The Lazarus War: Artefact by Jamie Sawyer Read Free Book Online Page B

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    A blasted scrap of plastic, recovered from a destroyed plasma rifle.
    Some spent solid-shot shell cases.
    My father’s old revolver: an ancient pistol passed down from my grandfather.
    A pink-silver ring set with orange gems.
    Her picture.
    The photo was faded with age: a picture from Azure. The backdrop of blue sky played to the red gloss of her lips, the deep almond of her eyes. Her long, dark hair; always thick with her scent. I touched the image and it sprang to life – mimicking the woman that she had been.
    We had been happy, then .
    I closed my eyes. I had another mission. That was something, but it was a day away.
    I needed another drink.

CHAPTER THREE
A MISSION
    General Mohammed Cole was supreme officer in charge of policing the Quarantine Zone. Colonel O’Neil oversaw Sim Ops – was my real CO – but Cole was his direct superior. If I had a key operation, it was O’Neil that I’d expect to brief me, but it seemed that he had been entirely cut out of the loop. Technically an Army officer, Cole was in command of the combined military effort – not just Sim Ops, but the Alliance Army and Navy. He was answerable only to the joint chiefs-of-staff, back in the Core Systems.
    I sat alone in the waiting room outside his office. It was appropriately plush, with a synthetic-leather couch and artwork on the walls. A flickering hologram of the Alliance flag filled one aspect – all stars and stripes, with a graphic representation of the worlds united under the Alliance government. Old Earth sat at the centre, although in truth that was only half ours. The rest belonged to the Asiatic Directorate – an empire incorporating the Chino Republic, Unified Korea, the Thai Confederate. The planets of the Solar System had long since been colonised and decimated, and instead the triumvirate of Alpha Centauri, Epsilon Ventris II and Proxima Alpha Prime were shown circling Earth. Those were all fittingly oversized orbs, to demonstrate their elevated importance to the Alliance. They were the Core Worlds – densely populated, industrialised, reasonable reproductions of Earth. A number of other planets were also illustrated, although I couldn’t identify them all. There were over three hundred worlds in the Alliance. I sometimes felt like I’d been on too many of them.
    The secretary at the reception desk looked over at me, with a polite smile. Glossy dark hair piled atop a made-up face; fingernails dancing with LED-inlays. She had been watching a newscast on a wall-viewer: something about elections for the Martian government. I returned her smile. I had been waiting for a while.
    A chime sounded. The secretary straightened her back.
    “The general will see you now, Captain Harris. Please come this way.”
    She led me through to the conference chamber. After so many years of fieldwork, my smart-uniform collar was itchy and my dress cap was uncomfortably tight. The techs had never quite managed to make the uniform fit properly: the collar of my shirt always rubbed awkwardly against the data-port at the top of my spine. I hadn’t worn this uniform in years. I felt out of place here. As I followed the click-click of the secretary’s heels, a brief sweat even broke on my brow. Security-drones flitted about us – picturing our faces, conducting body-scans and weapon checks – then darted off elsewhere into the base.
    The conference room doors slid open with a low hum. Two MP guards stood either side of the entrance, armed with shock-rifles, dressed in light body-armour. More soldiers appeared, using a hand-scanner to search me. The secretary smiled politely again, enduring the same routine.
    “You can’t be too sure,” she said. “The Directorate watches, after all.”
    I nodded. The secretary briskly retreated, and the doors closed behind her.
    The general’s room was dimly lit and cluttered. Four men sat at the end of a long dark-wood table. They studied a hologram, thrown up by a projector set into the table. I waited