Read Online Ragnarok by Ari Bach - Free Book Online Page B

for parasites that only grow on the Crack Blag.” Trygve nodded. “The ravine will know. It’s just better to ask forgiveness than permission.”
    â€œWe asked for permission,” said Veikko. “We didn’t get it.”
    â€œWell, then it’s good that forgiveness is so damn easy.” Veikko stood up. “We’ll think up a name later. Let’s plan this thing.”
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    J ABIR A L -H IMYARI ’ S cranium, cleanly severed high up the neck, had come to rest at Pelamus Pluturus’s left flipper. The blood drained from it to stain his boot. A happy stain for Pluturus and given Al-Himyari’s notorious chemical dumps into the Mesogeios, a relieving one. Though his acts as CEO of the YUP were infamous to Cetaceans, he was all but unknown topside. Landlopers had little care for what fell into the water where Cetaceans would breathe it, ingest it in the flesh of their prey, and die from its cancers or go insane from its diseases. Al-Himyari’s head would soon rot and dissolve before the gates of the Ionian Colony, where Pelamus’s father, a brilliant genetic engineer, had died from the pollution.
    Two meters away, under his own desk, was the head of Harun bin Nusair. Nusair was the commanding officer of the Yuppies, a light name for a dark army. Almost two years ago, his attack on the Pluturus fleet killed Pelamus’s sister. Pelamus’s reign of terror against the Yuppie navy came to an end with the severing of Nusair’s spinal column. At long last Nuala was avenged, and for that Pelamus was suddenly, unexpectedly overcome with a feeling of sorrow. Not for his victory, but the somber afterthoughts of a long hard path left behind. The Fish had killed the last fisherman in the pond. Certainly there were others across the seas—his brothers south of Suomi; sisters in California; the simplistic clan of Mariana; and the benthic farmers of the Atlantic. But none concerned him just then. Pelamus walked over to the financial mainframe.
    A large obelisk in the room, black and glowing green at its seams, held the wealth of the YUP. From the obelisk alone, their funds were monitored, sold, bought, and held. Standard topside company business. No link could penetrate the obelisk, nor could any bank or police force freeze their holdings. Only three men in the world had access to the wealth within. Jabir Al-Himyari, Harun bin Nusair, and Steve Al-Sulayhi, Chief of Finances. Steve’s head was in the hands of Captain Crockeri. Crockeri had proven herself in every single battle she fought against the Yuppie navy, and her place beside Pelamus was more than well earned. So she had the honor of hardwiring Al-Sulayhi’s head into the obelisk, unlocking it, and then letting the head die while in its mechanical embrace.
    As it registered his death, the obelisk began hunting for the CEO to input the new financial officer. As he was dead as well, it kept looking. Pelamus was careful to slaughter every employee in line, all the way down to Ellessey MacReedy, the spy who had informed Pelamus of the financial mainframe’s order of succession. The human, traitor to his species, would be well rewarded by theirs. Having betrayed the YUP out of love for a Cetacean woman, he would soon be granted gills and fins and brand new eyes, the great vibrant eyes of a sea-dweller to replace the beady little lifeless orbs from which humans saw the world. And he would happily lose his link as well. Cetaceans in general had little need of the computer world. It was vulgar, ugly, and constant. Ellessey wouldn’t miss it. He only needed it for a few more minutes.
    Unaffected by the heads at his feet, he logged in and accepted leadership of the YUP, such as it was. Pelamus had truly wrecked the company, stealing their fleets, their resources, and killing a tenth of their worldwide employees. Before the end they were begging for bailouts. In Cetacean terms they were scaled, gutted, and