Warlords race for power while the final battle looms! (Swords Versus Tanks Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

him to a man destined to murder him.
    Edward drew himself up. He jiggled his shoulders the way Marcel used to before a fistfight. Then his right hand dropped to Skyblade’s hilt. "I think I shall simply cut him down out of hand."
    Tom's heart quickened. It was like that time when he and Marcel crept into the ammunition dump. But this was no game. "We’re rather outnumbered, Edward. And everybody seems to be wearing a Red Unicorn – I’m guessing this is a signifier of party allegiance?"
    Edward’s posture shifted subtly. Before the young king could lapse into despair, Tom added, "But a royal court is just a setting for dominance rituals – almost the perfect laboratory."
    "Your pardon?"
    "I mean, stand up to him," said Tom. "You’re the King after all."
    Edward grinned. "You know, I think I shall."

 
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Our greatest synergy is that we elect our own officers.
    — Postmaster General Hamilton, "In praise of the Army of the Egality," (Egality Information Propagation Service, 1932)
    #
    Jasmine leaned on the rail of Airship 02's forward machine gun gantry and raised her goggles.
    Below, in the chequer-patterned Cathedral Square, streams of soldiers trickled between tank carcasses like sand grains blown across an abandoned game of chess. They pooled in the middle around a hacked-up ironclad. Two figures dominated the crowd from the macabre platform: a shambling mountain in combat grey, the other in blue, short and energetic, waving his arms like a squirrel who’d chewed too many coffee beans.
    Jasmine swore. "Postmaster General Hamilton is running against Field Marshal Williams! I should have expected that."
    Lowenstein laughed. "You had other thing on your mind."
    A whistle blew. The engines changed note. The airship wheeled to port, making the gantry creak and sway, and began her corkscrew descent. Below, soldiers abandoned the debate and pointed to the sky. A great murmur rose from the mob, a bass counterpoint to the shrill buzz of the airscrews.
    Now the airship’s nacelle swung west, pointing back over the ruined Cathedral to the Ocean of Thule. Jasmine squinted into clouds. Somewhere out there, the blood-stained Airship 01 limped along on a tank-full of Tolmec alcohol. A thousand miles further off, Wisdom-at-Night ruled her state like a delectable demoness. Jasmine’s tattoo stung and triggered a spike of lust. What were those slender hands doing now? Giving pleasure, plucking still-beating hearts from open ribcages, or both?
    The downwards spiral brought the field-grey mob back into view. Williams was addressing them now, his arms moving up and down like a lethargic fisherman casting a line. At his feet, a knot of Hamilton’s blue-uniformed Security Workers remained impassive, arms ostentatiously folded across their chests.
    Lowenstein touched her shoulder. "Time to warm up for your big chance."
    Jasmine spun to face him. " This is your grand plan?" She’d expected something more devious; perhaps a scheme to put her in charge of field operations, not the entire army. So very many people to get killed. She shook her head. "Even if I could win the election, the Central Committee would never approve."
    Lowenstein’s eyes twinkled behind his goggles. "Approval is not required. The Army of the Egality is out of contact with higher authority. A technical problem."
    Jasmine reeled. She should have realised when the news came over the radio, along with pleas and orders to make all possible speed. The Gate wasn’t broken: Lowenstein had sabotaged it, leaving the army cut off from its supply lines, potentially dooming the people back in the present, but also breaking the political tether to the Central Committee. "You scheming bastard! The first thing I’ll do is have you shot."
    Lowenstein clicked his heels and gave a half bow. "I have the honour to be your scheming bastard." The airship juddered. "And only I can… repair the Gate."
    Jasmine steadied herself on the rail. "That Gate is humanity's only