Kindle Edition
Amazon
Category:
Action/Thriller
Publisher: Andrew R Williams
ISBN-10: B08C8YKDPS
Type: Fiction
Pages: 250
Copyright: 1st July 2020
ISBN-13: 9798655135970
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Sci-fi thriller The third in the Arcadia's Children series
Science Fiction / Fantasy
Excerpt
Extract from Arcadia’s Children 3 : Pushley’s Escape
There was a dull thud as the isolation helmet fell away and hit the floor of his cell. Ed Pushley let out a sigh of relief. It had taken hours of dogged pulling and pushing before he’d finally removed the accursed helmet. Still, now he’d forced it off.
Exhausted from his exertions, he sank back in one corner of his cell and propped himself against the walls. While he was still recovering, he felt something warm and sticky run down his neck and realised his ears were bleeding.
Reaching out, he grabbed some toilet paper and used it to staunch the bleed. The image of a man wearing ecclesiastical garb popped up in his mind. The occult symbols on his vestments and tall mitre hinted at unseen powers. Fearing the worst, Pushley made a grab for the isolation helmet. It might have taken him hours to finally force it off, but he couldn’t take chances.
“No,” the high priest’s telepathic image shouted. “Don’t put the helmet back on. You have nothing to fear from me. I am the bringer of good tidings.”
When Pushley hesitated, the high priest added, “The Great Ones wish to speak with you.”
Pushley was suspicious, “What about?”
“They would like to do a deal with you,” the cleric replied.
Irrelevant’s soul suddenly activated and instructed Pushley to respond with, “It wasn’t so long ago the Great Ones condemned me to death. If I hadn’t managed to transfer my essence into the body I now inhabit, I would be dead.”
The high priest said, “We thought you had died. When the plesiosaurs dragged you under, your death seemed assured.”
The high priest then changed tack, “Can I say this. We were wrong to condemn you to death but stealing Ed Pushley’s body and melding with him was a very clever response.”
“Is that so?” Pushley replied icily.
Ignoring the sarcasm very evident in Pushley’s thoughts, the cleric said, “It took us some time to realise what you’d done. That is why we have only contacted you now.”
Irrelevant instructed Pushley to give the cleric another icy response, “I’m sure you haven’t contacted me just to discuss old times. What do the Great Ones want?”
“I’ve told you. The Great Ones want to talk to you. They want to do a deal.”
“Why?”
“Because they believe you could help them, of course.”
Irrelevant instructed Pushley to say, “I was a slave who managed to throw off his bondage. Why would a free man volunteer to return to serfdom again, even if his freedom was only possible by co-owning another body? Why should I trust the Great Ones?”
The cleric said, “You won’t be a slave or a serf. They want to offer you a genuine partnership.”
“And why would they do that? What’s the catch?”
The high priest’s image developed a halo around it, indicating the remainder of their telepathic conversation was going to be held in private. “As you are aware, just before you escaped using Pushley’s body, three of the Great Ones were killed in an explosion and another badly injured.”
The cleric sent him images of an elaborate funeral procession staged to mark the triple passing. Lining the sides of a large the cave complex there were hundreds of the mutant humanoids. Most were standard long-jaw spettri, but there were also some very human-looking figures. There were even a few of the four-armed spettri lining the route.
There were twelve huge, six-legged Arcadian soldier wolves, leading the funeral cortege. Pushley noted their mandibles were wide open. Irrelevant whispered, “The open jaws signify the deaths of the Great Ones will be avenged.”
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