Kill the Queen! (Chaos of the Covenant Book 4)
Page 25
Koy? He hadn’t been expecting to hear from him already. Did that mean they had succeeded and Cage was dead? He wasn’t sure if he was pleased or disappointed, considering his prior thoughts.
“Put it through,” Thraven said.
It wasn’t Koy that appeared on the projection. It wasn’t Elivee either.
“Colonel Quark?” Thraven said.
“Howdy, General,” Quark said. “Or should I call you Gloritant?”
“Either is acceptable,” Thraven said, refusing to show his surprise.
“I just thought you’d like to know, Elivee and Koy are dead. Cage killed them. Well, one part Cage, one part psycho-bot, but the fact remains that they’re both dust. I had a nice chat with Miss Cage before she left the planet. She gave me the coordinates to the Crescent Hauler vessel that you claimed she stole after killing the crew. That’s where I am right now. Funny thing? The security logs show your detail starting the murder, and her crew trying to stop it.”
Quark’s face hardened, and he leaned in closer, filling the projection with it.
“I may be a bounty hunter, Gloritant. That doesn’t mean I don’t have scruples, and I damned well don’t like be tricked into hunting innocent parties. I’ll be letting Don Pallimo know what went down here, and I imagine he’ll be none too pleased, either.”
Thraven stood up, glaring down at the projection. He brought up his hand almost without thinking, as though he could control the mercenary. “Who do you think you-”
“What’s that? Some kind of secret handshake?” Quark backed up. “I’ve got one of my own.” He raised his hand, turning it over and sticking up his middle finger. “I wanted to give that to you in person. You’ll be hearing from the Don soon regarding the termination of your contracts. You’re lucky if that’s all he does. Quark out.”
The link dropped, leaving Thraven shaking in anger, his sentence half-finished. He had to direct his anger somewhere, so he grabbed Honorant Lu with the Gift, choking him so hard his spine shattered beneath the pressure.
He dropped the dead soldier and stormed from the bridge.
Fragging Cage.
48
Gant reached the hangar at a run, responding to Bastion’s warning that something was wrong with Abbey.
His heart was in his throat, his nerves already frayed. After everything she must have been through, what could have happened to her now that she was safe?
The doors slid open ahead of him, and he hurried inside. He wasn’t surprised to find Bastion, Pik, Jequn, and Phlenel standing outside the shuttle. He was confused by the newcomer, a faceless armored bot that was closing in from a Shrike that had landed nearby. It looked threatening by default, but the way it held its arms at its sides suggested it didn't mean them any harm.
He put his attention back on the shuttle.
“What’s going on?” Gant asked, reaching them.
“I don’t know,” Bastion said. “One second, she was tearing the engines out of the enemy warships, and the next she went nuts.” He tilted his head, showing Gant the discoloration on his neck. “She nearly choked me to death.”
“What do you mean tearing the engines out of the enemy warships?”
“What did you think caused that damage?” the armored bot said, joining them. “Only the Gift can do such a thing. A powerful Gift.”
“Do I know you?” Gant asked, trying to place the synthesized voice.
“In a past life,” the armor replied. “You shot me in the head once.”
Gant stared at it. “Trinity Gall?”
The mention of the name brought Pik toward the armor, metal hand reaching for her. “Gall? What the hell are you doing here?” Trinity let Pik grab her, lifting her off the ground and holding her there. “Give me one good reason I don’t rip you apart.”
“Because Queenie promised me safe passage,” Trin replied. “She even offered me a job.”
“Leave her be, Okay,” Bastion said. “She’s right. Queenie said she’s with us.”
Pik let her go. “We’ll just take in any old stray nowadays, won’t we? Well, if Queenie trusts you, then I trust you.”
Trin didn’t say anything. She turned toward the shuttle. A moment later, the others did, too.
The hatch was open. A light was coming from within, though they couldn’t see the source.
“Queenie?” Gant said, eager to rush to her. He moved forward, his arm caught by Trinity. He tried to struggle against it for a second, but he was nowhere near strong enough to counter her.
“Wait,” she said.
The light began to move, getting brighter as the source approached. When Gant saw what was causing it, his mouth hung open, and he felt like he couldn’t breathe.
Abbey was naked, her body glowing from every vein that crossed it as though her blood had been converted to pure light. Her hair had changed from silver to white, maintaining its metallic sheen. Her flesh was pale, her eyes like pearls, her lips a hint of blue.
“Frag me,” Bastion said beside him.
She came forward, stepping out of the shuttle and onto the hangar floor in front of them. As she did, a trillion tiny specks gathered around her, connecting and wrapping tightly around her flesh, coating her in a suit made of the Gift itself.
“Uh, Queenie?” Gant said, finally yanking his arm away from Trinity.
Abbey’s head shifted to look at him. Then she smiled.
“Gant,” she said. “It’s good to see you again. I missed you. I missed all of you.”
“We missed you too, Queenie,” Gant replied. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine.”
She paused, her eyes passing over each of them.
“Why the hell are you all standing there and staring at me like I'm a fragging ghost or something? We have work to do.”
CHAOS of the Covenant Book Five, Damned If You Don’t, is coming soon. Want to know as soon as it’s out? mrforbes.com/damned
AUTHOR’S NOTE
You’ve finished book 4! Awesome! I’m going to assume you read 1-3 already, and I hope that after reading this one you’re still loving the books. Thank you again for following along with this story. It’s been a joy to share with you so far.
Some people have been asking me how many books there will be in this series. My usual answer is ‘as many as it takes to get to the end,’ but I do understand some people don’t want to invest in an extra-long series, or get caught up in something that’s going to recycle the same plot over and over. I’m not into that either. I have seven books outlined for this series. That doesn’t mean I won’t end up with six or eight (because I’m not going to threaten the integrity of the story by adding filler or rushing to the end to meet a stated number), but its a likely count to set expectations on (and I already have two other seven book series out there, so there is a precedent).
Even after this series is done you probably won’t have seen the last of the Covenant Universe. I have a ton of other story ideas that take place both in this specific timeline and other inter-related universes. They’ll be stand-alone series so reading order won’t matter (at least not too much), but if you enjoy this one through the end I hope you’ll be on the lookout for those, too (or you could always join my mailing list, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, link: mrforbes.com/mailinglist).
I don’t want to get repetitive, so I’ll keep it short and sweet. Please review the book. It helps me more than is readily apparent by the words you type or the star rating you leave, and you do want to help me, don’t you ;)? I’m not a massive publisher or a corporation or anything. I’m just a guy doing his damnedest to create worlds that you’ll have fun escaping to, and it’s the best way of letting others know I’m doing a good job (or not). What do you say? mrforbes.com/killthequeenreview
Thank you again.
Cheers,
Michael.
OTHER BOOKS BY M.R FORBES
M.R. Forbes on Amazon
mrforbes.com/books
Starship Eternal (War Eternal, Book
One)
mrforbes.com/starshipeternal
A lost starship...
A dire warning from futures past...
A desperate search for salvation…
Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams is a Space Marine and the hero of the Battle for Liberty, whose Shot Heard ‘Round the Universe saved the planet from a nearly unstoppable war machine. He’s handsome, charismatic, and the perfect poster boy to help the military drive enlistment. Pulled from the war and thrown into the spotlight, he’s as efficient at charming the media and bedding beautiful celebrities as he was at shooting down enemy starfighters.
After an assassination attempt leaves Mitchell critically wounded, he begins to suffer from strange hallucinations that carry a chilling and oddly familiar warning:
They are coming. Find the Goliath or humankind will be destroyed.
Convinced that the visions are a side-effect of his injuries, he tries to ignore them, only to learn that he may not be as crazy as he thinks. The enemy is real and closer than he imagined, and they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent him from rediscovering the centuries lost starship.
Narrowly escaping capture, out of time and out of air, Mitchell lands at the mercy of the Riggers - a ragtag crew of former commandos who patrol the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy. Guided by a captain with a reputation for cold-blooded murder, they’re dangerous, immoral, and possibly insane.
They may also be humanity’s last hope for survival in a war that has raged beyond eternity.
(War Eternal is also available in a box set of the first three books here: mrforbes.com/wareternalbox)
Man of War (Rebellion)
mrforbes.com/manofwar
In the year 2280, an alien fleet attacked the Earth.
Their weapons were unstoppable, their defenses unbreakable.
Our technology was inferior, our militaries overwhelmed.
Only one starship escaped before civilization fell.
Earth was lost.
It was never forgotten.
Fifty-two years have passed.
A message from home has been received.
The time to fight for what is ours has come.
Welcome to the rebellion.
Or maybe something completely different?
Dead of Night (Ghosts & Magic)
mrforbes.com/deadofnight
For Conor Night, the world’s only surviving necromancer, staying alive is an expensive proposition. So when the promise of a big payout for a small bit of thievery presents itself, Conor is all in. But nothing comes easy in the world of ghosts and magic, and it isn’t long before Conor is caught up in the machinations of the most powerful wizards on Earth and left with only two ways out:
Finish the job, or be finished himself.
Balance (The Divine)
mrforbes.com/balance
My name is Landon Hamilton. Once upon a time I was a twenty-three year old security guard, trying to regain my life after spending a year in prison for stealing people’s credit card numbers.
Now, I’m dead.
Okay, I was supposed to be dead. I got killed after all; but a funny thing happened after I had turned the mortal coil...
I met Dante Alighieri - yeah, that Dante. He told me I was special, a diuscrucis. That’s what they call a perfect balance of human, demon, and angel. Apparently, I’m the only one of my kind.
I also learned that there was a war raging on Earth between Heaven and Hell, and that I was the only one who could save the human race from annihilation. He asked me to help, and I was naive enough to agree.
Sounds crazy, I know, but he wished me luck and sent me back to the mortal world. Oh yeah, he also gave me instructions on how to use my Divine "magic” to bend the universe to my will. The problem is, a sexy vampire crushed them while I was crushing on her.
Now I have to somehow find my own way to stay alive in a world of angels, vampires, werewolves, and an assortment of other enemies that all want to kill me before I can mess up their plans for humanity’s future. If that isn’t enough, I also have to find the queen of all demons and recover the Holy Grail.
It’s not like it’s the end of the world if I fail.
Wait. It is.
Tears of Blood (Books 1-3)
mrforbes.com/tearsofblood
One thousand years ago, the world was broken and reborn beneath the boot of a nameless, ageless tyrant. He erased all history of the time before, enslaving the people and hunting those with the power to unseat him.
The power of magic.
Eryn is such a girl. Born with the Curse, she fights to control and conceal it to protect those she loves. But when the truth is revealed, and his soldiers come, she is forced away from her home and into the company of Silas, a deadly fugitive tormented by a fractured past.
Silas knows only that he is a murderer who once hunted the Cursed, and that he and his brothers butchered armies and innocents alike to keep the deep, dark secrets of the time before from ever coming to light.
Secrets which could save the world.
Or destroy it completely.
JOIN THE MAILING LIST
“No,” you cry. “I will not submit myself to even more inbox spam. I have quite enough garbage coming in from people and places that I care a lot more about than you.”
“But,” I reply, “if you sign up for my mailing list, you’ll know when my next book is out. Don’t you want to know when my next book is out?”
“Eh… I’ll find it on Amazon.”
“True enough, but you see, a mailing list is very valuable to an author, especially a meager self-published soul such as myself. I don’t have a marketing team, and I don’t have exposure in brick and mortar stores around the world to help improve my readership. All I have is you, my potential fans. What do you say?”
Silence.
Followed by crickets.
Followed by more silence.
“Where’d you go?” I ask. “Well, I’ll just leave this here, in case you change your mind.”
mrforbes.com/mailinglist
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
M.R. Forbes is the creator of a growing catalog of science fiction and fantasy titles. He lives in the pacific northwest with his family, including a cat who thinks she's a dog, and a dog who thinks she's a cat. He eats too many donuts, and he's always happy to hear from readers.
To learn more about M.R. Forbes or just say hello:
@mrforbes
mrforbes.author
mrforbes.com
michael@mrforbes.com
Table of Contents
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Author’s Note
Other Books By M.R Forbes
Join the Mailing L
ist
About the Author