Nemesis: Book Five Read Online Free PDF

were dealing with here. Not a human war, not we install a government when we bomb your place to rubble. This was it. The Final Solution, only instead of Hitler's focused genocide, this time it would encompass the entire human race.
    "Yes, sir," Knox said. "I'll start making our preparations."
    "Good. Other generals are flying in now, and should be here within the hour," Trone said.
    Somehow this man reminded Knox of Marks. He was too calm right now, leaning back in his chair with hands folded in his lap. And Knox, the one who had been to war, seen body parts scattered around grass like Easter eggs, felt the end in the pit of his stomach.
    "Sir, how are you so calm right now?" Knox said, discarding propriety.
    Trone didn't say anything immediately, only held that hundred yard gaze.
    "I suppose," he said, "I've been waiting for this opportunity for a while."
    "Excuse me?"
    "You're not a politician, General Knox. We … all have dreams, I guess. The ultimate being the seat I'm now in. The Presidency. I've prepared my whole life for this, and I don't plan on squandering the opportunity we have. We're going down in history as the men who saved the human race."
    Knox nodded, unsure how to respond. Politicians … he always thought they were scum, but he understood now. The man was calm because at least part of him wanted this to happen. A part of him wanted this threat under his watch, because in the end, they all want glory. Trone had never seen war, so he couldn't understand what it meant. He hadn't seen the alien's power, so he didn't understand the threat. Instead what he saw now was opportunity, a chance for him to make his mark on history.
    Knox wasn't stunned. Nothing in this affair could stun him any longer.
    "Yes, sir," Knox said.

    * * *
    E ven now , Will watched Marks smile. A cage trapping him just like a rat, and yet he stared directly at Will's catatonic body with that million dollar grin.
    Will had stared at Marks for the past two hours, unable to do anything else. The alien was done here, Will felt that completely; she was no longer interested in Marks, but Will couldn't regain control. So he sat and stared, and Marks stared right back at him, blinking every now and then, but otherwise still and silent.
    And then, as if struck by an idea from heaven, Marks spoke.
    "Can you hear me?"
    Only silence answered him.
    "I think you can. I think you're the same as the kids you found out there. I don't think she murders you, just kind of pushes you to the side. Is that right?"
    Marks stood up, lifting his arms into the air so that his fingers nearly touched the top of the cage. He stretched for a solid five seconds and then walked forward, closer to Will.
    "I have a pretty decent plan lined up, though I don't think you're going to play a part in it, unfortunately. The difference between us, Will, besides the obvious intelligence factor, is that I'm indispensable. The world will spin without you, but if I step out, as I've done now, everything will come to a halt very quickly."
    He looked to the door across the room.
    "They don't realize it yet, that's why I'm in here. I never liked the sitting President. He didn't understand my indispensability, and when he didn't, none of his administration could either. So I took care of two things at once; I killed Hayley, and now I get to show them that they can't live without me. I don't mean that in a hyperbolic sense; they're going to discover quite quickly that everyone on this planet will die if I'm not let out of this cage and given control."
    Marks quit talking and his words hung in Will's brain like light from a dirty bulb. The light didn't reveal Marks' whole plan because dirt clouded much of it, but it revealed enough. Hayley dead? A Presidential assassination? And the man who did it stood in front of Will, grinning.
    "You're going to get to watch it happen. Or at least watch me leave this cage, though I doubt you'll be able to turn your head to watch me leave this room. A free