robert Charrette - Arthur 02 - A King Beneath the Mountain Read Free

the mission was supposed to go. It wasn't supposed to be so costly.
    Pamela read the name from the monitor that had shown Sorli's disappearance while she wrenched Wilson's microphone toward her. "Jensen, what's going on?"
    Nothing.
    She needed to know. "Jensen, answer me!"
    "Transmitter link is down," Wilson said.
    She didn't want to hear that.
    Jensen's voice still came through the speaker. "Set up a left sweep." He was giving orders to his team. Pamela backhanded Wilson's shoulder.
    "I thought you said the link was down. How come we can still hear them?"
    Wilson shrugged. "Computer says link is down."
    "Damn the computer! I want to talk to them."
    "Shit!" Jensen again. "He's got the sword!"
    It couldn't be! Pamela eyes snapped to Jensen's monitor. The pov screen showed a fuzz-edged man-shape wielding a sword. The sword slashed down and the screen went dark. Jensen's life sign bars shortened and dropped to nothing.
    The audio transmissions from the insertion team were suddenly clear. Shouts, screams, and gunfire filled the control room.
    Two more monitors went dark.
    Pamela was terrified. What was happening? Sorli kept too many secrets. Now he was gone and things had gone sour. What would happen now? Everything was in chaos. Everything was falling apart.
    No!
    Panic wouldn't help. Panic never helped. She had to get a grip. Someone had to take charge or everything would fall apart. She locked up her fear.
    "Bring them back," she ordered. "Use the rebound code."
    "Don't have to." Wilson pointed at the ready platform. "Look!"
    Two stocky figures emerged from the milkiness and collapsed on the platform. One sprawled atop McAlister's prone and bloody form.
    Three. Only three had come back.
    And Arthur had the sword.
    Very bad.
    An alarm began to hoot.
    "Shut the grid down!" Wilson shouted. "Shut it down before it overloads."
    The technicians responded with frantic activity. The rainbow ring contracted. She watched the slowly shrinking circle with dread. As the rainbow closed off the whiteness, someone standing behind her cleared his throat.
    There wasn't supposed to be anyone there. She turned.
    A tight knot of business-suited men stood facing her. The Mitsutomo pin gleamed from each lapel. None of the faces were friendly, and she recognized the foremost one.
    Ryota Nakaguchi.
    She swallowed hard. Nakaguchi was a kansayaku, officially a free-roaming auditor for the corporation, but in reality a hatchet man. Nakaguchi was rumored to have direct access to Mitsutomo-sama himself. He was the old man's facilitator; he also cleaned up messes. Efficiently. More than one departmental chiefs head had rolled under his hatchet. Until now, she had thought her position as head of North American Group made her immune to Nakaguchi.
    Something exploded beyond the Perspex wall; she could hear fragments pelting the barrier. She was afraid to look. Nakaguchi's cold eyes told her she was not immune. "Konichiwa, Ms. Martinez. I believe you have some explaining to do."
    CHAPTER
    1

    It was Friday night and the Rezcom 3 mall was busy, which was just the way he hoped it would be. He was a little worried about being recognized, but not much. It had been almost a year since he'd been here. He dressed differently now and wore his hair differently, too. It would take more than a casual glance to recognize the John Reddy who used to live here. But then, he wasn't that John Reddy anymore. That John Reddy had been buried after being killed in a break-in at the Woodman Armory Museum, where he had worked as a security guard. It had been in all the local media and it was in the police files. Condolences due to the bereaved mother for her son gone to join his long-dead father.
    Condolences were a bit premature.
    There were lots of people thronging the mall, too many for the security guards to watch individually. He was just one among many. He walked casually, trying not to make it obvious that he was headed for the doors to the south residential tower. No one