James Axler – Parallax Red Parallax Red

Kane caught a flicker of motion at the periphery of his vision and whirled around, leading with his Sin Eater. His belly turned a cold flip-flop.

The dark metal ovoid of the molecular destabilizer rolled out from the far side of the platform. A white halo shimmered above the storage rings at its rear. A deep red light shone from the round, recessed lens facing them.

Sindri said sharply, “At the merest suggestion of hostility, you will learn a new interpretation of the old adage, “That’s you all over.’ Drop your weapons.”

Kane hesitated only a moment, remembering the black protoplasmic remains of the Magistrates in Redoubt Papa. He unbuckled his Sin Eater from his forearm and dropped it to the deck. Reluctantly Grant followed suit.

“If you fire that thing in here,” he said warningly, “you’re liable to burn a hole in the hull.”

“Since the MD’s energy discharges can be fired with pristine precision,” Sindri retorted, “the element of risk is acceptable.”

Brigid swung her head up, impaling Sindri an em-erald glare. “Why did you lure us hereso we can watch you destroy Mars?”

Sindri chuckled. “As much as I adore melodrama, I’m not that far gone. As for the destruction of Mars, the fuse won’t be lit for” he made an exaggerated show of consulting his wrist chron “another eight hours. It’ll take that long for the dynamos to power up.”

He stabbed the tip of his walking stick toward them. “Regarding your accusation that I lured you three here, I did no such thing. You came of your own accord, both times. You could have just as easily gone back to that Cerberus place you told me about. I wouldn’t have stopped you.”

“Go back and wait for you to drop pieces of Mars on us?” exploded Grant angrily. “Not fucking likely, dwarf!”

Sindri’s lips compressed in a tight line. “Regardless of the consequences to Earth, I will have, at long last, stopped the song.”

“And finally complete the bargain your ancestors struck with the Archons?” Kane snapped.

Sindri brushed aside his question with a sweep of his cane. “I care nothing about the Danaan, the An-nunaki or these Archons of yoursif they really exist. I care only about the survival of me and mine.”

“That concern has consumed you to the exclusion of all else,” Brigid stated in a remarkably calm voice. “It’s an obsession that has blinded you to avenues of survival other than what you have planned.”

Sindri made a snarling sound deep in his throat. “I had other avenues, remember? I counted on you to help me bring them to fruition. You dashed that hope, Miss

Brigid, closed off that avenue, leaving me with no option but to render this final solution.”

Reasonably Brigid said, “Sindri, I’m not the only human female in the solar system. We can show you methods that will”

“/ don’t want another human female !” Sindri’s roar caused all of them to recoil as it filled their helmets. Lowering his voice to a petulant mutter, he said, “I want only you, polar bodies or not.”

“What’s he talking about, Baptiste?” Kane whispered, forgetting for a moment that Sindri could hear him as clearly as Brigid.

Sindri made a beckoning motion with his cane. “And I want you up here, beside me.”

“No,” grated Kane, putting a restraining hand on Brigid’s arm.

Sindri touched a key on the remote. The MD rolled forward a few feet, the sparkling lens pointing toward Grant. “No objections, Mr. Kane, or Mr. Grant will die. Swiftly, painlessly, albeit messily, but he will most certainly be dead.”

After a tense moment, Brigid said flatly, “Let me go, Kane.”

Slowly he opened his hand. She strode to the platform, scaled the ladder and started to approach Sindri. He waved her back. “Far enough, Miss Brigid.”

She stopped, staring at him in surprise. “I thought you wanted me beside you.”

“Oh, very much. But only afterward. I don’t want you trying to thwart me. I regret hurting you earlier when you tried to thwart me and I don’t want to be forced to do so again.”

Brigid shifted her feet uneasily. “What do you mean by ‘afterward’?”