Krac's Firebrand by S. E. Smith Read Free Book Online

next to him. A silent curse escaped him. This was exactly what he meant by being vulnerable. He had been so focused on Violet, he hadn’t heard Kordon come up on his left side.
    “She is a lot like her mother,” Kordon said, watching as Gracie knelt down so Violet could touch Adam’s cheek. “It is impossible to tell her no.”
    “It was unwise to bring them here,” Krac insisted in a dark voice. “I want to check the surrounding area while you are with the healer. Make sure that your guards stay on alert.”
    Kordon flashed a fierce look at Krac. “I know how to protect my family.”
    “I’m not saying you don’t,” Krac replied calmly. “Something is not right. I can feel it. We are missing something.”
    Krac watched as Kordon’s eyes narrowed briefly before he gave a short, sharp nod. He moved to the side as several of the elite guards moved forward to follow the small family into the lift. Only when the doors closed did he turn away. His gaze swept the lobby once more, pausing on each face for a fraction of a second so he could store the information in case he needed it later. Turning on his heel, he stepped out of the towering building in the center of the Zion capitol.
    Streets filled with activity greeted him. Pulling the hood of his cloak up, he moved down along the wide walk before turning the corner that led between the towering building where he had left Kordon and his family and another. Something was wrong, he could feel it and he was never wrong.
    *.*.*
    An hour later, he stepped back into the medical tower. He frowned as he glanced at his comlink. He had linked it to Kordon’s and told him to contact him when they were ready to leave. He had searched the entire area out to three blocks, slowly increasing his circle.
    His scans did not show anything out of the ordinary. Now, as he stood in the lower lobby, he casually palmed the slim tablet that Kordon had given him to connect into the main communications control tower that monitored incoming and outgoing transports from the planet. He focused, sending microfiber connections from his wrist into the device. Once he had established a link, he quickly bypassed the security settings that were set to limit the end user from accessing other areas of the computer system.
    He leaned back against the wall near the lift as information poured into his brain at a dizzying speed. His eyes lowered as the data poured into his mind. He bit back a groan as the pressure built until his head throbbed painfully. He was about to disconnect the link with an unusual signal caught his attention.
    “Krac! Get your ass up here. Level 26,” Kordon’s voice furiously shouted out in his comlink, breaking his concentration. “We’ve got trouble.”
    Krac turned and slapped his hand over the control panel to the lift even as he disconnected from the tablet. His eyes flew upward as it rapidly descended. The passengers inside gripped the railing on the inside in a panic as it descended faster than normal.
    He slowed the compartment at the last moment and sent an override for the doors to open before it stopped. The five passengers inside tumbled out as he swept past them. The moment he was inside, he sent another command for the doors to close and the lift to rise.
    “What is the situation?” he asked calmly into the comlink, ignoring the sounds of laser fire over it.
    “The guards are down,” Kordon responded. “The nurse is working with the rebels. I’m not sure how many there are. My senior guard was able to alert me before he went down. We are barricaded in the healer’s office. Take a right out of the lift. Go down the corridor and last room on the left. I’m not sure how much longer I can hold them.”
    “I will be there in forty-three seconds,” Krac replied. “Do whatever you have to do to keep your family safe.”
    “What the fuck do you think I’m doing?” Kordon retorted.
    Krac cursed silently when he heard Violet’s scared voice in the background