When Earth Reigned Supreme (The Human Chronicles Saga Book 12) Read Online Free

attacks should go away. In any event, it certainly couldn’t hurt the war effort to take out the Queen.”
    Adam looked around his tiny stateroom. He’d left some of his uniform parts scattered about earlier, but an attendant had come in and stowed them away. Everything seemed in order, safe and secure. It didn’t take much imagination to see that the mission Monroe was proposing could be a one-way street. Was he willing to take the risk?
    However…it did have merit.
    “Okay, say your mission to assassinate the Queen is a go, how do we do it? Send a ship through the portal we control? You know it’s as well guarded on the other side as it is on our side. Then if a ship could survive long enough to make it into clear space, we have absolutely no intelligence about, well, anything on the other side.”
    “We propose a more direct approach.”
    “Explain.”
    “The portal at your house.”
    “I thought it burned up?”
    “No, sir. Fire crews arrived in time to save it. There was a little damage, but that’s been repaired.”
    Adam shook his head. “Panur said it couldn’t open up between universes. He did some weird shit to it that stopped that from happening.”
    “That appears to be the case. We’ve been trying, but so far no luck.”
    “Okay, so what’s your plan?”
    “The Klin.”
    “What about them?”
    “They came through your portal. How did they do that, and where do you think they came from?”
    “Probably from the portal they have aboard the colony ship.”
    “Exactly.”
    “And your point is?”
    Monroe leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs. “We believe the Klin are working with the Sol-Kor, feeding them intelligence and other information about the galaxy and our military actions. This belief is based on an almost uncanny avoidance of our sentry units by the most recent shipments of array parts entering the galaxy. It’s obvious they’ve been tipped, and Klin fingerprints are all over this new dynamic. They insist on sitting in on all strategy meetings even though they have no major force invested, just a token ship included in every task force.”
    “The portal in the SK universe that linked to the Klin ship was destroyed.”
    “They could’ve rebuilt it by now. And that portal was located where, Mr. Cain?”
    “The Queen’s Chambers.”
    “Bingo.”
    Adam was silent for several seconds as he thought through the mission parameters: Use his portal to enter the one on the Klin colony ship, make a quick transfer over to the SK universe—right into the heart of the Queen’s Chambers—take her out…and then extraction.
    “You’ve been there before, Mr. Cain,” Monroe said to fill the silence. “And according to your after-action report, it was only because of Panur that you didn’t take out the Queen at that time. It could be done again, and this time without any interference.”
    “They’ve probably added several more layers of security around her since the attack.”
    “Undoubtedly, and that’s why we need you and Mr. Tarazi. The two of you know the lay of the land, at least better than anyone else we could send. And this wouldn’t be a rogue rescue mission like last time. This would be fully-sanctioned and supported. You’d go in with skilled backup and armed to the teeth, which, according to what I’ve heard recently, is how you prefer it.”
    Adam knew the video that was circulating didn’t show him holding his combat knife in his teeth, but his after-action report did mention it. Monroe seemed to be the real thing, at least as far as having access to classified documents.
    “I’ll have to talk with Riyad.”
    “Of course. And I hope the tender feelings he’s expressed for the Queen won’t interfere with the mission.” There was a wicked smile on Monroe’s face.
    So the bastard’s been listening in on our conversations. Adam returned the knowing smile. In war one became very pragmatic and determined; very few things were off limits, including privacy.