Read Born of Sand (Tales of a Dying Star Book 5) for Free Online

in all directions, including to the lights hanging in the center of the ceiling. The lights appeared like an afterthought, hastily screwed into the metal and connected. To the right were two more cell doors like hers, both open, unoccupied. Fifty feet in the other direction the hallway ended at a T-intersection.
    "Hello?" her voice echoed.
    She followed the corridor away from the cells. Sand particles scraped between her bare feet and the warm metal floor. The air contained the ever-present hum of machinery, like some sort of turbine or engine just on the other side of the wall.
    She chose a direction at random, wandering down two more corridors before coming to what looked like a blast door. It stood open. Voices spoke softly somewhere beyond. She stepped through the doorway into a cleaner hallway, with higher ceilings and fewer exposed pipes and wires. The hum of machinery slowly disappeared. She followed the sound of the voices on silent feet until reaching what appeared to be a large common room.
    "But how did they know..." someone said.
    Mira stopped outside of the doorway, staying mostly out of sight behind the frame. The room held a metal table with various stools, around which four people stood. Mira cocked her ears to listen.
    "It started a few days ago," said Kari, the dangerous-looking woman who had identified Mira in her cell. "One of Bruno's suppliers, a foreman at a factory in the city, was removed from his position."
    "He was implicated for working with Bruno?" asked Farrow.
    Kari shook her head. "An unrelated offense. Stealing, I think. A strange coincidence. But he was removed, replaced by someone less... cooperative. Bruno visited the factory, gave the new foreman his normal pitch, part threat and part bribe."
    Spider cackled. "That fat loaf left his chair? I'd strangle myself with my own braids to see the sight."
    Kari shot him annoyed look before continuing. "The new foreman was less receptive than the old, and Bruno grew impatient for the electroid parts. He hired me to remove the new foreman, hoping his replacement would be more malleable." A knife appeared in her hand, and she flourished it in the air.
    A tall man at the end of the table suddenly spoke. "So this recent instability in our plan is a result of your action?" he asked quietly, with an accent Mira did not recognize. He seemed as implacable as a judge.
    "I never had the chance," Kari said, putting a hand on her hip while twirling the knife with the other. "The foreman must have gone to the Melisao. Two dozen peacekeepers raided the Station."
    There was a long, pregnant silence.
    The tall man asked, "And the electroids?"
    "Bruno activated them to defend himself. Marched out of the storage bay and started killing everything in sight--peacekeepers, Station brutes, civilians. One of his shuttles was about to launch, so maybe a hundred women and children were there. Whole thing was a mess. Lotta bodies."
    "And the electroids?" he repeated with a voice like ice.
    "I got out of there quick as I could," Kari said, "but I heard all of the electroids were destroyed. Those that weren't activated were probably seized."
    The others slumped at that piece of information.
    " Fuck ," Spider cursed, slamming his palm on the table and turning away, hands gripping the back of his head. Farrow leaned forward on the table, hanging his head. Even Kari closed her eyes, as if disheartened to speak the news.
    The tall man stood very still, impassive.
    "A lot of peacekeepers died in the process," Kari said. "So that's something. Just a few thousand left, now."
    "Tell me how that fat shit died," Spider said. "Gutted by one of his own robots? Killed by peacekeepers?"
    "Jumped on the shuttle and launched it himself." Kari stabbed upward with her knife. "One of the Melisao stations confirmed it was shot down by a Sentinel in low orbit."
    Spider looked surprised. "Why'd he do that? He knew that all ships..."
    Mira didn't know what a Sentinel was, but she pictured the Lord of