Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) Read Free

way.”
    “Great. 
Can you get everyone up here for the address?  Say, five minutes before?”
    “We’ll do
that.  Should be great.  You know Shirley?”
    Farrell
thought, blankly.
    “She’s
assistant to the junior secretaries.  Anyway, she has a son in Mombasa. 
She’s going to be in bits.  It might make for a great photo, you hugging
her and looking understanding?”
    Farrell
baulked.  “Oh come on, you hard hearted-bitch!” he said, but smiled
too.
    “That’s the
kind of thinking I’m paid for,” the aide chirpily replied.
    Farrell sunk
into thought for a little bit, then wondered aloud, “Are we right to worry
about Mars?  Is that even our department?”
    The woman
aide looked up, startled.  “Well, it is foreign, isn’t it?  I mean,
how much more foreign can you get?”
    Farrell
thought.  “It just seems, I don’t know, different, somehow.  So far
away that it’s not even foreign.  And surely it’s just part of the USAN,
isn’t it?  I mean, it’s not a country or even a state.  Marineris is
about the size of a small town.”
    The aide cut
in, “No, it comes under us alright.  And we’re right to be monitoring.”
    “But there’s
nothing to it, is there, really?  This chatter about breaking away,
independence and all that?  Armchair warriors and know-nothing
kids.  They’d shit the bed if we just left them to it, wouldn’t they?”
    “Maybe. 
But we’re paid to be paranoid, so we are.”
    “And anyways,
they’re halfway across the solar system.”
    “Some of the
time they are.  Every couple of years they swing by real close - fifty
million miles or so.  And apparently Helios are this close,” she gestured
with thumb and forefinger, “to developing usable sized fusion engines which
will turn interplanetary travel upside down.  You could hop across in your
lunch break, almost.”
    Farrell
frowned.  “Helios have been about to reveal their fusion engine tech ever
since I was a kid.  There’s no quick or easy way to or from Mars. 
It’s a six month trip, minimum, and even then you have to wait up to two years
for a launch window.  They need our tech, we need their deuterium, free
trade, honour, loyalty, yada, yada, the end.  I just wanted the senator to
know that, even without a war on, we have stuff to be doing over here. 
We’re on the lookout for any problems, we’ve got our ears to the floor and our
eyes on the horizon and our fingers on the pulse.  Forever
vigilant.”  He flashed a big phony smile at the assistant.
    “Sheesh,” she
said, “and you haven’t even had any champagne yet.”

 
 
 
 
C H A P T E
R   2
 
Kostovich
     
    Dr Daniel Kostovich
eyed the barren landscape ahead.  Dried brown dirt and the straggliest of
sun-beaten foliage stretched before him to a distant and just discernible
clump of buildings.  It was hot in the suit, and the restricted movement
made him feel trapped.  He needed to get out of the sun, but he needed to
know he was safe.  Continuing to scan the horizon for movement he lifted
one huge metal leg, then the other, and moved forward.  He spoke into the
mic.  “ Stocksy , Bacon.  I’m comin ’ to getcha .” 
    A voice crackled
back over the headset.  “What about me?”
    Kostovich
grinned.  “Dennis?  Time I get over there, Stocksy and Bacon will have taken you out already.  If you haven’t just fallen
over.”
    “You’re a
funny guy, Dan.  That’s why I’m going to kill you last.”
    Kostovich
laughed.  “It’s great that you still believe you have some worthwhile
abilities, Dennis.  Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”
    Dennis’s
voice came back over the com.  “I’m going radio silent now.  Gotta concentrate.  Have asses to kick.  Out.”
    Kostovich
noted a small outcrop of rocks about two hundred metres from his
position.  He headed toward them.  He brought up a terminal in his
HUD, set his mech on an automated course for the outcrop, then brought up a