The Planet Thieves by Dan Krokos Read Free Book Online Page B

angle was too deep to see inside. Mason held his breath, listening. He heard a man’s voice inside the bridge, too faint for any details. No way to tell how many Tremist there were, and how many ESC.
    Merrin stepped into the corridor first, but Mason stayed with her; they could go together. He reached the opposite wall first, and pressed himself to it, then inched closer to the door. The man spoke again: “Who is captain here?”
    â€œI am,” Susan said.
    Mason peered around the corner.…
    And saw his sister, face bruised, on her knees, along with a few other officers he’d seen earlier on the bridge.
    His sister’s eye, the one that wasn’t swollen, found him peeking around the doorway, and the sadness and defeat he saw in it was enough to steal the resolve from the strongest ESC soldier.
    But that wasn’t what made his blood freeze.
    Standing among the Tremist, talon at the ready, was the Tremist King himself.

 
    Chapter Six
    Of the Tremist King, Mason only knew that he wore a long black cape, and that his oval mask was not mirrored like the others’, but rather a perfect black. Like staring into a black hole. His armor wasn’t the standard shimmery purple-black, either, but dark red, like he’d been dipped in blood and left to dry. An image of him had circulated through the ESC with a kill-on-sight order. There was a rumor he once boarded the SS Italy and killed every crew member with his bare hands. When Mason was a first year, an older cadet told him the king liked to eat human skin to become stronger, but Mason hadn’t believed him. Human skin probably wasn’t any more nutritious than anything else.
    And now here the king was, in the flesh, or whatever Tremist were made of underneath their suits. Mason ducked back quickly before the king saw him.
    â€œWhat do you see?” Tom whispered, almost too quiet to hear. The three of them were crouched in the corridor, out in the open.
    Mason shook his head. A choice lay before him. If he could kill the king, that might change the entire war. Like cutting the head off a snake. Yet better soldiers than him had tried and failed over the years. Would the element of surprise be enough to win out? The rest of the Tremist would certainly kill Mason right away, but wouldn’t that be worth it?
    In the ESC they always talked about self-sacrifice for Earth’s cause, but he’d never thought about what that actually meant until now. Susan had told him once that bravery was when you wanted to pee your pants, but you kept fighting. You did the right thing, no matter how much your hands shook.
    Mason could do that. He could try. Peering around the corner again, he saw no one had moved. The king had turned his back, showing his cape.
    Merrin and Tom leaned around the corner above him, so if anyone looked, they’d see three heads stacked together. When they resumed crouching, Merrin and Tom were doing their best impressions of statues, wide-eyed like gargoyles.
    The king! Tom mouthed.
    â€œHere’s the plan,” Mason whispered. “You run back to our room and get the other cadets to the escape shuttles.”
    â€œYou’re not coming?” Merrin said a little too loudly, before clapping a hand over her mouth, which also made too much noise.
    Mason winced, but there were no pounding footsteps heading for them; he was thankful for the continual background thrum all ESC ships made while powered up.
    â€œIt doesn’t make sense for all of us to get captured.” He didn’t add or killed .
    Merrin shook her head. “We all go, or we all stay.”
    Then, from the bridge, Mason heard someone say, “Captain, I’ve given you three minutes to confess.”
    â€œI don’t care how much time you give me,” Susan said.
    â€œTell me where the weapon was moved to.” It was the king; Mason was sure. His voice came out oddly cold and crisp, like a computer-generated voice; it