The Phoenix Crisis (35 page)

Why had five lived? Zane knew Blackmoth too
well, the assassin had certainly been capable of eliminating all
eighteen. It wasn’t a matter of him being outclassed by the
Executor’s men. No, Blackmoth had chosen not to slay the remaining
five. He must have had one of his psychedelic “visions” and
believed that ridiculous god of his had wanted these five to
live.

“
Damn. Damn.
Damn
.” He muttered to the
quiet room. This left him in a predicament.

Depending on how effective the Executor’s
interrogators were, and how tight-lipped the five co-conspirators
decided to be, it was only a matter of time before the Executor was
able to extrapolate leads that would take him to the senior members
of the Phoenix Ring. He wouldn’t get their names, not from these
pawns—Zane had known better than to work with them face to face—but
they knew people, who knew people, who knew people, who would
eventually lead the Executor right to his front door. And what was
worse, these five knew the time and place of Ascension. And though
the hour of Ascension drew near, it was not yet time. The Executor
might put it all together before Ascension was complete.

Zane considered cancelling
Ascension. Re-arranging it. Moving it.
Something
. Buy himself some time to
get off-world and dodge the Executor’s hounds. But everything had
been carefully architected to lead up to this moment, everything
that’d been sacrificed, everyone who’d died, all the expense that
had been paid, all of the delicate planning, all of it had been for
Ascension. If Zane changed the plan in any way, if he gave his
fellows any reason to doubt him or sense his panic, his support
would vanish. All of the dark elements that had come forward to
support him, that he’d coaxed and persuaded to lay it all on the
line for him—for this—would disappear back down their dark holes
into total obscurity. He’d never get another chance.

Ascension had to move forward. The rest of
the Phoenix Ring expected it. Caerwyn expected it. He could not
afford to deviate from it. If anything had ever been destined in
the stars, if there was such thing as fate, this was it. It was so
close Zane could taste the sweet savor in his mouth.  

Ascension would happen. And when the hour
came, Zane would make certain that he and all of his closest
associates would be safe. There might have been wisdom in
disbursing, in spreading out and making everyone as hard to find as
possible, but Zane couldn’t risk the panic that might cause. Nor
did he see any point in anyone being safe unless he was safe. So it
would be best for them all to be together, when the hour came.

Ascension would be glorious.
And once the government was theirs, the Empire would be reborn like
a golden phoenix, restored to its youthful glory. At the head of
this mighty newborn bird, Zane would lead humanity into a greater
era than ever before. And no one—not the High Prelain; not the
Rahajiim;
no one
—would stop him.

***

“
Behold the fires of hell,”
said Ryker. He grinned darkly as he stared up at the Renoran sky.
It was swollen and red and bleeding. Tiny streaks of light pierced
the dark clouds by the thousands, like a rain of comets.

“
Are you sure we’re safe
here?” asked Vulture. Ryker looked at him and noted the concern on
his face.

“
Relax,” said Ryker. “This
is how it’s supposed to be.”

“
I mean, will the ships fire
on this position?” he pressed.

Ryker looked at his men. They stood together
in sparsely populated suburb, his entire cell of forty-seven
people, weapons in arms and mouths agape as they watched the
glowing lights descend. In the distance, deep booms and rumbles of
destruction echoed. Vulture was not the only one who showed fear,
though the others tried to mask it.

“
Ryker?” Vulture stared at
him.

“
We’re perfectly safe,” said
Ryker at last. He turned his eyes skyward once more and followed
one of the deadly bombardment rounds as it descended over the
horizon. “The strikes were all planned out, every single target.
Every cell leader on the planet gave firing coordinates to me and I
gave those to Mister Martel. I’m sure he gave them to his ships.
After all, we want to fan the flames, not decimate the rebellion.
Above all, this attack has to look like a poorly-designed
suppressive action in the name of the King.”

“
That was all I needed to
know,” said Vulture, ostensibly satisfied.

“
Phase Two…” said Micah.
“Thank the many non-existent gods of atheism that I lived to see
it.”

“
Is it everything you were
hoping for?” asked Ryker.

“
I s’pose that depends on
how hot the flames burn. But in a word? Yeah. It’s everything I was
hoping for.”

Ryker nodded. Now it was time to see how the
citizens of Renora reacted. If all went as planned, this would be
the final straw. And they would push the Empire and the King’s
troops off the planet completely—no matter the cost.

***

“
I just received word, sir.
Renora has been attacked. Planetary bombardment rounds from orbit
like you suspected. I’m sorry,” said Mr. Ivanov over the
comm.

Raidan closed his eyes and felt a deep
self-hatred brew in his stomach. This was his fault. He never
should have taken the Harbinger away from Renora. Not even to save
the Nighthawk. He’d created the opportunity for them to strike. He
felt a combination of heavy guilt, crushing despair, and intense
anger boiling together in his blood. But he kept his voice calm and
in control when he spoke.

“
How far away are we?” he
asked, tapping the line to the bridge.

“
Still another couple of
hours.”

Even at a jump depth of one-hundred percent
potential, leaving the Nighthawk and the supply-ships to follow as
best they could with the taste of the Harbinger’s dust in their
mouths, it hadn’t been enough. He leaned back and let out a deep
sigh, then reached down for the whiskey bottle on the
floor.   

“
Shall I keep us on present
course, sir?” asked Mr. Ivanov.

Raidan realized that now there was no point.
Undoubtedly the Phoenix Ring’s ships would withdraw and disappear
now that they’d attacked the planet and planted the false flag of
the King. Renora would continue to bleed and suffer, and there
would be violence aplenty on the surface, but there was no longer a
point in keeping watch over it from space. The damage was done. And
nothing Raidan could ever do would let him undo it. This was war to
the most savage degree.

“
No,” Raidan said at last.
“Drop us into normal space and provide instructions to the
Nighthawk and the supply flotilla to meet us there. We’ll finish
the transfer of supplies and the repair operation as soon as
possible.”

“
Aye sir,” the comm clicked
off.

Raidan unstopped the whiskey bottle and
thought of the last message he’d received from the commander of the
Mary Gale, the lone ship he’d left behind to protect Renora from
attack from space.

“
They think they’ve got us
on the run. Those bastards. We’ve still got a few tricks up our
sleeve. But all the same, you’d better get over here right
quick.”

That had been only an hour ago. Raidan had
hoped the Mary Gale would have been able to harass and disrupt the
enemy force long enough for the Harbinger to arrive and assist.
Apparently that’d been too optimistic.

He pressed the bottle directly to his lips
and sipped straight from it, not even bothering with a glass, as
his heart paid tribute to Commander O’Sullivan and his fighting
crew aboard the Mary Gale. They were good people all, tried and
true, and if Raidan knew the commander, the large, pot-bellied,
hot-tempered man wouldn’t have gone down without a serious
fight.

“
Here’s to you, old friend,”
said Raidan as he lifted the bottle. He took another sip and then
set the bottle on his desk.
I made a
mistake
, he thought.
I made a mistake and my enemies will pay. An eye for an
eye
.

He immediately set to work drafting orders
for his own weapon—one that sat in disguise circling a seemingly
random Rotham world—to be fired immediately. If the Phoenix Ring
was willing to be uncompromising and unforgiving in their strikes,
he had to be as well. It was time for them to get a taste of their
own medicine.

***

“
The death toll is already
in the millions,” said Celeste. She’d reached out to him from some
hiding place off-system in order to give him this latest dispatch.
“I’m told the entire eco-system is being affected. Those who
weren’t hit by the biological weapon directly will still starve
when the plant-life dies and the crops fail.”

“
What percentage of the
population on Cepheus has been affected so far?” asked Zane. He
rubbed his hands nervously and tried to think of what he should do.
In truth he didn’t care about the Rotham people or their suffering,
they could all die and it would probably be a gift to the universe,
but he did worry about the Rahajiim—and what they would
think.

“
Less than one percent,”
said Celeste. “However, the local government has declared a state
of emergency and the Republic is rushing aid to the system. The
Republic has sworn they will get to the bottom of this attack, and
that there will be a swift and decisive response.”

“
I don’t give a damn about
the Republic,” said Zane. “Let them rattle their sabers all they
like. We both know they aren’t the true power in the
region.”

“
As to that…” said Celeste.
“Our people in the Advent confirm… the weapons in the attack have
been linked to MXR…”

A rush of panic seized Zane’s throat. “And
the Rahajiim?”

“
No one knows,” said
Celeste. “But I’m sure they will come to the obvious conclusion.
That the Phoenix Ring was behind the attack. They’ll probably think
it was retribution for what happened with the Enclave.”

Zane knew she was right. And, while this
kind of retribution was surely the stupidest strategy he and the
Phoenix Ring could deploy, taking a vicious swipe at a stronger
enemy like a hyena scratching a sleeping lion, he didn’t doubt that
there were some in his organization who would have welcomed such an
aggressive response. Many of his people—most who knew the
situation—were upset that the Phoenix Ring had failed to recruit
the Enclave. And many of those same people believed a statement had
to be made. Believing erroneously that the Phoenix Ring could
adequately protect itself against the Rahajiim. In time the Phoenix
Ring would become the most powerful organization in the history of
the galaxy, but for that to happen it needed total command of the
Imperial Fleet. And that wouldn’t be possible until after
Ascension.

“
And…” said Zane, almost
hesitant to ask the question. “Is there any chance that our people
were behind the attack?” He hoped his associates weren’t that
stupid. He also believed that for such a bold measure to be taken
without his knowledge would have been impossible—but then again he
also may have overestimated his hand. It could be that the entire
situation was less in his control than he’d assumed, and that
possibility terrified him.

“
It’s still being looked
into,” said Celeste, “but no. I don’t think there is any way this
could have been us. Not without you ordering it, or me hearing
about it.”

Zane nodded. That was good news, but not
great news. Regardless of who was truly responsible, the
Rahajiim—who were already distrustful of the Phoenix Ring—would
certainly blame Zane’s people for the attack. This would further
strain relations and now cooperation between the two groups was
impossible. They would seek retribution. And when they did, Zane
knew it would be total and severe. If it came before Ascension…
then he was a dead man. But if he could keep himself and his people
alive long enough for Ascension to be complete, then the Rahajiim
would merely be flies before the might of his war-machine.

“
Since we both know the
attack wasn’t sanctioned by the Imperial government, and we didn’t
carry it out, and the Rahajiim certainly didn’t attack their own
people, there is only one group who could be behind it,” said
Celeste.

“
The Organization,” said
Zane immediately. It was obvious. This was one of the only ways
they could still hurt the Phoenix Ring. It was probably a response
to him targeting and killing most of their assets on Capital World.
Effectively cutting them out of the game. This was certainly the
most brutal measure the Organization had ever taken, but they’d
never been so desperate before. And he knew they were as willing to
accept collateral losses as he was—so long as the ends justified
it.

“
Unfortunately the
Advent—according to our spies—has not found anything to implicate
the Organization. Whoever was behind the attack did a perfectly
thorough job of connecting it to us,” said Celeste. “I don’t think
there is any possibility the Rahajiim won’t blame us. So, we need
to be prepared.”

The timing of the attack was about as bad as
possible. Zane wondered if White Rook somehow knew that relations
between the Phoenix Ring and the Rahajiim were strained and
distrustful, or if she’d timed her attack so perfectly by luck.