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

  Billie rolled her eyes. “Yes, Marcus, I’m fine. No, Marcus, I didn’t get hurt at all. Thank you for asking.”

  Marcus spoke in a monotone. “You are talking, your heart is beating, and I can see your video footage. Your arms and your legs are attached. How is my fucking suit?”

  Billie stood there with her hands on her hips, not saying a word. Marcus was more anxious about his technology than her. Billie knew he cared if she was alive in some weird way, but he had a serious infatuation with the suit.

  “Billie…” he said finally. “I know you are still there. I do care if you are okay. You are a person, I get it.”

  Billie looked at the back of her hand as if she were looking at her nails. She was still wearing gloves. “Mhmm.”

  Marcus sighed. “I don’t see any warning signs, so everything is operational. My life is these suits and these programs.”

  Billie shook her head. “That is sad.”

  Marcus scoffed. “Uh, have you looked in the mirror? Your only friend is the guy on the comm in your head.”

  Billie sneered. “Yeah, but I chose this life. You chose to become obsessed with virtual and fabricated robots. You are obsessed with the technology, dude, and frankly, I am concerned. I’m considering coming out there and staging an intervention.”

  Marcus was not amused. “An intervention usually includes more than one person.”

  Billie shrugged. “Fine. I’ll invite the robots. You’ll probably listen to them more than me. Though that might be problematic since I would need to program that into them. Can you do that?”

  Marcus growled, and Billie laughed. “Oh, lighten up, will you? You take me too seriously. I mean, everyone else does, but that is for good reason. I am kind of a scary bitch, but I have to be. If I look friendly, people will try to...to...talk to me. What am I going to say?”

  Marcus took a deep breath. “I’m not sure, but I do know that you need to start moving toward your target.”

  Billie pulled up the map and continued through the jungle. “You know it doesn’t bother me in the least that you are a tech nerd. In fact, since you are a man—I think—and I am a woman…”

  Marcus snapped back, “We aren’t sure about that one.”

  Billie ignored him. “I like it that I could strip out of the armor and you would spend your load over the suit as I padded off naked.”

  Marcus calmed down. “Well, I guess you’re right. Technology is sexy, and it doesn’t argue with me. It doesn’t tell me to get directions; she gives me directions and never has a headache.”

  Crickets chirped, and Billie lifted an eyebrow. “What about the battery running out?”

  Marcus chuckled. “That’s my problem, then. I didn’t take care of her like I should have. If I want her to keep going, I will need to purchase a bigger battery.”

  Billie thought about it for a moment. “And it doesn’t bother you that I am running around in your girlfriend? ‘Cause I’ll be honest—after the headache comment, it kind of makes me uncomfortable with what is touching my body right now.”

  Marcus spoke in a monotone. “Trust me, you’re safe.”

  Billie nodded her head. “Oh yeah, that’s right. It’s not the actual suit, it’s the AI in the HUD. I get the two confused. It’s not like I am wearing a full-on robot or anything. That wouldn’t make much sense.”

  Marcus agreed. “Precisely. It is the information, not the suit. You could wear the suit without technology, and it would be like wearing knee pads into the fourth quarter of a tied football game. They are there to say, ‘I’m being safe,’ but they provide you with no real protection. When you add the technology to it, it comes to life. Then you are able to do things both on offense and defense. Works similar to your computer. You can have a screen and a box, but until you start it, you can’t go online.”

  Billie nodded. “Right, I get it. Okay, I seem to be pretty close to the suits. The dots on the map are coming up. Can you double-check that I’m in the right vicinity? I don’t want to roll up on another one of those bear-things.”

  Marcus typed something. “Yep, they have been checked five times. Just look around under the leaves and stuff. If there is a body, it’ll be easier to find.”

  Billie scanned the area, looking for any sign of the suits—even just a piece of fabric. She didn’t see a thing. “I only see vegetation here.”

  Marcus checked it again. “They are there. Look up. Are they in the trees?”

  Billie tilted her head back. “Nope. Just trees.”

  She shuffled forward a step, and her foot caught on something. Looking down, she made out a partially-buried boot. She dropped to her knees and began to throw leaves in every direction. Finally, she got down to the first suit. It was strange; there was no body, but it was lying perfectly flat as if a body had been there but had magically disappeared. “I found the first one.”

  Billie grabbed the sleeve and followed it over, seeing that the other suit was right next to it, buried under the leaves in the same manner. Both suits were empty. She leaned down and sniffed, but didn’t smell blood or decay. It was as if the people in the suits had taken them off, laid them out neatly, and then run into the jungle.

  Marcus was trying to be patient. “Well?”

  Billie shook her head. “They’re both here, but it’s really weird. They look like they were just taken off.”

  Marcus was looking through her video feed. “I can see that. What about the HUDS? Are they still there?”

  Billie’s eyes shifted up to find both of the HUDs sitting in the center of a split tree. One was stacked on top of the other; it had been balanced perfectly. Shivers ran up her spine as she stood up and walked over, picking them up. “This is fucking weird. This whole place is fucking weird. I am not down for this, just so you know.”

  Marcus cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I’m sure there is an explanation.”

  Billie looked around for bodies, but there were none. “Yeah, except that the people who could give it to us are nowhere to be found. They just disappeared.”

  Marcus sighed. “It’s an alien jungle, not a magician’s tent. They didn’t disappear, they simply...simply... Oh hell, I don’t know. But I do know you need to collect the data cards first. They don’t want those to get damaged when you send the suits up.”

  Billie reached into each HUD and pulled out the separate chips. “You know, if I plugged one of these into my HUD, we could both see what actually happened here.”

  Marcus laughed. “No. Yeah, right. Our orders are to get the chips and the suits back safely. Trust me, neither one of us wants to know what’s on those chips. It’s obviously important enough for them to be airlifted out of here and to send you in. What’s up with you? You’ve never said anything like that before.”

  Billie shook her head hard. “Nothing. I think it’s just this place. You’re right, I don’t want to know, nor should I even think about it. I have a job, one job, and I will not stray from that again. I’ll get the suits laid out properly.”

  Billie set the HUDs down, making sure the chips were securely in her bag beforehand. She picked up one of the suits and shook it out, noting several dents in the armor. She didn’t know if that would mean anything to the higher-ups, but they were there. Other than that, not a stitch had been touched. In fact, they didn’t even look dirty.

  She walked over to the center of the clearing and looked up to find the thinnest part of the canopy. She laid the first one down, putting the sleeves down on each side and the legs together. Then she did the same with the other one. When they were arranged, she set the HUDs down where the heads would go. She stood there for a moment staring down at them, then the static in her comm brought her back from her daydream.

  Marcus took a deep breath. “All right, we’re almost home free. All you’ve got to do is hook everything up and press the buttons.”

  Billie opened her pack and pulled four medium-sized plastic boxes out, as well as two small cylinders that looked similar to toy rockets
. She clamped the boxes securely on the shoulders of the suits, then took the cylinders and did the same at the ankles. When she was done, she showed Marcus through her video so he could make sure that everything was properly attached.

  “Very good,” he said. “Now, you are going to pick one up by the shoulders and release the balloon on each side. It will self-inflate. Once it is hovering at eye level, you press the small red button and take a step back. It has a three-second delay. As soon as that one takes off, do the same with the other. You want them as close together as possible. Not only will that minimize the intrusion and keep the animals from attacking, but they will also be able to find them better if they stay close together.”

  Billie nodded. “Right. Got it.”

  She carefully tied the HUDs to the backstraps of the suits so everything went up together, then she bent over and picked the first one up, holding it by the boxes. She pulled the short rope at the bottom of the first box and it opened. There was a hissing sound, and a large silver balloon popped up and inflated. She did the same with the second and let go. Slowly the suit and HUD rose into the air, stopping at about eye level. She reached down and pressed the button on the cylinder and stood back.

  It sounded like a small firework being ignited, hissing as it pushed the suit up and through the canopy. Billie grabbed the other much faster this time. As the second rose toward the branches, Billie shook her leg. “Come on, Come on…”

  When it breached the canopy, she pumped her fist. “Okay, that shit is over and done with.”

  Marcus chuckled. “Good, now get the hell out of there. If you follow the map, it takes you diagonally across the thick. You should be able to get out in an hour’s time. Move it. I don’t want you in the Staging Area when the other mercs start coming out of the Zoo.”

  Billie clicked her heels and chuckled, pulling her pack on and taking off at a jog. She leapt over logs, dodged dangling vines, and only stopped for a moment when another one of those vampire bunnies scurried across the ground in front of her. When she reached the edge of the Zoo, she could see the sun was still shining in the real world. She let out a deep breath and unlatched her HUD.

  Her foot sank into sand as she stepped out, a welcome change from the squishy feel of the Zoo. She walked forward with her HUD under her arm, glancing up at the sound of men talking. There they were, the mercs she had saved. No one but the captain paid her any attention whatsoever. Billie stopped and swung her bag around, yanking out her hat. She pulled her hair back and put it on, glancing under the wide brim at the captain. He gave her a knowing nod, and she tilted her hat a bit to return his acknowledgment.

  She wasn’t going to talk to them, but the captain of the team knew there was no way another team would have helped them and not expected something in return. Instead, a lone wolf in a tree had saved their lives. She stood there with her head down until the JLTV pulled away, blowing dust all around her. She took her bandana out of the collar of her suit and arranged it over her nose and mouth to keep the sand out.

  As she took off her suit and helmet, a black NTV with tinted windows drove toward the Staging Area. It pulled up in front of her, and a man in a black suit got out. Billie pulled the chips from her bag and handed them over, keeping her eyes down. Whoever wanted those chips apparently wasn’t willing to wait.

  Chapter Eight

  Holly sat up, wide awake now. “So, she wasn’t just a robot killer sent from another universe to stop the alien overlords? She was curious. She actually saw something wrong with the picture.”

  JB tilted his head to the side. “Yes, but you also have to remember that curiosity killed the cat, my dear. That’s one thing about the Zoo—everybody who goes in there has a task, and everybody needs to focus. You start getting curious, and bunnies are taking off limbs and bears are swallowing you whole.”

  Holly shivered. “Yeah, that bear-thing is going to give me nightmares. Not many things freak me out, but how you described the sounds it made... Holy shit, that was wild. Still, I like it that she was human, you know? I like that she wanted to know more when things really came down to it. I know you’re right, you can’t be curious, but that is human nature.”

  JB looked at her and smiled. “Did you ever touch a hot stove when you were told not to as a kid?”

  Holly chuckled. “Yeah.”

  JB nodded. “And what happened?”

  She shrugged. “I burned the fuck out of my hand.”

  JB snorted. “That’s right. So someone tells you not to touch the bunny in the Zoo and poof, you got a hook for a hand.”

  One of the guys at the end of the bar held up his arm, showing the metal hook at the end of it. “Listen to him, lady. I know that all too well.”

  JB cringed. “Sorry, Frank. I didn’t mean you.”

  Frank sighed. “It’s all right, JB. If I can teach a lesson with it, I’ll do it, although mine was more a mistake than curiosity. The jag was curious about how my left hand tasted.”

  Holly wrinkled her forehead. “Okay, I get it. Don’t touch, just look. But what about the chips?”

  Dan shook his head. “See, now those I would have looked at. I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself. Those suits laid out like that, the missing people and the weirdness of it all. I don’t like secrets like that.”

  JB smirked at Dan. “Which is why you are a mercenary and not a trained killer out to do some mysterious people’s work. Whether it’s government or not, these secrets needed to be buried in the Zoo along with all the evidence. They brought nothing but problems throughout the whole thing.”

  Holly leaned forward, now sober again, and sipped her drink. “Is that the end of her story? Did you see her again after that?”

  JB stared into the distance. “There was only one more confirmed sighting of her, on the trip where she disappeared. It’s why they call her ‘the ghost,’ or at least why they think she might be.”

  Billie climbed the steps of the hotel and looked at the door to the right. Room 14, just like the message at the desk said. She opened the envelope and poured out the key, putting it in the lock and carefully entering the room. Closing and locking the door behind her, she stared at a landline plugged into the wall, connected to a phone sitting in the center of a table. She pulled the slip of paper out of the envelope and walked over.

  There was a number and an access key on the paper. She picked up the receiver and dialed the number, putting it on speaker. “Please enter your code,” instructed a robotic voice.

  Billie pressed the number 1414 into the phone and listened to the beeps. After a few seconds, it connected. Marcus’ voice came out of the speaker. “Billie, is that you?”

  Billie nodded as if he could see her. “It’s me.”

  Marcus let out a relieved breath. “Good. This phone has been cleared, the floor is empty, and we have four of your employers with us.”

  Billie looked around the room for a moment. “All right, this is different. What can I do for you?”

  A voice she didn’t recognize replied, “For purposes of anonymity, I will be speaking for all four of us. Thank you for coming here, Billie. We have one more job for you in the Zoo.”

  Billie closed her eyes, her heart sinking into her stomach. “Okay, I figured as much. Are there suits out there to retrieve?”

  The man was silent for a moment, then began to speak. “No. This job is of a delicate nature, and we trust that you will handle it so. Intelligence we obtained indicates that there is an assassin in the town. He is very good at what he does. He insinuates himself into a group to get close to his victim. He has taken a job as a mercenary with a team called Heavy Metal. They are not the threat, though, just him. You are to go into the Zoo, find the team, and get rid of this assassin. We had one of our inside guys place a tracker on his bag, knowing he wouldn’t leave it for anything. We have located him to within a five-mile radius, and they are heading toward their campsite for the night. This will be the perfect opportunity for you to sneak in and out undetected.”<
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  Billie swallowed hard. “You want me to go into the Zoo at night?”

  The man cleared his throat. “Yes. It is the only time you will be able to get close enough without his team there to witness. You will kill him, and then inject him with the serum that is in a syringe in the box by the door. It will look as if he were poisoned.”

  Billie sighed as she looked over her shoulder at the box. “Okay. I guess I’ll carry this last one out.”

  The man on the phone sounded pleased. “Good. When you are done, we will ship you out to your next location. Good luck. And as always, if you die in the line of duty, we will deny all knowledge of you.”

  Billie nodded, waiting for the four to hang up. One click at a time they did, leaving Billie and Marcus on the phone with each other. Marcus chuckled. “Here we are again. That was good work in Moscow last week.”

  Billie got up and picked up the box, then returned to her seat. “So I guess I need to kill him in a non-detectable way.”

  Marcus got quiet for a moment. “Yes, that would be the best. Broken neck or something like that. We can explain that away with the drugs in his system. He fell and broke his neck, easy as that. If we are lucky, something will come and take his body in the middle of the night.”

  Billie felt numb and didn’t know how to answer her handler. “Yes. Hopefully that happens.”

  Marcus was quiet for a minute. “Are you all right?” he asked finally. “I know that last time you were there, it was tough on you. Your human parts got in the way.”

  Billie blinked and sat up in her chair. “I’m all right. I’ve done a lot of thinking lately. I mean, that shook me to the core. Not so much what happened in there, but that I didn’t keep my head in the game. I know I need to focus. If I don’t, I am going to end up as dead meat. That’s not how I am going down.”