Read Rise the Renegade (Rork Sollix Book 1) for Free Online Page A

through the gap and looked around. There was a narrow alley overgrown with weeds. Two deep ruts ran its length and curved around out of his view. He stepped out, pulling her behind him.
    “Hey!” The boy stepped out of shadow on Rork’s right. He raised a long blade above his head.
    Rork took off. He planted his foot in a rut and let go of Lala. It twisted and he fell on his back. The boy was on him and brought the blade down.
    Rork rolled out of the way. The blade hit the loose dirt with a dull swish. Rork rolled his legs back and laid them on top of the knife. He punched the surprised boy in the teeth. The kid let go of the blade and fell backwards. Rork launched himself forward and landed a knee on the kid’s chest. He grabbed the blade from behind him and put it to his attacker’s neck.
    The kid looked up at him, his eyes too wide, too white, his body too thin.
    How did this stick figure ever get the drop on me? Rork remembered the helicopter crash. Immigration had to be after them. Maybe even the EDF. This kid and his girlfriend likely did them a favor. If not for their pathetic kidnap attempt, he and Lala would almost certainly be in prison.
    “Rork!” Lala screamed.
    He looked up. She hopped up and down where the rutted alley curved. She pointed beyond him. “Rork!”
    A flat, circular EDF vessel hovered over the marshes between them and the spaceport. A leaner attack fighter launched from the massive ship’s underside and zoomed down to within a dozen meters of them. He tasted dust again and lost sight of her.
    He rose to run to Lala but the boy grabbed at his shirt.
    “I can hide you. They won’t find you.”
    Rork punched his arm away and ran up the alley, his foot slipping in the deep, muddy ruts.
    Lala squatted, her arms wrapped tight around her knees next to a low, white picket fence.
    He dropped the blade, grabbed her hand and pulled. They ran around the corner. Ahead, he spied a wider, paved cross street. Aircars, cabs and enclosed cargo carriers crossed their narrow gap of hope. He increased his pace but her little legs couldn’t keep up. She slipped and fell face-forward.
    Rork turned back and pulled her up. She shot him a look that said it all. This wasn’t what she signed up for. She signed up to love a daring space pirate who could handle himself in a fight, not a terminally ill, dirtbound renegade wannabe.
    “I can’t...” she muttered.
    He wanted to know where they went wrong, loathe himself for an hour or a week, but he pumped his legs as fast as she would let him. They were just a dozen meters from the street now. He would turn right and plunge into the crowd. He’d find a cargo carrier.
    A man stepped from between two shacks just meters from the market avenue. He wore a wide, flat-brimmed black hat and a long, black overcoat. His face was obscured with large, reflective sunglasses.
    Lala stopped short. Rork tried to continue.
    The black-hatted man pulled a long pistol from underneath his coat and Rork smelled burning hair. He let go of her, stepped to the side and ran his hands over his head.
    “In the name of Gamil Barbary, Sr. and in revenge for the life of his son, Gamil Barbary, Jr.” The black-hatted man stalked forward towards Rork.
    Heat assaulted Rork’s right cheek. He grabbed her and ran back the opposite way. He smelled burning hair again and his left thigh ached and weakened.
    The kid popped out from between two shacks ahead of them. “Come on! We will help you!”
    Rork pulled Lala into the narrow opening. They ran a dozen meters, turned left, then right and right once more.
    Lala slipped and fell into a puddle that reeked of urine. She screamed and looked up at him, her hands out.
    I’ll spend the rest of my life fixing this, somehow, even if she isn’t with me. Just give me the time. Rork turned into a shack and pursued the lithe boy through a dark maze that spanned perhaps dozens of the hovels.
    They stopped in an empty room with an uneven dirt floor and no