Soldiers of Fame and Fortune Full Series Omnibus: Nobody’s Fool, Nobody Lives Forever, Nobody Drinks That Much, Nobody Remembers But Us, Ghost Walking, 12 Book series...

by Michael Todd

  Holly laughed. “You could always grab a Pita plant and pull it out of the ground. I hear they don’t like that too much.”

  She looked at her companion to see if she was laughing as well but all she saw was a thoughtful expression. Holly put her hands up. “That was a joke. A bad one. You aren’t supposed to think about it.”

  Billie smiled and patted her on the shoulder. “Relax. I’m daring, not foolhardy.”

  Three Days Later

  Hickok stood in front of the table and examined her suit. Amanda stood on the other side, her hands clenched, nervous as Billie gave it a once-over. The armorer pointed out the different things she’d done to make the suit wearable. It looked almost as good as new.

  Amanda passed her the helmet. “The HUD didn’t need any work really besides some scratches on the display that I fixed. The armor took me a couple of attempts. It’s a different material to anything I have worked with before. I was actually able to do the whole thing without turning the suit off at all. There shouldn’t be any warnings to your higher-ups.”

  Billie held the helmet in her hand. “Oh, there was a fritzing of the screen in this thing. I’ve dealt with it every time I get one. They all seem to have the same issue. It not only drives me nuts, but it is dangerous as well. It gets distracting and I end up taking the thing off in combat situations. That alone can be deadly. Did you happen to detect anything in it like that?”

  Amanda pulled her notes and read through them before she snapped her fingers. “Yes. That’s right. I forgot about this part. I looked through the electronics and noticed a lot of manipulations of the boards and such. One specific wire was inserted but it wasn’t secured. The only thing I can think of is the memory system and personality of your AI was changed so much that whoever your tech was didn’t want to re-solder the wire every time. Unfortunately, between the heat and the movement on your head, it slips off and causes a fritz.”

  Hickok snarled. “Marcus is an ass.”

  Amanda gave her a sharp look. “Marcus?”

  “My ops guy, why?”

  The armorer cleared her throat. “No reason. Anyway, I soldered it in, so you should be good.”

  Billie snickered. “He’ll love that.”

  Amanda picked the suit up. “Here, give it a try. I want to make sure nothing has altered the way it fits you. Oh, and I looked at your measurements versus the suit and I created a little more extra room in the bust area. I don’t know how you weren’t suffocating from your own tits in there.”

  Billie put the suit on, zipped it up the back, and rolled her shoulders. She snapped all the armor down and moved around. “Holy shit.”

  “You like?”

  The woman chuckled. “This bitch was supposed to be perfectly fitted to me. But yeah, I can definitely feel the extra room. My tits thank you, Miss Amanda. They have felt squashed for so many years I didn’t know how they felt with room to breathe. I imagine this is how women felt when it was no longer socially necessary to wear a corset.”

  Billie turned, gathered her weapons, and connected them with her HUD. She went through all the necessary connection sequences, then holstered them and flipped her rifle onto her back. She held the helmet and nodded.

  Amanda was relieved. “Where to now?”

  The woman tapped her helmet. “Time to go back in.”

  Chapter Five

  Hickok pushed the vines to the side and looked around the Zoo. It was daylight this time. There was no way she would go into the jungle looking for a dino in the dark. That would have been plain stupid. She had her guard up and watched for anyone who might be out with their teams, but the place was big enough that she could be out there for days and not run into anyone.

  She shoved another curtain of vines away and stepped forward, not seeing the wriggling beneath her. A vine twisted quickly, up and around her ankle, and pulled her off her feet.

  Billie hung upside down in the air, her arms dangling down. “Fuck. God damn it, you bloodsucking leech. Put me the fuck down. Now!”

  The creeper moved swiftly to swing her through the air and stop abruptly above a large orange plant. Its blossom opened, and large rings of teeth snarled below her. Billie groaned and drew the dagger strapped to her leg. She heaved upward and swiped the blade across the vine. Immediately, it released her and she balled herself up as she fell. The moment she landed, she flailed to grab a nearby limb and dragged herself to the side and onto the ground before the flower snapped shut.

  She rolled, slid to a stop, and roared defiance. Then she leapt to her feet and lunged at the plant to slam the blade of her dagger into it over and over again. The plant struggled and hissed for several moments. When it finally became motionless, Billie stood over it and allowed herself a few more blows. “You fucking bitch. Trying to kill me when I have shit to do!”

  After a few seconds of heavy breathing, she stopped and stepped back to look at the pulverized plant in front of her. Satisfied, she nodded and turned but stopped dead in her tracks as she faced off with a tall, skinny animal. Her HUD flipped through pictures and paused on what looked like a cross between a stick bug and a praying mantis.

  Billie jumped back, grabbed her pistol, and fired four shots directly at the insect. Its limbs flew off and it bounced back and forth before it dropped to the ground in a heap. Without thought, she pulled her short sword from her back and cut its head off. “I remember. You bitches like to come back to life. Let’s see you do it without a head.”

  She shoved the short sword back into its sheath and sighed as an earth-rattling roar echoed through the air to her right. “Really? Three in a row?”

  Instinctively, she yanked her rifle around to the front and spun on her heels to face the beast. It stood nearly ten feet tall and had large arms and legs that seemed to be covered in sparkling black rocks. Its eyes glistened bright blue, and its mouth was ridged with rows of sharp teeth. “Holy hell, what the fuck are you?”

  She pulled the trigger but the bullets simply bounced off its head. It roared loudly and bounded toward her. She slung her weapon to her back and bolted, knowing there was nothing left to do at that point but run.

  As she moved, she looked back and saw the beast simply take trees down with its massive body. Billie picked up speed when she saw light through the jungle ahead from what she assumed was some sort of clearing. She sprinted forward, jumped on top of a fallen tree, and launched herself into the open area. From her landing position on one knee, she turned and looked up slowly.

  All around her, a team of mercenaries battled jags and other creatures. They all froze, stared at her for a split second, then looked beyond her as the ground rumbled beneath their feet. Even the animals paused and shrank back at the sound. Billie stood and spun to face the stone beast as it slammed into the trees at the edge of the clearing and toppled them to the side. Everything and everyone gasped, and the smaller creatures retreated into the jungle in an attempt to avoid contact with this monstrosity.

  The mercs around her backed up and blasted their guns at the beast. It roared, brought its foot up, and stamped it hard into the ground. Billie narrowed her eyes when she saw that beneath it, from its crotch to its asshole, there was no stone. It looked like regular animal flesh.

  She rolled her eyes and groaned. “Great. Exactly what I wanted today.”

  Hickok dragged in a deep breath and ran toward the creature, dropped to her knees as she got close, and slid between its legs. Without looking, she jammed the barrel of the rifle upward, fairly certain she had shoved it straight up the rock man’s asshole.

  Billie groaned before she pulled the trigger and blasted a three-round burst straight up its ass. Its arms and legs wavered and she yanked the gun back and hurried away from behind it and into the edge of the clearing. The boulder-beast groaned and wailed as the stones on its body crumbled and fell. The mercs stood in bewilderment and simply watched as the animal slowly collapsed, looking more like a rockslide than a body.

  She stepped quickly into the s
hadows and left the mercs there alone with nothing left to fight. Taking care to make little sound, she turned and moved rapidly through the woods. She stopped at the edge of a small gulley and slung her gun onto her back, grimacing at the smell that emanated from the barrel. “How the fuck can I find one of those big dino assholes?”

  She breathed heavily and studied the jungle on the other side of the trench. Growing in a stream of light was a large patch of Pita.

  The Heavy Metal team from the night of the “ghost” stood in the clearing and eliminated any small creatures that still attacked. None of them said a word, not even sure what the hell had just happened. It would definitely be a story for the ages if they could get their asses out of the Zoo in one piece.

  The leader slashed his dagger through a small, rat-like creature with sharp, jagged teeth. It slid off his blade onto the ground in a puddle of blue, gloppy blood. He shook his head, ready for a drink. “All right, team, let’s finish this up. We need to head to the Pitas and then get the hell out of here so I can get a God damn drink. This day keeps getting stranger and stranger.”

  The comms in their helmets crackled and the faint sound of a woman’s voice faded in and out. The leader of the team straightened and squinted his eyes as he tuned his comms and tried to figure out what she was screaming about. Suddenly, as if from everywhere around them, the unmistakable sound of a dino roared through the trees and shook the branches. Everyone dug their boots in and grabbed their guns as they scanned the tree line.

  Over the comms, the woman’s voice became clear. “Heads up! It seems like I got company. Find places to hide! Stat!”

  Billie held the Pita plant, roots and all, in her left hand as she slashed her short sword across the neck of a jag. The beast hissed and growled, stumbled back into the plants, and spilled its blue blood over the beautiful petals of the life-giving nectar holders. It tried to pull itself back to its feet, but its legs were weak and wiggled like Jell-O before it finally collapsed with a final breath.

  She turned to her right and groaned as the second jag lunged toward her. It struck her hard in the chest. Her left hand swung wide and the Pita plant flew free. The animal and woman rolled across the ground and destroyed one plant after another. The pheromones sprayed widely and hung in the air. She grunted as she searched the ground beside her for her sword while she held the beast’s snarling jowls away from her.

  When she turned her head to the right, she saw the sword barely an inch from her fingers. “For Christ’s sake. This is what happens when you fuck with pussy. It attacks and leaves you defenseless. Luckily for me, I always carry extra protection.”

  Hickok scrabbled at her side and drew her pistol from the holster. She rammed her other hand into the jag’s chin and forced his head back. Quickly, she raised the gun and pulled the trigger to blast half its head off its shoulders. Flesh and blood splattered everywhere, and the jag fell back without even a twitch. Billie rolled over and grabbed her sword before she crawled to the Pita plant which still laid on the ground.

  She wiped her sleeve across the front of her helmet to clear her field of vision. “I need fucking windshield wipers on this damn thing.”

  After she’d stuffed the Pita into her pack, she cinched the top and slung it onto her back. Now it was time to find that damn dino and get the fuck out of the Zoo. She holstered her weapon and put her sword on her back before she pushed to her feet. “Come out, come out, wherever you…”

  A loud roar shook the core of her chest and she looked up to see the eyes of not one, but two dinos lurking in the bushes to the right. “Okay. That’s more than I expected.”

  She opened her comms slowly, knowing there were teams out there. “Anyone who can hear me. Get your asses out of the Zoo. We got incoming and it’s not small. Attention all teams—”

  The larger of the two dinos rumbled out of the edge of the trees and put its scaled head back to roar as loudly as it could. The ground shook, and the trees rattled so hard even the birds were startled into instant flight. Billie raced through the woods with the unmistakable thunder of the dinos close behind her. She screamed into her comms. “Heads up! It seems like I got company. Find places to hide! Stat!”

  Billie hurdled a fallen tree and caught a glimpse of the beasts as they tore through the thick growth. The blue goop glowed all the way up their backs. “I guess they decided the locusts were only fucking overkill…”

  She pulled her rifle around and slung her arm behind her to blast bullets at the dinos. The one in the front tripped slightly when a bullet pierced the soft underbelly. Billie somehow ran, dodged, and fired all at the same time. The beast in the lead began to limp slightly and she knew it might be her only chance. She stopped and yanked a grenade from her side, then waited several seconds for the creature to rear back and roar again. When it did, she pulled the pin and lobbed the grenade as hard as she could. It arced through the air and straight down its throat.

  Billie’s eyes went wide, and she spun to dive behind a large fallen tree. She covered her ears and felt the rumble as the grenade exploded. A spray of flesh and blood blasted over her head and dripped down the trees in front of her. When she turned and looked back, the bottom half of the dino dropped with a mighty thud. She pumped her fist but stopped short when the larger of the two barreled through the mist of blood.

  “Fuck, this shithead is fast.” Billie grabbed her weapon and sprinted away again.

  She stumbled into a clearing and realized it was the same one she had fought in. Bodies of different creatures lay all around her, including a large pile of rocks. Fortunately, it looked like the others had gotten her message and cleared the hell out of there.

  Hickok turned quickly as the dino burst through into the clearing and stopped. Both human and beast breathed heavily, neither of them ready to run again. Instead, they both moved slowly and cautiously and circled one another.

  Billie narrowed her eyes and slapped her chest. “Okay, you big bitch, let’s do this.”

  She drew her pistol and dug her feet in. The dino roared angrily and lowered its spiny head as its tail slashed violently back and forth. As she began to run toward it, she heard a chorus of war cries. All around her, mercs jumped out of their hiding places. They unloaded their weapons at the creature and blasted the shit out of it. Billie leapt high, grabbed one of the spikes, and swung herself on top of the animal. She fired downward to direct her bullets into its brain, careful not to hit the sacs.

  The dino had no chance and roared loudly as it crashed to the ground. Billie flipped her gun and holstered it, slid down the head, and grabbed her dagger. She ran her hand over the back of the creature’s scalp until she found the edge. Very carefully, she sliced through the flesh and found the first sac intact. She cut the tube a few inches lower and removed it. Just as carefully, she repeated the process on the other side, retrieved a plastic container from her bag, and put both sacs in it.

  She put the container in her bag and straightened with a brief glance at the mercs who all stood there staring at her. Billie chuckled and waved, jumped off the other side, and disappeared into the forest.

  The mercs stood immobile in front of the dino, not even sure what to do at that point. After a minute or two, a couple of them began tapping the spine to obtain what they could to sell to the government, who wanted the samples. The others merely stood and reloaded their weapons while they tried to decide whether what they had just seen was for real, or if they’d been fooled somehow.

  One of the men shook his head. “Who the hell is that woman? I’ve never seen her before and her suit was wild.”

  The merc next to him reloaded his weapon. “I don’t know, but I think I’ve decided to ask her out.”

  His friend frowned and turned toward him. “Dude, you’re gay.”

  He chuckled. “Tell me something I don’t already know. I’m as perplexed as you are at how turned on I am.”

  The Heavy Metal team leader cleaned the mud off his boots. “It looks like the ghost in the
dark may not have simply been an old legend. It seems we have a veteran on our hands, boys.”

  One of the team members spoke through on the comms. “Do you think that’s—”

  The leader shook his head. “We don’t know. But she sure as fuck deserves a place on the wall.”

  Chapter Six

  Holly touched her fingers to her temples and began to massage them. She leaned back in her chair and blinked her eyes a few times in an effort to get rid of the headache she had from staring at the computer screen for too long. Her research had taken her down a rabbit hole. For every new thing she figured out, a shit ton of research came along behind it. The open tabs on her computer had reached double digits.

  The data from the research facility was insane. She had two computers open, one with the spreadsheets up and one to take notes. The data made public seemed wildly different than what she now looked at, but the company had facts to back it up. Holly didn’t know if this was on purpose or if the public info was merely old.

  Either way, the amount of information she had to consume was worse than graduate school. Not to mention that everything that went in, stayed in. She didn’t have the luxury of filtering out unnecessary information, one of the pitfalls of an eidetic memory. There was literally nothing she couldn’t remember, and she felt like her head was about to explode.

  She slammed her hands on the desk and roared, “God damn it. Why can’t these assholes put everything into one common fucking space? Why do they have to have one stat in one place, and a different one somewhere else? How do they get anything fucking done?”

  Holly pushed up from the desk and walked to the fridge, threw it open, and grabbed a beer. She opened it and took a long sip. “Great, now the Zoo and its science are driving me to fucking drink. Just what I fucking need right now.”