Free Vengeance (The Kurgan War Book 4) by Richard Turner Page A

couple of hours of sleep. His gut told him it was going to be a long few days before he would get any real rest.

Chapter 12

    Sheridan placed his cup of coffee down and looked up at the azure sky. For as far as he could see, there wasn’t a cloud in sight. For a few seconds, he let his mind wander and take in the old-world architecture of the buildings near their hotel. He had always been fascinated with castles. The tall medieval fortress that overlooked the entrance to the harbor caught his eye. With its tall stone walls and turreted watchtowers, it was a reminder of a time long gone by. The rest of the city, however, was an eclectic mix of the old and the new. Buildings hundreds of years old stood side by side with tall modular towers that reached up to the sky. Solar panels adorned the tops of almost every building. Since personal-use vehicles were all but forbidden in the major cities around the globe, subway trains ran through tubes above and below the ground while cable cars moved about suspended by near-invisible clear steel wires.
    “Oy, you with me this morning,” prodded Cole.
    “Sorry, I was somewhere else.”
    “Yeah, I saw that.” Cole picked up a croissant from his plate and gave it displeasing look. His idea of a healthy breakfast included eggs, sausages, bacon, and heaps of hash browns, not pastries and jam.
    Sheridan was about to reach for his orange juice when he stopped. “Back on the Sydney you said that you thought that the infiltration by Chosen operatives was far worse than people had expected. Care to explain your reasoning?”
    Cole sat back. “Sure, why not. I was thinking about Mister Williams. He wasn’t born on a Kurgan planet, and neither were his parents or his grandparents. They were all born here on Earth. So let’s assume for a minute that his great-grandparents were the first to convert to the Kurgan religion. They secretly brought it back with them when they were exchanged for Kurgans trapped on our side of the disputed zone at the end of the last war.”
    “Okay, but that doesn’t mean we’re swimming in enemy agents back here on Earth.”
    “I’m not done,” pointed out Cole. “The indoctrination into the Kurgan religion along with an unswerving loyalty to an Empire they have never seen must have been implanted in the minds of the conspirators’ children at an early age. At some point, it was locked away until the next generation was born and the whole process began anew. What I’m trying to say is that for one hundred years, we’ve had people secretly converting their children to be ready to serve the Kurgan Empire in the event of a war. It stands to reason that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people walking about the streets who have no idea that they are Kurgan operatives.”
    Sheridan nodded. “I tried to impress upon my father the same idea after our first encounter with Chosen warriors. I’m not sure ADF Headquarters agrees with your assessment. In fact, I’m fairly sure they believe that there are only a few rogue operatives running around down here stirring up trouble.”  
    “Well, I for one don’t want to be around when they find out just how wrong they are.”
    Sheridan’s voice turned serious. “Where do your kids live these days?”
    “They live on Mars with their mum and new dad. Why?”
    “Because my gut tells me things are about to turn nasty around here and the further they are away from Earth, the better.”
    Cole stood up. “If you feel that way, then it’s time for us to quit talking and get to work. Where to, mate?”
    Sheridan paid the bill, stood, and pointed down the cobblestone street. “I think the cameraman who captured Harry’s image was standing somewhere over there. I’d like to start from there and try to identify where the three shooters with Harry were when they were gunned down.”
    “How is that helpful?”
    “If I’m right, the attack on the president wasn’t just conducted to strike fear into