Assassination Game by Alan Gratz Read Free Book Online

“But not now. You’re expected inside the kennel. Here. Me and the boys got you a little something.”
    The chief pressed a studded dog collar into Kirk’s hands, and the two security officers by the door laughed.
    The door to the Varkolak compound slid open, and there stood a ferocious-looking wolf-man with a white ring of fur around his neck. Lartal.
    The security officers stopped laughing, and Kirk hastily stuffed the collar into his pocket.
    “Kirk,” Lartal said, growling his R s. “You are on time. Good.” Lartal sniffed disdainfully at the chief, baring his teeth. “Leave us!”
    The chief swallowed a comeback. “Good luck, Kirk,” the chief told him. He glanced at where Kirk had hidden away the collar. “Be sure to use that if they go chasing after hovercars.”
    The chief left, and Kirk stepped inside. Lartal and two Varkolak—the same two who had been with Lartal in the conference room? It was hard to tell—were in a small common room shared by four bedrooms. The room smelled like wet dog, and there was hair all over the furniture.
    Lartal gestured to the table. “Would you like some breakfast?”
    Kirk saw the plates of raw meat, and his stomach turned. “No, thanks. I just ate,” he lied.
    The other two Varkolak laughed, like hyenas, but they quieted when Lartal shot them a look.
    “Your chief. His comment about hovercars and the leather strap he gave you. It is a reference of some kind to the domesticated canines of your world?”
    Quick decision , thought Kirk. Lie or tell the truth?
    “Yes,” Kirk said. He took the collar out of his pocket and tossed it onto the table. “It’s a dog collar. On Earth, dogs are notorious for chasing anything that moves. Especially cars.”
    The other two Varkolak sneered and growled, but Lartal silenced them. He nodded. “Good. Let there be no lies between us, Kirk. You dislike us, and we dislike you. I asked for you because you do not hide behind words, like your chief. And unlike all the other humans, you do not reek of fear.”
    “What can I say? They were all out when I went into the perfume store.”
    Dr. Lartal picked up something that looked like a tricorder from a table at the back of the room, hooking it onto his belt. Kirk wondered if it was one of the incredibly accurate sensing devices the Varkolak were famousfor. The only thing the Federation knew about how they worked was that they used kemocite for a power source. The rest was a mystery—one Federation scientists salivated over.
    “I am ready to leave,” Lartal said.
    Kirk wasn’t looking forward to this—not because he would be escorting a Varkolak around all day, but because it was going to be boring . The medical conference didn’t start until tomorrow, thankfully, but Starfleet had arranged for tours of the Academy’s medical research facilities today for all the attendees. Kirk was in for a day of medical discussions and biobed demonstrations. Why couldn’t Bones have been the one Lartal wanted?
    “All right,” Kirk said. “The first tour of the morning is the obstetrics facility. After that, we’ve got the psychiatric facility, then the—”
    “No,” Lartal said. “I would like a tour of the campus.”
    “You … don’t want to go on the medical tours?”
    Lartal frowned. At least, Kirk took his expression to be a frown. “No. Come.”
    The two other Varkolak stood to go with them, but Lartal told them to remain behind. They whimpered objections, but he barked something in Varkolak, and they sat back down at the table.
    All right, then , Kirk thought as Lartal marched past him out of the room. Maybe I’m going to need that leash after all .

    Hikaru Sulu’s helm console lit up like Shibuya at night. Red-alert klaxons wailed and the bridge shook as the inertial dampeners tried to compensate for the phaser blasts raining down on the Yorktown .
    “Heading one-one-three, mark eight!” Viktor Tikhonov shouted from the captain’s chair. “Evasive maneuvers! Pattern