by L. B. Carter
The men were thrown off by the abrupt dismissal. Reed could sympathize; he was tossed off kilter constantly by the younger Acton woman.
"I... suppose. We'll expect a contract to be drawn up forthwith. Our legal team will have to approve."
"Of course. As soon as possible." Her hand remained extended.
The men exchanged a glance. "Very well." One pushed to his feet and shook then the other followed suit.
"Mind you, we do have several disaster crises at the moment, so ‘as soon as possible’ may mean a couple weeks." Director Acton added, retracting her hand. She didn't wipe it on her shirt like Reed would have with those slimeballs.
Val rose and spoke, taking on a totally different demeanor than Reed had ever seen. "Incidentally, both of those incidents, though they occurred while I was not acting Director, took place by my witness. I can attest that the crises of the wildfire and bridge demolition were directly caused by your faulty drones, who were flying below approved FAA clearance altitude by the way, and also by an admitted student of yours."
The director segued from her daughter's budge seamlessly. "Indeed. Perhaps we can speak sooner to discuss the matter of reparation charges at your discretion? Might we adjourn to another room so that we may discuss this in private?"
Reed wanted to let out a whoop. He'd never argue with Val again that women were inefficient. He'd bow at her and her mom's feet if the table weren't in the way. Who said the government was full of incompetent good-for-nothings? Both women had essentially freed them all from BSTU blame and future attempts to indict them. They had also assigned them all jobs doing what they wanted where they wanted, keeping families and couples together. On top of that, they’d soothed and united combating powers, and gotten Green Solutions essentially an unlimited contract of jobs with two of the biggest science centers in the country.
He was the most turned on he'd ever been in his life.
"Fuck me," Reed breathed once the directors and his father had all left the room to draft and sign contracts and deal with logistics, gazing in wonder at Val.
"Can you wait ’til we leave?" Ace asked, revolted.
"Does this mean we can leave?" Henley asked, glancing at her little sister. "I want to find my mom."
"I think so." Nor's hand found Sirena's. "All of us."
"Then let's get the freak out of here before any more drones show up. I'm starving for Goldfish. I can't decide if I want that before or after taking off these dirty clothes." Val gave a secret smile of invitation. Reed was still staring at her, unsure if he'd ever be able to stand up again. "And a shower."
◆◆◆
"Wait up!" Reed made sure the door shut behind him and jogged down the hallway. He'd told them all to wait for him while he found a restroom. He did have to pee, but it had struck him that not everyone had plans laid out for a happy life after they all left that day. They'd be going their separate ways, and he wasn't fond of that.
The adults expressed their displeasure at being delayed.
Reed pressed on. "Where will Val go?"
Marissa raised a brow. "She will have a hearing."
"Yeah, but after that." Reed shoved his hands into his pockets.
Marissa clasped her hands in front of her. "That remains to be seen."
Reed nodded, not really listening. "I have a proposition for you. Well, Green Solutions does."
It had come to him in a flash, the moment he watched Val's confidence vanish and her focus drop to the floor when Ace pointed out her next outfit might be an orange jumpsuit. The posture didn't fit well on her.
Val had just been trying to help. She was more like his Mother than he wanted to think about. Thanks, Freud. And she'd just thrown herself under the bus for Ace and Henley. She deserved someone to look out for her even if she wouldn't admit that she needed or wanted it. Particularly from Reed.
"Reed," Father chastised with severity, "is there something you'd like to discuss with me first?"
So there was that answer; Father had not come back to force Reed into co-heading the organization with him in Mother's place. "No. I'm a St—a Stanley, too. I get a say in things." He may not want to run it, but he should get a vote.
"Reed?" Nor interrupted.
"What's going on?" Val demanded.
Reed should have known they wouldn't do as they were told and stay in the room.
"You have no right to dictate how we do things," Father steamrolled.
"We? There is no we for you anymore," Reed argued, bewildered. "Not without me and Nor, at least. She's gone. It's gone. What was there is no more. Mom worked to save this Earth and all who inhabit it." He took a deep breath. "And so does Valerie. I want to propose an option for her punishment."
He heard a gasp but maintained his focus on Director Acton.
She appeared mildly taken aback. "I may be able to offer some input as to an appropriate sentence. But I cannot guarantee my suggestion will be the chosen outcome."
Reed had suspected she'd say as much. He also suspected Director Acton had more sway than she might think. She'd just dominated that meeting. "The sentence I am proposing is a work-release program."
"I'm listening."
"I propose she do community service, of a sort, at a non-profit."
"Seconded!" Nor opined immediately.
Father glowered. "You are too young to—"
Reed spoke over the admonition. "I believe this is a fair punishment because, although unconfirmed, I suspect Valerie Acton is somewhat, indirectly," he added, "at fault for the destruction of our compound."
"What?"
Reed willed Val to shut up. Her pride was ruining his coercion. "She—and the government since she had been acting on behalf of the DMM at the time—could avoid being sued for the physical damage and months of being out of work. She can help us clean up." It was her turn. He'd cleaned up both Tio's piss and blood.
"Valerie? Do you agree that this is a fair sentence?" Marissa asked.
By including her in the discussion, Director Acton gave Reed permission to turn around. The group crowded the hallway. Val had screwed up her face, considering his proposition. He wasn't super thrilled with her moving in with him in a sense either. He liked his space. But he couldn't let her crash and burn. Not like his Val, especially now that he knew his Val hadn't been an innocent victim in... everything that happened. She'd been involved in a way that he prayed the letter explained more fully.
"After which," Reed caught her baby blue eyes. "I hope she'd consider heading our scientific team in collaboration with our protective team." She blinked. Reed grinned.
"Excuse me?" Father was visibly displeased. "I have already—"
"What?" Nor sneered. "You've already hired someone to replace Mother? I doubt that. And if you did, they won't be as experienced or competent as Valerie." Reed was so proud of how much his younger brother had grown. He was standing up to Father. Father should be proud, too. Nor was a good protector.
"You should be proud," Marissa said to Father, eerily reading Reed's mind. "Your son is a strong leader. I'd be proud of him if he were my son." As she had with the men in the room, she'd raised the standards and essentially forced Father into agreement if he didn't want to admit Director Acton was the better parent.
Father's green irises did not warm.
"I am proud of you, Reed," Director Acton said, and Reed's eyebrows shot up, not expecting that name at the end of the sentence.
"Are we finished here? I'd like to get things settled," one of the BSTU suits said with exasperation.
That was up to Father. "Very well. If the sentence is amenable to whomever judges Ms. Acton's hearing, we will embrace her assistance repairing the damage."
"And the job?" Reed crossed his arms.
Father turned around, and at the cue, the gentlemen began to walk with him following. "I will consider it if she proves herself worthy."
"Wahoo!" Henley cheered.
Marissa gave Reed a respectful nod and joined the procession.
/> Reed grinned and pivoted with a brow raised at Val. "Want to show me how grateful you are?"
She flicked her blond curls. "Want to see how hungry I am?" Her teeth were white against her dirty skin.
Father's voice floated down the hall as he added his final word. "But I don't want to have to deal with this, Reed. I have enough on my plate. You will be in charge of handling her, and I expect you to keep close to her with sharp eyes."
Handling? Close?
"Salty barnacles," Rena breathed. Everyone else was wordless, which Reed found pretty funny. It used to be the other way around. "The world won't survive that."
◆◆◆
To: Director of Disaster Management
United States Geological and Climatic Society
Re: The End
To whom this may concern,
My name is Jennifer Tate, and I am the daughter of a professor, Dr. Katheryn Tate, and a chemistry teacher, Richard Tate. I was, until recently, going to be a new student at Boston Science and Technology University.
About a month ago, before I started at the University, I discretely contacted the Director of the Department of Disaster Management at the United States Geological and Climatic Society about a concern I had with a project that I would be involved with at the University, a project of my mom’s.
I will not reveal the nature of the project because by the time you get this, I hope that it will no longer be an issue. In short, I became concerned about the morality of the project at the University that I was intended to work on, and with which I had been intimately familiar since childhood. I sought assistance from someone with enough power to intercede.
The director at the time and I arranged a deal.
The contents of this deal are confidential between her and myself, and I will not break my oath to reveal the terms and conditions. Suffice it to say that I recruited her help in top-secret research and gave her access to secure locations and information that I should not have. In exchange for her promise to stop the abominable research and take the tortured research subjects into her care, she gave me freedom from a life I didn't want and peace of mind. She took my spot in my life, at the University, and I never had to attend, since we made the trade a few months in advance. My high school boyfriend didn’t take the break up well but it was inevitable anyway. My father would never notice the switch. My mother is always too involved in her work to really know that the person who would arrive wouldn’t be me.
Revealing this to you may seem strange. The reason I am openly admitting to these wrongdoings and, in turn, putting the then-director in danger, is because I realize now that my desperate attempt to right a wrong is not going to work. It won't be enough.
She agreed to help me because she believes that there is hope for the future. She wants to ensure the human race survives the trying times we are in. She wants us to survive, thrive, not die.
But speaking to her got me thinking. And then my father mysteriously died under suspicious conditions, I learned. And I realized something. I realized that maybe the project shouldn't be simply stopped and the subjects saved and given a better life, the research put to a better use. It would always be dangerous for everyone.
So I involved yet more innocent lives, putting them in danger as well. I scoped out an independent firm (name redacted) who truly believe in protecting the human race. Just like the director. I filed a contract with one of the few women working there who didn't know me to keep it anonymous. Her job was to steal the subject before the director could, snatching the specimen right out from under her nose. I didn't tell her. I told only another researcher on the project, with whom I’d become familiar over the years he worked under my mother, to expect an under-the-radar removal attempt since I was not there to be the on-premises contact.
Then I told him to run their escape car off the road. And I blew up the independent firm I’d involved.
I openly admit to that because by the time you read this, I will have perished in that explosion. And the project will have died in a car crash. The researcher who works under the principle investigator, whom I instructed to orchestrate the crash, will have also destroyed the project details and subsequently killed the principle investigator, my mom. I have no worry that he won’t; my mom coerced him into some amoral aspects of the project. He is dedicated to its eradication, too.
I'm not vengeful. Neither is he. By seeing the lengths the director would take to grasp at a flimsy whim of an idea for the human race's survival, which was borne of questionable ethics, I realized that we're not supposed to survive.
This is a cleansing.
My parents made it pretty clear that they never wanted to have me. I think the Earth is having a similar concern. Why else would everything around us want to kill us? Oceans taking the land we live on, increased storms taking out our major cities, temperatures rising enough to cause droughts and famine. We as a human race is not supposed to survive. Doing so is unnatural, cheating the system.
People like the director and the people I've met at the firm are so dedicated and hopeful, but I watch them alter who they are and work themselves to the bone and ignore their families to rectify the mess humans made for themselves of our host planet. Their kindness is painful to see. I am awed and horrified; they fight a battle they cannot win. There has been too much suffering.
I find peace in my end.
I know the Earth will, too.
Please, tell Director Valerie Acton that I'm sorry for destroying her—our—plans. And I implore you to direct your efforts into putting everyone else out of their misery.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Tate
Currently known as Valerie Acton
The End
NOTE TO THE READER
I hope you’ve enjoyed the Climatic Climacteric series! Please consider leaving a review at Amazon, Goodreads and/or BookBub.
As a thank you for reading, turn the page for an exlusive BONUS NOVELLA featuring the beloved Reed Stanley and Valerie Acton among other familiar characters, and of course, more disaster.
Please also consider doing your part to help protect and preserve our planet! Many of the horrors in this series are based on scientific prediction (at the time of publication), thanks to writing the first book in this series while completing my PhD in Earth Science. There’s a lot that we can all do to mitigate pollution and damage to the environment and atmosphere, and to support charities working to make a difference to keep our home clean, healthy, and habitable so we don’t have to adapt who we are to survive. Go Green Team!
Check out L.B. Carter’s other publications and subscribe to her newsletter to read the first chapter of each book and get short stories for FREE at www.LBCarter.com. Her wildly popular paranormal fantasy series begins with the award-winning book One Loan Soul:
Great news for those wary of selling their soul to the Devil. Just take out a loan instead!
Darcie Rose is Satan’s top Substitute Soul, tasked with temporarily replacing the eager living souls who sign a deal with the Devil. The exchange is a simple one. They receive a Lucifer-facilitated status boost when they return to their body, and Darcie earns a temporary reprieve from Hell. But there are two rules she must abide by if she wants to stay on Luci’s good side: 1.) Avoid her former life now that she is an accidental murderess. 2.) Never expose proof of a demonic Hell in the presence of humans.
Easy as pudding... until now.
Something’s glitched, and Darcie’s sent Earth-side without the necessary details of whose body she’s inhabiting. Even Hell can’t compare to coming face-to-face with her former fiancé, and taxidermy animals rising from the dead like a macabre puppet show.
Can Darcie regain control of a job quickly spiraling out of control? Or will this slip up get her banished to the torturous bowels of Hell?
From Internationally Bestselling author L.B. Carter comes book one in the Loan Soul Series, a dark paranormal fantasy with a sardonic twist!
BONUS CONTENT
HUMID HAIL
Climatic Climacteric, Bonus Novella
L.B. Carter
Only available in this omnibus.
This story takes place several months after the end of Arid Alarm.
Chapter One
“I can always get you on your back. I don’t know why you even struggle anymore.” Reed grinned down at Val, leaning over her with his palms pressing her wrists into the mat. His stomach ached where she’d snuck a kick through his defenses. But it had been a mistake; he’d gotten revenge by grabbing her leg and yanking her close, then tossing her to the floor without mercy.
“Maybe you’re right where I want you.” She quirked an eyebrow, acting as though she hadn’t just lost their fight. The Padawan had yet to trump the Jedi master; she had much to learn from him.
He winked, playing along with her claim. “Of course I am. Most women have this fantasy about me.”
She nodded, baby blue eyes wide and innocent, full lips slightly open. “I agree.” Her head twisted on the blue flooring, mussing the platinum blond curls piled on top of her head. “Can I tell you something?”
Reed grew serious. She was always so confident, the slightly meek tone threw him. “You know you can tell me anything. Whatever it is, we’ll handle it. Together. You know we can; nothing can be as insurmountable as what we’ve already overcome. Especially,” he added with bravado, “when you’ve got me on your team.”
“That’s true. Well…”
Her voice had lowered into a whisper. Reed leaned down to hear the secret she was hesitating to reveal, bending his elbows to press into the padding bracketing her ears.
She lifted her head, neck craning, a smirk on her glossy lips. Reed wasn’t sure if she wore make-up during their work-outs or if it was the genetic modification that perfected her appearance, making Valerie’s skin flawless, doe eyelashes thick, and rouged cheeks and lips so …enticing. Her breath, heavy from their spar, brushed his lips as his nose hovered inches over hers. Her legs wrapped around his hips and his breath sucked in, his abs tightening further.
