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

  When she reached her rendezvous spot, exactly where Billie had told her to go, she turned to the crew. “There are a couple of species of plants I need from here. Cover me and I’ll be quick about it.”

  The team immediately created a corridor in front of her with their weapons ready and their eyes watchful. They remained on watch and waited for Holly as she pretended to collect samples behind them. She watched her monitor, her frayed nerves at fever pitch because so much time had passed. As she moved yet another branch, a distress signal beeped loudly on her screen. She straightened and the others whirled to look curiously at her.

  Adisa flipped his screen on. “That’s a distress signal, and it’s close. Do we—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, Holly sprinted away and pushed herself as fast as she could in the direction of the signal. The team stood for a moment in stupefaction before Misha sheathed her dagger and cleared her throat. “Uh, what the fuck is going on?”

  Trigger stepped forward and squinted into the distance. “I have no idea, but we can’t let her run off by herself. If there is a distress signal, something has sure as fucking damnit caused the distress.”

  Aki drew his swords. “Come on. She’s had a good reason for everything else. There’s no point in not trusting her now.”

  Alvin scoffed. “My leg says differently but why not? Yippie kai yay, motherfuckers.”

  The team set off in pursuit and managed to catch up with her fairly quickly. She stood motionless and several large rat-like creatures circled her.

  “I warned you. Out of my way, you shitheads.” She aimed her weapon and fired. Her slugs removed the head from one of them but the others skittered and postured aggressively.

  Alvin chuckled and raised his rifle. “I needed me some rodent target practice today. Come here, fuckers.”

  Adisa sighed and drew a short sword from his back. “I fucking hate rats.”

  Trigger stood back and watched Holly with narrowed eyes while the team continued their assault on the creatures. He found it strange that she seemed frantic to get to the signal location. She had only half an eye on the battle and fired intermittently but spent as much time in an almost wild search for a way past the creatures as the others decimated the numbers. He drew his pistols and stepped forward to aim at two of the rats. His shots struck home and they both dropped instantly, their heads little more than shards of bone and scraps of fur.

  He switched his comm to a private channel with Holly. “I don’t know what’s up but if you don’t get your mind in the game, one of these things will rip your leg off.”

  She looked at him and nodded. “I know. I’m on it. Sorry.”

  Aki sliced through the last rat and Holly immediately blurred into motion. The team heaved a collective sigh and raced after her. They helped her through one more fight with a small group of vines that were determined to thrust someone down the throat of whatever man-eating plant they were attached to. Finally, she reached the distress call location and fell to her knees beside Hickok. She yanked a syringe from her pocket, pulled the cap off with her teeth, and spat it aside.

  Her breathing ragged and choked, she plunged the needle into the injection port and through the tough outer layer of Billie’s suit and into her skin. Slowly, she pushed the serum into her body and tossed the empty syringe into the jungle behind her.

  “Goodbye,” Hickok mouthed silently as she pulled her helmet off and set the timer.

  She set the headgear to the side. The camera faced the tree and her hand fell limp at the very edge of the video. Blood spilled rapidly from the vicious gashes in her chest and abdomen. The team stood frozen behind them and stared with wide eyes.

  Trigger put his hand on Holly’s shoulder, as nervous as all hell. “What the fuck is going on here?”

  Holly put her finger to her lips and shook her head as she watched the panel on the front of the woman’s suit. The lights on it blinked wildly for several moments before the blood began to noticeably slow. The serum obviously tried to work and heal the wounds as well as it could in such a small dose. The suit finally stopped and deactivated and Holly stood.

  She waved to her team. “Come on, get her out of the armor!”

  Adisa and Misha ran over and worked feverishly to remove the armor plates from the suit until they found the zipper. They pulled it down and peeled the suit down her body. Alvin grabbed Billie under the arms and held her while the others struggled to drag it off completely. He laid her body carefully on the ground and looked at the wounds.

  His expression spoke total confusion. “This doesn’t make any sense. It’s like the wounds are healing. I mean…they aren’t that big now, and definitely not big enough to gush as much blood as she has already lost.”

  Adisa left the suit with Misha and walked over. He bent over Hickok and studied the lacerations. “You’re right. Unless she has some sort of blood condition. Maybe it’s really thin.”

  Alvin pursed his lips. “Really? The Ghost has a blood condition? I don’t think so. There is something else going on here. Holly, come look at this.”

  She ignored the request. “Adisa, check her pulse. Tell me if you get anything.”

  He nodded and stooped to place his fingers to her neck. When he felt nothing, he activated the scanner in his suit and scanned her body. He looked at Holly, who now rummaged through her bag, and shook his head. “No. No pulse. No breathing. No nothing.”

  In the future, Holly would look back and think of this moment as one where she faced two roads. One led her into complete panic and shut-down and the other to save a life.

  She struggled with her own brain to make the right choice. Swamped by the overwhelming sense of impotence, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

  Remember the fucking plan, bitch.

  She couldn’t chicken out, not when they had already made it this far. What resulted from that day would determine JB’s fate as well as the fate of possibly millions of other people all over the world.

  Her eyes flashed open and she pointed at the suit. “Misha, put the armor back together, exactly like it would be if she were wearing it. Then toss it in some dirt. Mess it up really good. Make it look like something ate her out of the damn thing.”

  Misha nodded. “Got it. Massacre of the Zoo. Check.”

  She hurried over to Billie and dropped to her knees beside her friend.

  It occurred to her as she looked at her face that this was the first time she had ever seen it actually relaxed.

  Seriously? The woman had to actually die to finally take a fucking load off?

  Holly would have laughed at that thought if it wasn’t so true. She jabbed a second needle she’d already removed from her pack into the other arm. The plunger pushed blue, shimmering goop slowly from the syringe and filled Hickok’s arm with the serum. Even though her heart didn’t pump, the liquid began to travel throughout her body.

  Chalk it up to more weirdness.

  The entire team stood behind Holly and took their cue from her. She was grateful that they hadn’t questioned her at that moment, but none of them could figure out what the fuck was actually going on. They had seen what she had done but had no idea what was in the syringe or why she had it ready on that trip.

  How did she know the Ghost would be out there in that kind of situation?

  After the longest few minutes of her life, Holly retrieved a vial of the same serum from her pocket, the last third of that batch. She tilted Billie’s head back, opened her mouth, and poured the serum directly down into her throat. Dead fucking women can’t swallow, she reminded herself when it pooled in a glowing puddle. Still, she trusted the stuff to find its own way.

  It managed to sneak into the whole fucking jungle, after all.

  Now, all she could hope for was that the serum worked even though she couldn’t see anything measurable. And, of course, that the dose she gave her didn’t completely kill her—well, or keep her dead in that particular instance. Holly stood slowly and backed away to st
and with her team. They all stared at the still figure with the unmistakable pallor of death and gray-blue lips.

  Holly tapped her foot nervously and silently cursed the time that seemed to go by at a glacial pace. Her heart thudded in a wildly paced rhythm that seemed to steal her ability to breathe. She looked at the clock on her HUD and fought to swallow the lump in her throat.

  Suddenly, with a gasp, Adisa pointed. “Her hand—it moved.”

  Immediately, Holly tensed and focused on her friend. After a moment, Hickok’s body lurched, and she coughed raggedly. Holly dropped down beside her once again to turn her onto her side. After a deep, wheezing breath, Billie clutched at the jungle floor and dragged herself to the bushes to her right. She shoved herself onto her knees, heaved, and threw phosphorescent vomit up into the bushes. The team grimaced and turned away as she emptied her stomach.

  The vomit itself glowed with that eerie blue shimmer but a hint of color crept back into Billie’s face. She sat up and shook her head back and forth before she opened her eyes and when she finally came to, she looked at her friend with real confusion. The glaze melted from her eyes and she cleared her throat with a loud cough. Holly put her hand to her own chest and wobbled a little. She had thought for sure that she had lost her.

  Billie breathed heavily and spat on the ground. “That shit…needs a better flavor.”

  Holly released a deep, joyful laugh. “How do you feel?”

  The other woman raised her eyebrows. “Like a duo bear fucking killed me before I was violently brought back to life by a liquid that tastes like vomit and cheese puffs.”

  “Oh, my God.” Holly wrinkled her nose.

  Billie ran her hand over the wounds but they had already closed. “Man, there really is a white light when you die. I have a feeling, though, that it wasn’t for me, not after the things I have done in my life. I think it was karma—a tease before something ripped me down to fucking hell. It’s good to know, though.”

  Trigger stepped forward and the team removed their helmets. “We really don’t know what to say. Uh…what the hell happened here? One minute, we waited while Holly picked specimens and the next, you were literally dying. And now…this.”

  Hickok exchanged a look with Holly, then grinned at the team. “First, thanks for helping her do this. Without you guys, it would have fallen apart. As far as what happened…well, it’s hard to explain. I guess you can call it an exit strategy. Death was the only way out for me. But I also wasn’t ready to die. If I were, I would have kept doing what I was. I had to figure out a way to disappear and make them think I really died out here in the jungle. Before long, someone will come to collect that armor and my file will be officially closed, burned, and disavowed. That was what this was about.”

  Alvin shook his head. “So, whatever you do—or did—you were so deep into it that you had no other way out?”

  Billie raised a hand, and Holly helped her to her feet. Holly hauled a set of clothing and boots from her pack and handed them over, and the other woman pulled them on quickly. “Dying was it, no matter which way I chose. In my line of work, you can’t simply put in your resignation. That’s essentially signing your own death warrant. But we came up with a way, thanks to Holly. So here I am, ready to start a new life and new identity.”

  The team exchanged looks for a moment, obviously still out of their depth. Misha exhaled a deep breath. “And I assume that because this all has to be one hundred percent believable, with no loose ends, we have to vow to keep it ourselves.”

  Trigger nodded. “To keep it and take it to our graves.”

  Hickok laced her boots and didn’t look at them. “I can’t force you, but my life is on the line.”

  Aki shook his head. “We owe you. You saved all our lives more than once last time we were out here.”

  Alvin nodded. “Damn right you did. Without you, we would have been dinosaur chow. We will all stay silent.” He looked around. “Right, team?”

  The others nodded without hesitation. No one would ever speak a word about what they witnessed that day.

  Holly put her helmet back on. “How about we get the hell out of here, then?”

  Trigger clapped and the team fell into formation. Holly put her arm around Billie’s waist and assisted her to walk through the jungle. While she already felt much better, she was tired and weak. The others moved ahead of them, and the two friends brought up the rear.

  Holly chuckled when she glanced at Billie and saw that the color had gradually returned to her cheeks. “It fucking worked. Not only did it heal you, it brought you back from the dead. So what now?”

  “I have one more friend to kill and another we need to save,” Billie said, then paused and thought for a moment. “And not necessarily in that order.”

  Chapter Ten

  The team threw the door to FUBAR open and raised their hands as the others in the bar greeted them. A group of young mercs scrambled away from the group’s usual table. Adisa grinned at them and shambled over to drop onto a chair. The legs creaked a protest under his huge, muscular body. Misha rubbed her hand down other customers’ backs as she pranced toward him. The men present virtually drooled and she winked at a few along the way. She sat in the chair beside Adisa and rested her head on his shoulder. He patted her hair before he pulled out a cigar.

  Aki strode over with his usual nonchalant arrogance and sat while Alvin pushed some chew into his bottom lip and sauntered after him. He spun one of the chairs, took a seat, and leaned on the back to watch as Trigger made his way to the bar.

  Holly followed close behind and walked beside a white woman with dirty blond hair dressed in black slacks and a low-cut black shirt.

  Trigger looked at Paula with a smile. “Good afternoon, my favorite bartender. A round for the boys, please.”

  Holly smiled and tapped the bar. “Put them on my tab. I’ll settle up before I leave today.”

  “Why, thank you, boss lady.” Trigger grinned at her.

  She laughed. “Please. Me? I’m definitely not the boss. But my ego appreciates the attention. It feels good every once in a while.”

  Holly motioned to the woman to follow her around the bar. She squeezed Paula’s arm as they passed, and the bartender looked nervously at her. Holly stopped for a moment and leaned in to whisper into Paula’s ear. The woman’s expression softened, and she nodded before she returned her attention to making the drinks for the team.

  They reached the office and Holly stuck her head in and smiled at JB, who sat behind his desk. “Can we come in?”

  He straightened and rubbed his thigh. “We? And of course you can. I don’t think you really have to ask at this point.”

  The two women walked in and shut and locked the door behind them. JB looked strangely at the second woman for a moment, not sure who she was, and then at Holly. “You look happy. And who is this?”

  She smiled at him and set a zippered case on his desk. “We’ll get to that.”

  JB raised an eyebrow. “Now I’m not normally one to complain when two women lock themselves in the office with me, but I guess I’m a little weary.”

  Holly stared at him with a smile plastered on her face. “How are you feeling?”

  He cleared his throat and glanced hesitantly at the woman. “I’m…uh… fine. Of course, I’m always fine so there hasn’t been much change, I suppose. I am a little curious as to what the heck is about to go down. Be warned. I am not against screaming if I need help.”

  Both women laughed. Holly walked back around the desk and the woman took a seat, her face lowered in a way that made him wary. Holly nodded to JB. “We have some things to talk to you about. Things that will be really good for you. But I do need you to shut the system off in here again. If you don’t mind.”

  JB looked up at the camera. “Uh oh. It must be serious if you’ve gone all black ops on me. All right, let me hobble my ass over there.”

  Holly moved quickly to help him up from the chair and noticed how often he winced as he put
weight on his bad leg. His skin was much paler than it had been a couple of days before when he had been all smiles behind the bar. It was obvious that she’d found the cure in the nick of time. He had clearly developed immunity to the serum.

  He made his way slowly and painfully to the system and began to shut it down after a quick glance over his shoulder at the strange woman in his office.

  Normally, her presence there would be something he would demand an explanation for, but under the circumstances, he was inclined to trust Holly. She had gone above and beyond to show him how much she could be trusted, and he knew this woman had something to do with his cure. He didn’t know what, but if all he had to do was shut the system down, that’s what he would do.

  The cameras in the room clicked off and their screens went dark on the monitor. JB rubbed his hands together and turned to take Holly’s hand and allowed her to help him to the chair. In all honesty, he was far from fine. He was dying and he could feel the end creep relentlessly closer each day. But that wasn’t the kind of thing he would ever say out loud.

  Holly helped him to his chair, where he sat with a deep sigh. He unclicked the straps on his metal leg and let it rest loosely against his stump.

  She smiled at him and walked to stand beside the stranger. “JB, I’d like to introduce you to Jean.”

  The woman stood and reached to shake his hand. He stared at her curiously for a moment when he noticed the worn military boots she wore with her black slacks. “It’s nice to meet you, Jean. Although I’m not entirely sure why I’m meeting you.”

  His gaze trailed up to her face and she lifted her head and smiled at him. She winked, and his face softened as a low chuckle rumbled from his chest. “Well, I’ll be damned. Jean, huh?”