“That’s Chief Notaras to you, Roach,” she said softly.
“Not anymore.” Gabe hadn’t known he was going to say that, but it felt right now that he had.
“What are you talking about?”
“They’re colonizing Alexandria right now. You’re going to go live there.”
“What makes you think you can speak to me like this?”
“Because if you don’t do what I say, I’ll expose you. I’ll tell everyone what you helped Bronson do. And they’ll believe me. You know they will. I’m Gabriel Roach. The first man to step foot on Eresos.”
Notaras stared at him, eyes wide, saying nothing.
“You don’t get to enjoy the fruits of the planet you helped cleanse, Notaras.”
“What about you? You have blood on your hands, too.”
“Because of you. Because of what you made me believe. Trust me—I’ll never attack the Quatro again. I’m done with that, even if Bronson orders me to do it. I’m done, unless the Quatro attack us first. Actually attack us, I mean.”
“The Quatro won’t attack,” Notaras said, her voice dripping with bitterness, now. “Our best intel says they’re basically wiped out. And those that are left fear us like gods.”
“Devils,” Gabe said. “Not gods. Devils.” He turned to leave her standing in the corridor. “Get out of my sight. If I see you again, you know what the consequences will be.”
As Gabe walked away, he didn’t feel vindicated, or sad, or tortured…or anything.
He felt hollow, as though he’d finally lost the capacity to feel at all. What he’d just done, in banishing Notaras, had merely been something that needed doing—a chore.
And now that he’d done it, he could move on with his empty life, working for the company that paid him to kill.
But not Quatro. Not innocent beings. Never again.
Thank you for reading!
Book 2 of Mech Wars is available now. It’s titled Dynamo, and you can click here to get it.
Interested in learning more about the wars that led to Darkstream’s exit from the Milky Way Galaxy? Click here to check out Supercarrier, Book 1 of the Ixan Prophecies Trilogy.
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