Sullivan Saga 2: Sullivan's Wrath by Michael K. Rose

loyalists throughout Fort Hendricks. The word would be spread to them and, with luck, Sullivan could be tracked as he left the base.
    Jensen looked up as General Miller stepped to his open office door. Jensen nodded at Miller. Miller nodded back, scanned the room then closed the door behind him as he went back in.
    Jensen had been maneuvering for months to get a position on Miller’s personal staff. He was little more than a secretary, but he didn’t care. His position enabled him to keep the loyalists abreast of all of Miller’s movements. He had even been able to copy files and send them to his compatriots. So far none of those files had provided any intelligence that could be used against the new government, but eventually something valuable would come across Jensen’s desk. If and when that happened, he was prepared to sacrifice his life to get the information to the rightful leadership of Edaline.
    But Jensen wouldn’t blow his cover just yet. What he had seen today, the return of Richard Sullivan, was the most important development in months. Was it possible Sullivan was here to coordinate with General Miller? Was he going to lend his expertise to help bring down the loyalists? Even if he wasn’t, killing him could be the key to striking if not a tactical then at least a moral blow to those who had overthrown Edaline’s rightful government. If Sullivan could be killed or captured, it could reignite the fuse that had been snuffed out by the military’s raid on the loyalist’s weapons stockpile a month ago. Up until that point, they had hoped those weapons would soon be put to use. Now, insufficiently armed, any chance that the loyalists would be able to initiate an effective armed attack was gone. All they could do now was what they had been doing ever since the end of the war: make their presence known through small acts of sabotage and attempted assassinations.
    So far the sabotage had caused only minor problems for the government. The assassination attempts had been less successful. Not a single one of them had been carried out successfully, and three loyalists had been killed during the attempts. Another seven had been arrested.
    Worse, the support the loyalists hoped to receive from the civilian population hadn’t materialized. But taking care of Sullivan could change all that. He was more important as a symbol than as a leader, especially since he had left Edaline just after the war, but it was a powerful symbol. If both Sullivan and General Miller, perhaps even Prime Minister Hall, could all be killed within a short period of time, Jensen had no doubt that some of the people would rally to the loyalists’ cause. Jensen himself, with his proximity to Miller, was willing to take down the general. His superiors had hinted to him that he might be given such an assignment when the time was right.
    But it was out of his hands for now. All he could do was continue reporting on Miller and hope those higher up the chain of command would give him the opportunity to serve his planet.
     

12
     
    SULLIVAN DIDN’T KNOW why he thought he would be able to find Allen by wandering the streets of Agrona, but he did it anyway. He felt helpless sitting in the hotel room, waiting for Prime Minister Hall’s office to return his calls.
    He eventually found himself in the neighborhood where he had grown up—so different now, after two wars—and found his old street. None of the building from his childhood still stood. They had all been destroyed during the first rebellion. But there was a small neighborhood park on the next street that was almost unchanged from when he’d frequented it as a child. Sullivan stood looking out at the swings, the slide, the basketball court, and imagining all the times his mother had stood in the very same spot, watching him play. He walked over to a bench and put his hand on the armrest. She’d sat here, too, leaning on the armrest, occasionally looking up from her tablet to smile at