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and a small bay. The rocks thrust up out of the
foaming surf like blunt fangs. They led in an irregular path to the small
islet of Thunder Isle.
The chamber, which was on an upper floor of the fortress, served as Grant's
office, study and even his trophy room. Light gleamed on upright glass cases
holding mementoes of Grant's past. There were knives with old bloodstains on
the steel blades, guns of different makes, his Sin Eater and Copperhead from
his years as a Mag.
Even Domi's knife, the one with the nine-inch-long wickedly serrated blade
that had cut Guana Teague's throat when the Pit boss of Cobaltville was
strangling the life from him, was on display. In a case beside it rested her
Dectonics Combat Master autopistol, the blue-steel frame oiled and polished.
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182
JAMES AXLER
Reverently spotlighted in a tall display case were two suits of body armor
mounted on metal frameworks. One was a suit of samurai armor, standing like a
silent sentinel. It was topped by a war helmet that bore twin sweeps of metal,
curving out from the sides like dark wings seen edge-on in flight.
A sickle moon made of brass served as a crest, positioned between a slender
pair of foot-long antlers made of a softly gleaming alloy.
Kane didn't need to be told the armor was Sni-zuka's, nor did the scabbarded
long-bladed katana and shorter tanto sword resting on pegs inside the case
require identification as to their former owner. The blades were almost
supernaturally sharp, able to cleave smoothly even through polycarbonate.
Shizuka had once attributed the cutting quality to an old technique of laser
sharpening the edges to only a few molecules of thickness.
A ceramic jar painted with a stylized tiger rested on a small wooden pedestal
at the bottom of the case.
Kane knew that within the jar were Shizuka's cremated remains.
Standing beside her samurai armor was the black, close-fitting exoskeleton of
a hard-contact
Magistrate. Made of molded polycarbonate, it conformed to the biceps, triceps,
pectorals and abdomen. The armor was lightweight and had the ability to
redistribute kinetic shock resulting from projectile impact. The small,
disk-shaped badges of office were emblazoned on the left pectoral.
TALON AND FANG
183
Grant and Kane sat at a desk and dabbed at their injuries, mainly minor
contusions and abrasions, with sponges soaked with water and a healing but
strong-smelling unguent.
Too stunned to speak for a moment, Kane stood and went to the balcony,
propping his elbows against the top rail. He vacantly gazed out at the harbor.
A number of quays and docks were built around a spit of volcanic rock that
jutted into the blue waters. A cluster of vessels was tied up there, mainly
barges and skiffs, but also a flotilla of larger vessels that had all the
characteristics of warships. They were all of a type, riding high above the
waterline, consisting of sharp angles, arches and buttresses, with sails made
of waxed and oiled paper.
The port was a beehive of activity, with the fishing boats returning with
their day's catch. Dusk was creeping up over the sheltered cover, and the
orange ball of the sun had already lost its brilliance. Green nets hung from
pilings and were spread out over the docks. People wearing a simple ensemble
of cotton
T-shirts and shorts swarmed all over the waterfront area, laughing and singing
as they worked. It was a
pretty scene, with a storybook quality, even though Kane retained vivid
recollections of repulsing an invasion force of Mags dispatched from Baron
Snakensh in those same waters. He remembered how, shortly after the battle,
when the tide went out the crescent moon of sandy white beach had been stained
red at the waterline.
184 JAMES AXLER
"Kane?" Grant's voice was both impatient and concerned.
Turning toward him, Kane said, "I don't remember anything like that. All I
recall is waking up right as
Brigid " He clamped his lips shut on the rest of his words, unable to put a
voice to (he memory.
His thought processes moved sluggishly, like half-frozen mud as he strained to
dredge up even a fragmented recollection that corresponded to what Grant had
just told him of that night.
"You were drugged," Grant replied in a low, even voice, stepping out on the
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balcony beside him. "And in shock. Besides, even if you could remember,
Erica's back was to you when Brigid unmasked her."
The blood pounded in Kane's temples, and he felt like smashing the flimsy door
of paper and lathwork with his fists, but he decided he had caused enough
damage to Grant's home for one visit. He demanded, ' 'Why didn't you tell me
about this then, after we blew the munitions dump?"
"I was in a little bit of shock myself that night," Grant snapped bitterly.
"I'd been shot like what, about three times and stabbed twice? And I was
positive I saw the Scorpia Prime being burned alive by one of the incend
grenades you threw. One of my Tigers found her body, but it was burned beyond
recognition... that helmet was welded to her head.
"So when Erica turned up later, alive and without so much as a hank of hair
smelling like smoke, I
figured I'd made a mistake because of the those damn
TALON AND FANG 185
werewolf weed fumes. I was a little out of it, even before all hell broke
loose."
Kane took a deep, calming breath, trying to control the adrenaline-fueled
spasms in his stomach muscles. His mind started to glue the bits and pieces of
new information onto the old. With an almost suffocating sense of defeat, he
realized that with only a minimal amount of turning and twisting, the pieces
all fit together.
Sam, the self-proclaimed imperator who wielded control over the prana, the old
Sanskrit term that referred to the world soul...
Lakesh and Erica, who had sworn undying allegiance to Sam after he used the
prana energy to not only restore, but also maintain their youth...
The SQUID implants, which supposedly connected all the new world's citizens
with the world soul, and hence to Sam, and thus making them citizens of the
adaptive Earth...
The Nirodha's sudden rise from obscurity to ultimate power in the Indian
subcontinent, evolving almost overnight from a small sect of fanatics to a
well-armed nation within a nation because of their devotion to bringing about
the time of Pralaya, the complete destruction of everything except for the
world soul...
Brigid's death and Erica's plea that Kane become her consort, choosing Lakesh
only after he rejected her...
The rift that developed between him and Grant after the death of Shizuka,
leaving her children without a
186 JAMES AXLER
mother, him without a wife and a kingdom without a ruler...
Kane's two-decades-long obsession with understanding the work of Burr and
other Operation Chronos scientists, and how it proceeded from the assumption
that the nature of time was like an ever rolling river, then learning from
Erica how the very existence of time depended on the presence of space...and
that if space could be measured, so could chronon strings...
The sudden appearance of Tanvirah at Cerberus, coinciding with a critical
juncture of his temporal-manipulation researches, with a tale of how the
Nirodha had made similar discoveries, but intended to use them to bring about
the time of Pralaya...
Tanvirah's subtle urging that he go to Thunder Isle and the Operation Chronos
installation there, pretending that she knew nothing of the hard feelings
between him and Grant...
All the arrows pointed in one direction and they pointed so blatantly, Kane
wondered if he had been mentally incompetent for the past twenty years, or if
he were now suffering from the paranoid delusion to end all delusions.
Although his flesh felt clammy and all the moisture had dried in his mouth, he
sounded eerily calm when he said, "We've been duped, Grant. Played for fools
since the day Cerberus fell."
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