her question as well.

  “We’ll keep him on ice until we can figure out how to get the nanites out of her head again.” He looked at Adi, “I need you to get her up to the medbay and get her comfortable.”

  “What if putting him in cryo puts her under, too?”

  “We’ve got extra tubes. I’ll keep her on ice, too.”

  “Hopefully not for fifteen years.” Lyz muttered under her breath.

  “I could use your help,” Adi said, pulling the tech away and Kiori followed behind.

  When they had left, Si let himself assess Nial again. He looked terribly like Jarrod. It was almost eerie. “I’ll need your help getting him downstairs again.”

  “You sure you can walk on that leg?”

  “No, but I’ll manage.” He bit back the pain as he walked behind Nial and the incapacitated Pääom official.

  Nial followed Si through the hatch and into the lowest cargo hold. Si let him go up the short staircase first and then pulled himself up, grimacing with each step.

  “I didn’t know Uncle Jarrod well.” He laughed as though he’d just told a joke. “I didn’t know any of my uncles very well, aside from Theo.”

  “Honestly, I’d call that a blessing.”

  “We are a pretty ornery bunch.” Nial grimaced at the deck plating.

  It was Si’s turn to laugh – though it came out more as a grunt and jostled his ribs more than he’d like. “Jarrod was an amazing man. I was lucky to have him on my crew. I hope you understand you’ve got some pretty big shoes to fill.”