The Acolytes of Crane (Theodore Crane, #1)(98)

Lincoln shook his head. ‘That isn’t good, not good at all. If there is a Rangier assassin on his way to hunt down Ted, he could do it right under our noses.’ Lincoln exclaimed at another painting, walking away with a fake smile. He whispered to Mariah, ‘Where is Ted?’

“Then Mariah told him everything—”

“Slow down. So someone was hired to assassinate Theodore?” the warden asks.

“Yes. It was totally uncool of that weird king to be making up some evil plot to kill our bro. We needed to prepare for the great Karshiz getaway. We decided to get ready the night before by gathering all of our gear and weapons.”

The warden looked at me confused, and said, “They allowed you to have weapons?”

“Once we were assigned to our quarters, King Trazuline had decided to let us carry around our assigned weapons. He was really lapping up our newfound fervor at that point. Besides, it was like the Wild West in Karshiz. Would you abandon four teenagers in a foreign land with nothing to protect themselves? Stranding us there was bad enough,” I said.

“You are right. I would not,” the warden said.

“As for the weapons, I received something I always wanted: a hover board! It wasn’t named as such. It was like XR-23 or something boring like that.”

It had straps like a snowboard. I was also given a shoulder-mounted cannon. It fired balls of plasma that could rip holes through anything I shot. I mounted it on my back, and it was controlled with my IPU implants. All I had to do was look at my target and just think about destruction, and the target would be obliterated.

Liam was given a plasma axe, and it was fitting, because there was no one in our crew that could even lift the damn thing. It was more than just an axe. It gave off a sonic boom whenever he slammed it on the ground.

Watching him use it was probably the most frightening thing ever. He had a vein that bulged from his forehead with every lashing of his axe. He showed us once what it was capable of, and it was nothing short of amazing. It made my tre-flips on my skateboard down an eight-stair ramp back home look weak.

He ordered a concrete pillar in the simulator one day. It was four feet in diameter thick and solid. With one blow from his axe and tons of veins pumping wildly, he cut that damn thing in half. Hell, it was the craziest damn thing I had ever seen, but I was just beginning to see crazy.

Mariah had a laser rifle, and it was like nothing ever made by human engineering. That thing was half the size of a Barrett 50 caliber rifle, but had the accuracy and range. It was scoped, but the scope wasn’t anything like the scopes I used with my dad when we went hunting.

“Her laser rifle, when zeroed, could destroy a nickel off a donkey’s back from a mile away, and she loved it. Her face lit-up like a wildfire every time she hit a bull’s eye. She had the same look when she was with Linc. Those two were so happy when they were together. Liam and I made bets for when we thought they might hook up. They always toyed with the idea, but neither of them made a move. We just assumed they were together.”

“I am happy to be recording. This is moving along quickly. Were you scared at all?” the warden asks.

“I wasn’t really scared about what was going to happen, because I had done crazier shit back then.”

When I was eleven, the boys I skateboarded with, asked me to switch kick-flip over a gap at a post office in Ferndale. I tried, and the board made its rotations and spun downwards toward the ground. I landed them all the time with ease in my runs, but that time my deck was perpendicular to the ground. Well, to put it delicately, that board struck me right into my private parts.

Let’s just say I was like a human corn dog for about two seconds. It hurt like hell, and I had to get six stitches right next to my danglers. I didn’t think twice to try it a second time. I stood up, and saw I was bleeding from my crotch. I made the trick anyway on my next attempt. The board clapped against my feet, and I slammed it down just right to make a smooth ride-away. I even did a shove-it at the end to compliment the successful landing.

“My tolerance for pain was high. It wasn’t till I was at home that my mom wanted me to go with her to the emergency room, and she was pissed that I was getting blood everywhere.”

The guard taps his foot, indicating his impatience for my retelling of my glory days on my skateboard. I might as well have been a grandfather recounting his days of having walked two miles to school every day. “So tell me about Nilo. I only have a little more time for this meeting,” he says.

“So, anyway, on my way through the castle, I ran into someone. He slammed into my shoulder, and I felt a huge charlie horse in my arm. We both were knocked to the ground, and I wasn’t sure what hurt worse, my butt or shoulder.”


‘Watch where you are going, dingle-berry lips,’ I said. When the person stood up I noticed he was a Rangier—he had a projection enhancer around his forehead. ‘Seriously, watch where you are going next time, dude.’

‘Hey! You are not to make contact with the humans,’ my tailing guard said. His eyes bulged as he recognized Nilo, and he brought his hand to his mouth as a sign of deference. ‘Oh, my apologies, Nilo. Carry on.’ The guard backed off, staying a respectful twenty feet away. Likely he couldn’t hear our conversation, so I let my curiosity get the best of me.

‘Do you work for the king?’ I asked the Rangier.

‘Don’t we all?’ He grinned, and exaggerated the nod of his head, with his hands on his hips, behaving like the older teenager that he was. ‘I don’t really look at it that way. I am the castle’s bio-medical botanist. Wait, you are with that team of humans that are here to guard Sephera?’