Guns of the Temple (The Polaris Chronicles Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

she asked.
    Lotte’s open palm smacked into Draco’s face with a resounding crack before she crossed her arms.
    “Draco Emreis, why shouldn’t I have you lobotomized for that?” She pierced him with a glare. He guffawed, rubbing a hand over the welt on his cheek.
    “I, ah, wouldn’t be a useful member of the squad, then. You know, you need your brain to strategize, right? I reason it’s all or nothing. Either all my brains are in my skull or they’re on the floor. Besides, it’s all fine now, we’re finally getting some action! And more importantly, getting out of this place!”
    “So basically you’re saying,” began Hadassah sagely, before windmilling her arms. “ Oh GAWD! I’m an angry little zit and when things don’t go my way I’ll spray you all with my disgusting body fluids!”
    “Shut it!”
    “She’s right, ” Lotte said. “How do you think that selfish little outburst made us feel? Made me feel?”
    Taki’s knees weakened. At this point he would have gladly taken a week of peeling in silence over this. There was nothing in the world he hated more than witnessing an argument or a scolding. Such displays had always made him feel embarrassed by proxy.
    “My apologies, ma’am!” Draco said, saluting. “But admit it, this really sucks! I mean, more than a year on punishment detail over the name of our squad? It’s all the major’s fault. We’re all laughingstocks of the Temple. I can’t get a date to save my life! I mean, I’m a man and I have needs , and when we can’t even get leave to go to the brothel what am I supposed to do?”
    “Deal with it!” Hadassah said. “You think the captain and I are doing any better? I’m completely unmarriageable at this point.”
    “You can’t get married because you’re a nutty mutant.”
    “Rotten asshole! Tie a string around your nuts!”
    Taki started to smirk at their exchange, but a glance at Lotte quickly squelched his mirth. His captain was silent, but the look in her eyes sent fear coursing down into his nether regions. In the academy, instructors had tried to teach him how to read bodily cues to better assess an enemy. Though he had forgotten most of it, he remembered that another human’s willingness to kill was never subtle. She’s going to murder them, he realized. Their antics have driven her mad and now she’s going to stab Emreis in the throat, break the loudmouthed girl’s neck, and put a round in my gut. It’s not fair. My career’s just beginning. I’ve never been kissed!
    “Oh, Emreis! How did you find out what the major’s full name was? I just knew her as ‘H. K.’ and thought that was it,” Taki blurted out, blatantly trying to change the subject. Draco seemed the type who liked to show off his knowledge. And my godrotting life depends on it.
    “Ah, well, I wish I could say it was the result of great planning, but it was actually spontaneous. I snooped around in her office a bit when I came to deliver her meal and she wasn’t there.” Draco cracked a grin at his own derring-do and blew smoke away from an imaginary pistol.
    “That’s illegal, Corporal.” Lotte sighed. The wild-eyed despair Taki had seen in her features seemed to have vanished. His knees buckled as the tension left his body.
    “Well, it’s not like I could read much,” Draco said. “Most of what she keeps laying around is written in this weird squiggly text, not even pictograms like the Chung-Kuo use. But in any case, I saw some documents from the exarch addressed to her and they had ‘Hecaton Kheiris’ on them.”
    “For all you know, that’s a fake name. She’s never told me that, and I’ve known her the longest.”
    “You say that like it’s a point of pride, Captain.”
    “Shush.”
    “Maybe her name really is, like, ‘Hannihilation’ or something? Wouldn’t put it past her,” Hadassah said, sucking her teeth. Her earlier spat seemed to have been forgotten as easily as it had started.
    “How long have you known her,