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

  The journey was hours long and Billie did everything she could to keep herself busy. She ate far too much jerky, mostly out of boredom. When she was done with that, she pulled a paper and pen out of her bag and began to jot down notes on what she would do when she returned to the base. That quickly turned into her simply doodling for a few straight hours. She mostly drew Marcus, usually with some sort of robot body or weird robot dick. It amused her no end.

  When the plane finally landed, she waited for the doors to lower and the wave of soldiers to pull out the cargo. When they moved off with the first load, she scurried out of the aircraft and off to the side, having already removed her ski mask and situated her uniform. It was easier to walk around the base in a uniform than in civilian clothes.

  She hurried out the side door and across the base as she glanced quickly at her watch. By her estimation, she had approximately ninety minutes to get in, out, and back to the hangar to take a commercial plane back to the Zoo. If she missed the flight, she might not make it back at all. The sky was dark overhead and a cool breeze blew across the southern base. Everyone not on watch or unloading planes was in their barracks fast asleep, including the civilians who worked at the Shou American building.

  Billie hurried around to the side entrance of the building and hunkered down in the bushes. She shimmied out of her military uniform and folded it neatly before she stowed it in her pack. When she stood, she was dressed in a light blue spandex suit that covered her from head to toe. Calmly, she pulled the hood tightly over her head and stretched her arms. The downside was that this version didn’t cover her face, but if she dealt with the cameras, that wouldn’t be an issue.

  She pushed the bag under the bush and strapped one gun to her side in case. It had become standard that she never went into a live situation without at least one piece on her body. She never knew when things could go wonky. While she didn’t want to make any waves, she didn’t intend to die either. Still, she knew the risks and was willing to take them.

  Billie looked back and forth and moved quickly to the side door and used her keycard to unlock it. The numbers flashed, and the door clicked. She opened it barely enough to squeeze the small box inside and pressed the button to direct the EMP toward the cameras. She looked around the corner, saw them all off, and hurried inside.

  She had picked the side door because of the close proximity to the room she needed to reach. Taking care to keep her body low, she maneuvered through the halls. All the cameras could be shut off and no silent alarms would sound. Once inside, she ducked and sat down at the computer. She already knew the username and password as she had gotten that information from a source before she left.

  Quickly, she typed the information in, pulled her drive out, and inserted it in the tower. She clicked the download button and looked at her watch. She had exactly ten minutes to get as much off the computer as possible. At that point, she would have to disconnect and head back to the plane. Luckily for her, the American computers seemed to download faster than the Chinese ones, which was surprising.

  Billie sat in the chair and tapped her foot nervously, hoping that everything would go as smoothly as it had in town. She didn’t want to blow her cover on American soil. She looked around the desk and narrowed her eyes at a picture of a balding man with his blond wife and three blond children. She was definitely a ten, while he was more a three. “Marrying for money. You still did it with him, you crazy slut.”

  She chuckled dryly and shook her head. “I’m so glad I never had to make that choice. I’d be poor as shit with some dumb artist.”

  The screen changed on the computer and she ejected the drive and stashed it in the small zipped pocket on the front of her suit. It hadn’t even taken the full ten minutes. She stood and situated everything as it should be. She had barely reached for the door handle when an alarm sounded through the whole building. “Shit!”

  Billie wanted to make a break for it but knew she had to be smart. She moved back through the corridors and killed the cameras as she went. If she got out, she didn’t want to leave a trail behind her. They already knew that someone was stealing their information. That was enough for her.

  She turned the corner and stopped, then backed into a small inlet where there was a door to some offices. Her heart thudding, she peeked around the corner. Two security guards, their guns out, rushed down the hallway. Not only did they know someone was there, they knew exactly where she would be. Billie looked at the camera, which flashed green, and quickly turned her back. That was three seconds too long of her face on tape.

  Hickok had been in tight situations before, but it never got easier. Forcing herself to remain calm, she dragged in a deep breath and pulled a button from her pocket. She held her breath and pressed it. The two strips on the front of her suit flickered but immediately went dead. Her eyes widened and she smashed the button again, waiting for a reaction. There was nothing. The special abilities of the suit had failed her at the worst possible time.

  She grumbled, “I blame Marcus for this shit. One hundred percent, it is his fucking fault.”

  The guards drew closer and closer and she could hear their footsteps move toward her. If they turned the corner, they would find her hunkered down in a blue spandex suit. Not only would that be tragic for them because she would have to kill them, but it would be horribly awkward for her. “I wonder if my ass looks big in this thing.”

  Billie squatted and put one hand on her gun and the other on the button. When the officers were barely a few feet away, she closed her eyes and thumbed the button over and over again. “Come on, don’t fail me now.”

  Chapter Eight

  The officer stepped forward in front of the doorway and looked down. He bent and picked a scrap of paper up off the floor and looked at it. It was blank, so he tossed it over his shoulder and put his hand back on his gun. His partner looked from side to side as he shined his light into the corners.

  The first man shrugged. “I don’t see a soul. We know they have to be here somewhere. What? Is it a ghost downloading shit all over the company?”

  The other officer scoffed. “It’s no ghost. It’s a person and you know what people do best?”

  They looked at each other for a second and nodded. “They make fucking mistakes.”

  The second man put his flashlight on his utility belt. “That’s right. They make fucking mistakes. And whoever this is, they’ll make a mistake eventually.”

  Billie opened her eyes, looked down, and realized that the suit had finally decided to work. Her entire body was invisible to the guards. In reality, it wasn’t invisible, of course. It simply picked up the images around it and mirrored them to make her blend right in. She had to sit as perfectly still as she could, though, or the thing would flicker and give her away.

  She moved her hand slowly away from her gun and scrunched her eyes shut while she tried to keep her balance. Her calves burned wildly as she squatted on her toes. The officers were still behind her, shooting the shit like they didn’t have her to catch. This is why criminals run free in this country.

  One of the two tugged at his belt. “Yeah, I think whoever it was made it out. They got the guys outside on rove now. I think they pulled the dogs too, but I’m not sure. Whatever it is they stole must be some really good shit.”

  His companion laughed. “Shit, if I was stealthy enough, I would have done it. I bet the secrets in this place are worth millions. Better than the shit salary the company pays.”

  They both chuckled. “Come on, let’s go check the cameras. Maybe we’ll get lucky or something.”

  They walked forward together and around the corner. As soon as they were out of sight, Billie exhaled a deep breath and stood, wincing at the strain in her legs. “I need to work my legs more. That was fucking miserable.”

  She turned and looked down the hall as she directed her EMP at the cameras. They all went red and she high-tailed it out of there, heading straight for the side door she’d entered through. She needed to
move fast. That little chat session had cost her valuable time to get to her plane. It was the only way she would get out of there without getting caught or having to go rogue, Now that they had her face, it would only be a matter of time until her people found out.

  Cautiously, she opened the back door and slipped outside, looking right and left. She hurried through the grass and over to the center garden of bushes where she had left her bag. Relieved, she clicked the button and deactivated the effect on her suit. It was tight and pulled at her neck, something she hated about restrictive clothing. The sound of pounding feet caught her attention and she dropped to the ground in the cover of the bushes. She looked through the branches to see three officers run past, one on his comm.

  The man held the speaker to his face. “Have we ID’d her yet? Fine, call me when we have.”

  Billie sighed. They knew someone was there, and they knew she had to be close. She had to get the hell out of there. Staying low, she rolled over onto her back and pulled the hood off her head. Carefully, she unzipped the front and wiggled herself out of it. She retrieved her military uniform from her bag and did her best to not get too dirty while she inched back into it. It had to look presentable in order to get her back onto the base and to her plane.

  When she was done, she balled up the spandex suit and looked at it for a second. “Marcus will fucking shit a brick but I can’t have this on me.”

  She bit her lip and rolled her eyes before her gaze settled on a storm drain at the end of the bushes. Quickly, she crawled toward it and tossed the suit down into the drain where the water caught it. Marcus would simply have to design a new one, preferably without heart-stopping glitches in it.

  When she was done, she packed her bag, put the drive in a secret compartment untraceable by x-ray, and checked the area before she stood and headed off to the woods behind the compound. She knew she could sneak through there and emerge at the fence to the airfield. If she was lucky, she would be able to cut across and join the rest of the people in the airport like nothing had ever happened.

  Billie reached the edge of the tree line and paused for a moment, forgetting it wasn’t the Zoo. She chuckled at herself as she moved silently through the leaves, a skill that had saved her ass more than once. As she approached the center of the wooded area, a loud shout echoed and two flashlights flickered over the trees ahead.

  The officer thought he’d spotted something, but it was simply a bird. “Get your asses moving. This asshole is out there somewhere and they have our information. Fucking Russians.”

  She snickered internally and waited as they ran past her, not more than a hundred feet away. When they were out of sight, she breathed deeply and pressed forward. She knew from the blueprints of the base and the maps she had looked at that this stretch of woods was narrow. She could see the lights of the airfield shining through the trees ahead.

  She took another step but stopped when she heard loud crackling in the leaves. She rolled her eyes and ducked down to press her back against the tree. Two officers hurried forward ahead of her, combing the area. Billie shook her head. “Damn, you are some loud motherfuckers.”

  They were certainly too loud to hear her snark under her breath. Again, she waited until the morons were out of sight before she made her way toward the edge of the woods. She stood behind a tree and looked back and forth. No one else was in sight. Carefully, she stepped into the opening and ducked down into a crouching walk toward the fence. Large metal poles held up each fifteen-foot section with a round of barbed wire at the top. It didn’t look like the most inviting thing she had ever seen.

  She knelt and opened the front secret compartment of her bag and retrieved a set of wire cutters. “It’s a good thing I don’t do things the hard way. Worker smarter, not harder.”

  The light from the tower swept the grounds and she paused, resting her back against the pole until it passed. The tower wasn’t looking for her, but if they saw her out there, they would definitely alert the security team that was already trying to track her down.

  She raised the cutters and opened them wide. Before she could press down, though, a whistle and a light from her right on the other side of the fence alerted her to company. She straightened, hid behind the pole, and moved to her left as the guard drew closer and closer. He stopped with his back to her and got on his comm. She glanced over and saw her cutters in the grass.

  Billie bit her lip, eased into a crouch, and slid her hand over slowly to snatch them and yank them back in front of her. They were barely out of view when the cop turned and shined his light into the woods in front of her. “Yeah, I checked the area. Ain’t nobody out here. I’m coming back in. Personally, I think the company has an inside guy. They keep having these thefts with no evidence of anyone there. Did they think maybe it was a hack job?”

  She nodded, impressed by his idea. He walked back to his truck and drove off down the service road. Billie returned to the fence, held the wire cutters at the ready, and clipped a small hole in a matter of seconds. She tossed her bag inside and eased slowly through the opening, not wanting to snag her clothes on anything. It was imperative that she look put together when she reached the building. She ran along the dark, shadowed edges until she reached the side door of the airport. It was the smoking area, but luckily, no one was out there. She straightened her uniform and put her bag on her shoulder.

  Using her reflection in the window, she checked her appearance and flicked a leaf out of her hair. She pulled her cover from the bag, put it on her head, and opened the door to walk inside. No one even noticed her as she entered, probably assuming she was simply another disgusting smoker coming in from a break between flights. The airport at this base was different. She had flown in there and would fly out, but commercially. It was an airport on the base for military and family as well as cargo planes. They were all in one area together, coming and going through the terminals.

  Billie had made sure to secure a ticket and had it tucked in her bag. Actually, she had several, unsure of who she would have to fly back as. There were people everywhere—families with children, military men coming and going on leave, and the general airport crowd. People sat at the bars and restaurants, talking and oblivious to anyone around them. She had almost forgotten what it was like to be a normal person in a normal airport. Then again, she was fooling herself. She was anything but normal at that point.

  Her expression carefully unruffled, Billie presented her normal military ID and her boarding pass to the attendant. They checked her bag through the security checkpoint and smiled as they handed it back to her. “Have a nice flight, Lieutenant Rosier.”

  Billie nodded but said nothing. She tucked her ID into her jacket pocket, slung her bag on her back, and walked forward with her head slightly lowered. As she passed the security desk, she cleared her throat and stepped to the side. They couldn’t see her, but she could hear them.

  One of the guards at the desk handed the other a piece of paper. “Apparently, this broad robbed Shou. This is the only photo they have of her.”

  The other man squinted his eyes at the picture. “It’s kind of blurry. Have they gotten her ID yet?”

  His colleague chuckled. “Apparently, even recognition software doesn’t pick her up. They are referring to her as the ghost. Anyway, you’ve seen her face so keep your eye open for her.”

  Billie turned her back as the guard left the station. She looked at the signs, moved quickly through the people, and made a right turn into the restrooms.

  The old woman’s short, white curly hair bounced back and forth as she pulled her bag onto her shoulder. She gripped her cane tightly and moved with a slight limp in her right leg. A little girl looked at her and smiled sweetly. The old woman smiled in response and patted the girl on the head. “Such a beautiful little girl.”

  The child’s mother smiled. “Thank you.”

  The woman looked up at the clock on the wall and down at her watch. “Oh, my. Well, I better get these rusty old legs in motion or
I’ll miss my flight.”

  She giggled internally as she moved out into the crowds of people. While she limped forward, she withdrew her boarding pass from her bag, looked at the gate on the ticket, and studied the numbers above her. “Gate 14, Gate 15, ah, there it is. Gate 16.”

  Two officers hurried through the terminal and studied the faces around them. “She has to be here somewhere. The cameras saw her come in.”

  The other officer groaned. “There are so many people. She could be on a plane already.”

  His colleague bumped into the old lady and knocked her slightly off balance. He steadied her apologetically. “I’m so sorry, ma’am. What gate are you going to?”

  The old woman pointed to the one in front of her. “Such long lines these days.”

  The officer gave her a warm smile, took her by the arm, and led her to the front of the line. “This young lady needs to board first.”

  The flight attendant took her ticket. “Enjoy your flight, ma’am.”

  The old woman grinned. “Oh, I can’t wait. I love to fly.”

  She walked slowly down the terminal and kept to the side so people could pass. Her cane thumped along the carpeted walkway until she reached the door of the plane. The flight attendant helped her to her seat and reached for her bag. “May I put that in the overhead bin?”

  The lady clutched it to her. “Maybe when I get back. I need to use the restroom.”

  The flight attendant led the way, and the old woman closed the door behind her and latched it. She set her bag down and rolled her neck to ease the tension. She lifted her old wrinkly hands to her face and groaned. Her fingers dug deep into her flesh and she began to pull. As she did so, her skin rolled down over her nose and to her neck.