The War of Pawns (The Human Chronicles -- Book Three) Read Online Free PDF Page B

years from your current position.”
    “They are in a Class-5 starship, just as we are. My forces will have to run all out to catch them.”
    “I understand that. Do what is necessary, Commander. That is all.”
     

    Once the screen went blank, Lod-fin sprinted for the grooming station once again. This time he had the added element of his new assignment to help summon forth the surges from his rotted gut …

 

    Chapter Four
     

    Nigel McCarthy heaved the fifty-pound weight across the room and through the opposite wall of the gym. The metal barbell crashed through the thin material as if it wasn’t there, and landed on the moist grass outside. Several Klin were in the field at the time, and Nigel could see their shocked looks through the hole in the wall the barbell had left. Once they noticed Nigel staring wild-eyed at them from the room beyond, the Klin quickly moved away and out of his line of sight.
    Gaining only an ounce of satisfaction from the scared looks on the faces of the aliens, Nigel turned to the other Human in the room. His assistant, Carter Thomas, did not show any reaction to the outburst by his boss, or any unease. Even though Nigel was tall and massively-built, with a fiery crop of ginger hair, Carter still made Nigel look like a school boy next to his own hulking mass of black, bulging muscles.
    “How the fuck did this happen?” Nigel spat out between gritted teeth.
    Carter didn’t bother to look down at the datapad he carried; he knew the report inside and out. “It seems as though Cain and Tarazi were able to free a number of the non-converts and escape in the Juirean cruiser. They even managed to take a few 2G’s with them.”
    “Where are they now?”
    “Our sensors at the Barrier picked up their gravity wave…heading for Sector 12.”
    “Fuck!” Nigel slammed his massive fist into the heavy bag that hung from the ceiling next to him, sending a sound like a gunshot reverberating throughout the gym. The bag swung away, and then returned; Nigel grabbed it and squeezed as hard as he could. “They must have learned the location on Z-4. They’re going to ruin this whole goddamn thing!”
    “They have to be stopped. We can’t allow them to reach Earth before the Juireans.”
    Nigel glared at him. “Don’t you think I know that? What assets do we have available between the Barrier and the outer perimeter?”
    “Not many. Most of our forces are already on station. But there is a small Klin outpost near Jaann.”
    “Any 2G’s with them?”
    “Some, and they have a couple of old Klin ships there as well.”
    “But can they take out a Juirean battlecruiser? I doubt it,” Nigel said, answering his own question.
    “What about a suicide mission?” Carter said evenly. “Just get them in close enough, and then set off a nuke?”
    “Are these 2G’s Kamikazes?”
    “No. But we could always have the Klin rig a detonator, unknown to the 2G’s.”
    Nigel stared back at his subordinate, this time with a thin grin stretching across his freckled face. “You are one devious son-of-a-bitch, aren’t you? I like it. Make it happen.”

 

    Chapter Five
     

    Adam Cain found Sherri in the aft port corridor, emerging from the stateroom presently occupied by Billy Piscopo, one of the men they had rescued from Zylim-4. Her hair was mussed, and there was a reddish glow to her cheeks.
    “There you are,” Adam said, stepping in stride beside her as she proceeded forward toward her own stateroom. The Juirean battlecruiser was so large that the rescued Humans, as well as Adam’s group, could each have their own individual staterooms. The 2G prisoners, however, were kept in two secure rooms near the aft cargo bay.
    Sherri glanced over at Adam and saw the look on his face. “Don’t judge me, Adam.”
    “I didn’t say anything.”
    “But I know what you’re thinking. You’re on the way back to your wife and kid. I have no one to return to.”
    “I thought you had a fiancé.”
    Sherri just