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 agent drew his pistol from his waist and checked the mag. The adrenaline began to surge through him as they approached the ridge. “Yes. Let’s fucking do this shit. I’m ready to kill some motherfucking animals in the Zoo. Nobody has ever hailed me as a hero. It’s my fucking time, bitches. Who knew an old washed-up agent like you could make my fucking career?”

  Billie narrowed her eyes and her lips curled. Thankfully, he was still behind her and couldn’t see her face. She raised her fist and they crept forward to the edge a small clearing where she paused and peered through the foliage. The Heavy Metal team held their position on the opposite side, heavily embroiled in the fight. The agent couldn’t see from behind her.

  She shook her head and turned toward him. “Man, these guys are newbies too. Young guys with no clue what they are doing. If it wasn’t for you, they would be fucking Zoo shit in about ten minutes. They will really want to thank you for this. Prepare yourself for an obscene amount of praise.”

  The man cheered stupidly and pumped his arms. “Hell yeah, let’s do this.”

  Billie drew her gun and cracked her neck. “Are you ready, agent? Ready to get yours?”

  “Fuck yeah! Let’s get these fuckers!”

  They both burst through the vegetation and raced into the clearing, their weapons at the ready. The agent looked around excitedly but his face fell almost immediately. Four enormous men stood in front of him, obviously not newbies if their gunplay was to be believed. To his right, one of them snatched a jag with his bare hands and punched it squarely in the face. It didn’t take long for the agent to realize that he had been duped, but he had nowhere to go.

  Billie raised her hands and whistled loudly. The group held their fire and the man with the jag threw it casually to the side and into a tree. “Gentleman. For those of you who might not know me, I am the Ghost. I wanted to bring my friend here, Agent…”

  She leaned toward him. “What’s your name?”

  He stared with his mouth open. “Agent Shadows.”

  “Nice name.” She patted him on the shoulder. “This is Agent Shadows, one of the agents sent here to kill me. Shadows, I would like you to meet four very distinguished members of Heavy Metal.”

  The men turned toward them and stared fixedly at him in a way that made him feel more than a little uncomfortable. He swallowed hard, unsure of whether to run, beg for forgiveness, or simply go wild and try to kill them. At that point, though, he stood so still he didn’t think he could move his feet even if he wanted to. His hand had already lowered his gun and he could virtually feel their eyes boring into his skull.

  Billie chuckled and slapped him on the back. She removed his pistol from his hand and stood aside. The leader of the Heavy Metal team shifted from one foot to the other. “Uh, Ghost. What you want us to do with this guy?”

  She stared at him for a moment and then at the team before she startled and patted her pockets hastily. “Oh yeah. That’s right. I gotta say the code word. Shit. Where did I put that little piece of paper?”

  The men all tilted their heads and watched as the agent pissed his suit. The pee trickled out the bottom of his leg and down his boot. Billie scowled. “Where is—oh, here it is. Okay. The code word is… Killer Ghost Bitch.”

  The agent whimpered as he looked at Billie and then at the team. They all smiled and raised their weapons. The man in the middle removed a cigar from his mouth and smirked, his face clearly visible as his helmet was tucked under his arm. “All right, team. Let’s make some good use of the code word.”

  They all chuckled and immediately opened fire. The barrage caught the agent in a deadly wave of bullets and he tumbled backward, tripped over a rock, and dropped. The gunfire continued, however, and chunks of the man erupted as the volleys decimated the corpse. In Billie’s ear, all she could hear was Marcus’ bellows of laughter. “Oh, God, that is priceless. I wish I had recorded this for posterity. Seriously, this will be one of those stories that go down in history.”

  The team finally ceased their fire and Billie walked forward to shake her head at what remained of the agent. “Sometimes, you simply have to kill the stupid ones. The world will be so much better off without those three brain cells floating around.”

  Marcus laughed so hard he could barely catch his breath. “Oh…that is classic. The best ever.”

  She dusted her hands off and looked at the team. “Thanks, guys. I appreciate you going with the flow there.”

  The team leader swung his gun to the side and pulled the trigger to blast an orbiter in the face. “When you said code word I was like, oh yeah. We gonna make some Swiss cheese out of this motherfucker.”

  Another man scoffed. “Simply another Zoo reject.”

  A third laughed. “We take care of our own. Happy hunting, Ghost.”

  Billie slid her gun into its holster. “You too, boys. I passed a Pita patch about half a mile north. It’s a fairly big one.”

  They all nodded and turned toward the jungle as their alarms sounded. “They’re making another pass!”

  The animals surged through the underbrush in a powerful wave on a headlong trajectory toward the team. The men seemed more excited than fearful as if they looked forward to a fight with the larger animals and the chance to blow others into tiny bits. Billie liked the way they fought. It was fun instead of being a battle to the death. “I need to hang out with these guys more often,” she mused. “Hey, Marcus, do I have time to kick a couple asses?”

  Marcus laughed. “Why the hell not?”

  She clapped her hands and drew her short sword before she squared off. Her eyes widened with excitement as a jag barreled through the trees in attack. Their eyes locked and the beast suddenly slowed a little. It leapt clear of the vegetation and faced her menacingly as its lip curled and its body tensed, ready to pounce.

  Billie twirled her sword in a bright arc through the air. “Hey, kitty. Wanna play? I don’t have any catnip, but you can definitely chew on the blade of this sword.”

  The creature lunged and she sidestepped neatly and immediately, twirled to face it again. It growled, backed up, and dug its razor-sharp claws into the dirt. Billie shifted her weight from one foot to the other, alert and ready for the inevitable charge. When the attack came, instead of moving aside, she vaulted upward. The beast ran past her previous position and she landed on its back to wind the fingers of her free hand into the fur at the nape of its neck.

  It bucked wildly and Hickok held on as she swirled her sword through the air. The team glanced at her and laughed as they shook their heads. She leaned forward and held her sword out to the side. “Time to go to bed, kitty.”

  In a swift, deft movement, she sliced her blade across the jag’s neck and slit its throat. The beast gurgled and fell hard. It slid a few feet before it came to a stop. Billie chuckled, dismounted. and raised her hands in the air in celebration. “That was some sweet riding there, Tex.”

  Marcus chuckled. “You got a definite high score on that one. You didn’t even need the clown to bail you out.”

  Billie snickered and opened her mouth but before she could say anything, a mantis burst through the trees, careened into her, and knocked her down. She hit the ground in a roll and came to a stop on all fours. Quickly, she raised her head and peered through her visor as the insect barreled toward two of the Heavy Metal team members. They were oblivious, their attention focused on the ongoing battle with other creatures.

  She scrambled hastily to her feet and sprinted after the mantis as she yelled a warning, “Hey! Behind you! Watch out!”

  When none of them responded, she muttered a low expletive and thrust off her foot to hurl herself forward into the attacking insect. Barely three feet from the men, she impacted hard with the tough exoskeleton and the two bounced wildly across the clearing until they slammed against a tree. Without pause, Billie yanked her dagger out and stabbed it into the creature’s bug eyes, dragged the blade free, and thrust it home once again. It hissed and the mandibles snapped horribl
y before it collapsed and convulsed in its death throes. She heaved a long, ragged breath.

  Blood had sprayed across her HUD, and Billie shook her head, feeling the effects of her impact with the tree. The two guys finished killing the last of the animals and walked over to give her a hand. They lifted her to her feet and stabilized her as she got her vision back.

  Both of the guys slapped her on the back. “Thanks for that. We didn’t even see that motherfucker coming.”

  Billie cheesed. “No problem at all. You had my back so I returned the favor. You guys have happy hunting!”

  The leader waved. “Later, Ghost!”

  Billie stopped at the edge of the woods and saluted them before turning and racing out into the Zoo. That had been one hell of a trick to play on that moron of an agent. Now she had to see who was left.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Troy, how many more agents on the board?” Billie asked her AI.

  There was a small silence while Troy calculated. “Only two and they seem to have teamed up. They are a half a mile northeast. You can see them on the map. If you follow the route I have laid out, it has the least animal resistance.”

  She traced her gaze over the route. “You’re a good guy, Troy. A real good guy.”

  “Thank you, Billie. I was created in Marcus’s image.”

  Marcus burst out laughing and the sound seemed smug. “So now you have two of us.”

  Billie rolled her eyes. “Great. So if I kill you, I’ll still have Troy. You simply made yourself disposable.”

  Marcus spluttered. “Amanda, remind me to delete Troy.”

  Hickok chuckled and took her time to reach the final two agents, Hollows and Cinders. These were the second- and third-ranked agents below her. They were tough, seasoned, and ready to get a piece of her. Both were a little crazy and even more wild, and neither one of them had ever been known to back down from a fight. In reality, this was the last thing she wanted to do. She didn’t enjoy killing agents, especially ones who reminded her of herself—sociopathic tendencies aside, of course.

  Hollows and Cinders, though, could not be trusted. If she allowed them to eliminate her, it would not only fuck everything up, but they would also go after her friends. They would hunt down Holly, Amanda, Marcus, Dan, JB, and Paula and kill every last one of them—not because their orders said to do so, but because that was the kind of people they were. There was no getting around it. They would want to eradicate every last trace that she had actually existed, and killing her friends would definitely achieve that.

  Marcus could tell these two might be an enormous challenge as well. “I’m sorry you have to do this. If there was any other way…”

  Billie rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck. “I know. But when it’s done, I deal with the top dogs and be done with all this.”

  He was quiet for a moment and when he spoke, he sounded a little more optimistic. “Then we can go on with our lives. Hopefully.”

  She nodded although she knew he couldn’t see her. Her resolve now fixed on what she had to do, she adjusted her path toward the dots and finally stepped out into the clearing where the two stood. Hollows laughed and threw his head back. “I told you if we stayed put and let those other suckers die, she would come right to us. Here, girl…come here. Good agent.”

  His arrogant contempt immediately rescinded any guilt she might have felt for killing the dick-face and Billie clenched her fists. He really had a good ass-whipping coming to him. Without doubt, he was the cockiest motherfucker she had ever met—and that was huge, considering how many mercs she knew.

  “Hollows, you can taunt me all you want, but something I realized years ago was that when a dude acts like you do, it means he has dick problems. So, before we get into the real shit, I would like to extend my condolences to Cinder.” She turned her gaze to the other agent. “Since I know you are latched onto it like a fucking calf to a teat.”

  Cinder narrowed her eyes and yelled, “You fucking bitch! You’ve had this coming for years. The truth is, you dried up a long time ago. You may have been able to kick the other agents’ asses because they were weak, but I am telling you right now, I will gut you, filet you, and wear your skin as a fucking pair of leggings.”

  Billie scratched her arm absently and frowned. “Wow, that’s pretty gross. Not to mention the fact that I’m fairly small. I don’t know if I could cover your entire fat ass.”

  In the corner of the HUD, an alarm flashed. Troy searched for the cause of it. “A large animal, possibly a dino, is headed in this direction. Its line of approach is directly behind the two agents.”

  She grinned. “Well, that should be entertaining.”

  Cinder yanked her dagger out and shook her head. “Enough of this bullshit. It’s time for you to fucking die, you—”

  The dino burst through the trees behind them and shoved both agents to the ground. A tree tipped and fell toward Cinder. She scrambled away, but it trapped her ankle and she screamed as she clutched her leg. “Fuck. I’m stuck. Hollows, get over here and pull this fucking tree off me.”

  The man pulled himself to his feet but froze. The monster peered directly into his face and the huge snout blew a veritable tide of mucus over him. Billie wrinkled her nose. “Gross.”

  Cinder screamed again. “Hollows! Move it!”

  The dino slung its head in her direction, its attention drawn by her desperate shrieks. Cinder’s eyes widened and she hauled on her leg in an attempt to free herself. The dino took three huge steps, lowered its head, and opened its maw to bite down hard on the woman. It lifted her savagely and swung her high as she screamed and blood pulsed from a fresh stump. Her foot had remained lodged under the tree.

  Billie raised her hand to deflect the blood as the beast flung the agent back and forth before it tipped its head back and swallowed her whole. Billie shook her head and gagged. “Oh, God. That was some Jurassic Park shit right there.”

  Hollows bolted to the edge of the trees and scrabbled in the bushes to retrieve a machine gun he’d stashed there. Billie looked wildly at him and flung herself back to avoid him. He screamed as he fired feverishly at the gargantuan creature. He directed a line of fire up the broad chest, paused for a moment at the neck, and finally went berserk and simply sprayed bullets back and forth. The dino roared, shook its head, and attempted to move away. Hollows threw the gun down and snatched Cinder’s sword off the ground. He hurtled toward the beast and launched upward to slice the blade viciously and halfway through the enormous neck.

  It gurgled and stumbled back and forth before it collapsed. The ground shuddered and shook trees and other vegetation loose. Billie looked at the dino and then at Hollows, who stood motionless, covered in both Cinder’s red blood and the monster’s blue-hued blood.

  The man faced away from her and Marcus whispered on the comm, “If you want to do it, now would be the right time. You know he won’t give you another chance.”

  Billie crouched low and moved quickly across the clearing as she eased a dagger into her hand. “I’m already on top of it, boss,” she murmured in response.

  She raced up behind Hollows and vaulted onto his back, grabbed his face with one arm, and fought to the drag the dagger around in front of him. He struggled powerfully but couldn’t see with her hand over his eyes. She leaned in to whisper into his ear, “Sometimes, you have to be okay with number two. For you, though, it’s time you retired.”

  She whipped the blade across his throat and bailed off to avoid even a single drop of his psychotic blood on her. He clutched his neck with wide eyes and stumbled confusedly before his legs gave way and he landed face-first in the dirt. A pool of blood seeped out beneath him and soaked rapidly into the soil.

  Billie took a moment to recharge and looked at the dino carcass. “Well, that’s a fucking bonus. I killed my stalkers and make a buck off it. It’s time to get Holly some samples, I guess.”

  She studied the creature and frowned as she tried to recall what she knew of them. Unlike t
he T-Rex monster, she wouldn’t have to go in from the bottom up, thank goodness. That had been one seriously stinky fucking retrieval. From what she could recall, the Heavy Metal team had once mentioned that the goop sacs were located at the base of the skull. She scowled in concentration and felt for the lip of the enormous skull bone, drew a deep breath, and made a long incision. Little by little, she peeled the flesh back until she could see the sacs. One of them had been badly damaged when the agent had tried to cut the dino’s head off.

  Hickok growled her irritation and shook her hands in the air. “Motherfuckers. You wasted one of the sacs. I wish I could resurrect your asses so I could kill you again myself.”

  Once she’d vented sufficiently to regain her composure, she retrieved a small container from her bag, severed the intact sac, and withdrew it with extreme care. She placed the prize carefully into the box, sealed it, and returned it to her bag. That done, she scrambled down from the huge beast and exhaled a long, deep sigh. “So, Troy. Are we all clear of agents now?”

  The AI did a sweep. “All clear. The only ones left are out of the Zoo and with Heavy Metal. There were fifteen in here in total and you released four of them.”

  Billie wiped her hands on her suit and shrugged her bag onto her shoulders. “Well, at least they can’t say I never gave a shit. Can you map me the easiest—and preferably the shortest—route out of this bitch?”

  Troy pulled up a map that displayed a path toward the edge of the jungle. “Already done.”

  She limped forward and grimaced, having only now noticed a twinge of pain in her leg. “Troy, I would like to say that I love you. I’m sure you will make a perfect replacement for Marcus.”

  She could almost hear Marcus roll his eyes. “Very funny.”

  Hickok tsked playfully. “I told you that one day, your AIs would take over. Today, it’s your friend. Tomorrow, it’s the world.”

  He laughed with her as she hobbled forward. She scowled as she took stock. The wound in her side was once again incredibly painful. Her latest efforts had obviously reversed some of the healing that had taken place, and she seemed to have wrenched or bruised something in her leg. “Remind me to tell Holly she needs to figure out how to concoct a pain reliever from the fucking goop. There’s no point in raising someone from the dead and growing legs back if it can’t fix the small shit.”