Scavenger Vanishes (The SkyRyders Book 3)

by Liza O'Connor

  She leaned forward. “Logan, I wasn’t asked to do it. It was my plan. I went over my colonel’s head and submitted it directly to MAC. I wanted this assignment.”

  “Just to get promoted?”

  “The promotion felt good, gave the beauty queen something to cry over, but I didn’t do this for a promotion. I did this to help save the Corps. I came out of the East Coast training camps. Servicing the alpha male was nothing new to me. I learned early on the faster you latch on to an alpha male, the fewer men you service on a nightly basis.”

  Logan shook his head in disgust. “Does that still happen?” he asked, thinking about the three female Ryders he had brought from the West Coast.

  “Oh yeah, but before you go running out and gathering up your female cadets, they know the drill. They all have their alpha males. The only one that’s dicey is the one whose name sounds like a newspaper.”

  “Daily,” Logan said.

  “Yeah…her alpha male is Captain Abrams, and he’s a bit lacking in age and testosterone to provide safe shelter. You might want to send her back to the West Coast for training.”

  Logan waited for Marge to continue talking, but she seemed to be waiting for him now. Finally, he broke the silence. “I’m sorry, Marge, but I think the conversation got away from whatever point you were trying to make.”

  “Not really,” she replied. “I thought I made my point pretty clearly.”

  Logan looked at her in confusion.

  Marge sighed at his denseness. “There are only two reasons why I’d spend so much time in your presence, since you don’t use my battle plans. Either I’m working with you to destroy the career and livelihood of all the other colonels on the East Coast, or I have become your alpha female. If the colonels assume the first, then I’m dead. If they assume the second, then I’m harmless.”

  Logan blinked, finally realizing what she was suggesting. “Colonel Williams…Marge,” he corrected himself, trying to soften the rejection. “I’m flattered, but I can’t.”

  Marge cocked her head. “As in ‘the equipment doesn’t work’?”

  “No,” Logan replied. “As in ‘I can’t afford to be personally involved with anyone’. My focus has to be entirely on cleaning up the East Coast.”

  Marge gave a soft laugh, as if his protest were quaint and naïve. “To begin with, it would be disastrous if you did become emotionally involved with anyone. If these colonels discover anyone you care about, they’ll be at risk. I don’t want you to care about me, Logan. Hell, we don’t even have to take the rust off your equipment. But I need the appearance we’re partnering, or you’re going to get me killed.”

  “What does an appearance require?”

  “Closed-door meetings similar to our current is fine, but I do need to start sharing your big bed very soon. It has never taken me this long to seduce a general before. It’s got to have some of them wondering.”

  “All right, we’ll go the ‘appearance only’ route.” He frowned. “You stated anyone they might suspect I care for is in danger…”

  “Yeah, but don’t worry, I’ve been watching out for you. I thought the wonder girl you brought into the Corps might be a problem, but the drop-dead email you sent back through General Powell effectively took her off anyone’s hit list. You’d have to hate a person to get them in so much trouble with Powell.”

  “That was a private email!” Logan snapped, angry not just at the invasion of his privacy but also her amusement at his cruelty to Alisha. “In the future, I would appreciate it if you stayed the hell out of my emails.”

  “There’s no such thing as private email on the East Coast, and until there is, I will remain apprised of what my enemies know.”

  Logan remained silent until he was able to get his temper under control. “Colonel Williams, may I assume the other generals were seduced by some alternative personality you keep hidden in your vest pocket?”

  “As a matter of fact, they were. Do you wish to see it?”

  “No!” Logan said with absolute certainty.

  “I didn’t think so.” She laughed. “Stop looking so grim, General. If you can send men to their deaths for the good of the Corps, surely pretending to take a lover won’t be too great a sacrifice.”

  Just then, Tucker burst into the room. “Sorry to disturb you, but I thought you’d want to know immediately. Daily….Captain News is in the medic center. She shows signs of a gang rape, and…”

  “And what?” Logan demanded.

  “Her wrist was slit; the medic thinks it was self-inflicted,” Tucker added.

  Logan felt as if someone had just slammed a fist into his stomach. He grabbed his jacket and stormed off to the medic center. He was aware Tucker and Marge flanked him, but he had never felt more alone in his whole life.

  Seeing Daily’s battle-shocked face only made it worse. Ginnie was there with her, as was Ben, looking as pale as death. After getting an assurance from the medic that Daily was fine, Logan sent everyone from the room and sat down on a stool beside her, so he wouldn’t be so intimidating.

  “The medic says you’re going to be fine,” Logan assured her, but he stopped the second he noticed the seething rage in her eyes. “But I think he was focused on the physical. Mentally, you’ve got some work to do. And I don’t think you’ll ever heal in this hellish environment. So I’m going to send you back to the West Coast.”

  Daily looked at him but didn’t say anything.

  “I’m sending you back for training on your Class Five. That way, you’ll stay under my command. Take all the time you need to heal. Don’t worry about passing the test. In fact, don’t pass it until you feel ready to return here.” He couldn’t see any change in her eyes. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, her voice hoarse and raw.

  “All right then. Now I want the name of every single bastard involved.”

  Chapter 10

  Alisha knew she would never feel comfortable in her new quarters, but between the shim Gunny had given her to jam the bathroom door shut while she occupied it and the new twenty-four-hour live camera feed to MAC in their shared quarters, Colonel Dryer was better behaved than he had been when she’d been his private. He wasn’t actually nicer to her, but he kept his hands to himself. On her part, she tried to be as polite and respectful as possible, because with the general’s continued pressure on her to perform, she could be back under Dryer’s command with one failed test group.

  The chances of another demotion seemed quite high. The general’s quotas became more unreasonable every two weeks.

  In her attempt to find other ways to create comfort in the wind tunnel, she had invented a new sport called tunnel ball. Two players matched against each other. The offensive player would attempt to move a ball through three floating hoops within five minutes. The defensive player would attempt to prevent the flier with blocking maneuvers by getting to the hoop before the offensive player.

  To prevent the game from becoming deadly, no physical contact was to occur between the players, so all games required a referee. Alisha assigned severe point penalties to actual physical contact between the players. So while a player could win the game, if he won it with high penalties, he could still end up losing points and thus dropping in the overall rank of players.

  The game proved remarkably successful in getting the Ryders to lose their fear of falling. It seemed their competitive nature was even a stronger distraction than sex. At first Alisha refereed the games, but once it became too popular for her to manage alone, cameras were established inside the wind tunnels for MAC to referee. Alisha didn’t really believe MAC wanted to be a referee, but the opportunity to study air flight close-up probably made it worth the computer’s time. Also, it stopped all moaning about the referee’s call, which had been a problem every time Alisha had tried to let someone else referee.

  Another advantage of having MAC cameras in the tunnel was she could sit at the computer and assess the progress of her students as s
he ate her lunch. Jack would naturally join her to “run the equipment”, since the general didn’t know she was capable of doing that herself, thus they no longer had to have lunches at the officers’ table.

  She and Jack would bet their desserts on who would win a match. It annoyed Alisha that Jack won as frequently as she did. She felt she should be able to spot talent faster than Jack. He, on the other hand, felt he should be able to assess fliers’ capabilities in battle better than her.

  “This one’s no contest,” Jack laughed as he watched a pint-size girl and one of the highest ranked players enter the tunnel. “Are we certain they’re planning to play tunnel ball?”

  Alisha looked at the girl in surprise. “That’s Daily News. Logan sent her back from the East Coast for training earlier this week. Kevin must be looking to raise his point level with some easy wins. This has to be her first game of tunnel ball.” Alisha shook her head as she clicked the fast forward emblem.

  “Stop!” Jack took the mouse from her. He moved the video back and restarted it just before Daily darted up and blocked Kevin from entering his hoop. “Dessert on Daily,” he declared.

  Alisha shook her head. There was no way Daily could beat the all-time scorer in tunnel ball. “You’re on.”

  They settled back to watch the contest. And it was a contest. Daily might have been new to the game, but there was an aggressiveness in her behavior Alisha didn’t recall from the sweet and gentle Daily she remembered.

  She sighed. The Corps changed everyone, and never for the better. Except for Gramps’ improved health since the Corp reinstated his pension so he could afford his medicine, she was sorry as hell she had ever joined.

  “Tomorrow is your first leave since you got here. I’m assuming you’ll visit your grandfather?” Jack asked.

  “Two days with Gramps. I hope I remember to come back.” She wished in her heart she could just forget to.

  “I know you’ll want time alone with him, but would you mind if I dropped by on Saturday for a couple of hours?”

  Alisha narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to one side. “You’re afraid I really won’t come back.”

  “Actually, my reasons are entirely selfish. I like your grandfather, and would like to visit him too.”

  “But the general purposely made your leave different from mine.”

  “True, but he assigned me the miserable task of letting the Mayor of Broadtown know we aren’t rebuilding the fort. The mayor suspects why I want to meet him, so he set the meeting up on Saturday so all the aldermen can attend.”

  Poor Jack was in for a horrible Saturday. “We’d love to have you stop by.” She glanced at the screen to see Kevin flat on his back on the floor and Daily slamming the ball directly at his crotch.

  “Ouch!” Jack said, and rewound so they could see what had caused the mishap.

  Now both of them were riveted to the screen. Daily was unquestionably more aggressive now. In fact, she had fouled Kevin several times as he dove from one hoop to another, trying his hardest to reach them before she did.

  On his third try, he would have made it had she not slammed down on his left leg, sending him spiraling out of control. He recovered and came up next to her and hit her in the stomach with the ball, as hard as he could. The force sent her reeling back against the wall, but she held her air.

  Now she had possession of the ball, she darted through two of the hoops before he realized her intent. With only one hoop left, he soared directly at it. She had to see him, and every inch of self-preservation must have told her to get out of the way, but she held her line, going through the hoop just as he slammed her and the hoop hard against the wall.

  “Damn!” Jack said. “I’m surprised MAC didn’t shut down the tunnel.”

  “It probably wanted to see how many points could be lost in a single game.” Alisha sighed. Poor Kevin; he’d never make up all those points in time for the weekend tally.

  She refocused on the game…or perhaps war would be a better description. Daily launched herself off the side of the tunnel and slammed full force against Kevin’s head, sending him to the ground. Following him down, she slammed the ball into his crotch, hit the emergency stop button, and stormed out of the tunnel, leaving him curled in pain.

  The score appeared at the bottom of the screen. Game: tied 2 to 2. Penalty points for Daily News 75,655. Penalty points for Kevin Brown: 58,432.

  Alisha looked at the score. “MAC clearly saw something we didn’t, because his slam should only have cost him 30,000 points.”

  They reversed the video and gave the game their entire attention this time. What they hadn’t noticed before was Kevin repeatedly fouled Daily, but his moves were quick and subtle.

  “Do you think he’s been doing this shit all along, and MAC just caught on?” Alisha asked.

  “Let’s find out.” Jack typed in a query to MAC.

  “Well?” Alisha demanded, accustomed to MAC answering immediately.

  Jack shrugged. “Either it’s not telling, or it’s busy reviewing the tapes.”

  Alisha sighed. “Well, let’s keep going. Lunch is half over.”

  Jack put the videos on double time, but they all seemed dull in comparison to Daily and Kevin’s battle.

  “Do I have the wrong girl in mind, or has Daily News changed?” Jack asked.

  “She’s definitely changed. She used to be kind, gentle, and generous. She’s a better flyer now, but she’s really angry.”

  “Could be from life on the East coast. From what I hear, it’s rough on female Ryders.”

  “Maybe before, but not with General Logan there.”

  “He’s one man. He can’t change the Corps. The only one who can do that is you.”

  Chapter 11

  Tucker’s report was the first bit of good news Logan had had all day.

  “There are fiber lines within one block of every fort we have. I’ve submitted the bids for the extension lines to MAC. It said it would negotiate directly with the parties.”

  “Excellent,” Logan replied, and studied his colonel’s tight jaw. “Is there something wrong?”

  “No, sir,” Tucker replied.

  Marge didn’t believe that any more than Logan did. “We’re the Three Amigos here, Tucker. If something’s bothering you, it’s bothering us. So out with it!”

  “It’s personal.”

  “Well most things are,” she said. “It’s about your girl, isn’t it?”

  Tucker’s jaw tightened even further.

  “She’ll be fine,” Marge assured him. “She’s a tough cookie.”

  Logan looked at Tucker and then at Marge. “Someone want to tell me what’s going on?”

  “While Alpha Male here was off pissing on the other forts, a couple of the colonels decided to entice his girl to their own beds.”

  Tucker glared at Marge. “Your intel is slipping if you call that enticement,” he snapped.

  “Are you saying two of my colonels raped Jersey while you were gone?” Logan turned to Marge. “I want their names, now. I am now instituting a zero-tolerance on rape!”

  Marge sighed but said nothing.

  Logan looked at Tucker. “She may get by with the silent act, but I expect better of you.”

  It took young colonel several moments to unlock his jaws. “She won’t say who did it, so I don’t know how many. But every single one of the bastards had a smirk on his face this morning at breakfast.”

  Logan looked back at Marge. “I want their names, Marge!”

  “For what purpose? Are you going to screw everything up because somebody rode one of your female Ryders a little hard? She’s been in the Corps for three years now; this wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. You think I was left alone before you and I became partners?”

  There were times Logan wanted to strangle Marge, and times when he wanted to provide her a hug and comfort to make up for all the abuse she had endured. Right now, he felt like doing both. He sighed and turned his attention back to Tuck
er.

  “Is Jersey all right?”

  “She’s not physically hurt, but they shook her up pretty bad. She wants me to ask for both of us to be transferred back to the West Coast.”

  “You know I can’t let you go,” Logan said.

  He nodded.

  “I can send her back, if you want. I’ve already sent Daily back,” Logan offered.

  Tucker sighed. “Let me think about it.”

  “Hell, why don’t you just let him take her with him when he travels?” Marge demanded. “That way she’s not left unprotected.”

  Logan noticed the immediate perk of interest in Tucker’s face. “Would that help, Tucker?”

  “Yes, sir!” he replied. “It would help immensely.”

  “Then do it,” Logan said. “Take her along as an assistant to help with the paperwork.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Tucker paused and looked at Marge as well. “And you too, sir,” he added.

  “But Tucker, tell her if she wants to press charges, I will support her.”

  “I’ll tell her, sir, but this solution is better,” Tucker replied.

  Logan tried very hard to ignore the smug look of satisfaction on Marge’s face.

  Chapter 12

  Alisha burst into tears the moment her Gramps opened the door, and she couldn’t stop crying for several minutes. Her grandfather led her inside, settled her on the couch, and let her cry herself out before he attempted to discover the reason for her misery.

  “I hate being in the Corps,” she finally admitted. “I just want to come home and live with you.”

  He stroked her face gently. “Every Ryder in the entire Corps has felt that way during his first year. Just because you bypassed a few ranks, it won’t save you from the pain. But if you see it through, you will come to love the Corps. I promise you.”

  “How do you know?” she asked doubtfully.

  “Because you’re so much like me,” he said with clear pride.

  Alisha shook her head and started to cry again. “I’m not like you. I screw up all the time, and poor Jack keeps paying the price.”