From the Ashes (Conquest Book 1)

by Jeff Taylor

“You see this checker piece?” he asked. “When I was young, my family was dirt poor. All we had to entertain ourselves was an old checkers set. Before my father died, he and I would play for hours at our old laminate kitchen table. Some of my best memories, and best life lessons, came from him over that board. On the day I graduated from high school, my brother handed me this piece and reminded me that just as in the game, kings were made after a long treacherous journey full of sacrifice and force of will. This token from a child’s game has been the motivation for my entire career. It is a constant reminder that anyone can become a ‘king’ if they are willing to put in the work. To save my company, I am willing to sacrifice it, even if it means removing one or more of my own pieces from the game. Nathaniel and Tina Kratin hold the majority shares of our company. If they were removed, the shares would revert back to their previous owners, or be available to the highest bidder.”

  “What are you suggesting? That we kill them?” Josephina asked.

  “You said yourself,” Brill continued, ignoring her question and instead addressing Ahkman, “Nathaniel has betrayed his class and sold his soul to the masses. If we are to be kings then we must make a sacrifice. Nathaniel has become the problem that needs removing.”

  The strength of his words combined with his fragile state left him quivering. Josephina was not convinced.

  “He’s playing us,” she offered, staring hard at Brill. “He’s trying to bait us into something.”

  “I think he’s right,” Ahkman said calmly.

  Josephina jumped at his words. “Excuse me?”

  Her companion rose from his chair and made his way around to the front of the desk. “He’s right. Without the Kratins, Vim won’t be able to get the support from the board he needs to back independence, and we don’t have time to try anything else.” Ahkman eyed the old man carefully. “How do you suggest we do this?”

  Ahkman had worked around Brill for many years and during that time he had seen his fair share of the confident smile Brill wore after each successful deal. That same smile now appeared as the old man looked back at him. He knew he had just closed the deal.

  Leaning down, Brill retrieved his cane from the floor and pressed the tip of its handle. The bottom of the walking stick flipped open, revealing a piece of cloth, rolled tightly inside. Brill carefully removed and unwound it, then placed it on the small table between his and Josephina’s chairs. Josephina carefully lifted between her long, black fingernails what appeared to be a cloth napkin. She glanced at the fabric then handed it to Ahkman. He took it and read the message scrawled in red ink on the one side:

  You’re welcome - Eve

  Ahkman was puzzled. “I don’t understand. Some woman leaves you a thank you note and I am supposed to deduce your plan?”

  “Eve is the greatest assassin in the world. I should know. She’s the one I hired to kill Hanel.”

  Ahkman and Josephina glanced at each other and then back to Brill. “And so now, you want to use this Eve person to take Nathaniel out as well?” he asked.

  Brill shook his head. “No,” he said, a touch of disappointment in his voice. “I am sure she is far off world by now. I know from experience that she doesn’t stick around long after a job’s done.” The old man instinctively reached down and touched his crippled leg. “I found that note in the box suite the night Vim was poisoned. She was there posing as a waitress serving us all drinks. She failed in killing Vim thanks to that Strinnger buffoon, but we can still take advantage of her failure. The rumor that Vim’s medical emergency was an attempt on his life has spread like wildfire throughout this station. Most people are convinced that we still have a murderer on the loose here. Strinnger himself believes, and correctly so, that the same person responsible for Schulaz’ death is the one who attacked Vim. If we capitalized on that belief, it would be very easy to convince the station’s crew that our red-headed assassin is also responsible for Nathaniel’s demise as well.”

  Again, Ahkman and Josephina exchanged inquisitive glances. Her disgust at the proposition was apparent on her contorted expression. “You think we should kill him?”

  The look of determination on Brill’s face was like granite. “Yes,” he replied.

  Josephina echoed just what Ahkman was feeling at that moment. “That’s dangerous,” she said. “Nathaniel has the clear support of the people right now. If we kill him, he becomes a martyr to rally around and an embodiment to their cause.”

  “Agreed,” interrupted Ahkman. “The only way to pull it off would be to discredit them first, and we don’t have time for that.”

  Brill was determined to convince them. He reached into the pocket of his robe and removed a data disc no larger than his thumbnail, then tossed it to Ahkman. “For future reference then.”

  “What’s this?” Ahkman asked taking the disc in his hand.

  “View it and find out.”

  Obeying, Ahkman inserted the disc into the round slot at the center of a glowing tile in the corner of his desk. “Open file NK1374,” Brill called out. A stream of data was then displayed.

  Ahkman browsed it closely. The entries appeared to be accounting logs of some kind, but he didn’t recognize any of the names or accounts. Certainly, they were not anything associated with Carsus. “What is this?” he asked.

  Brill approached the desk and removed the disc. Holding it up to eye-level, he waived it as if it were the Holy Grail itself. “This,” he said firmly, “is information connecting Kratin’s father-in-law to Xymon Nu.”

  “The gangster?” Josephina asked in disbelief. “How? What does it say?”

  “Not enough,” Ahkman interjected before Brill could respond. “Under normal circumstances, I would agree that we could use this to our advantage. But I don’t think we have the time to mount a smear campaign. Most people would probably agree that the fact his family is dealing with mafia doesn’t necessarily mean that he is.”

  The elder Carsus executive smirked. “We probably don’t have time to come up with something for both of them right now. This takes Tina out of the equation. Her shares were largely bought with her grandfather’s money, which a large portion was Nu’s money. The stock purchase agreement voids any shares purchased with illegal or questionable funds so her shares are void. They will go back on the market or be returned to the previous owners, depending on what the board decides. True, it won’t take care of her right now, but when the dust settles, she’ll have no claim to run the company.”

  “That just leaves Nathaniel,” Ahkman observed.

  “This is insane,” gasped Josephina, once again voicing her objection. “This isn’t the wild west. We can’t just walk up to Nathaniel and shoot him in broad daylight. We’d be mobbed, if not arrested.”

  “Arrested by whom?” Brill asked. “There’s no law here. Treyklor’s little band of security officers are no better than mall cops, unable to handle the simplest problem. And with no extradition laws to worry about, what happens here is without jurisdiction. That being said, however, I agree with Josephina. If we strike it must be by stealth.”

  “That’s not what I meant” she said turning to Ahkman, pleading for him to reject such a preposterous plan. “Just fire everyone here and send them home. They work for us! We don’t have to kill anybody. I always knew you ignored your moral compass, but this is just wrong!”

  “Since when have you concerned yourself with morality,” Ahkman interjected at his petite wife. A visible flash of anger sparked in her eyes, but he ignored it. “If I tried that now, with the delusion of freedom fresh on their pallet, we’d incite a riot or worse, a revolution.”

  Silently, he folded his arms then walked around his desk, eyes fixed on the ground. Should he trust his and Josephina’s initial reaction and reject such a repugnant idea? He saw a sliver of truth to Brill’s reasoning, but the idea of taking the lives of two people was troubling.

  “There is no time to hesitate,” Brill pressured him. “Are you in or out?”

  After a moment mor
e of pondering, Ahkman responded, “All right. I’m in.”

  The bewildered look he received from Josephina was expected, but still disconcerting. “What?!” she shrieked.

  “Quiet,” he shot back. “We’ll discuss this later.” He brought his eyes back to lock with Brill’s. “We’ll need to distract the bodyguards if this is going to work.”

  “True,” the old man replied. “Strinnger is the one we should worry about. The others seem to do what he says and he’s followed Nathaniel like a puppy since the attack on Vim. I hear he already suspects the Kratins are in danger.”

  “We could use that,” Ahkman thought aloud. “Since we’ve been here, I’ve noticed that there’s some tension between him and the daughter, Julia. I think it’s clear from what happened at the club the night before we flew up here that there is something going on between the two. He’s tried to keep his distance from her, but I believe that if he learned she and her mother or sister was in danger he would make sure he kept them away from the podium. We would remove him from the equation and leave Nathaniel vulnerable so when we’re ready to strike, no one would be in our way. The specter of Nu’s involvement will drive the investigation in one direction, away from us.”

  Brill nodded his agreement while Josephina continued to shake her head in disgust.

  “I’ll suggest to Nathaniel that he leave Strinnger with his family when I see him tomorrow morning,” Brill offered.

  The finality of the decision invigorated yet terrified Ahkman. He was plotting the murder of his employer, which many people did in jest around the water cooler, but here, it was a very serious matter indeed. He contemplated the fallout. If they could conceal their involvement, he saw no outcome that would adversely affect them. There was just one loose end to tidy up first. Josephina voiced it before he could.

  “There’s just one little hiccup to your master plan,” she chided. “Dantral heard you say that you thought we should kill Nathaniel. Are going to kill him now too?”

  Brill was the quickest to answer. “In every battle, there’s cannon fodder. If he gets in the way, so be it.”

  “All right, then,” Ahkman concluded, eyeing his two conspirators. “Let’s work out the details.”

  CHAPTER 27

  WARNING

  It was nearly midnight when a weary Naitus Brill returned to his suite in the Chow Hotel just south of the Forum. A glowing fire burned in the fireplace upon his entry, casting a warm glow in what would normally be a very cold environment. The suite was the only thing about the station that he had liked, having the same bleak décor of black, white, and gray as his own apartment in Seattle. The space almost made him feel like he was home.

  With a slight air of triumph, he dropped his cane into its repository near the door, letting it ping with a loud, tinny sound on the bottom of the can. Preferring the soft light from the fire, he left the overhead lights off. Though his body was fatigued, he felt invigorated as he thought more and more about what would be accomplished in the next few hours.

  At first, the thought of sacrificing the man he chose to lead the company he’d spent most of his life building saddened him. For a short time, he considered taking his own life rather than seeing his protégé’s demise. But in the end, he knew that if Carsus Corp had to die, he wanted to be the one dealing the blow, not Nathaniel’s ideals.

  His mind was too awake to go to bed. He took a glass from the counter and filled it with water from the refrigerator, then plopped in a couple of ice cubes. The ice clinked against the crystal with each step he took across the living area until he sunk into one of the two padded chairs facing the fire. His tired frame sunk into the plush armchair and he let his head fall onto the neck cushion. Gently his eyelids closed and he pictured in his mind how the morning’s events would unfold.

  An immense crowd would assemble, possibly everyone on the station would cram into the Forum’s amphitheater. Nathaniel would take the stage, clothed in brilliant crimson robes to mark the occasion, his family watching from their seats high above in the gallery boxes, a full security detail, including Strinnger, around them. Then he would fall, dead by Ahkman’s hand. Brill’s stomach turned slightly at the thought of ending Nathaniel’s life, but it had to be done.

  For an instant, he thought of Kratin’s family. He had only known them for a short time, but the tortured looks of grief they would surely wear pulled at his heart. Such a pity that things wouldn’t work out for Tina either. She had been his shining star. His heart ached for the possibilities that would die with her career. No, he thought. I can’t let my sentimentality overtake my reasoning. Squeezing his eyes tighter, he tried to think of something more pleasant.

  “You don’t look comfortable at all,” sounded a sultry voice from the darkness.

  Brill jumped with a start, his glass fell from his hand and hit the tiled floor with a piercing chitter.

  “Who’s there?” he cried, forcing himself to sound braver than he felt.

  His eyes erratically surveyed the room, looking for the intruder; they soon discovered her. Sitting directly across from him was a woman, whose appearance startled him more than the surprise of her voice had. Her coppery red hair shimmered in the fire’s soft glow, though the light was not strong enough to illuminate her entire face. The shape of her toned arms and legs were easily distinguishable in the tight-fitting magnetic suit, which was painted a bright red and covered by a short, matching robe draped over her right shoulder. A pair of scarlet high heels crisscrossed her ankles and feet with thin, seductive straps. He did not need to consider long who she was, instead his mind manically searched for how to get away.

  “No,” he panicked, shaking his head violently. “I’m hallucinating again. You’re not real.”

  The woman did not move other than to casually bounce her crossed legs. Her long fingers, with nails painted to match her suit, rested tranquilly on the arms of the chair. Brill opened and closed his eyes repeatedly, hoping she would vanish, but with no luck. Slowly, he crept up the back cushion of his chair, his hand searching in vain for some form of protection.

  “What . . . what do you want?” he asked, finally summoning the courage to speak. Through the fading firelight he saw a wicked smile form on her thin lips.

  “It’s late and you’re tired so I’ll get to the point. Believe it or not, we have conflicting agendas. You see I have a job to do tomorrow and you appear to be getting in the way. Now I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but really Naitie, you should leave the senseless murdering to the professionals.”

  Had Brill been more coherent he would have suspected what she was referring to, but since he was completely overcome with terror his mind was far from clear. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Guards!” he yelled frantically.

  “Oh, give me some credit,” the woman said. “Do you think I would’ve come in here without giving your guards an extended nap? I’m slightly insulted.”

  Brill bolted from the chair, but in his haste tripped over his own feet. He crashed hard on the tile. Ignoring the pain in his right shoulder, he lifted himself off the floor and scrambled on his hands and knees back towards the door. He reached up for the key pad, praying it would let him escape this woman who had already tried to kill him once before, but as his fingers touched the pad, his body went limp and he slumped to the ground.

  The pain from this fall was intense but he was unable to do anything about it. He was completely paralyzed. He was still aware of his body, but had no control over its function. His eyes remained open but he had physical control over his limbs. In the distance, he heard the woman’s spiked heels approaching slowly over the tile, each clicking step reverberating in his ear with the sound of thunder. She finally stopped and crouched down behind him, careful to keep her face from his view. Her sweet perfume filled his nostrils and her warm breath washed over his ear.

  “I have got to hand it to you science guys,” she said, inches away. “These nano-robots are amazing! Not only can I program t
hem to strangle a man from the inside, but I can set them to freeze all motor functions in another. I don’t know why I haven’t used them before. I was a little surprised though to see their effect negated with an epi-pen. I know you would have been just as satisfied to watch Vim die as I was hoping to be.”

  All Brill could do was force a quiet whimper, his eyes pleading for her to leave him alone. Her weight shifted slightly before she continued.

  “Here’s the deal. I know you and your pals are planning to wipe out the CEO tomorrow and that’s a big problem for me. Not so much that I want him to live, but if you happen to pull it off before I do, I don’t get paid for doing the job myself. Do you see my conflict? So, you get your little ‘hitman club’ to back off or else I take you and them out with a push of a button. Simple as that.” She paused momentarily. “Oh man, I really hope you’re hearing this. I don’t know the extent of the paralysis when those robots are activated. Whimper pathetically if you understand.”

  Frightened tears streamed down Brill’s aged face as he groaned quietly.

  “Good enough,” she gleefully answered, patting him on the shoulder blade. “With any luck, this will be the last time you ever see me, or don’t see me, whichever.”

  Softly, the outer door slid open. A rush of cool air caressed him as she stepped out.

  “Don’t worry,” she called over her shoulder. “Emergency services are on their way. They should have you debugged in plenty of time to attend the big announcement.”

  For the next ten minutes, Brill lie helpless on the floor, pondering his fate until the medical team came rushing in to save him.

  CHAPTER 28

  HISTORY

  All available security personnel from Selene City and Selene I were gathered in the Forum and briefed on the recent developments. The Kratins, specifically Nathaniel, were in danger. The source of the attack was unknown, but they should be on the lookout for a woman with red hair. Strinnger’s team understood their orders and swiftly took their positions around the building.