The Gravity Engine Read Free

the nest entrance is as old as the caves themselves.’
    ‘ Fifth to fourteenth century. Damn, that nest is old .’
    ‘We’re looking at seriously huge Mothers in there. Hopefully some Dukes as well. Should be a fun field trip.’
    ‘We shouldn’t be wasting our time on Mothers and Dukes, we should be targeting military thralls that we can t ame and add to our defensive army.’
    ‘Well, plenty of them too. Of course. But this breeding colony will be producing high-level war demons and if we shut it down, it could gut their military forces.’
    ‘That’s halfway across the continent and on the Earthly Plane. I don’t have a whole day to waste doing this, Rohan.’
    ‘Big Mothers, Michael.’
    ‘You can handle it.’
    ‘And Dukes. And lots of military thralls to tame and present to Dad to add to his own army – you’ll be his favourite son for ages. Come on, man, it’ll be great fun. You haven’t drawn a weapon in anger for weeks.’
    Michael turned to argue with Rohan, and hesitated when he saw his brother’s desperation. ‘You really think you’ll need me?’
    Rohan grimaced. ‘To be honest? Yeah. I could only round up fifteen Horsemen with enough training and none of them are Immortal. We may be a little out of our depth here, man. The scout says there’s some really weird shit happening down there – the scout that returned, that is. Three were stationed in that area and only one came back, and he’s really disturbed by what he saw, and his memory seems to be wiped. The therapists are using hypnosis to help him recall what happened, but there’s something … wrong.’
    Michael held his hand out over the desk and his sword, the White Tiger, appeared on it. He stood and picked it up. ‘How are you planning to travel there?’
    ‘We’ ll borrow one of Dad’s choppers.’
    ‘All right, count me in.’
    Rohan’s expression filled with relief.
    ‘But you’re writing the report for Dad when we get back,’ Michael said.
    ‘Sure, but I could copy the contents of the People’s Daily , hand it to him as a report, and he’d never know, because he never reads them.’
    ‘I know that – I’ve done it too.’
     
    The helicopter landed twenty kilometres away from the caves and Michael and Rohan quietly teleported the squad closer. They walked along the road to the tourist car park, a flat gravel area above the little valley that held the caves. The usual tourist-trap city had been set up, with camel rides and paid photo opportunities, but it was just on nightfall and all the stalls were closed.
    Rohan signalled a couple of soldiers and made them invisible to reconnaissance. The rest of the squad waited quietly until they returned and reappeared.
    ‘No surveillance we can see,’ one of the scouts said. ‘ No guards, no cameras, no civilians. All clear.’
    Michael gestured for them to move out. ‘Number Two on point. I’ll bring up the rear.’
    The squad moved into formation and went down the steps to the caves, which were set into the side of a river valley only a hundred metres across. The yellow earth formed a steep buttress on the other side, and the only greenery was some straggly trees and shrubs clinging to the bottom of the valley and the water from the river. There was no other habitation for kilometres, and nothing grew for a great distance on either side of the little valley. Several archways carved into the rock of the valley wall led away from a wide flat area that overlooked the water.
    Rohan led them into one of the entrances and through the narrow corridors. The cave complex wasn’t large; each opening led to a narrow corridor that went three metres into the hillside, ended with an altar, then looped back out again. Some held brightly coloured Buddhist murals but most were bare rock, scarred where the frescoes had been chiselled away.
    ‘The German archaeologists took them,’ Rohan said as he led the team through the corridor. ‘Took them back to Germany where they’d be