by Michael Todd
“That’s right. Jean.”
JB grinned broadly and shook his head. “You look good, Jean. You have the kind of look that makes me think you just started a whole new chapter in your life.”
She put her arm around Holly’s waist. “You are very perceptive there, JB, for an old guy with a disease.”
His chuckle rolled into a deep cough. Holly frowned and handed him his glass of water.
As he sipped it, she rubbed her hands together. “Jean and I might start a company together. Something that might actually change the entire world.”
JB raised his eyebrows. “That definitely sounds intriguing and ambitious. Tell me about this company.”
She raised her finger. “First, we have a present for you.”
A knock on the door interrupted her and she opened it cautiously. Paula looked nervously at her and then at the others. “Is it time?”
Holly nodded and waved her inside. “Finally, I think it is actually time.”
The woman walked to JB and leaned down to kiss him on the top of the head. He looked at the zippered box on his desk suspiciously. “Why do I feel like a dog about to be put down? You’d better not have a gun in that pouch. People will hear you if you shoot me.”
Jean smirked. “Not with a suppressor, they wouldn’t.”
Paula chuckled and rubbed his back. “We have worked our tails off to keep you alive. If we wanted to kill you, it would go down with real drama—hospital gown, death bed, the whole nine yards. You wouldn’t get off that easily.”
JB shrugged. “I figured as much.”
Holly shook her head. “Actually, we’ll do exactly the opposite today. We won’t take your life but give it back to you, and hopefully, better than before all of this started. See, we’ve gone all over the place—even beyond the Zoo—and made friends everywhere, and we figured out that everyone loves JB. Because of that, a huge team of people have been behind us and helped us to find exactly what we need to fix you.”
She unzipped the case and removed a large vial of the serum. It was blue and glowed slightly in her hand. With an encouraging smile, she handed it to JB as a tear spilled from the corner of her eye. “It’s been tested and given two thumbs-up by your friend here.”
Jean smirked. “It definitely did the works on me, that’s for sure. I went from old to young in two seconds. Well, younger, definitely. I think it might help you back down into your sixties.”
JB gave her a deadpan look. “Very funny. I’m not even that old now.”
She feigned shock. “Whoops.”
Paula clapped loudly. “Oh, good Lord. Take the damn stuff. I have been out of my mind all day long.”
He laughed and popped the plug from the vial, then held it aloft. “To my friends, the people who saved my life even before you had a serum for it. Thank you for everything you have done.”
The three women watched nervously as he put the vial to his lips, closed his eyes, and tipped it back. He drained it and made sure he had every last drop. Slowly, he lowered it and set it on the desk but kept his eyes tightly shut.
Holly’s heart beat launched into a rapid tattoo and she held her breath as she watched for any kind of reaction. The stuff hadn’t turned Billie into anything other than Jean, so she could only assume JB would stay human. Finally, after about two minutes of silent agony, JB opened one of his eyes and rasped a loud, deep cough.
He wrinkled his nose and smacked his lips together hard. “The fucking stuff needs flavor. Serious. The bitch tastes like a mixture of puke and cheese puffs—it’s the strangest thing and a terrible combination.”
Jean smirked and nudged her friend. “I told you so.”
Holly rolled her eyes. “All right, picky assholes. As soon as we get done saving your lives, we can talk about making the serum more palatable. I wasn’t really concerned with adding delicious grape or bubble gum flavoring. I doubt it was meant to taste like roses.”
JB raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think roses would taste very good either.”
She sighed and folded her arms. Paula looked curiously at him. “Do you feel any different?”
He rubbed his leg absently and frowned in thought. “The pain is diminishing quickly. So, if nothing else, it has definitely made me feel better almost instantly.”
Holly pulled Paula toward them. “Come on then. We need to get you upstairs to lie down. The elixir needs time to really tackle your disease and it would be best if you rested.”
JB strapped his leg on and stood so quickly, it took a moment to realize there was no pain. She chuckled and put her arm around his waist. “Let’s get you upstairs.”
As they passed Jean, he stopped and mouthed a “thank you” to her. She nodded and stepped back to make space for them. Holly helped JB upstairs and into bed, then drew the covers up. “I’ll help Paula at the bar but we’ll come check up on you periodically.”
He cleared his throat and yawned. “Good idea. Just in case I turn into one of those fucking rat things from the Zoo. God, I hate those bitches.”
Holly giggled. “I’ll get you a wheel and a water bottle to lick from.”
She walked out and downstairs and made her way into the bar. With a broad grin, she stood beside Paula and hip-checked her. “I told you it would go well.”
The woman smiled. “I never doubted you, kid. But it doesn’t mean I wasn’t scared for him. He’s been through so much, and I can’t think of anyone more deserving than him. It’s really amazing what you were able to do.”
Holly picked up a glass and polished it thoughtfully. “I didn’t do it alone. There was the team—you, Salinger, and some other really great people who made it possible. We did this together. It was never only me.”
Paula grabbed a bottle of whiskey off the shelf and poured three shots. She handed one to Holly and the other to Jean, then held hers up. “To JB. May he have a really long life ahead of him.”
They clinked glasses and swallowed their shots. As they finished, one of the guys at the bar called out, “Hey, Paula. You done having a sugar-coated lesbian moment? I’d like a drink before you nosedive into the carpet.”
She smiled at Jean and Holly before she whirled around. “Look, Joe, don’t make me tell everyone about the time you got your dick stuck in the hole of a bagel. And I’m not talking the big deli ones, either. I’m talking Lenders. Tiny little hole, my friend.”
Holly laughed and her companion shook her head as she glanced around the bar. The team was at the back table and lifted their drinks in salute. Jean smiled and finally felt that after being Billie for so long, and being alone, she had come home. She actually had a group of people who were her friends, and she didn’t have to disappear again—at least not after she had finished what she needed to do.
“What will you do now?” Holly asked
Jean drew in a deep breath and turned toward her with her hand out. Holly reached into her pocket and placed the last vial in her palm. “Remember, you can drink it, or you can inject it. Injecting is a hell of a lot easier if it’s a simple wound and not something that has infiltrated your whole system.”
She slid the vial in her bag. “Got it. I’ll be back, partner. But first, I need to kill a friend of mine.”
Holly drew her eyebrows together in confusion. The other woman simply chuckled and winked as she made her way from behind the bar toward the door. She opened it and paused to look back at Holly before she tilted her head back and laughed loudly.
Confused, Holly simply shook her head as her friend let the door swing closed behind her. “With friends like her, who knows what the hell I have gotten myself into?”
She shrugged and glanced at the bar. Paula still gave poor Joe a hard time, JB was upstairs and his healing had hopefully begun, and everything felt as if it had finally come to a close—the drama part of it, at least. The plans, though, had only begun. They had found the cure.
Now, it was time to discover what came next.
The Zoo on Audio
Have you he
ard the audiobooks for this series? Book one, Nobody’s Fool is available now at your favorite digital bookstore.
Author Notes - Michael (Todd) Anderle
January 29, 2019
THANK YOU for not only reading this story but these Author Notes as well.
(I think I’ve been good with always opening with “thank you.” If not, I need to edit the other Author Notes!)
RANDOM (sometimes) THOUGHTS?
TWELVE!
So, we are releasing these books at a pace of one (1) a week. We have all the way to #12 written and in editing. (Well, 11 is in editing, 12 is in first review.)
The cover design was / is a major change from the previous seven books. Ghost is one of the characters I like the most.
She seems to be on the side of good (to a degree) and is a pretty enigmatic person. However, things are starting to take a turn as she works to kill herself and her best friend. (It’s for his own good, I promise.)
Then life gets even more interesting.
Right now we are working to pull together books on the ZOO that will help authors get the facts straight when writing in the Universe.
I hope to have something to share by the third week of February.
If you are considering writing at all and the ZOO is particularly interesting, I hope you look to see when we officially announce a group to talk ZOO.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS
One of the interesting (at least to me) aspects of my life is the ability to work from anywhere and at any time. In the future, I hope to re-read my own Author Notes and remember my life as a diary entry.
Javier’s in the Aria Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
So, jet lag is a thing. I’m back from a thirty-day trip all around Australia, Thailand, and Singapore. Right now, my head is starting to droop as I fight off the lunchtime nap that is threatening to make my head fall into my salsa.
Not only would that hurt (but wake me up), the salsa in my hair would not be appreciated by yours truly.
So, I’m going to finish up these notes and go find a napping place.
;-)
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Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
Ghost Resurrection
Soldiers of Fame and Fortune Book Nine
Chapter One
Hickok opened the small case that comprised the only equipment she owned now that her days as a spy were officially over. It contained a variety of oddly shaped and extremely useful tools. She selected and withdrew what she needed and squatted while she focused her headlamp on the lock. With her eyes narrowed for focus, she inserted the tool in the lock and manipulated it carefully. Her gaze strayed constantly to the keycard slider on the wall above her. She knew it was possible to override the scanner manually with the lock—had seen it used once when there was a glitch and security had to provide access for staff. The trick, though, was to do it without a key. When she finally felt the tool engage exactly where she wanted it, she stood and deftly unscrewed the front of the keycard box. With meticulous care, she rearranged a few wires and snipped the yellow one. She paused and waited until the light on the box dulled and the door creaked open.
“When you teach a girl how to circumvent the system, it might nip you right in the ass.” She chuckled, replaced her tool, and zipped the case.
The deep security area, layers below the government building, was quiet and deserted. She had already snuck in there, but that had been a piece of cake. Now, she had to enter the building Marcus worked out of without being seen. The company was very black ops and not an official part of the government at all. It also had the newest and best protection technology in place. Fortunately, she had seen all the recent updates and knew all the camera blind spots and exactly where the trip wires were located in the building.
Billie turned her flashlight off and stuck it in her bag, which she secured on her back. Carefully, she opened the door, rolled through, and pulled it shut in the same motion. She stopped in the corner, watched the movement of the camera, and rolled once more to land on her feet. After a moment to listen for any sign of activity, she duck-walked fifteen feet down the hallway and around the corner. As she turned, she lay flat and retrieved a small electrically charged disc she had created herself before entering. She balanced on her stomach and free arm and tossed the device toward the camera. Her aim was true, and it clunked softly against the side of the surveillance equipment and immediately attached itself. A small spark issued from the disc and after a second or two, the camera stopped and the light extinguished on the front.
Billie exhaled a slow, deep breath, pushed to her feet, and scowled at the card reader on the front of Marcus’s office. “It’s just like him to not trust the people he works with. If they were all hot droids, he would leave the place wide open.”
She shook her head and went to work to repeat the front door process on this one as well. As she entered, she slowed and her gaze searched for the final trick she knew waited inside. Two laser trip wires stretched across the office, barely a foot from the door. One was four feet off the ground and the other two feet. She closed the door behind her and drew a deep breath. A little disappointed at the lack of real challenge this obstacle presented—Marcus must be distracted, or he’d have set up something way more cunning—she dropped to the ground and eased herself under the lowest with room to spare.
“Now, where will I find your personal information, Marcus? I know you don’t leave that shit where anyone can see it,” she whispered, pushed lithely to her feet, and walked around the room.
Hickok shrugged her bag off, set it on his desk, and scanned her gaze across the piles of paperwork on the surface. She smiled when she lifted her own red file. The handwriting was even more illegible than normal. He must have been upset or in a hurry when he wrote it. Next to it was a list of programs he’d uploaded into several different suits. “Marcy, Eliza, Melissa, and Chantelle. Seriously? How do you keep up, Marcus?”
She snickered as she replaced the file but sobered at the sight of a corner of a cable bill visible beneath a stack of papers. She pulled it out and smiled brightly. “Well, well. You forgot to take your bills home. Thank you very much.”
Hickok stuck the bill in her back pocket and turned to enter the lab area. She would need ops equipment to break into Marcus’s house without him knowing it was her. While she had no clue what kind of security measures he had in place at home she was sure she wouldn’t be able to walk in as easily as she had at the office. At the same time, she would need to figure out how to explain the equipment not being there—or at least return it when she was done. If she did anything that might suggest even the possibility of foul play, they wouldn’t believe that Marcus had died of his own volition. They were assholes but they weren’t stupid, and the first person they would look for was her—whether they thought she was dead or not. She wouldn’t be the first person to fake their death to escape the life and definitely wouldn’t be the last.
As for Marcus, she wouldn’t really give him a choice, but she believed he would be okay with it in the end. He didn’t like “the man” any more than she did, but it was a job and a badass one at that.
Billie went through the equipment and selected those she knew how to use. She found her last suit—repaired—and decided to go with that rather than test one of his new ones. This was no time for research and development, especially since it could get her caught in the act. She paired it with a regular headpiece. She didn’t need the full HUD and anyone could see her face clearly through th
e front visor of her usual helmet.
She loaded the gear into her bag and made her way out of the building. Before she left the hall, she grabbed the disc off the camera. “They’ll simply think there was a short in the wiring. Poof. Perfect in and out.”
Finally, she restored everything to pre-entry status, including the card scanners on the doors, and headed swiftly through the building and out onto the base. It was late at night and she was dressed in civilian clothes with an army cover. She had counted on the fact that no one would pay her much attention, and she was right. As soon as she was off the base, she hailed a cab and headed toward Marcus’s house. He lived about two blocks from downtown London in a fairly large house on the corner surrounded by a tall cobblestone wall with a strong wrought iron gate in front.
Several floodlights blazed in the yard but the house itself was in darkness. Billie elected to make entry from the back and moved carefully through the adjacent house’s yard and into a patch of trees that extended to the wall. She grappled to the top and crouched there to study the premises. Three motion detectors with cameras would need to be disabled. She drew a small gun filled with mini-EMP pods from her pocket, shot each of the cameras, and rappelled down to a soft landing before she bent low and hurried across the yard.
The electrical box was mounted to the left of the back door. She opened the front and traced her fingers over the wiring. “The Gen-Fifty-Two personal theft system. Very high-tech, Marcus. Gotta protect your girls, I suppose.”
She chuckled quietly as she moved the wires aside and placed a small square box inside. Carefully, she connected the wires to the device to interrupt the signal and disable the security system. She only had fifteen minutes to get in and out, so she synchronized her watch with the timer.