Zotikas: Episode 1: Clash of Heirs Read Online Free PDF

over end. As it was
they shot by the ragged hole and out of range.
    “Back her off!” Kieler grunted, still on
the floor. “We gotta slow down before we hit the
curve!”
    But Bags was also revved, and though he
pulled back on the throttle, he only did so to neutral. The sled skimmed down
the magnetic track barely slowing. They hit the first curve at still over 400
and were thrown sideways. Kieler smashed his already hurt shoulder and Bags,
straining to stay in his seat, finally reversed the impeller to decelerate
without throwing Kieler through the windscreen.
    Kieler groaned and fell into his seat.
    “Did you get it?” Bags glanced sideways at
him.
    Kieler reached into his jacket and pulled
out the gold and green jeweled star. “I got it.”
    Bags whooped and clapped his friend on the
shoulder, eliciting a wince and a scream. “You ok?”
    “I got stabbed. I think it was Feleanna
Cortatti,” he grimaced.
    Bags eyes went wide. “What! Sorry. But you
did it! You didn’t need good stars, you just needed one good star, and
you got it!”
    “I got it,” Kieler repeated, relaxing as
they slowed to a more controllable speed.

Chapter
Three
     
    Deftly, Bags navigated through a series of quick track
switches toward a little-known passage through the Plate. Kieler watched his
friend enjoying the feel of the nimble craft. They shared a few moments of
elated silence, but as that elation slowly ebbed, Kieler realized he probably
wouldn’t be seeing his friend and former subordinate for a long time.
    Gently Kieler doffed his uniform jacket and wrapped it
around his shoulder. It was still seeping, but the wound was amazingly
straight, as if cut with a surgeon's scalpel. A deeper hit would have easily
killed or dismembered. He shuddered, then winced with the pain of movement.
    Letting the pain subside, he spoke as the craft hissed
quietly in the bottom of the track. “You know, Bags, I’m leaving tomorrow on
this mission. I’ll be gone a long time if things go well; permanently if they
don't.” He let that sink in. “You’re captain of Slink Squad now. You’re going
to have to teach one of the guys to do the driving of this little beast while
you do the leading.”
    Looking sidelong at Kieler, Bags frowned. “ Gotta spoil the fun, eh?”
    They slowed further and Kieler went on. “Yeah, well,
we gotta remember why we fight, each of us. And you
have to remember the motivation of your men, not just yours.”
    His frown turning to a deep scowl, Bags replied, “Mine
I’ll never forget. Someone steals your wife—” Kieler could almost hear Bag’s
teeth grinding. He hated to remind Bags of ugly memories, but those memories
kept a man focused. “I suppose everyone has some reason for hating the
highborns.”
    “Some reasons aren’t as bitter. Take Caprice; he never
knew his parents. He’s just lost. As far as anyone knows he was born under the
Plate.”
    “Yeah,” Bags agreed. “He’s reckless. No family.
Doesn’t really care about living or dying, just what he can get that day.”
    “Yes, but Bags he does have a family now.”
    Bags mused on that as they slowed to a crawl and
pulled into an abandoned warehouse. “Us.”
    Kieler smiled at him. “Remember that and your whole
squad will remember it.”
    They both jumped out and opened a grate in the floor.
Within seconds the two raiders had disappeared from Avertori and were
descending through the Plate.
    This entrance was one of about thirty Kieler knew of,
most of them well hidden. The two men donned their masks and moved quickly
through massive conduits, rubble heaps, and tunnels; always heading down.
Kieler led almost without thinking, winding through the maze in which he'd
grown up. He unsheathed the luzhril shard he'd used on the raid and lit their
way. It didn't pass unremembered that when he had found this passage as a
teenager, he only had a jar of light lugs. The luzhril on the rod had been
given him by Movus much later.
     They leaned sideways as