Shadows Bear No Names (The Blackened Prophecy Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

Ray hesitantly stepped forward—it was the real Dr. Sanders, swimming in a pool of blood. Her neck was torn apart. Ray looked at his own cut; her wounds were from a scalpel, like his.
    He pushed away the swirling questions in his head, tried to ignore the body and moved forth to the engineering deck. The escape pod sat idling inside the workshop, blinking yellow arrows showing the way to the hatch. There were bloodstains all over the place, likely Sanders’ or Rahul’s, but Ray didn’t see anyone else. He could hardly keep his eyes open and every step was harder than the last, his feet feeling like boulders he had to move.
    When the ship trembled again, he was almost at the shuttle. The shake made him hit his chest violently on the shuttle frame. Ray tried to scream in pain but blood spouted from his mouth instead, making each breath he tried to take a guttural sound.
    With one last push of his limits, he pulled himself into the escape pod. Every move was a battle against intolerable agony, but Ray somehow clung to his senses. He let the seat fasten his belt automatically. He wasn’t sure if he’d pressed the launch button but the pod’s thrusters’ deafening sound answered his curiosity and their final push was his last conscious moment. His head hit the seat back and everything dimmed out, his body pulling the plug.
    As the pod left the tube, the lifeless voice of the ship’s computer echoed in the empty corridors of the dead ship.
    “Warning; stabilizer failure. Uncontrolled descent.”
    The answer was a disturbing, growling outcry.

Chapter THREE
    A GOLD MINE
    The screen before her flickered and a man appeared. “Miss Zane.”
    Sasha leaned toward the screen. “Sasha Zane here, Sir.”
    She was particularly excited today, itching to give the good news to her master. Years of planning, scheming, infiltrating was now turning into something solid. A stream of golden promises had kept her from giving up against the extremely low odds of success. That, and the fear of her master.
    “Report.”
    “The Canaar has crashed as planned. The sabotage was successful.”
    “Any survivors?”
    Sasha winced. “The data received is unclear. The ghost was activated prematurely and it didn’t make contact. I hacked into Consortium’s log server and intercepted an emergency broadcast from Canaar . A pod was fired right before the crash. It could be a malfunction. Most of the message was corrupt beyond recovery.”
    “Was there any occupant data?”
    “Yes, one Captain Raymond Harris. Male, forty, from Leeds, Earth. But there’s no mention if the pod survived the crash.”
    It was impossible to make out the face of the man Sasha talked to. She didn’t know his name, not even an alias. His voice was gloomy, and distorted as if several different people were talking at the same time, a precaution to hide his identity. The man didn’t say anything for a while. She knew her collaboration was a one-way trip that wouldn’t end well if she failed now. No, it had to be seen to the end and she meant to keep it up. The glory promised in return was huge. Things she wouldn’t be able to achieve even in ten lifetimes. A gold mine.
    Sasha did the same thing when talking to other contacts, morphing her voice. It was necessary to operate in the murky depths. Soon the days of secrecy would be over. Until then, caution was needed. Too many things were at stake. A gold mine.
    Sasha almost jumped when the man spoke again.
    “Thank you for your input, Miss Zane. I will see you are justly rewarded for your valuable efforts. And what of the Sun Towers and the Temple of Light?”
    There was no hint of feeling in that voice. What mattered to the man were results. He didn’t care about methods or expenses. As long as Sasha didn’t endanger the plan, she was free to operate at will. She had basically made a fortune already simply by showing extras in her reports. After all, she had to keep herself afloat if things didn’t go as planned. The