The Anarchist of Ophridia (Horsemen Origins Book 4)

Part 11

The passage was a tight fit, but Lee managed to squeeze through. The passageway was lined with torn cobwebs, which was a sign that it was put to recent use. The deeper he went, the more it felt like the passages were closing in. There were tangents and side halls, but Lee kept walking straight.

"Ta ma duh, hwoon dahn must want me to run his little maze," Lee whispered to himself.

He heard the soldiers screaming on the outside, but there was a presence in the passageway. Someone entered, and Lee was closing in. He snaked through the corridors until he seized the shoulder of the man he was trailing.

It was Yiu Mei, the Emperor himself.

"Convenient how you live, sniveling dog," He hissed as he tried to point his pistol at Lee.

"Gunkai you fay-fay duh pee-yen!" Lee screamed as he snapped the Emperor's elbow. "You will answer for what you've done Yiu Mei! You're lucky that I don't carve you open and force feed you your worthless guts! Now surrender!"

Yiu Mei whimpered in the dark hall, the lines on his face deepened by the glow of the light from the other rooms. He looked like a harmless middle-aged man, not some sinister genocidal monster.

"Surrender!" Lee screamed again. Yiu Mei lowered his pistol to the floor and kneeled down.

"Make it quick," Yiu Mei said. Lee put his rifle to Yiu Mei's head. Up close, he noticed that the Emperor's eyes and face looked...familiar. It felt as though he recognized the man, but where?

Lee realized where he'd seen that face before.

"The Hermit from the mountains," Lee whispered.

"You know him?" Yiu Mei asked.

"Yes, how do you?"

"He's my brother," Yiu Mei replied.

Lee stared through the darkness in disbelief, but in hindsight realized the truth. He was to bring terror to the Emperor's heart. It was not up to him to execute the Emperor, that would be for the miners to do.

"Call off your troops! Call off the bombers!" Lee screamed as he pulled Yiu Mei to his feet, keeping his rifle placed firmly in Yiu Mei's back as he pushed him through the palace.

The two men walked out the front doors to see hundreds of crimson Tingchia standing in the courtyard.

"Tell them to surrender. Tell them it's over," Lee whispered into Yiu Mei's ear. "Snipers included."

"Lay down your weapons my warriors. I shall throw myself upon the mercy of the Core Senate!" Yiu Mei screamed.

The entire courtyard was aglow from the Core ships. The soldiers inside poured out in a tidal wave and ordered the miners to stand down. They saw the condition of the miners and made the Tingchia surrender all of their weapons.

Jay came across the mob in the courtyard. He tried to scream at Lee, to tell him to execute the Emperor then and there, but his voice was drowned out by the shouting mob.

Another ship landed, and a wave of civilian reporters and camera drones spilled out, searching for the Anarchist of Ophridia. The thousands of lights from the cameras threatened to overwhelm him. The normally sleepy, quiet courtyard had become a hive of activity within a matter of seconds.

The entire galaxy watched as Lee, the Anarchist of Ophridia held the toppled Emperor Yiu Mei on the edge of the palace.

Soldiers surrounding a Chinese man shouted at Lee to drop his weapon. This man was in a fine suit and approached the edge of the palace. "Hello Mr. Lee. I'm Core Senator Mao. We can take Colonial Governor Yiu Mei from here." His tone was too calm, too even.

"Colonial Governor?" Lee screamed. "Do you have any idea what this man has done to us?" An eerie quiet settled over the crowd except for the clicks from the cameras.

"He's murdered us! Tortured us! Held us under heel as slaves!" Lee screamed.

"We're all very aware of the alleged atrocities committed by Yiu Mei. Please, allow us to take him into custody so that we may proceed with a proper trial," Senator Mao said.

Alleged atrocities. That was how this representative of the Earth Core government saw the Yiu Mei situation. Earth wanted due process, which would take decades. Each passing year was one more year Yiu Mei would sit in protective custody, until the atrocities on Ophridia were long forgotten by Yiu Mei's prosecutors.

Lee saw only one option left. He looked to the doll that dangled from his belt and remembered Ju as she giggled when she came running across their dining room floor into Ai Fen's arms.

He kicked Yiu Mei behind his knees, forcing him to kneel and shot him in the back of the head. A collective gasp echoed across the crowd as the body of the fallen emperor tumbled down the palace steps.

Lee tossed his rifle away and kneeled down on the ground while the soldiers swarmed him and Senator Mao glared at him.

Lee and Jay were held in isolation for over a year while the Core compiled evidence on whether to hold a trial for the two men alleged as terrorists. The legal evidence was murky since Ophridia had been cut off in Yiu Mei's illegal secession from the Core.

One day, the holding cells were unlocked and the guards escorted Lee and Jay into an interrogation room telling them that they had a visitor. They gave each other a puzzled look.

"Maybe it's those bloody vultures in the media. Should we tell them to sod off?" Jay asked.

"Either that or tell them tsao ni zuzong shiba dai."

A black man wearing a gray suit and a black tie, neither of which fit quite right walked into the interrogation room. He adjusted his tie as he loaded up a dossier about Lee and Jay.

"How is it that a botanist-turned miner and a humble shipping merchant come to overthrow the most ruthless dictator in the galaxy?"

"Well you see now we-"

"It was a rhetorical question," the man said as he cut Jay off. "Now, you two have just executed one of the most well connected leaders in the Core. A lot of people were involved with keeping Yiu Mei in power for better or for worse and are going to find their pocket books getting a lot lighter. In short, people are going to come after you for this. Prison is going to be a very dangerous place."

"Get to the point hundan," Lee snapped.

"Yeah, I was told that you've got quite a potty mouth Lee. Look, I'm here to offer you two a third option. My name is Colonel John C. Henry and I'm building a team..."

—The End—