Son of Justice Read Online Free Page A

any of the humans could speak their language.
    Interesting , Eli thought as he strained to hear what they were saying.
    “Stupid monkeys,” the soldier next to him muttered. A quick glance showed the soldier to be Private Jerrone, an orphan from Earth. “They’re supposed to speak Standard.”
    “Shhhh,” Eli whispered. “I’m trying to hear.” The comment prompted a gasp and a sideways look from the other recruit. Apparently, he hadn’t expected any of his peers to speak Minith, either.
    “. . . only five were lost?” Eli heard the Minith sergeant for First Platoon, Sergeant Brek, ask.
    “That’s unacceptable,” Sergeant Krrp, the sergeant for Third Platoon replied. “We can’t let that many of these sheep pass.”
    Sergeant Twigg’s ears twitched, and the look that crossed his face showed that he agreed with his fellow instructors. “What do you propose?”
    “Another march?”
    “Humpf! I’d agree, but what if the humans sitting in power hear of it? It could undo years of work,” Brek offered. “So what if we put an additional twenty humans in the ranks? It’s not as if they could harm us or change our plans.”
    The three looked over the assembled humans once again. Eli, who had spent most of his childhood with Minith friends, and being tutored by Minith warriors, recognized the look of contempt on the faces of the three trainers. By nature, Minith were contemptuous creatures, so seeing the expression was no surprise. However, observing a Minith openly express contempt toward a human was a new experience for Eli. He wondered what it meant.
    “Let’s put them through another ten kilometers,” Sergeant Twigg announced. He waved a large, greenish hand at the humans assembled behind him. “They look ready to drop, and that should be enough to weed most of them out.”
    “And if we get questioned by the masters?”
    “We’ll explain it away, of course. Just a standard training exercise.” It was apparent that Twigg was senior, and the other two nodded at the decision. “And stop calling them ‘masters.’ They’re sheep, just like the pitiful creatures behind us.”
    “Very well. Shall we feed them first?”
    “Yes,” Twigg replied. “They’ll be emptying their stomachs on the side of the road within the first kilometer.”
    A cloud of anger passed through Eli’s being. He didn’t know what their motivations were, but it was apparent they were no longer bound by the Minith culture principle that dictated their subservience to the humans who had defeated them. Eli wondered if all Minith felt the same or if this new behavior was limited to a small group. Regardless, it was suddenly apparent why these three were blatantly ignoring their responsibilities as training sergeants. They wanted the humans who had been placed under their tutelage to fail.

Chapter 3
    They were released with instructions to eat quickly and be back in formation in thirty minutes.
    “You’ve all put in a good day of work,” Sergeant Twigg announced before releasing Second Platoon for the evening meal. Typically, a comment of that nature could be accurately interpreted as confirmation the worn-out recruits would soon be done for the day. In this instance, though, Eli knew that wasn’t the case. The Minith sergeants were setting them up for failure.
    As the recruits fell out of formation and began moving toward the mess hall, Eli debated quickly on what action he should take. Until now, he had managed to stay under the radar of the instructors. And while his platoon-mates may have recognized some of his actions as potentially noteworthy, he had resisted taking steps that would designate him as a leader to the training cadre or the other platoons. Basically, he’d kept his head down, his mouth shut, and done his own thing.
    But now . . . now, he felt he had to take some sort of action—warn his platoon and the others of what was coming. Having made up his mind, he scanned the crowd and found the person he