Blade of the Lucan: A Memory of Anstractor by Greg Dragon Read Free Book Online Page B

right eye on the scope.
    Veece was buzzing, and she could see people going about their daily lives within the beautiful arched entrances to the walled city. The architecture reminded her of home. Casanians loved to carve and create arches. She saw diplomats, their alien slaves, and uniformed men and women she assumed were some sort of police.
    She had to take a shot. Though it would seem reckless, she may need to use the rifle at a later date, and she had to make sure that the crystal jump from their galaxy hadn’t thrown off the calibration. She turned the weapon, found a ball that a child had left on the street, exhaled slowly, and then depressed the trigger.
    There was a split second of silence as the near-invisible shot found the ball and then it looked as if it vaporized. Marika lay still, daring not to move, but it appeared as if no one had seen the shot happen.
    “You’re still accurate, big boy,” she whispered to her rifle, and then sat up and pulled her cloak in tighter.
    Her hill was at the end of a thick bit of forestry. There was tall grass and lime-green flowers, large black rocks, and a brook. It was the perfect camping area for an assassin, and it made her wonder who else of the dark profession knew about it. This was an ancient planet with intelligent people. This meant that there would be assassins to hire, rich opportunists to kill, and the likelihood of a vantage point as amazing as hers being well known.
    She weighed the odds. It was too good of a location to pass up, so she pulled out three shiny black orbs that were full of divots, somewhat like a golf ball. She threw one behind her, and another pair to either side. They would serve as radars to tell her if anything tried to sneak up. She then took some grass, and began to weave it into the grooves of her rifle.
    The last thing Marika Tsuno did was to toss a crystal as far as she could towards the city. If a skilled assassin made it past her radar, she could always jump. She wasn’t looking forward to having any of them so close that she would need to consider it, but she wasn’t about to take any chances, not on this strange cold planet of Tyhera.
    She thought to check in on Marian but decided not to. They were Phasers and they both knew what had to be done this day in order to prepare for the future. Marian trusted her to do what she was good at. Checking in would mean a lot of explanation, and the things she did could not be explained, not to one that knew little of the assassin’s way. Marian would hear from her when she was relaxing; for now, Marika must do what she knew how to do, and that was prepare for the perfect murder.
    She laid back down, appearing as part of the bush to anyone who might fly above her or scan the area with binoculars. She knew how to blend and become invisible, and it allowed her to stay up there for the remainder of the day, watching Veece, and taking notes for the eventual tracking and killing of Palus Felitious.

Memory 5
    T he tunnel felt as if it went on for hours. The Deijen, the Tyheran, the rock cat, and the android dared not talk—or growl—for fear of something ahead hearing them. In reality, it was a thirty-minute trek, and when they finally emerged they found themselves outside of an old, burned down city.
    “Cally,” Blu said sadly and turned to gauge Marian’s reaction. “They burned her with many of our friends still asleep in their houses,” he said, shaking his head and petting Nemesis. “It was a sad, sad night, Lady Raf. We all took to the hills like carrion bugs when dawn breaks. A shameful night for the resistance, a night of betrayal, death, and loss. So much loss.”
    Marian touched his big hand and nodded sadly. “We will avenge them, Blu, we will—”
    “How?” He grunted angrily, snatching back his hand with some annoyance and standing in front of her in a way that should have been intimidating. “We are a fifth in number of what we once were, back when we were a mere pain in