Rhoads - The Dangerous Type: In the Wake of the Templars Book One

Copyright 2015 by Loren Rhoads

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover illustration and design by Cody Tilson

Print ISBN: 978-1-59780-814-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-59780-828-6

Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to Martha J. Allard, who was there when the story began.

CHAPTER 1

K avanaugh had serious qualms about robbing graves. It was bad enough that the rest of the galaxy blamed humans for exterminating the Templars. If it were discovered that a human team was now looting Templar graves, the galaxy would feel justified in its low opinions of humanity. He didnt like to think where that would lead.

Still, as Sloane said, it wasnt as if the bugs inside the tombs were using the weapons and armor and grave goods buried with them. And it wasnt as if Sloane hadnt paid off every official in the quadrant who might be intrigued by what the archaeological team was doing. And, yeah, Kavanaugh himself hadnt known anyone responsible for the Templar genocide: that didnt keep him from feeling bad about it. It sickened him that he was part of a species who could conceive of wiping another people out of the galaxy, if those people stood in the way of humanitys expansionist dreams. Kavanaugh didnt think about it much, but when he did, he supposed that the kind of humans who could unleash such genocide probably didnt think of Templarsor the other sentient species of the galaxyas people.

That Sloane could loot the Templar tombs without a second thought saddened Kavanaugh. And yet here Kavanaugh found himself, leading the team, wondering how the hell hed volunteered for this.

The Templars chose these caves for their tombs because the stone was impossibly difficult to cut. They meant for their graves to be sealed for all time. It took Kavanaughs team hours to calculate how to open each cavern. Unfortunately, Sloane didnt accept facts as excuses. The grave robbers had a quota; Kavanaughs job was to see they met it.

At least the impossibly hard stone kept the caves contents incorrupt. The metal was as polished as the day it had been entombed, corpses as fresh. In the past couple of weeks, Kavanaugh had seen more than he wanted of dead bugs contorted by the plague.

Nothing indicated that this cavern would be different from the others. If it had been up to Kavanaugh, hed have let the men close down the machinery for the night and sent them back to the bunker to get out of the knifing, granular wind. Unfortunately, the boss had made it clear to him that not meeting the quota would cost Kavanaugh his job. He was on the verge of saying, Fine, I quit, but the boss, long ago, had been a friend.

Lim, the teams engineer, checked input of the measurements once again as they all huddled in the lee of the loader to wait for the calculations to be done. Kavanaugh thought longingly of the flask inside his jacket, but he wasnt about to lift his face screen to sip from it. It wasnt worth losing an eye to the obsidian grit in the wind.

The men were too tired to grumble. Theyd already opened one tomb today, stripping it of grave goods and packing the antiques carefully to be shipped off-world.

Sloane had warned Kavanaugh to watch the men closely to prevent pilferage. The memory made Kavanaugh snort. So far they hadnt come across anything to tempt the men. Anything that got stolen wasnt leaving, except on one of the bosss ships. Nobody was stupid enough to risk crossing Sloane.

The computer chimed as calculations scrolled across its screen. Back to work, Kavanaugh translated.

Lim called out coordinates for Curcovic and Taki to place the charges around the huge stone slab sealing the tombs mouth. Kavanaugh fingered the flask again, mouth watering, hoping that the tomb would be empty so they could be done for the day and get out of the wind sooner. It wasnt like he was going to sleep tonight, but at least in the bunker he could lie down and rest. The tension of taking these risks for Sloane was killing him.

The men sprinted back toward the loader. The four of them huddled together against the big machine as Taki pressed the switch.

A huge explosion dropped the ground from beneath their feet. Then the blast wave knocked them back against the loader, holding them in place for a moment, air crushed from their lungs, as it boomed through the stone valley. When it released them, Kavanaugh counted the seconds until the echo rolled back down the valley to them.

Think you used too much, Kavanaugh commented.

Dont tell Sloane, Curcovic drawled.

I used just enough, Taki huffed. Take a look.

The slab had shifted sufficiently that the men could get levers around it and roll it back enough to squeeze past. Lim pulled the levers from the loader and handed them around.

As he bent to work, Curcovic said, as he always did, Hope theres something good in this one. Im bored with dead bugs in shiny armor.

Its not like theyre gonna have left dancing girls in any of them, Taki complained. Thats the only thing I wanna find. He turned to Kavanaugh to ask, When do we get off this rock again?

Not soon enough, Kavanaugh answered again. Curcovic laughed, as he always did.

According to plan, theyd wriggle into the tomb one at a time. Kavanaugh always went first. He was the crew boss, hence the most expendable if they tripped a booby-trap. It was a point of honor for him that he didnt ask the men to do anything he wouldnt volunteer for himself. It made him better than Sloane. Besides, Curcovic always joked, Kavanaugh would need the others to figure out how to free him if the slab slipped.

Kavanaugh always had a moment, as he slithered past the edge of a slab, when he feared it would rock back into place and crush him. Or worse, it would rock back after hed passed it, trapping him inside the tomb. No telling how long it would take someone to die inside one of those graves, how long before the air ran out or dehydration made breathing cease to matter. It wasnt as if Sloane would feel he had enough invested in the team to rescue anyone. Kavanaugh wouldnt put it past the boss to decide it was more cost effective simply to hire new men, leaving the originals behind as a warning to be more careful.

Most of the tombs theyd entered had warehoused whole companies of bugs, the dead warriors of a single campaign buried together. Kavanaugh played his light around the inside this cavern but found only a single catafalque, an uncarved slab of obsidian in the rough center of the room. Whoever lay atop it must be important, he thought. Shouldnt take too long to loot one body. Maybe there would actually be something worth stealing this time.