Future Unleashed Read online

  “For you.” Silk pushed her breasts out at me like they were angry. “Why can’t I see your ass? Or the goods up front? Hmm?” I’d had Derin and Scoot fabricate the modified armor in a hurry, and the paint had been dried with a heat gun. The women looked lethal and erotic, a combination that was working for me. As to my own armor, it showed just as much skin, but my assets were quite different. “I’ll take it under advisement.”

  “You better, dear,” Silk said, then her eyes narrowed at the horizon. “They’re getting closer. Almost time for your little show.”

  “I’m ready,” Breslin said from above us. He was in the black armor as well, but it looked like he’d been sewn into his pieces. Breslin was well past two meters tall and muscled like an ox; he carried a massive axe and a shotgun like they were toys. Lasser stood to his right, a tall, dignified figure with a pistol and an expression of intense curiosity.

  We were ready.

  “See any rifles?” I asked, though my augmented sight was better than anyone else in the war party.

  “Nothing. Bows, shotguns. All armed, except for those two. The fat one looks like he’s about to stroke out,” Andi said. Her ‘bots gave her vision nearly as good as mine.

  “That’s the leader and her advisor. Bet on it,” I said. “He looks like a priest.”

  “Or a swindler. Either way, same thing right now. Put on your mean faces. Follow me,” I said.

  Dust began to cascade toward us from the hippos, which were, quite frankly, the most absurd thing I’d ever seen. They were massive beasts covered in sections of white canvas armor, painted with symbols and vines that gave them an almost festive look. Their ears were sunburned pink, their eyes tiny, and several young soldiers walked alongside them, spraying them with water from tanks they carried like backpacks. They came to a stop a hundred meters away, and two kids ran forward with a bundle of sticks and fabric.

  “Parley tent,” Silk said.

  “Huh. Rather formal,” I said. “Spread out. I go alone.”

  “I have them,” Mira said, her fingers edging toward her rifle.

  “Thanks,” I said, because I knew if anyone on the other side twitched, they would sprout fatal holes before their weapons came up.

  The sweating, pudgy man stepped forward under the tent once it was set up, and the leader came forward in gliding steps.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s the ruler,” Aristine said.

  I took the woman’s measure as I walked toward her. She stood under the shade, waiting for me with her hands clasped in front of her. Her hair was red, her skin, tanned, her eyes a luminous dark blue. A smile ghosted at her lips, but then she schooled her exquisite features into a mild scowl as the sweating man unrolled a scroll and prepared to read.

  “Not yet, Stoddard,” she said. Her voice was musical, controlled, and of the same rich quality that Silk spoke with. She was a woman of some power, and used to getting her own way.

  “Welcome to my lands,” I said in an even tone. I looked at Stoddard, who tried his best to sneer, and then at the woman, whose eyes met mine with a steady gaze.

  “Stoddard,” she said, taking the document. I heard Mira muttering in the distance and fought my own smile. The melodrama was interesting, if pointless. Several hippos snorted, and the men near them cut loose with glittering sprays of water. The wind fell to nothing, and it was quiet in The Empty. “My name is Tegan of the Waves, but you may call me your majesty. I’m here for a very specific purpose, and it’s best that you listen as I won’t repeat myself.”

  I turned, shrugged at my people, and returned my attention to Tegan of the Waves, who regarded me with an imperious kind of patience.

  “It’s hot, and your beasts look like boiled lobsters, but sure. I’ll play. Tell me your mission, Tegan of the Waves,” I said.

  Her face went dark at my familiar tone, then she licked her red lips. “I am here to accept your surrender.”

  My laughter rang over the sands like a klaxon, but then I saw her face. “Oh—you’re serious?”

  Tegan straightened herself and tried another sneer, but it rang hollow. “Deadly.”

  “And if I don’t?” I asked.

  She waved airily at her beasts. “I have a thousand more where they came from, and we will leave nothing in our path.”

  I blurred into motion, grabbing Stoddard by the sweat-stoned collar of his gown. Tegan gasped, but I put my hand under her chin so we were eye to eye. She was tall, though not as tall as me. “I refuse your generous offer, and present one of my own.”

  Her face twisted in alarm. The plan in her head was falling apart, and she knew it.

  “And what offer is that?” she said, salvaging some of her arrogance.

  I let Stoddard go, then held out my hand. “Come with me and tell me the real reason you’re here.”

  She wavered, then looked at the rifles, and Breslin, and all of the sand around us. With a tiny nod, she took my hand.

  “It’s okay,” I called back to my people. “She’s coming back with us.”

  Mira, Aristine, and Silk walked forward, with a chuckling Yulin behind them. When they were five meters away, Mira put her hands on her hips, one leg cocked. “What is it with you and beautiful women in the desert, Jack?”

  I shrugged, then flexed the ridiculous armor I was sporting. “Can’t help it. It’s all these assets.”

  4

  Tegan sat primly in a chair, surrounded by my people and her own. We were sipping cold tea under the waving fronds of our forest. Birds called and there was a bustle about us, but it stayed away like water moving around a rock in the middle of a river. The Free Oasis had a vibrant gossip chain, but my people knew when to stay away.

  This was one such time. The Oasis would get its information later on, after I had a civil discussion with the war party who thought they were kings. And an empress, or something at least as impressive.

  Without turning my head, I lifted my voice, but gave no hint of anger. “I’d like a quiet word with our visiting dignitary, if you all please. Silk, take Stoddard to guest housing and get him settled? I’m sure he would love to tell you about their journey.

  In the corner of my eye, Silk took the arm of the plump man, guiding him away before he could protest. She would squeeze every ounce of information from him within minutes, and my other people began to do the same, urging our guests toward the low houses next to a double channel of cool water inside the first, and original, settlement. There was no protest worth noting, though a few of the fighters made token resistance, but then Andi, Yulin, and Aristine whisked them away, powerless to resist their beauty and command presence.

  “We’re alone,” I said simply.

  Tegan regarded me with a cool gaze, but her hands picked nervously at the fabric of her armor, which had an odd kind of green kilt sewn to the bottom of it. Gray and green with silver, against the red of her hair and lips. She was arresting, and she was also nervous.

  “Are you a king?” she asked me.

  I began to answer, but reconsidered. “What do you think a king does?”

  “He rules.”

  “Then yes, I am a king, but it’s not that simple. The Free Oasis is more than something I hold. In fact, I don’t hold it at all. There are certain things I don’t negotiate about, but—”

  “Like what?” she interrupted, eyes flashing. It wasn’t anger. It was interest.

  “Slavery. Free will. Keeping ogres as beasts of burden. Exploiting the weak, in any way. Things like that,” I said.

  “So you see yourself as a knight, like from the old earth?”

  “Now that you put it that way, maybe, though the knights were total bastards who disregarded their own rules when it suited them. I’ll never be tolerant of the world I woke up in, and that’s why I’m changing it. One fight at a time,” I said.

  She nodded slightly at that, then turned her head to listen to some kids yelling as they hauled water three channels over. Their piping voices sounded joyful, not tired. I co
uld tell by Tegan’s expression that meant more to her than my words. I was okay with that. If she was a but cynical, well, she should be. The Empty didn’t breed a lot of trust.

  “Are you really a—an empress? Or a queen?” I asked her. “You look like one.”

  She frowned. “I know I’m beautiful. I’m also not stupid, but looking like this meant I was an afterthought in the politics of the river kingdoms.”

  “Your father? He was a king?”

  “And my mother. Regents of the Bend. They were, anyway, but the Bend is in freefall,” Tegan said.

  “Tell me about the Bend.”

  She leaned back, and I could see muscles move in her arms. She might be a royal, but she was used to hard work, or at least working hard at living. I noticed she held her hands open, the fingers long and strong. Horses, maybe, or a bow or gun. She was no tower princess; that much was obvious despite her beauty.

  “Thousands of people in boats, and hundreds on land. The river was safer than the land, so that’s where my people began our history. On the water. Then, we cut channels inland, made oxbow lakes, and kept building boats to live on because that was what we knew,” she said.

  “How long has your, ah, empire been around?” I asked.

  “Three centuries, and we were stable until sixty years ago. Then things began to unravel, and now, they’re undone.” She sighed, ripe with disgust. “It takes centuries to build something, but two bad rulers in a row can tear it all down.”

  “Your parents?”

  “My mother and father, and my grandmother, too. All vain, small people. Stupid, vicious, caring nothing of our people. Only their legacy, and that was something that faded away even while they argued over larger, finer barges and a horde of people to tell them they were glorious.” She looked like she was going to spit, she was so angry. “I wasn’t lying about the hippos. We have a lot of them, but no means to deploy. Not deep into the desert, anyway. They’re testy beasts, but they’re mine.”

  Her voice rang with pride, and something occurred to me. “Where are they now? The hippos?” I asked.

  “Outside the furthest trees, with their handlers. Why?”

  “When we’re done speaking, we’ll bring them to the south side. There’s a pair of ponds they can wade in—not what they’re used to, but some relief,” I said.

  “Thank you for that.” There was honest gratitude on her face, and I revised my opinion of her yet again. If you cared for your beasts, you couldn’t be all bad.

  “How far away are your lands?” I asked her. I could forward the position to Aristine and the Chain, and see what it meant for us. Expansion was a two-way gambit, and a massive river meant trade, and someday, maybe, access to the ocean.

  And the world.

  “Two hundred klicks to the heart of our empire. We’re east of here, and south. The big river and lake some call the Rote un Taksha, but inside our borders, it’s the Empire of Fangs,” Tegan said with a wry grin.

  “Rather ominous. I take it the fangs are the hippos, and not yours?”

  She smiled to show her excellent teeth. There were no fangs, to my relief. “The lake is filled with beasts, and the river even more so. To those who don’t know the water and ways, it’s a death trap. To my people, it’s how we live.”

  “And your people are in trouble,” I said. It was statement, not question, earning me a somber nod.

  “Which brings me to my purpose, and I hope, a common purpose. I’ve heard stories from reliable traders that you have Hightec beyond anything we’ve seen. I’ve heard, and now seen, that you’re fair, free of a viciousness that is so common among the powerful. You seem to have many women, and people who serve with you willingly, which only confirm my trip here. I don’t want my people to die. I don’t want my empire to slip under the waters and be forgotten. We have so many years of life behind us, and more yet ahead, but we’re coming apart at the seams and I cannot stop it.”

  I let that process, because what I had to decide wasn’t anything small. This woman—this queen, in a way--- was asking me to step in and protect her people. That was what I wanted, because a safe, stable placed to live free was my main goal beyond my own women. I knew that in history, every time a foreign army was invited to help, they ended up being conquerors, hated and eventually back at war.

  I chose my words carefully.

  “Besides river monsters, who are you asking me to fight?” I said.

  Tegan blanched, and I knew that her enemy was nothing to take lightly. When she spoke, it was in the voice of a leader who is putting all her chips on the table.

  “The Procurators,” she said. “And here’s the bad part. It’s only half of them.”

  An hour later, I was watching a pair of hippos submerge themselves in one of our ponds, flipping their silly ears around like pink pancakes as they splashed in relief. The trees kept the pond shaded; the depth kept the water cool. The pond would be fouled, but not for long, and for the beasts, it was worth it. We were careful with our water, and even more careful with living things.

  Tegan stood with a few of her people, eating and talking as the business of the Oasis went on in earnest. Silk sauntered over to her, said something, and came back, a half-smile on her face.

  “She’s quite taken with you. She’s also young,” Silk said.

  “I didn’t think you were the jealous type. My lady,” I told her, taking her hands and brushing the knuckles with my lips. My gallantry knows no bounds.

  Silk’s laugh was musical. “I’m not. But young women are, and she’s no ordinary woman. That’s a royal. She’s spent her life being told she’s beautiful, and also given precious little responsibility right up until she came here to save her lands. Be careful with her, because if I make my mark, she’ll be here with us by autumn.”

  “I haven’t—” I began, but Silk just smiled.

  “I know you haven’t. But she will, because she sees me, and Mira, and Aristine, and she wonders how it all works. Then she looked around and saw the Oasis, and it’s what she wants. For her people, and her own legacy. The conclusion is simple, but the path is hard, and it’s tied to whether or not we can stabilize a massive empire that spans as much land as we do, and far away,” Silk said. Her genius was matched only by her beauty. It was a trait I was learning to recognize in my women, and it made my job easier. Now, I could fight, and harder than ever before, because my plans were understood even before I could make them. That was the beauty of Silk’s intuition, and Aristine’s military skill, and Mira’s unwavering loyalty. They all worked together.

  I was one lucky bastard.

  “Tegan, a word?” I called out.

  She made her way to me with Stoddard in tow, his face still beet red and sweating.

  “Yes, Jack?” Tegan asked. Stoddard mopped his brow in a futile gesture.

  “Tonight, we’ll have a war council. It’s informal, but the decisions we make won’t be. They’ll be deadly serious, and I need all the information I can get to make the right call. Go with Silk, and Aristine will ask you some pointed questions about your land, the people, and the role of the Procurators. Once we all talk, we decide, and then we move. Tomorrow or the next day at latest.”

  “I hadn’t expected that kind of response, but thank you. I’ll do my best,” Tegan said.

  “Let’s go see the General,” Silk said, taking Tegan away with a gentle smile. Stoddard was left behind in a state of mild confusion, but I put him at ease right away.

  “As to you, I have a question. Do you like whiskey?” I asked Stoddard.

  “Like it? I love it. It’s one of the saving graces of a land where fish look at one as food,” Stoddard said with relief.

  “Come with me. I’d like you to meet someone,” I told Stoddard, who lifted his brow with the natural suspicion of a born grifter. “Nothing bad. This is a chance for you to see something important, so you understand what it is you’re getting into.”

  “Me? I’m not—”

  “You serve her, and sh
e’s an exceptional woman, correct?” I asked him.

  “I do.” He stood, eyes narrowed but listening.

  “And forgive me for saying this, but you don’t like physical labor, do you?”

  He looked at his hands, which were pink and soft as a child’s. “I see your point. I’m listening.”

  “Then my natural conclusion is this—if a man who makes his living without hard work decides to travel and, in his own way, protect a young queen, he must see something truly exceptional in her. And this man, who probably wants to live a long, soft life, would be intensely curious about where his young queen will find the means to save her people, because is she fails, he fails, too, but he has no skill to fall back on. No sword to sell, or other skills in a land that chews people up and shits them out by sunup every single day,” I said.

  Stoddard wiped his brow again but more out of habit. “She is rare, and, no, I don’t have a sword or gun to hire out, at least not my own. Never liked killing, nor did I like honest work or sweating in the sun. But I love her, because she’s the last decent one out of a pit of snakes who are ruining the only place I’ve ever called home.”

  I put a hand on his shoulder and smiled down at the rotund man, but not in an aggressive way. I liked him, despite his generally oily demeanor, because he was being honest with me just then. Fear and danger had a way of bringing that out in people.

  We strolled, because I was worried about Stoddard’s health, and also to give him ample time to soak up the atmosphere around us. There was nothing better to show our health than a walk through the heart of The Oasis, surrounded by desert-hardened people living without a sense of impending danger.