Read Riss Series 5: The Riss Challenge for Free Online

moving, or maybe I should have Henrick motivate you."
    "Before you beat an old lady senseless and useless for hours or days, you might want to tell Lieutenant Henrick where you are keeping the Riss that know the system software."
    Henrick flinched as Neifeh wheeled on him. "Where are they? Bring them here!" he shouted.
    "Sir, we have captured over a hundred Riss. They are being held in buildings close to where they were captured."
    "Where is the closest group?"
    "A small village about a half-hour by shuttle, sir."
    "Don't just stand there. Go get one." He waved for the lieutenant to leave, and his eyes bore into me. "What are you waiting for now?"
    "Any Riss? Or do you want one who worked on software?" I asked as innocently as I could, but not innocently enough. The back hand sent me spinning to the floor. Thank the space gods for Si'jin. The idiot's blow could have sent a truly old woman to the hospital. So, I lay there pretending to be knocked out, with Thalia's help.
    "Ni'Shay, get some water. She's wasting time."
    "Admiral Neifeh, she's an old woman. Combined with the beating yesterday, she may have a concussion or be in a coma. If she dies, it will take you years to be able to communicate with the Riss," Ni'Shay said, kneeling next to me and feeling for a pulse in my neck. Neifeh was silent for a long time.
    "Lieutenant Henrick, Ni'Shay will keep you informed of...Ioana's status. If she needs additional medical help, you will arrange it. When she is able, you will escort her to find a couple of Riss that know the software and notify me. Is that clear?"
    "Yes, sir," Henrick said with a click of his heels.
    "Who's in charge?" Neifeh said, looking at the engineers.
    "Gurian, sir. I'm the senior software engineer with the fleet," a short elderly man said. His soft round face didn't look any too happy to be the senior engineer.
    "You and your team will be on twenty-four-hour standby. In fact, you should get quarters here. Ni'Shay will arrange it. I want to have the fleet upgraded within the year, so we can't afford any delays. Is that understood?"
    "Yes, sir," Gurian said, looking as if he had just been given a month to live.
     Thalia sent an image of a blindfolded man facing a firing squad.
     I sent an image of me in the hospital, bandaged head to foot.
     Image of him smiling, unaware he was standing on a landmine.
    * * *
    "How are you doing, Ioana?" Ni'Shay asked, with Terril standing next to him in a nurse's uniform.
    "You look like shit...Elder Ioana," Terril said, turning my face to examine the damage. "Want me to kill him? No paperwork involved for a JPU Admiral."
    "Neifeh and Salazan must be brothers." I shook my head. "I'm fine, Ni'Shay. Most of the damage is Thalia's cosmetics, although I did have to let him make substantial contact to make it real."
    "What next?" he asked.
    "I'm sorry, Ni'Shay, but I have to let this play out naturally. If I rush, he may figure out we are playing him. Freelanders and Riss..."
     An image of a maze with only one exit.
     I sent one with doors cut into the maze's outer walls.
     Thalia's image had the outer walls overlooking the shear granite face of a mountain.
    
    
    "We understand, Ioana," Ni'Shay said, concluding my whining session with Thalia. But Thalia was right, and in a sense, this was no different than men, women, and Riss dying in a space battle. Well, the result was no different, but this felt worse. These people couldn't fight back any more than a rabbit can fight a hunter with a gun.
    "Delay for now while we decide how we are going to sabotage the JPU war effort."
    "War?" Terril asked.
    "Yes. Neifeh is hoping the JPU fleet will be ready in a year to take on the SAS. The JPU fleet was already larger than the SAS or UFN fleets by close to a hundred ships. But the SAS has technology that offsets that advantage.