Read Hostiles (The Galactic Mage series) for Free Online Page B

doctor, who looked to have recovered a bit. “I’m sorry,” Altin said. “It never should have come to this.”
    Doctor Singh only shook his head.
    “I have to find her,” Altin pressed again. “Show me how.” He stepped over to where the doctor sat and presented the tablet to him. “Show me how to find her in this. With the chip in her arm, like the one I had.” He pulled up the sleeve of his robe and showed the bright pink line where his chip had been removed, a fading mark that might have been gone all together had he allowed Doctor Leopold time to finish the work.
    “I can’t, Altin,” Doctor Singh replied. He looked completely worn out, like a man who hasn’t slept perhaps ever in the course of an entire life. Dark brown circles shadowed his face beneath his eyes, so dark he looked as if he’d lost a fight a few days before. The whites of his eyes were brown around the edges, with lines of bloodshot visible. He pushed his fingers through his hair in an exhausted way and repeated it. “I just can’t.”
    “Yes, you can,” Altin insisted. “I know you can. Colonel Pewter found her at Northfork Manor using that chip when we were flying in. I can use it too.” He pushed the tablet forward, practically right into Doctor Singh’s face. “Do it. Show me. You don’t have to like me. But if you care for her, then you will show me. She has a chance for a life back on Prosperion. You said she is dead if she stays here, if she goes with them. What is there to lose?”
    But still the doctor shook his head, though for a moment appearing as if he might change his mind, as if he wanted to. But he didn’t. He stared into the small screen of the tablet and watched. Watched and shook his head. “You must think I’m a fool,” he said. “And I suppose it’s true. In the end I am, aren’t I? But even I am not that much a fool.”
    Altin nearly gasped in his impatience. “Just tell me how, damn it.” He thrust the tablet against the doctor’s hand, trying to jam it into his grip, but he would not take it. “Mercy’s sake, Doctor, I’m not here to fight with you. My people aren’t your enemy. It was a gods-be-damned mistake. Blue Fire has betrayed us all. She betrayed Orli. She betrayed me. She even betrayed Her Majesty and the priests of Anvilwrath. It was her. Can’t you see? If we’d wanted to do this, we would have just done it and had it on.”
    The doctor took the tablet from him. Altin could see in his tired face that he wanted to believe, but that he’d just run out of faith. His ability to trust was gone.
    “For her. Show me. Let me save her. Let me get her out, then I will go find Blue Fire and make her stop. I’ll make her call off the attack. If she won’t, I will carry one of your weapons to her heart chamber and stop it myself.”
    That made the doctor look up.
    “I’m serious. I know how this looks, but you are wrong. And I do love Orli. Help me find her. What possible deception could I have for your people in wanting to get one woman out of here? Think about it.”
    That was true, and the doctor’s head slowly began to nod. It was possible. But then, the Prosperion mage could simply be finishing the act, just as Captain Asad had said. This could be the last thing, the last bit of information. A way to follow her, and Captain Asad, into the heart of the NTA. Perhaps even in possession of a nuclear missile. But he wanted to believe it wasn’t so. He wanted to believe that Orli might still have a chance, that they might all still have a chance, especially as he stared into that vast cloud of death revealed in the tablet’s glowing screen.
    Altin leaned forward, hoping, trying not to seem so eager that Doctor Singh changed his mind. That’s when Doctor Singh let out a short portion of a laugh, the least part of it, the part that breaks when it discovers there is no humor there.
    “Really, Altin?” He sounded disgusted. He looked up at the practically panting mage and shook his head