by S. T. Moon
“You should probably just get a new outfit.” Victoria winced inwardly. It was the stupidest, most ill-timed thing she’d ever said.
“I’ll make a fixer out of you yet,” Irene said to Victoria, then stepped up to Breaker. She went up on her toes and kissed him chastely on the lips. “Good bye, Johnathan. We would have been good together. Please make sure I never see either of you again.”
* * *
Not long after they shot Frank Oden, they heard a helicopter approaching from out of view.
“That was quick,” Victoria said.
Irene knelt over the body and searched it, down one side and up the other. She flipped him over and repeated the process, handling him with the clinical detachment of a medical examiner at autopsy. She looked up at Victoria and Breaker. “They’re coming to arrest you. It’s a standard operation. Think about it. How hard would it have been for them to round up Frank Oden with all of his injuries when they knew exactly where he was?”
“What are you looking for?” Victoria split her attention between the helicopter and Irene Vail, Queen of the Fixers.
“Anything that might be useful. You think I have it all figured out, but things are about to get rough for me. Don’t come to me for help. I won’t have any to give.”
“What do you think, Jonathan? About that helicopter?” Victoria asked.
He shook his head. “I’m sure Irene is right. There’s an extremely good chance they have video of us shooting Oden. I’m guessing it doesn’t show what he was doing at the time. They moved in as soon as we shot him—like they expected it and were waiting for it. They have what they need to keep us under their thumbs forever. Do what they say, or be tried for murder,” Breaker said.
“We’re really fucked, aren’t we?” For an irrational instant, she was afraid Breaker would go with Irene. They were both fixers and knew how to escape a situation like this. The thought of making her way alone all the way back to Breaker’s people in Colorado was daunting. But he never wavered and neither did Irene.
She finished her search, then walked away down a side street, leaving without a word. Breaker took Victoria by the hand and led her in another direction.
“Yeah, I’m thinking it’s a long way to Colorado on foot. Can you get help from a local resistance cell?”
“I might know some people,” she said.
They ran for what felt like years as helicopters crisscrossed the sky. Breaker had no trouble avoiding patrols. Increasingly larger military assets continued to arrive in D.C. Metro to handle the Death Angel outbreak.
When they finally had time to stop and catch their breath, she slammed into him and embraced him, her mouth finding his for the longest kiss they’d ever shared.
* * *
Irene Vail monitored Breaker and Victoria’s progress for as long as possible. Her escape was easy because she’d planned for it well in advance. If the stubborn lovebirds had listened to her, she might’ve been able to help them. But they made their choices.
Irene passed squads of paramilitary troops securing the city. She was almost small enough to be a child and acted according to their expectations. Whenever they came near her, she crossed the street and kept her eyes down.
She made her way to the private heliport where her helicopter waited. The rotor blades started turning as soon as she appeared on the tarmac.
“Glad to have you back, ma’am,” the crew chief said.
She climbed aboard. “Thanks, Clark.”
She was asleep in her seat before the helicopter had been flying two minutes. The ordeal had been more trying than she realized.
As planned, her security team delivered her first to a remote airport, then to her most secret apartment by electric ground car. The building had the appearance of a utilities station that had been built to look like an apartment. It looked out across her base of operations. It was a place where she could spy on herself, so to speak. Many times she’d left on what her subordinates had believed to be international trips only to double back and watch them work. This allowed her to weed out those who were stupidly disloyal or lazy.
Nothing about what happened next surprised her.
Frank Oden had been right about her place in the power elite. She had voted against the release of the Death Angels, adding more enemies to her extensive list. She’d wanted Jonathan Breaker brought into the power circle immediately, without the charade of testing and evaluation. That had been unpopular with several of the players who’d marked her for conquest—they hated competition, real or imagined.
She wondered what Victoria would think if she knew why she was hired and made the Special Agent in charge of the Northwest region.
She sighed, her thoughts returning to Breaker. It was a shame to waste such natural talent. Maybe she should’ve been more aggressive with him. He was a man. How hard could it have been to seduce him if she’d really tried? The fantasy entertained her while she waited for the hammer to fall.
It was almost seventy-two hours later that her rivals raided her base.
An unmarked car rolled silently past the gate.
Scout team, she thought. Clocking the sky, she easily spotted the four drones watching from the corners of the perimeter her enemies had drawn on their tactical map—from deep in their bunker hundreds of miles away. Too small. You assholes always go too small.
Smiling at herself and remembering not to get cocky, she used binoculars and her own drones to check the rest of the city. Nothing. I should be insulted. Who do they think they’re dealing with?
Assault teams arrived at the front and back gates, two armored cars at each. She counted almost thirty spec-ops guys at the front entrance. One of her automated drones reported the same at the back. Six ambulances queued up a few blocks away.
They were expecting casualties. Good for them. Roger must be running that part of the operation. The guy was levelheaded and actually as smart as he thought he was, a rare thing in her overprotected, overprivileged peer group. Lucky me. He isn’t running my assassination. I might have needed to worry.
The breaching team approached the front gate, placed charges, and backed away. She saw them tap up—each man touching the shoulder of the person in front of him until they were all ready. Three seconds elapsed. An explosion took the gate off its hinges and the team streamed in, searching through their gun sights for resistance.
Irene stepped back from the window, poured herself more coffee, and returned to watch the show.
“Good work, gentlemen. By now you must realize what has happened, but way to stay professional,” she said, then sipped. The coffee was quite good today, she noted.
She was over the anger and betrayal she’d in felt upon discovering the inner circle had voted against her. What bothered her most was that they hadn’t detected her counter-plot. It challenged her assumption that she’d been working with the best and brightest of humanity since she was a young woman. Now she understood they were simply flawed and greedy people blinded by their own importance. Nothing but crabs climbing over each other to get out of the basket.
What did that say about the world?
She cleared her thoughts and watched men and women search the abandoned compound as though they might be ambushed at any time. They stayed professional and she appreciated that.
Exhaling the bad air and breathing in the good air, she took her time with the coffee and indulged herself with another cup. The world had changed. She was on her own with a small but loyal following. She didn’t have a private army like most of her rivals but the people she could count on were fanatically devoted to her.
It was time to move on. Breaker and Victoria had made their choices. Now it was time for her to disappear and make hers.
Victoria's Gun (Special Agents, Assassins, and Breakers Book 1)
She sent Jonathan Breaker on a suicide mission, right after she stole his heart.
Victoria Mayer was a shining star in the FBI, destined for great things until her bold nature and restless heart
made her take a dangerous position with 6Corps. From Federal Agent to Security Agent, she became a legend and a pariah in the same day. Her new job pulls down a shockingly large salary in a utopian society where everything is possible.
Which should have raised red flags, even in the new world where technology had saved the earth.
In the private sector, it was easy to fraternize with co-workers. Not that the company Fixer was on the payroll. Not where anyone could know his actual job description. Breaker was a man who could steal her heart, so she stuffed his marriage proposal and only regretted it… well she didn’t need to be married to get what she wanted.
Now she must recall him from a mission that even he isn’t prepared for. Finding him, learning the truth, and seeing a way out will take everything she has.
She needs to make up her mind. Does she want him, or want him dead?
Victoria’s Gun is a romantic thriller set in the near future, a panoramic and technologically exotic world where utopia is not what it seems.
Breaker's Choice (Special Agents, Assassins, and Breakers Book 2)
The New World Order is full of assassins. Most are gorgeous. All are treacherous. One has a choice to make.
Victoria Mayer tracked down a one-of-a-kind company fixer and ran away with him into the wild lands off the grid. A year later, she's about to learn the true horror of the Death Angel Project; the population control conspiracy that goes horribly off the rails. A thin veneer conceals the truth of modern utopia. Men and women who grew up off the grid like Jonathan Breaker know the truth and what needs to be done.
Two dangerous women. One flawed hero. A society that is about to unravel. It’s utopia versus dystopia and the winners take all.
Readers who enjoy science fiction thrillers with happily deadly after endings will love Breaker’s Choice and the first book, Victoria’s Gun.