War Factory: Transformations Book Two Read Online Free PDF Page A

and human DNA combined in such an unfeasible way that there has to be picotech processes behind it.”
    “You have dispatched this?” asked the cold one.
    “I have.” The man frowned. “And have you dispatched some backup for me?”
    “The drone Arrowsmith will be joining you directly, along with a Sparkind squad inclusive of two Golem twenty-eights.”
    “Good.” The man nodded. “And about fucking time. I’m presuming, then, that you got confirmation on my previous report?”
    “I did—there is no doubt that Father-Captain Sverl visited Penny Royal’s planetoid.”
    There was a brief hiatus in the recording, then I was viewing footage taken decades later. The man in the shiny suit didn’t look any older, just more evil.
    “The drone Arrowsmith is staying, but I’m pulling the rest of my team out. It’s a bust. It’s only a matter of time before Cvorn gets a kamikaze through and fries us all. Sverl just won’t be able to intercept everything Cvorn throws at him and afterwards he’ll probably go after Cvorn—enough of the prador remains in him to want vengeance.”
    After seeing these recordings, I mentally reviewed data on the events about the Rock Pool, a world deep within the Graveyard. I had visited it only once, when buying the second-child mind Flute now aboard my ship. I then updated on the news filtering through. Sverl had defended the world for months from various types of prador kamikaze attacks, and ships had eventually arrived to evacuate the people from there. That, as far as I could gather, was how the situation presently stood. There were of course questions to ask. Cvorn’s attempt to wipe out a human colony could be due to his simple prador xenophobia and aggression. However, why was Sverl defending it? Because he was more human? I found that notion blackly amusing.
    Then there were new worries for me to mull over. Flute, my ship AI, ran additional AI crystal, which had raised his intelligence. It had come from this Sverl, who in turn had had dealings with Penny Royal in the past. My amusement at the previous notion disappeared as I considered how everything Penny Royal had touched simply could not be trusted, could not be taken at face value, and that included me.
    I returned to the moment.
    “Another Penny Royal mess?” I suggested.
    “So it would seem,” Riss replied, “and could signal where Penny Royal is heading now, don’t you think?”
    I turned to study the drone. “How did you get hold of this stuff?”
    Riss blinked her black eye. “I still have my contacts.”
    I realized she hadn’t blinked, but winked.
    “Even after the years you spent in a coma, out by Penny Royal’s planetoid?”
    “Even so,” Riss agreed. “As I told you before, AIs don’t have human problems with time.”
    “So perhaps these contacts are related to your previous employment, considering parts of the recording?”
    “You got it.” Riss dipped her head solemnly. “I was the assassin drone who infected Sverl with the parasite that almost destroyed him. And my contacts are erstwhile war drones now employed by Earth Central Security. These ECS drones have been keeping watch for anything concerning Sverl and over the years have relayed it to me.”
    It was a lead, of sorts, and worth investigating. Now, having decided to leave Masada and find Sverl, I was anxious to be gone. Anything that could lead me to Penny Royal gave me hope—as my desire for revenge, for its slaughter of eight thousand troops during the war, was undimmed. Yes, undimmed. I was sure . . .
    “I think we’re done here,” I said.
    “At last,” said Riss, then looking behind me she added, “Are you coming?”
    I turned round to see Amistad, completely rebuilt and standing just a few paces away. Riss’s offer immediately annoyed me and, opening a private channel to the snake drone, I made my thoughts known to her, avoiding the need to speak.
    “ I’m not so sure this is a good idea, ” I said.
    “ Understandable