Read Online THE PRIZE: BOOK TWO - RETRIBUTION by Rob Buckman - Free Book Online Page A

gold hieroglyphics on the surface, touching them with his finger tips. They spoke to him in welcome and he felt rather than heard the music. Chief Tommy Standing Bear stopped in the doorway and looked at the stones.
    “Never before have I seen these stones, even as a child playing here, and yet they are here.” He touched them to make sure they were real. “What must I do now?”
    “Walk through and speak the truth from your heart, Grandfather.”
    “In my old age, I always speak the truth, Morning Star, what else is there?” Leaning heavily on his walking staff he shuffled through the doorway. The two young women wanted to go with him, but Ellis stopped them.
    “This is a journey he must walk alone.”
    Surprisingly, it didn’t take as long as Penn thought it would, and less than ten minutes later the old man came striding back out, except he wasn’t old anymore. He wasn’t young either, but Michael had taken forty years off him. A strange chant started in the waiting people when they saw him and the two young women fell to their knees in shock.
    “Yuta hay, Morning Star, and you Richard Penn.” He smiled at them both and looked down at his body. “You spoke the truth yellow eyes.” Walking out, he touched the hieroglyphics and nodded, as if in understanding.
    “How close is death sitting now?” Penn asked.
    “A long way away now, friend Penn.”
    “Good. We have many things to do, and claiming you are too old won’t cut it.” Tommy Standing Bear laughed and went out to talk to his people. He now stood tall and proud, his long hair now midnight black, likes a raven’s wing, hung down his back. This was the war chief of the Chiricahua Apache nation of old, now able to lead them to a new, brighter future.
     

Chapter Five
    Tucson Arizona - Sol Space
    …♫Tommy was a Piper's Son, and fell in love when he was young; But all the Tunes that he could play, was, O'er the Hills, and far away. Over the Hills and O'er the Main, through Friend, Foe, and Markoff’s hand, Emperor Cytec commands and we'll obey O'er the Hills and far away♫…
    Penn set up his base of operation in the geometric center of the old USA, in a town called Lebanon, Kansas in an old brick building on the corner of Chicago and Main. Using what remained of the net, which surprisingly was still in operation, despite all the Imperials could do to shut it down, Penn stood looking at the one hundred and twenty volunteers who’d answered his call, wondering how many he’d have left at the end. Most were the young bucks from the reservation with a few locals who’d answered the call who thought it would be cool to swing a nightstick, bash a few heads in and lord it over everyone for once. They probably thought they could hide behind a badge and do whatever they wanted. It was questionable how many would walk back out the gateway. While General Marks was busy sending out his people to recruit volunteers for his new army, Richard concentrated on starting the rebuilding on Earth. He suspected that the genetically advanced ones in his group wouldn’t have much trouble with the physical part of the challenge; it was the mental part he wasn’t so sure they could pass.
    “As I said in my request.” He said, standing in front and looking over the volunteers. “I’m looking for men and women who’d like to help rebuild our world by becoming our new police force.” He could see the look in some of their eyes, the look of greed, but it didn’t matter. On the long table behind him sat neat piles of gray uniforms and assorted equipment.
    “To get one of these neat new uniforms, and the authority to do whatever you like to police and enforce the law in your assigned district, all you have to do is walk through that doorway over there and take the test.” All eyes flicked to the ornate stone archway with the red and gold motif etched into the stone.
    “What sort of test is it?” a burly young man asked, “I don’t read so well, nor write for