Read Online Gathering of the Titans: The Tol Chronicles Book 2 by Robert G. Ferrell - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Robert G. Ferrell
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reached another ladder that went both up and down; she figured they would be expecting her to go down to the carriage station, so she went up into the Royal Residence instead.
At the top of the stairs was another secret entrance; this one came out in the study next to the master bedroom. She rolled a sofa over to the entrance and jammed it into the access bay to slow any pursuit. She stopped for a moment to consider the most defensible spot in the residence and decided on her home office where her computers were. She had her own array of sensors linked into there that were not in the RPC network and not mapped by anyone but her. She had triple bar locks on the door and a lot of homebrew software running to control everything.
She sat at the monitor and had just managed to use her own personal account on the RPC master server to trigger a ‘Royal Personage Under Attack’ alarm centered on the Royal Residence when a slight noise behind her caused her to roll out of her chair to the right and come up in defensive stance. A voice from the darkness said, calmly, “Very impressive, the way you handled my minions, Miss Consort. I assure you I am quite convinced that you are more adept at martial arts than I; I have no intention of engaging you in a battle.”
“The very fact that you are here, in my private quarters, means you have forfeited that option, hobgoblin scumbag.”
“Such language from a member of the Royal Family and Officer of the King’s Cabinet. The reason you are mistaken,” he paused while a dart sped silently from a gun he had hidden in a fold of his clothing and lodged itself in her shoulder, “Is in this tiny, inoffensive dart.”
She yanked the dart from the place it had penetrated her hide and was about to launch a vicious attack on him when she suddenly paused as the world went spinning.
“My very sage advice is that you restrain yourself. The poison with which you have been injected is quite deadly, but how quickly it kills you is dependent to a certain extent on your physical activity. The more you move around, the more rapidly you will expire.”
“Assassin!” she spit it out at him: a label and a curse all rolled into one.
“Well, yes and no. If you do not cooperate, then yes. If, on the other hand, you do perform one simple task for me, I will administer this antidote,” he waved a small blue glass vial in the air, “And you will wake up in a few hours with a respectable headache, but otherwise none the worse for the experience.”
“What,” she asked in a rasp, as her respiratory system was beginning to falter, “Is this ‘simple task?’”
“Go to your little computer keyboard over there and use your Royal Family override code to release just one ship from embargo in Cladimil, and this unfortunate little episode will be merely one of those stories you tell your grandchildren as they sit upon your knee late in life. Fail to do that, however, and your life will end in less than ten minutes. The king will be so disappointed in you, not to mention your precious Royal Protective Corps, which I found pathetically simple to disable, incidentally.”
“How did you accomplish such a tremendous feat?” Boogla gasped.
“No time for chit-chat or foolish flattery, goblin: do as I ask, or die. You have very little time left to make the correct decision. Imagine how distraught His Majesty will be if you make the wrong one.”
“If you’re trying to start a war between Tragacanth and Solemadrina, Aspet is far too intelligent to fall into that trap.”
“I want nothing of the sort. Bad for business. I simply want you to release some goods that have been promised to certain merchants in the international market.”
“Going to rather extremes just to get some merchandise delivered, aren’t you?”
“My employer has a reputation to uphold. Nothing is too much effort where that is concerned.”
“All right. You’ve convinced me.” She rolled somewhat erratically over to her
At the top of the stairs was another secret entrance; this one came out in the study next to the master bedroom. She rolled a sofa over to the entrance and jammed it into the access bay to slow any pursuit. She stopped for a moment to consider the most defensible spot in the residence and decided on her home office where her computers were. She had her own array of sensors linked into there that were not in the RPC network and not mapped by anyone but her. She had triple bar locks on the door and a lot of homebrew software running to control everything.
She sat at the monitor and had just managed to use her own personal account on the RPC master server to trigger a ‘Royal Personage Under Attack’ alarm centered on the Royal Residence when a slight noise behind her caused her to roll out of her chair to the right and come up in defensive stance. A voice from the darkness said, calmly, “Very impressive, the way you handled my minions, Miss Consort. I assure you I am quite convinced that you are more adept at martial arts than I; I have no intention of engaging you in a battle.”
“The very fact that you are here, in my private quarters, means you have forfeited that option, hobgoblin scumbag.”
“Such language from a member of the Royal Family and Officer of the King’s Cabinet. The reason you are mistaken,” he paused while a dart sped silently from a gun he had hidden in a fold of his clothing and lodged itself in her shoulder, “Is in this tiny, inoffensive dart.”
She yanked the dart from the place it had penetrated her hide and was about to launch a vicious attack on him when she suddenly paused as the world went spinning.
“My very sage advice is that you restrain yourself. The poison with which you have been injected is quite deadly, but how quickly it kills you is dependent to a certain extent on your physical activity. The more you move around, the more rapidly you will expire.”
“Assassin!” she spit it out at him: a label and a curse all rolled into one.
“Well, yes and no. If you do not cooperate, then yes. If, on the other hand, you do perform one simple task for me, I will administer this antidote,” he waved a small blue glass vial in the air, “And you will wake up in a few hours with a respectable headache, but otherwise none the worse for the experience.”
“What,” she asked in a rasp, as her respiratory system was beginning to falter, “Is this ‘simple task?’”
“Go to your little computer keyboard over there and use your Royal Family override code to release just one ship from embargo in Cladimil, and this unfortunate little episode will be merely one of those stories you tell your grandchildren as they sit upon your knee late in life. Fail to do that, however, and your life will end in less than ten minutes. The king will be so disappointed in you, not to mention your precious Royal Protective Corps, which I found pathetically simple to disable, incidentally.”
“How did you accomplish such a tremendous feat?” Boogla gasped.
“No time for chit-chat or foolish flattery, goblin: do as I ask, or die. You have very little time left to make the correct decision. Imagine how distraught His Majesty will be if you make the wrong one.”
“If you’re trying to start a war between Tragacanth and Solemadrina, Aspet is far too intelligent to fall into that trap.”
“I want nothing of the sort. Bad for business. I simply want you to release some goods that have been promised to certain merchants in the international market.”
“Going to rather extremes just to get some merchandise delivered, aren’t you?”
“My employer has a reputation to uphold. Nothing is too much effort where that is concerned.”
“All right. You’ve convinced me.” She rolled somewhat erratically over to her
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