Free Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening by authors_sort Page B

experience with explosives, you said. No possible way anybody could survive a blast of that magnitude, you promised."
     
    He stalked closer to the quivering man, who covered his head with his hands and moaned. "Do you know what happens to people who fail me?"
     
    He kicked Merkel's ribs, holding back at the last moment so his boot didn't go clear through the man's rib cage. Still, he may not have held back enough of his strength, because Merkel's limp body rose half a dozen feet into the air before smashing back to the ground. His moaning shrilled into a keening cry of anguish.
     
    "I don't know what happened—I promise you, that bomb should have gone off," Merkel blubbered. "I checked every single component three times."
     
    Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    Caligula's new general drifted down from his perch on the wall from where he'd been watching the interrogation. Drakos had offered to handle it for him, but Caligula preferred to think of himself as hands-on when it came to torture. As they said in this century, if you want someone killed right, kill him yourself.
     
    "There is another explanation beyond this man's failure," Drakos offered. "We know the Atlanteans channel the elements, and we know they plan to ally with the witches. Two very different types of magic may combine to be powerful beyond our expectations."
     
    Caligula leaned down and casually lifted Merkel by the back of his shirt until he hung in the air. He tilted the man's head to face his own and forced Merkel to look into his eyes.
    Between the pain and the fear, it was only a matter of an instant to enthrall him.
     
    "Speak truth or die," he snarled. "Did your failure cause your device to malfunction?"
     
    "No, Master," the human replied in a flat, dead voice. "I knew you would kill me if I failed you. The bomb was fully functional. The drop was perfect. The witch shielded it from exploding on impact, but detonation should have occurred when the timer ran down."
     
    Caligula lifted his other hand, and almost gently caressed the side of the man's face.
    The sheep all worshipped him, as was his due; it was almost painful when he lost even one. Adulation was his birthright; slavish devotion from his subjects his coin of the realm.
     
    "And the witch who shielded it?"
     
    "I killed her, as you directed, Master."
     
    "There, now," Caligula crooned. "You did a good job after all, didn't you?"
     
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    A glimmer of hope flickered for an instant in the man's eyes, and Caligula chuckled.
    Then he drove his fangs into the side of Merkel's neck and drained him dry. When he finished, he tossed the empty husk to the ground and carefully wiped his lips. "Their terror is so much richer when you give them a morsel of hope first, don't you find?"
     
    Drakos stood there, impassive. "I was taught never to play with my food," he observed dryly.
     
    Caligula narrowed his eyes and then burst out laughing. "Never to play with your food.
    Brilliant."
     
    The voice that sliced through the air was jarring in its beauty. The lilting tones of a dark angel whispering words of bloody death. "Laughter? Tell me that I do not hear laughter from my admiral when his plans have gone so badly wrong."
     
    Drakos shuddered and then moaned, the sound shockingly similar to the one the dead human had made, and hoarsely spoke a single word. A name.
     
    A dark and twisted prayer for a redemption that could never be found.
     
    "Anubisa."
     
    Dropping to the ground, Drakos knelt and bowed his head until it touched the dirt.
    Caligula remained standing, defiant; testing himself and his strength in the face of the matchless power of the goddess of the night.
     
    Anubisa floated down from a point far above them, descending from high in the blackness of the cavern. Her midnight black hair glowed as the unseen stars caressed her hip-length curls. The silken white folds of her gown, unaffected