Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy (Exodus: Empires at War.) by Doug Dandridge Page B

three
thousand meters a second.  The two to one side were still raising the weapons,
and Angel decided they would be first, since he was already turned their way. 
He lowered his head at the same time that he raised his weapon, not giving the
people behind him a shot at the back of his head.
    The particle weapon
hummed in his hand, sending an angry red beam at a sizable fraction of the
speed of light into the body of the man on the left.  Red steam spurted into
the air as a good sized chunk of the man’s torso disappeared, the fast moving
particles turning their kinetic energy into heat as they burned into the hood’s
body.  A fast sweep and the beam struck the side of the next man’s neck and
then up into his head.  That body part disappeared into steam and exploding
brain matter as the skull blew out from the pressure.
    Something struck Angel
hard in the back, and he grunted from the impact.  One of the hoods had shot
him in the back, but the thin mesh armor under his clothing had stopped it, not
without some of the pain of the impact coming through.  Angel ducked, turned
and rolled as more rounds struck his body.  He came around in a prone position,
firing his pistol as soon as it lined up on the first target that came into
sight, sending another mutilated body to the ground.  A round hit the pavement
less than five centimeters from Angel’s head, and he quickly took care of that
problem before it became too much of a hindrance.
    Devries was coming to
when Angel walked over to him, his eyes still unfocused.  Angel was sure the
man had a concussion, and it would take some minutes before internal nanites
repaired the damage.  The Assassin made sure his three partners were done for,
sending a short burst of protons into each.  The pistol was too hot to
reholster, so he put it down on the ground for a moment while he removed an
injector from his coat.
    “Who the hell are you?”
mumbled Devries, his eyes still unfocused.
    “Your worst nightmare,”
said Angel.  “Just know that you tried to take out the Angel of Death, and your
people paid the price.”
    Devries eyes now showed
panic as he realized who he faced, a legend, and like most legends it was
something he hadn’t really believed in until his face was rubbed in it.  “What
do you want?” he stammered.
    “I want some
information,” said Angel, putting the injector against the man’s neck.  “And
since you decided not to do it the easy way, that leaves the hard way.”  Angel
activated the injector and sent the drug through the skin of the man, sending
him back into the darkness.  He hefted the crime boss over a shoulder and jogged
toward the end of the alley.  He would need a place to work on the man to get
what he wanted, and to make sure he got all that he wanted. 
     

Chapter Six
     
    When confronted with two alternatives, life and
death, one is to choose death without hesitation. Yamamoto Tsunetomo
     
    IMPERIAL CORE SPACE.  DECEMBER 24 TH ,
1002.  D-8.
     
    “They’re hailing us, my
Lord,” said the human Captain, Tom Jasper, turning toward his Ca’cadasan
overlord.
    The light cruiser had
approached from the edge of detection range, speeding in to intercept and
matching course and velocity with the ease of a predator.  They had not
contacted the freighter during the approach, had made no demands for the ship
to decelerate or alter course.  The bridge crew had watched nervously as the
warship moved from the sensor detection and into visual, then moved into the
course that left them apparently motionless in relation to the freighter that
was moving at point eight five light in hyper VI.
    “Of course they are,”
said the large Cacada male.  “Answer them.  You know the procedure.”
    The Captain nodded,
turning back to the holo that showed the enemy ship, matched to their velocity
and seemingly hanging fifty kilometers off the port bow.  The laser rings of
the light cruiser were illuminated.  They were fully charged,