New Olympus Saga (Book 3): Apocalypse Dance by C.J. Carella Read Free Book Online

be.”
    Christine blinked away the tears and looked past the grinning bitch sitting on her lap; out of the corner of her eye she saw Baba Yaga licking the blood off her mutant finger. Oh, God . “I get it. I won’t try anything, okay?”
    “That is good.” More orders, and one of the flunkies in the lab coats turned off the force field and picked up the red cube.
    “Open the left hand.” She did, and the flunky put the Codex in it. She clutched at it.
    What if nothing happens? What will they do to me if nothing happens?
    She shouldn’t have worried.
    Something happened, all right.
     

The Freedom Legion
     
    Freedom Island, Caribbean Sea, March 27, 2013
    The trial was a farce pretty much from the start. Alessandra Fiori, code name Hyperia, watched the proceedings until the temptation to just barge in there and start bouncing people off the walls grew dangerously strong, after which she switched off the screen and took a break.
    They were going to railroad John into a quickie execution, and there was nothing she could do about it.
    John’s defense team, the senior partners of Dent, Nelson, and Walters, Attorneys at Law, had done their best. They’d asked for a continuance on the grounds that John was still unable to assist in his own defense, and been denied. Another continuance request to extend the discovery process had also been shot down by the Honorable Judge Jocabed Melendez from the Fourth Circuit Court. This wasn’t the first US trial held in Freedom Island; the US Embassy on the island had its own courtroom just for this kind of situation. Some Neos were deemed too dangerous to be held even in the Pyramid, the Arizona maximum security prison where most parahumans being tried on federal charges usually spent their time before their trials. The Pyramid’s warden had declared he couldn’t guarantee his facility could contain Ultimate, so the trial would take place in Freedom Island.
    They’d probably carry out the sentence on the island as well. Ali had been told the US Executioner General was on his way already, which spoke volumes about the expected outcome of the trial.
      Things were going crazy all over the world. There were demonstrations and vigils happening in most cities in the US and in several places elsewhere, about two-thirds of them in support of Ultimate and the rest against, and there’d been plenty of nasty tussles between the two groups. Freedom Island, ironically enough, did not allow demonstrations anywhere except on specially designated Public Gathering Zones, a ways away from the tourists attractions and main buildings. People trying to start trouble elsewhere had been quickly subdued and kicked off the island.
    They probably should shut down travel for the duration. They had done so for about a week after the attack that had started this mess, but the Council had decided to reopen the tourist trade just a couple of days before the trial started. That had been one contentious chat: Ali had argued strongly against the idea, but she’d been shut down by the others. General Xu had pointedly reminded her she was there only as Acting Councilor because Doc Slaughter had seen fit to nominate her as his temporary successor, and her opinions simply didn’t carry as much weight as that of actually elected Council members. The consensus had been to reopen Freedom Island, mostly as a show of confidence to the world. Only Ali and Daedalus Smith had voted against.
    Daedalus. He’d been monitoring John’s condition closely. Monitoring, or controlling? She couldn’t voice her suspicions, though, not without risking ending up like Doc or John. If someone was truly behind this mess, they could get to anybody. If she couldn’t even trust what she’d seen with her own eyes – John tearing Doc’s suit apart after beheading the man inside – she couldn’t trust anybody or anything.
    The worst part was, she didn’t have any close friends in the Island. Laura Herschel, her manager and confidant,