Free The Descent into the Maelstrom (The Phantom of the Earth Book 4) by Raeden Zen Page A

lavender by synisms to match her eyes. A touch too dark. “He’s disappeared from Marstone’s sight, likely as not with the BP as we speak—”
    Atticus wiped away a bit of synthetic leaf stuck to his lip. He puffed on his cigar. “The strategist, Lady Verena—”
    “Iglehart, yes, she remains in a medically induced coma, guarded by Janzers.” Isabelle poured her own glass of liqueur. “When she awakens, I recommend we send her to Farino Prison.”
    “Agreed,” Atticus said. “What of Zorian Selendia, has he made contact?”
    “No.” She’d not reveal his potential betrayal of her. The chancellor had told her not to trust him. She’d not give him this victory of her humiliation.
    “How will you secure him?”
    Isabelle pushed her forefingers through her lavender hair, setting it on her right shoulder, wishing she stood upon this terrace with Antosha at her side. One day, it would be so. Antosha had executed his plan during the Bicentennial as masterfully as he’d assured her he would, and their catspaw Gwendolyn Horvearth had played her part well. Isabelle wouldn’t doubt Antosha again. He’d see to it she and he rose, first in Beimeni, then to the surface of the Earth. The thought lifted her lips as she turned to Atticus. “I’ve supplied his genome to the tenehounds and sent them out with ten Janzer divisions to track him down.”
    “You seem pleased with yourself.” Atticus pressed his lips together and seethed. “I’m taking an awfully big risk on your gamble—”
    “No more than we took on your call with Captain Barão.”
    She turned away from him. He risked the ruin of his grand evening the night of the Bicentennial, not her. She’d arrested the traitorous captain prior to the celebration, securing him to a holding cell in the Department of Peace. She’d requested a judicial and ministerial hearing, but the chancellor had denied her and let him leave.
    She’d also tracked the captain to Silkscape City after he dared access records in Marstone’s Database. Isabelle implanted the T , a burn mark that replaced his strike team tattoo upon his forearm, which would forever designate him a traitor to the commonwealth. She would’ve seen Captain Barão escorted to Farino Prison. Yet the chancellor had let him leave Lovereal Territory and return to Phanes for the Bicentennial.
    “I’ve taken more than Brody’s life—” Atticus said.
    “He knows about the Crypt! He knows about Jeremiah! We should’ve ended him with the majority on our side.”
    “Who will believe a murderer?”
    Atticus turned again to the center, and Isabelle turned with him. Steam rose up from the fountains below, and the Granville sun cast a summer glow over North Archway and the tall white palm trees in Artemis Square as it dipped below the horizon. Beimenians laughed and chatted, moving here and there in Masimovian Center below them, neophytes shadowing masters, eternal partners arm in arm on the marble paths.
    “Come here,” Atticus said, not unkindly.
    She angled toward him, leaning over the balustrade.
    “Do you see the ecstasy I’ve brought to this underground paradise?”
    Isabelle tried her best not to roll her eyes.
    “A world that at one time was so filled with violence and hatred that the scholars placed our probability of extinction at ninety-five percent. And now,” he swept his arm toward Masimovian Center Building #7, “we’re overseers of the greatest society in the history of mankind.”
    “Now we wage a forever war,” Isabelle said. “We’re stretched too far, too thin, with too few Janzers to secure this Great Commonwealth.”
    “My lady, see my eyes.”
    She looked into the maroon of his eyes, so familiar after one hundred seventy years of shared service, and willed him to let down his guard.
    “When great men age,” he said, and seeing her expression added, “oh yes, we still age, not visibly, but emotionally, metaphysically, and when we do there comes a time when we desire more of