Free The 13th Star: An Action Adventure Sci-F Apocalyptic Novel by Adam Peled Page A

always lose.” He laughed loudly and his friends joined in.
    Coldor remembered Laura from their first meeting. A beautiful blonde with intelligent eyes, she asked to meet him and his
     guards refused . Then she said they should tell the commander it was about his son Zoron and that she wanted to talk to him.
    He’d cleared a few minutes of his time, assuming she’d been hurt by his son and had demands after discovering who his father
     was. How surprised he was when he met an intelligent young woman with a sharp sense of humor and an impressive ability to
     verbalize. The girl loved his no-good son unconditionally, with no demands of his father or of his genealogical pedigree.
     And the thing that most impressed him was the reason she’d come: she was very worried about Zoron.
    She told his father, “He spends his nights—especially the nights before the biggest battles—in the den. He comes home drunk
     and goes out in the morning to fight. He and his friends can’t distinguish between right and wrong after a night in the den.”
     She shook her head. “I know,” she continued, “that there are other women at the den, but they don’t worry me. I’m not afraid
     of them because he always comes home to me, but I’ll lose him in one of these battles he goes to without knowing exactly who
     he’s shooting or what he’s doing. And there’s this event that still haunts him…” She fell silent.
    “What event?”
    Laura swallowed. “He lost his Jorash in a battle with a cadet from Kantara.”
    Coldor couldn’t hide his anger. “Thank you for telling me. I will certainly take care of it,” he assured her.
    That same evening Coldor appeared in the den where a bunch of punks sat getting thoroughly drunk. When he entered, Zoron was
     in the bathroom. Coldor waited and surprised him. Zoron froze in place. His friends, as well as the others there, watched
     in fear. The musicians stopped playing for a moment, but seeing Coldor’s glare, they continued hesitantly.
    Coldor smashed his son’s head against the wall, pulled out his Roll, and held the blade against Zoron’s bare throat. “You’re
     lucky.” He glared at his son. “I know exactly what this is capable of,” he said, referring to the exposed weapon. “You’d better
     wean yourself of this barbaric custom,” he said, glancing around. “If I hear you were in the den even once more, I’ll take care of you as only I can. You’ve shamed yourself and me enough, you fool.”
    Zoron started crying like a little boy. “I’m sorry, sir. Really sorry.”
    Coldor looked at his son with disdain and didn’t add another word. Now, sitting in Zoron’s room and seeing the same behavior,
     he had nothing left to say. Silently he rose and walked out. He needed to leave for Falcon for a planned meeting with Bergin,
     Lunia, Bar, and Yona.
***
    The huge conference room seemed empty. The presence of heavy-set Bergin, Lunia—with his distinguished looks—and Yona and Bar
     with their heads bent didn’t add to the vitality that was missing. Coldor entered with confident footsteps as everyone’s head
     rose.
    “I’m glad you made it, Coldor,” said Bergin in his authoritative voice. Coldor didn’t even look at him. The contempt he felt
     for these men was strongly evident in moments like this. Bergin continued. “How are our returned soldiers?”
    “Tired.”
    Bergin, who saw that Coldor was in a worse and more aggressive mood than usual, decided to skip the small talk and moved on
     to the reasons for the meeting. “Yona, you’re responsible for conveying the message to all the remaining military leaders,
     as Lunia will close the matter of the water supply to Falcon. He’ll come to Saturn next week and we’ll discuss the topic there.”
    Yona raised his voice in anger. “Why should Lunia do that?”
    He wanted to continue, but Coldor thundered, “It won’t hurt you to get a second opinion. Until now, you’ve managed everything
     alone. From now