The Dead Sun (Star Force Series) Read Free Page B

all getting their exercise today.
    “Well, I don’t see any flames out there, and the street outside looks normal. It must have been a small, localized strike.”
    Jasmine put her hand on my bicep. “You’re just cutting up your palms on that metal.”
    “They’ll heal,” I said, forcing the doors apart another inch or so.
    “Kyle, I’ve called in an extraction team. Let’s wait here until they arrive.”
    I finally looked at her. “You did what? I’m not going anywhere.”
    “Someone is trying to kill you. We need to pull you out.”
    I frowned at her. “What else do you know?”
    She licked her lips quickly, looked down, then back into my face. “The effect—whatever it was—the effect was centered on your offices.”
    “Ah,” I said, getting it now. “They did try to hit me—whoever ‘they’ are this time. Well, I’m not sitting in this box any longer.”
    “Kyle, we have to get out of the region. We should leave Earth entirely.”
    “There are people upstairs, probably injured and in trouble. I don’t feel like running out on them because some loser failed to blow me up.”
    “Kyle, please be reasonable.”
    I wasn’t in a reasonable mood, I’d be the first to admit that. I was angry, surprised, and I realized as well that I was enjoying myself. It had been so long since I’d been allowed to do anything personally—anything that I could solve with my hands rather than giving orders.
    As the elevator car was seriously jammed, I figured I had only two options: I could hammer the doors down with my fists, or I could exit through the access panel on the roof. I chose the roof, figuring it would be easier.
    I jumped up, punching out the square panel. It crumpled and flew away into the dark shaft above. A black square appeared, showing a smoking gloom beyond. I jumped again, and shot out through the opening.
    Any Star Force Marine could have done the same. We’re nanotized, meaning our bodies are enhanced with muscular and regenerative improvements. We move quickly, we’re extremely strong, and we heal unnaturally fast. We’re akin to men walking on the Moon when under Earth’s gravitational forces. We could take flying leaps if we felt like it.
    Right now, I was in the mood to use my body to its fullest. I climbed up the elevator shaft walls. They were ribbed with girders and a steel framework. I climbed these as fast as an ape could zoom up a tree. Behind me, Jasmine stood on the elevator car roof, calling upward. I think she was demanding I come back down, but as the ruler of Earth, I figured I had privileges in situations like this. To be exact: I didn’t always have to listen to my girlfriend.
    I heard her lower her voice as I reached the eighth floor. She was talking, but more quietly. I knew she would be telling the extraction team where I was and how to intercept me.
    For some reason, this ticked me off. I entertained the thought of stripping off my com-link and tossing it down the shaft, but didn’t. Mostly , because it was a stupid idea. I might even hit Jasmine, and even if I didn’t, it would be reckless to disconnect myself from Star Force. I kept the com-link on, and I kept climbing.
    There was an emergency panel on the fourteenth floor. That was about five or six floors below my offices, but it would have to do. I kicked it out and entered the hallway beyond.
    The fourteenth floor was smoky and empty. There was heat in the air, and I had to clear my throat repeatedly as I was breathing in the hot particles we call smoke. I could take an unusual amount of this sort of thing as I’d been specifically rebuilt for alien atmospheres. I didn’t enjoy choking clouds of vapor, but they couldn’t suffocate me.
    I headed toward the stairway, where I met up with the first group of survivors. They were rushing down the steps, their eyes wide and their lungs spasming with deep coughs. I went against the press, heading upward while everyone else was going down.
    A few of them recognized