Atlas: Infinity Verge Trilogy: Book II Read Online Free PDF

goat-legged man gleamed in the light. The imp danced across his right bicep complete with a wooden flute and music notes. It was a symbol of his time as a SATYR operator; he had been a communications expert.
    Abel’s intelligence and savvy for technology had allowed him to serve in a number of capacities during his time with EFNF. He had been part of the incursion against the Quintarran people at Quintar V. That was when they had still been under the influence of the AI before humanity had ever known there was an AI.
    Abel considered the monuments of skin and scar on his body and wondered where the monument to Zee was. The loyal Quintarran had been more than a friend, he had been a brother. Abel felt that Zee needed to be honored by more than a tattoo. Zee could only be honored in deed. Abel felt he held a life-debt to Zee as Zee had once claimed he owed Abel. If Zee could, he would disagree. To Zee, the debt had been paid in full when the Quintarran gave his life. Abel wasn’’t so sure about that.
    He pulled on a shirt and grabbed his long coat from the back of a chair. He swung into the coat and let it hang open. Abel checked his holster again, still uncomfortable with how light and empty they felt. He put all thoughts of Zee aside and dug his hands into his pockets. Abel stood there for a moment contemplating what his life was now. He did not know.
     

3: LAST YEAR
     
     
    Eden - Border Towns: The Silent Territory
    2972 ESD - One Year Ago
     
    Breaker Jones lay in a heap, propped against the hull of a dilapidated spacecraft.
    Everything is crap on this planet, the brief thought crossed his mind.
    The scene of carnage before him focused. The junkyard was full of derelict vessels, some in a state of disrepair and others in complete disarray. It struck him as ironic. He considered his broken form. He felt weak and aged. The bloodied forms of his gang lay silently, strewn across the square - like dewdrops in the mist of life.
    Abel Cain had bested him yet, again and again, left him hanging onto life by a mere thread. He felt like a mad man gripping the edge of the cliff knowing he is dead already. Breaker felt the mad man creeping into his mind now. He wasn’t Mr. Jones anymore. He wasn’t anything anymore. Feebly, he held onto the hope he would somehow manage to survive the latest encounter with Abel Cain. A singular moment of clarity flashed in his mind.
    How fine this Monday had begun and how horribly wrong it has gone, he thought.
    Breaker did not blame Abel. Like many others the man just wanted to survive.
    No , he thought, it is all Mercury’s fault . That devil .
    His blood began to soak the snow beneath him. The mixing of his blood and the snow created a sickening slush. Slush he was forced to rest in. He tried to adjust himself, using the wall of the wreckage as leverage. He felt the bones in his legs crack and he groaned.
    It was a disturbing sound, like a harsh guttural rattle of fluid bubbling up through his throat. His ragged, raspy breathing choked off in short spurts of brown black fluid. Breaker knew some part of the SATYR armor Abel had been wearing was now embedded in his lung, among other parts of his body.
    Breaker Jones accepted his defeat. In truest form the elusive and capable Abel Cain had bested him, even with Breaker’s greater numbers. He contemplated his future, however short it might be, and wished that he could have one last cigar or one last woman. Sure, the Dixie blonde from earlier this fine Monday had been skilled. He had certainly enjoyed the subtle maneuvering of her tongue, but he had been interrupted.
    Interrupted by Mercury Frinz, he growled in his thoughts.
    The stark black fungus that passed for tobacco on Eden tasted like dung and burned like wildfire in one’s lungs, but Breaker desperately wanted, at least, one last draw. He coughed violently and he lamented at the dark red, almost brown splatter ejecting from his lips. The black was better, at least then he knew it was