Queen of Mars - Book III in the Masters of Mars Trilogy Read Online Free PDF

engineering that is
all too evident. There are hints that he was being driven to build
these destructive devices by a malevolent force – though we don’t
know what that was.” He smiled faintly. “What it does tell us is
that the Old Ones were not immune to war or cruelty, just as we are
not.” His eyes took on a faraway look. “There are hints at other
storehouses of knowledge which we have not yet discovered...”
    “Let them stay hidden, then.”
    “Would you have creatures like Frane make use
of such power, instead of the republic?” he asked.
    I pursed my lips, because I had no
answer.
    “I fear we will miss old Xarr greatly. I know
very little of military matters, and I don’t much understand this
move of Frane’s, to fight a great open battle when she has a stolen
weapon to draw on.”
    “What exactly did she obtain by taking over
the Science Guild facility at Solis Planum?”
    Newton’s eyes darkened. “The last remaining
concussion bomb on Mars, like the one which destroyed the city of
Burroughs in the First Republic War. It was kept for research
purposes, and now it is in her hands. There was an aerial machine,
very fast, as well as a few ground transports. It is the concussion
bomb that worries me most of all.”
    “What will she do with it?”
    “I don’t know, but I believe she must be
stopped before she has a chance to use it.”
    The rest of our trip home was spent in
troubled silence.
    X arr’s absence was
already making itself felt. There had been defections from the
army, many of them F’rar. I was introduced to the feline who would
take the old general’s place, a much younger man in a crisp new
general’s uniform. He was prim and proper, with slicked back black
fur and pink eyes, and looked to me to be putting on an act, though
I learned later that he had fought hard in the first two Republican
Wars – on the side of the F’rar. I did not like him.
    “And so,” he said, for at least the tenth
time, pointing to a spot on his tenth chart, a map of the Valles
Marineris region that I had to admit was detailed, “we will draw
Frane like a magnet toward the great chasm, and merely” – he made a
dismissive gesture with his paw – “push her in!”
    “You make it sound so simple, General Reis.
Tell me, how do you propose to, as you say, ‘draw Frane like a
magnet’ toward the canyon?”
    “It is simple, your majesty,” he said,
swelling up like a proud peacock. “She is already heading
there!”
    “And how long will it take her to reach
Valles Marineris?”
    “A matter of weeks, your majesty.”
    “And your army will be there, waiting for
her?”
    “Well...” He averted his eyes, pretending to
study his chart.
    “How large is our army, after recent
defections?” I asked, keeping my voice level and businesslike.
    “Those...figures are changing daily, your
majesty.”
    “Today’s figures, please, general.”
    Without looking at me, he pretended to rifle
through a stack of papers next to his chart. “That would be...”
    “Let me give you today’s figures,” I said.
“While Frane is at this point leading an army of ten thousand
Baldies, with more arriving daily, the Army of the Second Republic
stands as of this morning at eight thousand, seven hundred and
fifty, with a defection rate of one percent per day. Does this
sound correct?”
    “I would say...” he nodded. “I would say that
sounds correct, yes, your majesty.” He turned from his papers to
look at me hopefully. “But—”
    “The word ‘but’ does not exist in this room,
general. We both know that if you were to give the order this
afternoon to march, with far garrisons joining you on the way, you
could not reach Valles Marineris, or wherever Frane chooses to
fight, in less than four weeks! And that’s at a forced march pace,
with defections bleeding away your army even as it’s replenished.
The defections we will work on. But the plain fact is that Frane
will choose the battlefield, and will be