Crimson Rising by Nick James Read Free Book Online

finding him—hell, getting to him—seems impossible.
    There’s a long pause. For a second I think Cassius has switched off his communicator. “Cassius?”
    “I’ve gotta go, alright?”
    “Is there anything I can do to help you?”
    “From Siberia?” He laughs. “Doubt it. You focus on your end. Call me when you’ve got answers.”
    I nod, not that he can see it.
    He grunts. Or maybe it’s a cough. It’s hard to tell over the communicator. “I’ll talk to you when I know things are safe.”
    “Alright.” That’s about all I can expect from my brother right now. But things are never safe. Not with him.
    The static fades and the line goes dead. I turn off the communicator and flip over on my back, staring at the ceiling. I close my eyes and try to visualize that coastline again. It appears in front of me, one little piece at a time until I recall the entire horizon. Problem is, there’s not much to see. It could be any stretch of land. The whole of this country’s crammed with coastline. If I’m gonna risk my butt hijacking a shuttle to go exploring, I’ve got to be absolutely sure that I know where I’m going. There can’t be mistakes. I can’t give Alkine time to find me and bring me back.
    I try to wind around inside my little vision, see if the image will let me zoom out and reveal a path to our Skyship. No luck.
    Water. Rocks. That’s it.
    I open my eyes and notice a ball of red light blotched on the ceiling—a flash like the ghost image left behind after looking at a lightbulb for too long. Another second and it’s gone. I continue to stare, squinting to see if I can make the red appear again. It doesn’t.
    Water. Rocks. Red. My mind’s playing tricks on me. Maybe it’s an aftereffect of the meds Alkine pumped into my system last night. Or maybe I’m just going crazy.
    I sigh, trying to forget the entire thing. That’s when my bracelet starts to hum.

6
    Cassius deactivated the communicator and clicked it to his belt, letting his tattered jacket conceal as much as possible. It was his only important possession, and now that he had it, he could leave.
    He crouched behind a row of overflowing trash cans, perched diagonally across from the half-collapsed building he’d called a home for the last several weeks. He needed to take a moment to catch his breath and prepare for the long journey out of the city, but more than that, he’d had an idea.
    Being the victim of subterfuge had taught him a trick or two, and once he’d recovered from the panic on the coast, he remembered his training. Fleeing without gaining information on his pursuers would be a wasted opportunity. The more he learned, the better he’d be able to defend himself. And if someone from the Unified Party knew that he was in Providence, they’d likely know which building he lived in as well.
    So far the morning had proven fruitless. People littered the street before him, crawling out of their dank, miserable little hobbles for another day in hell. The entire place stunk of garbage and feces, both animal and human. Cassius had just about gotten used to it, much as he hated to admit it. It was a far cry from the sterile grounds of the Lodge—the private chefs and hot showers and endless credit. But it was how it should be now, after Seattle. He didn’t deserve those things, not after everything he’d done.
    He brushed thoughts of Fisher from his mind. He could never tell if his brother was being serious or not, especially about coming aboard Skyship Academy and playing happy family. It rang suspiciously of a trap, but maybe that was Cassius’s default mode. Everything was a trap. He watched a crowd of children kick a brown, dirt-covered soccer ball through the streets, blissfully unaware of a Serenity deal going down in the far alley. Then, a dark figure entered the street.
    Its combat suit was black from head to toe, its face obscured by a mask seamlessly connecting with the rest of the outfit. With all of the protective