“I
don’t mind a little embarrassment, Colonel,” the Emperor said, “as long as I
have a willing scapegoat I can blame it on. Some functionary who will fall on
his sword for the greater good of the Empire and a guaranteed lifetime of
wealth.”
“Yes
sir, Your Highness, sir,” was all Mahoney said. When the boss wanted the floor,
it was best to give it to him.
“For
someone to steal an entire spacetrain of Imperium X would be blow enough,” the
Emperor said. “But we’d just be talking piracy and they’re all insured for
pirates.
"It would shake the drakh out of the insurance companies, but I could shore them up with a little creative bookkeeping.
"It would shake the drakh out of the insurance companies, but I could shore them up with a little creative bookkeeping.
“Meanwhile,
I’d send a cruiser – hell, I might send a whole clotting fleet – and I’d kick
some pirate ass and get the Imperium X back. Put the proceeds in the royal treasury to
offset all those credits I’d spent.”
He
sighed, took a pull on the mug, then said, “But it wasn’t pirates that stole a
two-hundred-kilometer-long ore train. No, it was a group of my very own beings.
True blue and loyal Imperial merchantmen who proved to be vipers. Traitors.”
And
he almost spit the last – “Mutineers.”
Once
again, silence reigned.
Mahoney
waited to make sure.
“I’m
done, Ian,” the Emperor said. “Now, tell me what we’re up against. What are
their latest demands?”
Mahoney said, “Sir, they claim
they’ve got a handsome offer from those rogues over in the Possnett Belt. A fortune in credits, Your
Majesty, plus asylum – from us.”
“I’m not surprised,” the Emperor
said. “All that Imperium X. The second most valuable commodity in my Empire.”
Mahoney nodded. It went without
saying that the most valuable
commodity was AM2. The stuff that fueled the Empire. But without Imperium X as
the shield, Anti-Matter Two was useless. And without AM2 – the ultimate energy
source - the Empire would collapse.
He said, “What they want from us is
to better the deal.” After a pause, he added, “And they want amnesty.”
The Emperor glared at Mahoney.
“Amnesty?” he said. “I’ll give them amnesty. I’ll have them skinned alive. I’ll
have them drawn and quartered. I’ll have them-”
He broke off. Drained his glass. Muttered to himself.
He broke off. Drained his glass. Muttered to himself.
Mahoney frowned. “Drawn and
quartered, sir?”
The Emperor waved the question
away. “I hope you have a plan, Ian.” His tone was icy.
“I do, sir,” Mahoney said. “At
least the beginnings of one. As you know, sir, if they spot us coming, they’ll
just go over to the pirates. Sell their goods and pickle their livers for the
rest of their lives.”
“Which is why I’m meeting with you
right now, Ian,” the Emperor said, “and not a table-full of generals and
admirals. We need sneaky, here, and you give good sneaky.”
“Well, sir,” Ian said, “If you
really want sneaky it so happens we have a Mantis team in the area. Just over
by the Lupus Cluster.”
The Emperor frowned, then
remembered. “That young lieutenant,” he said. “The one who handled the Wolf
Worlds matter so handily. His name was… Sten. Yes. That’s it. Sten.”
“The very one, sir,” Mahoney said.
The Emperor frowned. “I thought I
had him promoted to captain,” he said.
“You did, sir.”
“And wasn’t I going to put him in
charge of my Gurkha guard?”
“You were, sir.”
The Emperor’s brow cleared. “Ah, I
recall now. All that trouble broke out in the Frontier Worlds. Greedy mining
companies. Smugglers. Pirates. So I thought it best to freeze him in place.
Keep him handy for when we needed him.”
“Yessir. That was the decision,
sir.”
“How wise of me,” the Emperor said.
“Indeed it was, sir,” Mahoney said.
He paused, then added. “I thought it best not to mention his impending
promotion until the situation changed, sir. Besides, the seasoning will do him
good.”
“If I were young Sten,” the Emperor
said, “I’d be pretty ticked off that I didn’t get any recognition for cleaning
up that Lupus Cluster mess.”
Mahoney sighed. “He probably is,
sir,” he said. “But he’s a soldier and he has to learn to just suck it up.
Besides, I’ll make it up to him later.”
The Emperor shrugged. “Well, ticked
off or not, he’s just where we need him and he’s the perfect choice to clean up
this brand new mess.”
“Yessir,” Mahoney said.
“Okay, Ian, with Sten we have a
good start.” The Emperor said. “Talk to him and see what that nasty Mantis
brain of his can come up with. Give him carte blanche to act as he sees fit.”
“Yes sir,” Mahoney said. “Right
away, sir.”
He started to rise. The Emperor
motioned for him to sit. He sat.
“One more things,” the Emperor
said.
“Yes, your Highness?”
“That captain? The one the
mutineers took hostage?”
Mahoney thought. Then remembered.
Grimaced. “Gregor, sir” he said. “Captain Gregor.”
When he’d checked the files he’d
found that Gregor was one of the most incompetent morale killers in the Royal
Navy. The only reason he had the job was because the Imperium X boom in the
Fringe Regions. The Imperial military was so overstretched, even the dregs were
swept up into positions of authority. With him as captain, no wonder the crew
mutinied.
“Right, Gregor,” the Emperor said.
“He’s got a rich daddy who wants him back."
After reading the file, Mahoney
couldn’t understand why.
After reading the file, Mahoney
couldn’t understand why.
Gregor was such a scrote it was hard
to imagine him being the apple of any father’s eye.
However, in this case the rich daddy
in question was one Lord Wichman, who built and owned exclusive resorts,
casinos, sporting facilities all over the Empire, along with countless other
enterprises, ranging from a line of faux gourmet food items such as soya steak
(an oxymoron if Mahoney ever heard one), to some very bad wine and liqueurs
that had superb ratings from certain influential critics who were on the take.
Naturally, Wichman’s ego was huge and
he plastered his name on enormous signs and banners on all his holdings.
Mahoney sighed. Sometimes sentient
beings were beyond comprehension. However, Ian knew the Emperor had an even
lower opinion of the man than he did. And if his boss deemed it necessity to
free Gregor from the clutches of the mutineers, he obviously had very good
reasons for it.
“And the amnesty, sir?” he asked. “Do
we agree to that?”
The Emperor waved that away. “Sure,
sure,” he said. “Tell young Sten he can definitely offer amnesty.”
*****
NEXT:
THE BEAUTY AND THE SCOTSMAN
*****
MY HOLLYWOOD MISADVENTURES
Tales Sometimes Tall, but always true, of Allan Cole's years in Hollywood with his late partner, Chris Bunch. How a naked lady almost became our first agent. How we survived La-La Land with only the loss of half our brain cells. How Bunch & Cole became the ultimate Fix-It Boys. How an alleged Mafia Don was very, very good to us. The guy who cornered the market on movie rocks. Andy Warhol's Fire Extinguisher. The Real Stars Of Hollywood. Why they don't make million dollar movies. See The Seven Pi$$ing Dwarfs. Learn: how to kill a "difficult" actor… And much, much more.
Here's where you can buy it worldwide in both paperback and Kindle editions:
*****
*****
LUCKY IN CYPRUS:
A True Story About A Boy,
A Teacher, And Earthquake,
Some Terrorists And The CIA
*****
*****
THE TIMURA TRILOGY: When The Gods Slept, Wolves Of The Gods and The Gods Awaken. This best selling fantasy series now available as trade paperbacks, e-books (in all varieties) and as audiobooks. Visit The Timura Trilogy page for links to all the editions.
NEWLY REVISED KINDLE EDITIONS OF THE TIMURA TRILOGY NOW AVAILABLE. (1) When The Gods Slept;(2) Wolves Of The Gods; (3) The Gods Awaken.
*****
MY HOLLYWOOD MISADVENTURES
Here's where you can buy it worldwide in both paperback and Kindle editions:
United Kingdom ...........................Spain
Also: NOOK BOOK. Plus ALL E-BOOK FLAVORS.
A NATION AT WAR WITH ITSELF: In Book Three Of The Shannon Trilogy, young Patrick Shannon is the heir-apparent to the Shannon fortune, but murder and betrayal at a family gathering send him fleeing into the American frontier, with only the last words of a wise old woman to arm him against what would come. And when the outbreak of the Civil War comes he finds himself fighting on the opposite side of those he loves the most. In The Wars Of The Shannons we see the conflict, both on the battlefield and the homefront, through the eyes of Patrick and the members of his extended Irish-American family as they struggle to survive the conflict that ripped the new nation apart, and yet, offered a dim beacon of hope.
A True Story About A Boy,
A Teacher, And Earthquake,
Some Terrorists And The CIA
LUCKY IN CYPRUS is a coming-of-age story set in the Middle
East during the height of the Cold War. An American teenager – son of a CIA
operative – is inspired by grand events and a Greek Cypriot teacher.
He
witnesses earthquakes and riots and terrorist attacks, but in the end it is his
teacher’s gentle lessons that keep him whole.
Here's where to get the paperback & Kindle editions worldwide:
Here's what readers say about Lucky In Cyprus:
- "Bravo, Allan! When I finished Lucky In Cyprus I wept." - Julie Mitchell, Hot Springs, Texas
- "Lucky In Cyprus brought back many memories... A wonderful book. So many shadows blown away!" - Freddy & Maureen Smart, Episkopi,Cyprus.
- "... (Reading) Lucky In Cyprus has been a humbling, haunting, sobering and enlightening experience..." - J.A. Locke, Bookloons.com
*****
NEW: THE AUDIOBOOK VERSION OF
THE HATE PARALLAX
THE HATE PARALLAX: What if the Cold War never ended -- but continued for a thousand years? Best-selling authors Allan Cole (an American) and Nick Perumov (a Russian) spin a mesmerizing "what if?" tale set a thousand years in the future, as an American and a Russian super-soldier -- together with a beautiful American detective working for the United Worlds Police -- must combine forces to defeat a secret cabal ... and prevent a galactic disaster! This is the first - and only - collaboration between American and Russian novelists. Narrated by John Hough. Click the title links below for the trade paperback and kindle editions. (Also available at iTunes.)
*****
THE SPYMASTER'S DAUGHTER:
A novel by Allan and his daughter, Susan
After laboring as a Doctors Without Borders physician in the teaming refugee camps and minefields of South Asia, Dr. Ann Donovan thought she'd seen Hell as close up as you can get. And as a fifth generation CIA brat, she thought she knew all there was to know about corruption and betrayal. But then her father - a legendary spymaster - shows up, with a ten-year-old boy in tow. A brother she never knew existed. Then in a few violent hours, her whole world is shattered, her father killed and she and her kid brother are one the run with hell hounds on their heels. They finally corner her in a clinic in Hawaii and then all the lies and treachery are revealed on one terrible, bloody storm ravaged night.
BASED ON THE CLASSIC STEN SERIES by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch: Fresh from their mission to pacify the Wolf Worlds, Sten and his Mantis Team encounter a mysterious ship that has been lost among the stars for thousands of years. At first, everyone aboard appears to be long dead. Then a strange Being beckons, pleading for help. More disturbing: the presence of AM2, a strategically vital fuel tightly controlled by their boss - The Eternal Emperor. They are ordered to retrieve the remaining AM2 "at all costs." But once Sten and his heavy worlder sidekick, Alex Kilgour, board the ship they must dare an out of control defense system that attacks without warning as they move through dark warrens filled with unimaginable horrors. When they reach their goal they find that in the midst of all that death are the "seeds" of a lost civilization.
*****
TALES OF THE BLUE MEANIE
NOW AN AUDIOBOOK!
 |
Venice Boardwalk Circa 1969
|
In the depths of the Sixties and The Days Of Rage, a young newsman, accompanied by his pregnant wife and orphaned teenage brother, creates a Paradise of sorts in a sprawling Venice Beach community of apartments, populated by students, artists, budding scientists and engineers lifeguards, poets, bikers with a few junkies thrown in for good measure. The inhabitants come to call the place “Pepperland,” after the Beatles movie, “Yellow Submarine.” Threatening this paradise is "The Blue Meanie," a crazy giant of a man so frightening that he eventually even scares himself.
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