An Assassin’s Accord: McFadden and Banks Book 1

The past is in the past right, time to move on to new ventures,  Unless…

It wasn’t a long shower. Taylor had spent enough time in the military to learn the improperly named ‘Navy Shower,’ which had taught him that cleaning himself thoroughly didn’t need to involve soaking in hot water until he turned into a prune.

Besides, after the night that he’d had, a cold shower seemed like the right option and he was shivering slightly when he stepped out to dry himself.

The trembling had abated by the time he pulled clean clothes on, and as he headed down to the shop, he realized he had forgotten to bolt the door the night before when he went to bed. Or maybe Bungees had found a way to open it. Despite his official qualification being that of a mechanic, the man had learned enough on the ground to have forgotten more about mechanical engineering than Taylor would ever learn. One didn’t always need the degree to gain the practical knowledge the hard way. Besides that, finding a way around a bolted door didn’t seem like it would be that difficult for him.

Bobby was already busy with one of the suits that had been sent from the Zoo for them to work on, but there was no sign of Tanya, Elisa, or Vickie in the shop yet. He still wasn’t sure which of them would work there fulltime but they had discussed it and he didn’t think it would change. Niki and Vickie would be with him—that was a no brainer—and Tanya intended to work with Bobby due to their involvement, hence the long-ass name they had thought of to replace McFaddens Mechs. Although he hadn’t had a final answer from Elisa yet, she had indicated her preference to remain in the shop and avoid his type of adventures. Besides, she was good at what she did and everyone knew it.

“Doughnuts are in the break room,” the mechanic announced without looking up from his work. “You might need to make more coffee, though. I didn’t know you would be here today and only brought some for myself.”

“Where’s Tanya?”

“She’s having breakfast with a friend…I think. She did say she would be a little late today.”

Taylor nodded, descended the last couple of steps, and turned left into the little nook he had repurposed into a break room. It held a small electrical stove, a fridge, a sink, and a dishwasher, all crammed into a location that was about thirty square feet overall.

Which wasn’t that small, especially for a break room, but it certainly didn’t seem big when everyone wanted coffee at the same time. Maybe him spending less time there was for the best. Bobby would undoubtedly do a great job running the business since the guy had practically done it since the beginning.

The coffee machine worked fine and it wasn’t long before he poured a probably unhealthy amount of sugar into a mug of black coffee. He took a bite out of a chocolate-glazed doughnut as he stirred the beverage.

Damned if it wasn’t a good cup of coffee. Taylor moved to the shop and studied the suits that had been set up on their stands, ready to be worked on. They were in varying conditions of repair but all displayed the traditional signs that they had gone through the usual mill of destruction that was the Zoo.

He leaned closer to one that looked like it had its leg chewed off and winced. “What the hell do you think did that?”

Bobby looked up from his work for a second and narrowed his eyes. “Who knows? If I had to guess, I’d say it looks like a couple of those locusts had a go at it, but the pilot would need to be more or less stationary for them to do that much damage. Is there anything on the shoulder or the helmet that would indicate that something else attacked him while they targeted his legs?”

Taylor looked up and sure enough, he could see bite marks in the helmet and indentations where it looked like maybe a panther had tried to bite through the helmet. It had no doubt held him down, which allowed the locusts to do a number on the legs.

“Do you think he made it out?” he asked and studied the suit again with a grim expression.

“Probably. There isn’t much reason to go in and save a suit with a dead pilot inside. Whether he survived in the hospital or whether he kept his leg…that’s a different story. It looks thoroughly mangled from my point of view. It does seem a little heartless to get his suit repaired for someone else to use, but it’s not exactly the most heart-warming of tourist locations.”

Taylor nodded but didn’t want to say any more. He remembered more of the dream than he liked, and the memories of his time in the Zoo had begun to resurface. 

Thankfully, his attention was drawn to his phone, which vibrated to inform him that someone else was taking control of the security system. There was only one person who did that before they even appeared.

“Vickie just arrived?” Bobby asked and refocused his attention on the suit in front of him.

“Yeah. She snagged the security controls without so much as a hello.”

“She’ll do that. You have to say hello after she’s inside.”

The doors to the garage began to swing open, and a Tesla pulled in as soon as they were wide enough to allow her inside. It was a nice car and once upon a time, Taylor might have wondered how a college student would be able to afford a vehicle like that, but he was well aware that she was now a great deal wealthier than most college students.

And only some of the money was illegal.

She climbed out of the car, stretched with a loud yawn, and leaned against it for a few seconds. The three-inch platform boots she preferred made her appear taller than her five-foot-six frame, although there wasn’t much to be done for the lean build behind it. She had adopted a goth chic style with a vengeance, which meant black jeans with a dozen or so rips everywhere, a black shirt with a couple of obscenities written on it, and topped with her short hair and half a dozen piercings.

“Morning, Tay-Tay.” She waved, still leaning against the car. “Morning, Bungees. Please tell me that’s coffee I smell.”

“What else would it be?” Taylor asked.

“I don’t know. Bobby has been buying those coffee-flavored doughnuts lately.” She held a finger with a fingernail painted black up before the man could voice a complaint. “Don’t worry, they’re amazing, but they’re not coffee.”

“Well, it is coffee,” Taylor answered and gestured for her to join him. 

The hacker grinned and jogged to him—an impressive feat in the platform boots—and wrapped him in a hug.

“Fucking hell, you’re a great hugger, you know that?” she asked and looked at him. “It’s like being hugged by an oversized, red-headed bear.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Go get yourself some coffee. Maybe that’ll help with your comparisons.”

She poured herself a mug of coffee and added more sugar than he had before she snatched a doughnut and rejoined the two men in the shop. “So, what do you think you’ll do today?”

Taylor looked around and realized she was talking to him. “Well, I thought I’d help out at the shop a little. It’s been a while, what with me setting the other place up.”

“Oh, right. I thought we would look for work since you’re now the co-owner of a merc team, along with Niki and myself. Getting that off the ground might be a good place to start, no?”

“It’s not like we’re in any kind of hurry. You’ll be paid anyway, and we’re still setting it up so we might as well make sure everything else is running smoothly. Bobby got a new delivery yesterday, so I thought I’d lend a hand with that. In fact, you might as well earn that paycheck you’re getting anyway and lend us a hand yourself.”

Vickie groaned. “You know, I had a feeling you would pull that card out of the deck. I had, like…fifteen second thoughts when I was driving over here but no, I had to come and see how you guys are doing.”

He grinned and motioned for her to take a seat on the bench next to Bobby. The mechanic had begun to take the suit apart and put pieces on the bench, which allowed his two teammates to start cleaning them before they placed them on a cloth-covered section where they could easily be reassembled when the time came.

“I have to admit, I’ll miss working here,” she admitted after they were a few minutes into the work. “She’s no modern marvel of architecture, but we have been through some tough times.”

“You know you’re welcome to come by and visit any time you please, right?” Bobby asked.

“I know, but it won’t be the same. The team’s splitting up and we’ll be off doing different things. It feels like the end of an era, you know?”

“Are you sure you’re okay with that?” Taylor asked. He kept his gaze fixed on the delicate piece of machinery he was cleaning of all the dust that had collected in the tiny nooks and crannies.

Vickie shrugged. “Sure, and we’re all moving forward and onward, but you can’t blame me for being a little nostalgic, knowing that the good old times are moving along.”

“Okay, fair enough. But if you feel so nostalgic, why the hell did you throw shade on this place?”

“What? You’ve admitted it’s an eyesore. Multiple times.”

“Sure, but I can say it lovingly. You merely make it sound hurtful.”

“Speaking of eyesore, can we talk about the name you were working with?” Bobby asked with most of his head already inside the suit he was taking apart.

“Again, that’s hurtful.”

“But accurate,” she cut in and focused on the mechanic. “Have you guys thought about a name yet? The last I heard, you had some long-ass name that would take Elisa a week to say for every phone call. Will you simply name it Zhang and Novak Mechs? Because the lack of alliteration is appreciated but it’s still not a very…creative name.”

“It’s probably best to remove my name from it completely,” Taylor conceded. “I’m still well-known in the circle of the clients, and I don’t want them to be misled into thinking I’ll be here full-time. Besides, Bobby’s better known as a suit mechanic, so having his name on the company would do wonders for sales.”

“Actually, Tanya and I talked about it over dinner the other night, and the whole last name in the company name felt a little too corporate and Wall Street.” Bobby paused in his work to wipe sweat from his forehead. “She came up with ‘Mech Advantage.’ I think that has a nice ring to it.”

“It’s certainly better than McFadden’s Mechs,” Vickie pointed out. “Although again, that’s setting the bar fairly low right there.”

She paused to look at Taylor for a few seconds until he turned his attention away from his work.

“What?”

“It’s not as fun to tease you when you don’t react.”

“I know.”

“Ugh, every party needs a pooper.”

“I’ll try to ignore the fact that you said that. But yeah, I’ll admit that’s a good name, and with Elisa pushing it, it’ll stick like…ummm…”

“Moss to a log!” the hacker suggested. “No, like shit to a shovel!”

“I had intended to go with glue, but sure…one of those. But I think the bigger question is if you’ll be able to work full-time with your cousin.”

Even Bobby looked up from his work with a curious expression to hear Vickie’s answer to that.

She looked around, shrugged, and didn’t commit to an answer for a few long seconds. 

Finally, she sighed and shook her head. “Okay, Niki is the one who kept me out of the Zoo and…got me out of other problems, so I owe her a ton.”

“I’m still not sure what kind of trouble you got yourself into that it required Niki to step in.”

“And you never will. The point is, I think we’ve both grown up a great deal since then. Although I have to say, I’ve felt like her parent lately. The two of you aren’t what I’d call mature when it comes to relationships.”

“That—” Taylor paused and nodded. “Okay, that’s a good point.”

“So yeah, with everything we’ve been through, I think we would work well together. And if worse comes to worst, I don’t think we’ll be working, like, in the same room together much, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Another fair point.”

He stopped working and put the piece he was cleaning gently on the bench before he retrieved his vibrating phone.

The number was blocked, which usually meant a certain AI wanted to have a word. The software Vickie installed on his phone didn’t allow for any other numbers to be blocked.

“Desk, is that you?” he asked as he accepted the call.

“Taylor, it is nice to speak to you again,” the AI answered. 

The fact that she had been created by none other than Vickie’s mentor and Niki’s sister Jennie meant she was a cutting-edge piece of technology that made it easy for him to forget that he talked to a sophisticated piece of software and not an actual human.

Which meant he wasn’t sure how meaningful the AI’s greeting was. Well, he knew she was an AI, but it was difficult to bring that to mind while talking to her.

“Is everything all right?” Desk asked.

“I…yeah, sure. I was a little lost in thought. How can I help you?”

“Only by accepting the message that Niki asked me to pass on to you. She said that her business in Washington might take a few more days. The DOD has asked her to finalize certain admin issues that have arisen with ending her contract and the establishment of the new task force. In the meantime, she is interested to find how work on the new base of operations is going.”

Taylor scowled. He did understand that Niki hadn’t had a real home since she had worked for the FBI. Even so, the property he had picked up for bananas still needed a fair amount of work. He wanted it to be ready when she got back but there were no guarantees.

As it turned out, the reason why the previous owner needed to liquidate his assets was because he had been dealing with the IRS, who had conducted a very invasive search of his assets. Walls had holes in them, toilets had been ripped out of the floor, and the whole building was one hell of a mess.

It wasn’t quite as bad the strip mall had been when Taylor acquired it, but there was still a significant challenge ahead of him.

“I…I won’t make any promises, but I hope that with a little help from Bobby’s amazing construction network, it’ll be livable by the time she gets back.”

“Fantastic,” Desk replied. “I’ll tell her the news. Is there anything else that you’d like me to say to her?”

“Uh, tell her that…well, I’m looking forward to seeing her again.”

“Will do. Have a nice day!”

The line cut off and he realized that both Vickie and Bobby were staring at him.

“What?”

“You two are adorable.” She grinned and nudged him in the arm with her fist.

“That was Desk.”

“I know, but the message you sent to Niki…it’s adorable.”

The mechanic shook his head and returned to work.

“Adorable is right. Speaking of which, are you letting your hair grow? I thought you were rocking the whole GI Jane look but now, you can almost start braiding it.”

She touched the hair that fell almost halfway down her neck. “That’s a pathetic deflection but…sure, why not? I won’t let it grow too long—that’s a headache to take care of, as you well know—but I’m done with the old look. Besides, having it too long would suck in the suits, right?”

“Well, since you’ll be technical support for most of the missions we go on, I doubt you’ll be in the suits too much. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be ready, but from what I remember, most of the women in the Zoo had varying lengths of hair. Those who had it longer had it tied up in buns and braids and shit and it fit in the suit well enough. I’m only saying you shouldn’t knock it before you try it, you know?”

Vickie shrugged. “I can always cut it if I don’t enjoy it.”

“Besides, shouldn’t you spend most of your time in school? Getting that degree and shit?”

The hacker shook her head. “No, not really. I…well, it’s on break now, and I don’t think I want to go back, you know?”

Taylor narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. “No, I don’t know. What’s with the change of heart?”

“I don’t think I need it, is all. What do I need a college degree for anyway?”

“Because Niki will kill you if you drop out now. Seriously. She’ll put the bullets in you by hand.”

“It’s not like…I don’t have a healthy fear of what my cousin can do. But what exactly will a college degree say about my credentials? Alongside all the other credentials too?”

“Getting a college degree shows—”

“Shows that I can see something out to the end. You told me, I know. But I’m already proving it by sticking it out here with you guys, right? I’ll get more work done if I’m focused only on the job, and when we’re finished or business is slow, I can get back to it. The credits will carry over and I’ll pick up right where we left off.”

He sighed and rubbed his temples. “Okay, fine. But you have to tell Niki. And you won’t get that trust I set up for you until you graduate. The rules still stand.”

“Of course. I won’t need that money for a while. I’m set up as it is.”

“I know but I want to keep the incentive there. You know I’m concerned about your future, right?”

Vickie rolled her eyes. “I know, Dad. Shit, what the hell will you talk to me about next? The birds and the bees? Because you should know that I watched that movie…Porkies, I think the name is, the other night.”

“Don’t be shitty. I’m only looking out for you. And…Porkies? That movie’s older than you are. Twice as old as you are. Hell, it’s from before my time.”

“I’m merely trying to understand the older generations and I’ve decided that films from the time work as a perfect time capsule.”

Taylor narrowed his eyes but simply shrugged. He didn’t want to get into a movie argument, not with her. She was a walking encyclopedia of pop culture present and past, and she would tear him apart.

“Fine. Whatev—”

His phone vibrated again. He looked at the screen and his squint turned into a scowl when he saw the name displayed.

“What the hell is Rod Marino calling you for?” Vickie asked and wore a glare that mirrored his. 

“Let’s find out.” He shook his head and pressed the button to accept the call. “This is McFadden.”

____

It already feels like we are part of the crew hanging out with old friends, and hey, I could really go for a doughnut at this point. If you are like me and can hardly wait to see who Rod Marino is and why he is being met with glares, then go pre-order An Assassin’s Accord on Kindle Unlimited. The good news is you won’t have to wait long because An Assassin’s Accord will be dropping on November 3rd.

An Assassin’s Accord: McFadden and Banks Book #1

Some are haunted by the monsters in their past, McFadden and Banks are also haunted by the monsters of their future. Read the first chapter here and be captivated by a world we don’t yet know.

The situation felt weirdly familiar, enough so that it triggered his instinct and demanded attention.

Taylor looked at himself. His six-foot-six frame was encased in a suit of mechanized armor, and he could feel his long red hair and beard being pushed up by the helmet he wore. He couldn’t remember a time when that felt uncomfortable, although it was probably due to the fact that he had been clean-shaven and sported a crew cut when he first climbed into one of them, and he had simply grown into the comfortable habit from there.

After years of walking and fighting in a suit like this, he wasn’t surprised that the whole feeling was so familiar. But this was a new suit. It wasn’t one of the chunky, difficult-to-operate ones that broke down more often than an Alfa Romeo. And predictably in the middle of a fight.

He looked around and narrowed his eyes as they adjusted to the darkness around him.

“Come on, McFadden, get your head out of your ass!”

He snapped his head around and a familiar face registered in his HUD.

“Davis?”

“No, it’s the fucking tooth fairy, and I’ll take those teeth out manually if you don’t scan your sector like you should, dumbass. Also, I’m a little short on quarters, so I’ll do that shit for free.”

The rest of the team laughed.

Right. The rest of the team because he didn’t head into the Zoo without a team.

And he was in the Zoo. His gaze flicked around. The familiarity settled in with more assurance as the surroundings grew steadily more visible. His eyes finally began to adjust to the darkness. He could see the trees, the vines growing around them, and the flickers of motion that his motion sensors told him were monsters on the move. The jungle denizens, for now, kept an eye on them but weren’t quite ready to attack.

Even the thought of being there had him in a cold sweat, but he forced himself to keep moving. He took his customary post at the front of the line and grasped his rifle a little tighter.

Suddenly, he froze in place, alerted by his inner sense that something was wrong. His teammates halted when he did, scanned the area, and everyone felt the ground shake even when the heavy suits had stopped moving.

“Shit!” Davis called. “We have a big fucker heading our way!”

The group knew what to do already and no one needed to be told. Weapons were aimed in the direction of the massive, dinosaur-like monster that approached as the team began to move away at an angle. Everyone hoped the creature simply wouldn’t see them and would walk past. It was the only scenario that would enable them all to come out of this alive.

Taylor had a bad feeling best-case wouldn’t happen. It never did. The big fuckers were hard to avoid when they trundled through.

As if in response to his thought, a massive shadow stepped between the trees and made it difficult to focus on anything else as it pushed through the jungle like it owned the place.

Hell, for all he knew, it probably did.

He stood immobile and held his breath as he waited for the beast to hopefully lumber past them.

His inner prediction proved accurate. He had already stiffened in preparation when the impossibly large head turned and caught sight of the group that tried to evade it. A brief second was required for recognition before the beast uttered a bone-shattering roar.

“Son of a bitch.” Davis growled frustration and annoyance.

Everyone knew what to do. They’d been through the drills in sims before and a handful had already been through the process in real life.

All that notwithstanding, they still didn’t like their odds.

“Smoke this asshole!” Taylor called and fired the grenade from the launcher under his rifle. It streaked into an arc that brought it down into the side of the creature’s head. All he saw was a flash of light and a minor annoyance on the dinosaur’s part as it shrugged the impact aside.

The series of explosions that followed was enough to throw it off balance and it collided heavily with a couple of nearby trees. The rest of the jungle seemed to wake with that and suddenly, a wave of roars, screeches, and hisses erupted from all around them.

“Formation!” Davis shouted and motioned for them to form a circle so they could watch each other’s back. “And keep fucking moving! If any of you fall behind, you’ll be left behind!”

Taylor knew the threat was far from an empty one, but they would at least try to not leave anyone behind.

Hundreds of the creatures appeared on his motion sensors as he loaded another grenade into the launcher. The bigger, badder mutant was still out there, likely circling and waiting for the rest of the monsters to have their fun before it finally stepped in.

He hated how intelligent these fuckers were. 

“We have them moving in from the flank!”

His teeth gritted, he repressed every instinct to turn and help since it was his job to keep those that tried to attack from the front at bay while the group pushed forward. He could hear the heavy steps coming in behind them as the creatures continued to press in.

A moment later, he registered smoke in the air. He needed a few seconds to realize that it wasn’t some kind of mist seeping through the jungle but actual smoke. Maybe that explained where all the sunlight had gone, and he felt the heat from it lick at his back.

Too many of the creatures rushed through the flames all around him. They didn’t seem to notice that their fur caught fire when they maintained their charge. 

The Zoo wasn’t known to catch fire, he thought with a bemused frown. Well, he wasn’t in the Zoo, was he? He was in Southern California. New beasties appeared all over the place and were driven out of the wilds and into population centers. He and Tanya needed to get rid of the creatures before they could cause any fatalities.

“Tanya!” he shouted, looked around, and saw her vaguely through the smoke. 

But where was the big fucker? It couldn’t be too far behind them.

“Tanya, get a move on!”

She moved too slowly, and the smoke parted easily as the massive dinosaur of a creature pushed through behind her, stretched its thick neck, and snapped its impossibly large jaws at her.

It missed, but in avoiding the strike, Tanya tripped over a pile of burning branches and tumbled end over end down a small hill.

“No!” Taylor roared, yanked grenades from his belt, and lobbed them in front of the lurching creature. They forced it back a couple of steps and into the bushfire it was trying to escape from.

No, wait, Tanya hadn’t met Bobby yet. And if she died on the hills of California, she never would. He reached her and skidded to his knees beside her.

“Hey, are you okay?”

She nodded and pushed up slowly. “Yeah… The fucker almost got me.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.”

He hauled her to her feet and registered the heavy footsteps of the dinosaur cryptid coming up behind them again. With a muttered curse, he tossed another grenade behind his back to slow it while they made their escape.

“What the fuck, Taylor? Why are you throwing grenades around like that without even seeing what you’re throwing them at?”

Was that Bobby? It sounded like the man, but Taylor couldn’t be sure. He hadn’t gone on the trip to California.

Wait…no, the heat was at normal levels for Vegas. The smoke came from the exhausts in the cars. It was still too blisteringly hot to stand out in the sun during rush hour in Vegas, almost hot enough to melt the tires of the cars that usually crawled bumper to bumper in a traffic jam.

Not this time, though. They all gave the armored car a wide berth. Taylor looked over his shoulder. Tanya was gone and the weight was only the bags that carried the cash they were robbing from the armored car. She was there again in the next moment, but she carried a bag of her own with her assault rifle ready and opened fire at the creatures that ran between the cars.

The monsters had finally gotten their lazy asses to Vegas. He’d always known it was only a matter of time until they did, but he had hoped they would take a little longer. But there was no need to be afraid of the inevitable. He tightened his grasp on his rifle and watched as the creatures forced themselves through the gaps between the cars. They pushed beyond the traffic directly into the rain of bullets he let loose.

One of the panthers jumped on the armored car and waited for him to approach before it pounced. Its fangs flashed in the bright sunlight. He couldn’t tell if the creature had specifically targeted him out of the rest, or if maybe it had merely waited on top of the vehicle for someone to approach, but it didn’t matter. With his free hand, he drew his knife and waited for the creature’s momentum to meet the blade he drove up to stab into its jawline.

Blood coated the side of his suit, and he made a mental note to double his elbow grease to get it clean again and then burn all the rags he used to do so.

“Taylor,” Niki called over the comms. “You need to get out of here.”

Niki? She wasn’t on the heist with them. Maybe she was calling from the outside.

He turned and heard the sound of helicopters approaching in the distance, which made it difficult to not realize what she was talking about. They intended to clear the whole area out and make sure the infestation wouldn’t spread.

“Wait,” he protested. “I need to get out? What about you? Where the hell are you?”

“I’m pinned down,” she explained. “I won’t be able to reach the drop point. You guys need to get the hell out of here without me.”

“No fucking way!” he snapped. “That’s my move, and you know it!”

“I guess I have to take a page from your book, Taylor.” He could hear her voice cracking as she spoke. “Good luck!”

“Fucking—” His response was cut short by the noise and he scowled at the helicopters as their rockets flared, dozens at a time, to wreak destruction on the city of Las Vegas. Once the missiles were finished, they were followed by bombs that shook the ground when the explosives detonated. It made it difficult to keep his feet, even with the suit working to counteract the seismic effects.

“What?” he whispered as the helicopters banked away to leave a massive crater smoking and flaming where the Las Vegas strip should have been. “Niki, are you there? Niki, answer me right now! Niki!”

Someone grasped him by the shoulder and shook him. Taylor pulled away and tried again to contact her. He needed to hear her voice again, to hear her speak through the chaos.

“Niki!”

The shaking worsened and made him feel like additional explosives impacted around him. Someone’s hand clutched him and tried to pull him back, and he twisted to shove the hand away from him.

Vertigo filled his body as he spun into space and struck nothing until something cold and hard slapped him across the face. Hell, across his whole body. He shook violently, pushed up, and reached out for whatever had hit him. The whole place was suddenly dark, which made it difficult to see what was happening around him.

But the hands had hold of him again and pinned him in place. What happened to the suit?

Oh, right, he wasn’t wearing one.

Taylor sucked in a deep breath and his eyes opened as he looked up from the ground to where Bobby stood over him and pinned his hands down.

“Fucking… What…where…”

The other man smirked, finally released his arms, and patted him on the cheek. “Are you having a nightmare there, buddy?”

He looked around the room. It was sparsely decorated, and even in the darkness, he could tell it needed a coat of paint. A desk stood on one side and a bed on the other, although bed might have been something of a stretch. It was barely a cot, the kind used to quickly set up sometimes when he was in the field. He had spent more than his fair share of nights on one of them and in the end, his comfort needs were fairly minimal.

Still, things would change over the next couple of weeks in that regard. He merely couldn’t bring himself to part with the room he had spent so much time in. For a guy who had traveled around the world for most of his adult life, connecting to a place—any place—meant it was home.

Bobby finally pulled away and moved to one of the chairs. “What was the dream about? You shouted Niki’s name while you were under, but…it didn’t sound like a sex dream, between you and me.”

Taylor scowled at the hefty man. “Yeah, whatever, you Jet Li lookalike. And no, it wasn’t a…pleasant dream. We were…in the Zoo? I think? Then in California. And then here. There were monsters here and she…she died. I think. It’s getting hard to remember.”

“Well, first, I’m very sure I have a solid foot and a half and a hundred and fifty pounds on Jet Li, so we look nothing alike. Secondly…well, yeah, that’s kind of how dreams go, I guess. Still, it sounds like it was rough.”

He shrugged. “Right…yeah. I feel like I was in a rigorous workout. Shit.”

“And you smell like you’ve been in a rigorous workout too.”

“Fuck off, Bungees.”

“I’m not kidding. You smell like shit and honestly, I’d think about changing the sheets on that bench you call a bed.”

Taylor paused and peered at his shirt. Sure enough, it was soaked with sweat. He didn’t need to get in closer to know that he reeked of it too.

“Shit. You’re right. I’ll take a shower and I’ll be right down. Did you bring doughnuts?”

“Don’t I always?”

With a nod, he pushed to his feet and rubbed some feeling back into where the other man had held him down. “Awesome. I’ll head down to the shop in about…thirty minutes?”

“Sure, but remember that I’m your boss now and I’ll be tracking your hours.”

“In McFadden’s Mechs only. I’ll be here part-time, remember?”

“Right, right. I’ll still track your hours with Zhang and Novak—”

“Ass. At least my name wasn’t a mouthful.”

“Says the guy who smells like one.”

Bobby stood and flipped him off as he headed to the door.

“I need to put a new lock on that door,” Taylor mumbled as he yanked his drenched shirt off and threw it into the laundry bin with perfect accuracy. It was three times wider than the average basketball hoop and less than three feet away, but he still couldn’t help a small smile as he headed into the bathroom.

______

What a whirlwind… From the Jungles of California to the Concrete Jungle of Las Vegas. Will his future resemble his past. Looks Like McFadden and Banks are lucky to have each watching their back. Keep a look out for Snippet number two, and while your waiting head over and pre-order An Assassin’s Accord The First Book in the McFadden and Banks Series. The book is set to release on November 3rd and I for one can’t wait.

The Heretic Lives: Heretic of The Federation Book #1

Is this a fools errand? Was this plan built on hope and limited information? All Yes… but does it mean it won’t work? The Suspense is building for John and his renegade friends.

The city had crept right up to the edge of the Communications Center. Buildings clustered around the foot of the wall, separated by an apron of concrete and a two-lane road.

A bus stop stood opposite in front of a gym, a pub, and a take-away. All seemed to do a booming trade, and no one paid much attention to the kids who walked past.

They either lived in one of the nearby burbs or they were there for some other reason. Many worked part-time or came to party illegally. As long as they kept out of trouble, however, their IDs were never scrutinized too closely.

Predictably, no one noticed when the six friends meandered down the road and cut through a side street to reach the edge of the bushland that bordered both the suburb and the communications facility.

And if they had, they wouldn’t have cared. Kids snuck out that way all the time. Four guys and two girls? It wasn’t hard to work out what they were up to.

Which had been the idea.

Natalia had come up with it and scowled when Amy had protested.

“And what?” she’d demanded with one hand on her hip in a challenging posture. “I suppose you think we should tell them we’re all study buddies or something because for sure they’ll fall for that.”

“And it’s only in case someone stops us anyway,” Trevor had been quick to point out. “We don’t have to say anything if we get in fast enough.”

That had been the essence of the plan. The girls had to get in and find something that proved the Regime was doing things to Talents. They assumed the facility would give them access.

The boys planned to keep the security staff busy while the girls entered and made their escape again—and they had to do it fast, and avoid the surveillance cams while they did so.

When they were done—or on their way out—they had to ping the boys to let them know.

“What happens if they try to catch us?” Baron had asked.

Amy had rolled her eyes but William’s reply had been immediate.

“We scatter,” he told them. “You all know where to go, right?”

They’d nodded to confirm the different public transport locations they’d aim for. It would make it more difficult for the Enforcers to work out which suburb they called home. They’d meet at the shop a week later.

If they could.

Now, they walked through the dark like a group of locals out for a stroll until they slipped through a gap in the fence surrounding the parkland. Reconvening on the other side, they huddled together and listened for any sign that they’d been seen.

When all remained as quiet as any urban street could be, they wove between the trees, careful of the thick webs strung between them.

“I hate spiders,” Jerry whispered, jerked himself clear of one he hadn’t seen, and brushed his hands over his clothes.

Natalia came to help him.

“Don’t get any ideas,” she grumbled. “I merely don’t want you to squeal like a baby if one runs up your neck.”

He shivered. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Just make sure it’s not on me.”

“You know they’re as scared of you as you are of them, right?” Amy demanded. “It hit the dirt and ran the second you destroyed its home.”

“Man, I hope so.” His heartfelt reply drew a muted chuckle from his teammates.

“As long as it didn’t run this way,” Trevor muttered as they hurried forward.

They all breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the edge of the trees.

“They’re down here,” William informed them and led them down a brief escarpment to the edge of the creek.

“Where?” Amy demanded and Trevor hushed her.

“Along here.” William’s voice was equally hushed as he led them down a narrow dirt trail.

They fell silent and crept forward to where concrete met the creek line. Six dark holes marred the gray surface and reddish-brown stains marked where the water fell.

“What the heck do they need those for?” Amy whispered.

William’s face was lit by his mobile as he checked something.

“John said they were emergency stormwater drainage.”

He studied the walls of the Communications Complex.

“I don’t see why they’d need it.”

Trevor made a scornful sound. “All that concrete? Water’s gotta go somewhere when it rains.”

They all thought about that before William shrugged.

“Well, that’s how you girls will get in.”

Amy exchanged glances with the other girl and they moved closer to the pipes.

“You are kidding me,” she whispered and her eyes widened as her voice bounced away from her. She moved back a couple of feet and pointed at the nearest pipe. “In there?” she demanded in hushed tones and gestured to herself and Amy. “Are you sure we’ll fit?”

“John thought so,” William told her smugly.

Unaware of John’s bus pulling up in front of the pub, he added, “You saying he didn’t have your measurements? We all know how the man liked his ‘research’—”

Amy slapped his shoulder.

“You’ve got a dirty mind. Besides, you know he never let anyone get that close.”

“Not after Lucia,” Natalia grumbled, and Trevor snickered.

He caught her glare and stopped. William stepped into the gap.

“He said the pipes got a little narrower but he was sure you’d fit because you were smaller than we were.”

While this was true, neither of the girls looked impressed.

“So, what? We’re small and female so we get all the dirty work?” She jerked a finger at the pipe. “Do you have any idea what’s coming out of there?”

Trevor shrugged. “Should be rainwater run-off,” he said. “Nothing nasty.”

“Have you smelled it?” Amy hissed.

He shook his head. “I don’t go around sniffing drainage pipes.”

“Well, maybe you should before you send people up them.”

Amy pouted. “I still say it’s not big enough—especially if it gets ‘a little narrower’ farther in.”

William sighed impatiently. “Are you suggesting one of us can fit?”

Natalia glanced at the pipe. “I’m not saying John was wrong but I’ve got big hips.”

Baron chuckled. Unlike his mates who’d all reached the six-foot mark and had shoulders to make a Rugby star proud, he’d stopped growing at five-foot-eight.

“Tell you what,” he said, “I’ll strip my shirt off to compare the width of my shoulders if you’ll strip your jeans off to compare the width of your hips.”

The girl studied him from head to toe and her expression said exactly what she thought of his idea.

“Fat chance,” she said with a sniff and glanced at the pipe again as though measuring it with her gaze. After a minute, she looked back. “Fine, but if we see rats, we might blow this whole effort.”

“Well, now that’s settled,” William told them, “the boys and I are gonna head around to the other side and see if we can make them look that way, while you get up through the pipes and find whatever John thought was here.”

“Access.” Natalia hissed her impatience. “It was access, you idiot. We get in. Amy works her hacking mojo, and we get proof that re-education is merely a myth.”

She swallowed and her face went pale because if re-education was only a myth, there would inevitably be riots.

And they’d better not get caught because if they were, they’d be—

The girl pushed that thought aside. It was far better that she didn’t think about it. Someone had to bring the Regime down and stand up for all the people they hurt.

This was only the beginning.

Once people knew what they were doing, they’d retaliate. They wouldn’t simply stand aside.

She watched as the four boys hurried along the creek, then moved uphill to where the parkland stopped and the suburb began. A parking lot and the entrance to an underground garage made a convenient location for them to wreak some havoc.

Amy giggled softly as soon as they were out of sight.

“You have a pet rat,” she pointed out, and Natalia smirked.

“I know, but I wanted to make sure they weren’t taking diversionary ops so they could simply blow stuff up while we took the boring part.”

“You think they’d have allowed us along if John was still here?”

Natalia pursed her lips, then shrugged.

“It’s hard to say. He was the one who was supposed to go in to see what he could find.” She paused. “If he’d stayed, I was gonna ask him if we could go in with him.”

“Because of my ‘hacking magic?’” the other girl teased and poked her with her elbow, and she blushed.

“You know you can give John a run for his money, any day. No. I merely assumed three hackers were better than one. We could pull more data that way and maybe watch each other’s backs.”

“Uh-huh. Sure you did,” Amy teased. She studied the pipes. “Those look very snug.”

“John was much thinner than the other guys,” Natalia reminded her, not aware that he had left the bus stop and now hurried through the back streets behind two warehouses on the opposite side of the parking lot.

“Pfft. Whatever.” The other girl turned and approached the first pipe. “You want to give this one a go or see if any of the others smell better?”

____________

I wonder how many events in history actually went down like this. If we could look in on the dangerous mission from the past I bet we could see some teasing and snarky comments among friends. I can hardly wait to see if their mission is a success or not. I already pre-ordered my book, and you can too! This Halloween treat, The Heretic Lives, can be unwrapped first thing October 31st.

The Heretic Lives: The Heretic of the Federation Book #1

Sometimes the world around us ends up looking like something we never thought possible. It’s in these moments we must decide if the chance to make things better is worth dying over.

Paint peeled on the walls and the carpet underfoot was threadbare. John sat on the edge of the old couch left by previous tenants, careful to balance on the frame and not rely on the cushions.

Things moved in those and they stank of age—not to mention a pet that hadn’t been toilet-trained.

He rested his chin on his hands and his elbows on his knees and stared at the broken television. Despite his fixed gaze, he didn’t see it, nor did he see the wall or register the stench rising from the couch. His mind was a long way away.

At the top end of the city and in the foothills, to be precise. It seemed to have somehow returned to an upstairs room above a row of derelict shops from which he’d stormed out. He hadn’t been thinking all that clearly when he hurried down the back stairs and headed swiftly but cautiously into the night.

When he reached the alley behind the shops, he made sure his route was clear, bolted, and sprinted to prevent his mates from catching up. He knew they would try to change his mind.

They needed him, they said. The mission couldn’t go on without him.

Well, good, because he wanted them to live. The mission shouldn’t go on. It couldn’t if they were to survive. With him gone, their plans would hopefully fizzle and come to nothing.

He sighed, scrubbed his face with his hands, and ran his fingers through his hair to massage his scalp. It did nothing to ease the tension.

With him gone, he had honestly hoped they’d give up on the idea, scrap it, and forget he’d ever raised it.

John’s stomach churned and it had nothing to do with the burrito he’d lifted off an unattended plate at lunchtime.

His friends didn’t have the…the strategic know-how? The savvy? The… He hunted for the word and couldn’t find it. Well, whatever it was they needed to succeed and come through the mission alive. That was what they didn’t have.

They’d always relied on him for it. Without him, they should have given up on the idea and simply gone back to secretly wishing ill on the Regime like everyone else. They would have been disappointed and unfulfilled but safe.

He left and they abandoned the plan. That was how it should have gone.

Unfortunately, it hadn’t.

John stayed on the move for three weeks and in doing so, had effectively abandoned his final school year as he’d left before the exams. He had Talent. If he’d stayed, the Regime would have known for sure, so he’d put an end to all plans for the raid and left.

His friends should have settled into school again and would be close to graduation if they had kept their dumb heads down.

By now, he should have been gone long enough for the Regime to lose interest in them, but that wasn’t what he’d heard the last time he’d checked the underground grapevine.

Rumor had it that a group of kids from the North Shore were about to do something crazy. The news had stopped him cold but try as he might, he couldn’t pin down where on the North Shore they were from or exactly what they intended to do.

All he had was that it was crazy and he recognized Natalia and William from the descriptions.

“Fools,” his informant had confided and shaken his head. “There’s one born every minute, right?”

One of the others had snorted. “Yeah, and one dies every minute or so too. The Regime makes sure of that.”

That had changed the course of the conversation.

“But they’re only kids!”

John had faded into the background and moved carefully away.

That kind of talk in an open space?

Like the man had said, one died every minute.

The words that followed the protest still haunted him. “The Regime doesn’t care how old they are. They won’t put up with anyone who stands against ʼem. That girls’ choir a few years back—you know the one…”

Memory made the nausea stronger.

While he would much prefer not to, it was impossible to forget the girls’ choir. Rumor had it that a Talent had sung with them—or maybe more than one. Either way, they’d all been sent for re-education, his girlfriend among them.

And it had been two years before, not a few. He knew that because he’d looked forward to his girlfriend coming back and the Regime saying it had all been a mistake, but it had never happened.

They were always on the lookout for more Talents.

He shuddered.

The Regime. He’d grown up under it and he hated it. When he was little, he’d admired their Enforcers but that hadn’t lasted long.

His parents had been deathly afraid of them, and once they’d started taking kids out of his school, he’d learned to be afraid of them too. Anyone with Talent had an instant place in the Regime’s Navy—or instant death.

The Regime didn’t mess around and his friends intended to raid one of its facilities—the one he’d chosen—and probably used the plan he’d outlined.

John rested his head in his hands and stared at the floor. The churning turning into a lump at the base of his throat and the nausea grew worse.

This was all his fault. He should never have left them unsupervised.

Finally, he pushed to his feet and dragged his hands through his hair before he retrieved his jacket and pulled it on. Memories of their last conversation still haunted him.

He’d tried to get them to give it up and when they’d refused to listen, he’d told them he was out. As in gone, quitting, and good luck to them living through it on their own.

While he hadn’t meant it to be a challenge, at least one of them had taken it that way.

If he were smart, he’d leave them to it. There wasn’t anything he could do. Like everyone said, “You can’t save the stupid, mate.”

Except there was a difference between the stupid and his friends. Even if they were the same, he couldn’t simply leave them to face the Regime on their own.

The problem, however, was that he couldn’t work out what he should do. It wasn’t like he could defeat a Regime enforcement patrol on his own, not even with the Talent he’d hidden thus far.

John groaned and slung his pack over his shoulder. It was time to move.

He’d gone to the meeting ready to do whatever it took to keep his friends out of trouble and extended it into running away from home and the final round of Regime testing. Now, he would have to go back.

Concern for them helped to keep his frustration under control. He hoped he could come up with a plan to save his friends before he got there. While he was Talented, they were not.

However it went down, he knew he’d be fine. The Regime wanted to control the Talents. It gave them a choice when it caught up with them. Anyone else?

A shiver whispered involuntarily up his spine. Anyone else, not so much. Not from the rumors he’d heard. If those were true, he hoped trying to negotiate would buy his friends enough time to escape.

The idea made him snort. “Yeah, and maybe the Regime will let us all go and live in peace if we promise to be very, very good from now on. Give it a rest.”

His choices would be to join the Regime Navy or die, and they wouldn’t mess around. He’d be free, all right, in the Navy with a solid career and a gun to his head every remaining second of his life.

An uncomfortable churning in his gut contracted to form a heavy lump, and he swallowed to keep it down. Since they hadn’t given up, he hoped they had stuck to the plan.

At least that way, he’d know where to find them.

They would target the Regime Communications Center.

Before the Disaster, it had been open to the public. Now, the whole facility was surrounded by concrete walls some twenty feet tall and ten feet thick. The Regime had added guard houses on the hills overlooking it like it wanted to make sure no-one could take a peek inside.

That was what had drawn his attention to it. It became even more intriguing when he heard the rumors that destroying the center would do more than screw up the Regime’s communications capability for Australia’s east coast. He’d heard losing it would damage their international communications too.

John had found the idea appealing. Maybe if their communications went down, people would be able to—

He shook his head to cut off the wishful thought. The idea had sounded good the first time he’d bounced it off his friends but then he’d done some digging.

That was what the argument had been about. Destroying the Snake River complex would do jack to the Regime’s communications. There were back-ups.

All that would happen would be the Regime launching their retaliation with a vengeance and people in the northern suburbs would lose their Internet access for a couple of months.

He’d told the guys this, but William wouldn’t hear of it.

“You’re wrong, John,” his friend had said. “Dead wrong.”

“You’ll be the one who’s dead,” he had retorted, “and they’ll be able to phone home and brag about it.”

“You’re simply chicken.”

John remembered being shocked speechless. Chicken? Like, how old are they?

He set his pack down at the door, took the bottled water and an energy bar out of it, and shoved them into a jacket pocket. Leaving the pack on the floor, he looked around the room to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.

A small box of tinned food stood on the table with a six-pack of water, and he’d left his blanket rolled beside it. He thought about taking them with him, then shrugged.

Even if he reached his friends in time, the chances that he could come out of this alive were slim. It would be better to leave it for someone who would get some use out of it.

Quickly, he felt in his pockets to make sure he had his keys. While the tenement was officially abandoned, someone made sure people paid to stay there and a couple of extremely big someones enforced it.

The keys were a passport in.

With his fingers curled around them, he headed to the door. The last time he’d seen his friends still played through his head.

Natalia had stepped in.

“Are you sure, John?” She’d sounded disappointed, but he couldn’t tell if it was in him or in the news he’d brought.

He’d nodded. “As sure as I can be. Even if we get in, all we’ll do is annoy them. They’ve got contingencies—”

“And you know this how?” William had challenged.

“It’s called research,” he had snapped.

“That’s not what you said when you first raised the idea,” Trevor had argued.

He was the sidekick, the one who was supposed to keep William in check and be a voice of reason if John’s ideas got too ambitious. That time, he’d challenged the safer path.

William was quick to follow his lead. “Yeah, man. You said it was the best plan you’d thought of so far.”

“And it was,” he agreed, “right up until I looked into it and discovered how many things I hadn’t known.”

“So why didn’t you look into them before you raised it?” Amy, Natalia’s friend had demanded.

“Because it might have drawn attention and I didn’t want to risk it unless you were interested.”

“So you got us interested without knowing all the facts?” William’s voice had risen and his face flushed with anger.

That was the moment when he had known the argument was lost, but his friend hadn’t finished.

“And when I say you might be wrong again and that there’s only one way to find out, what are you gonna do about it?”

That had been when he’d left. He’d honestly thought that would save them.

John sighed and pulled the apartment door closed behind him. He knew now that what he’d assumed had been dead-wrong. His friends were good kids but they didn’t think much before they did something.

All heart and no head, as his dad once said. He couldn’t remember why now, but it still rang true.

His mates were hot-headed and the girls weren’t much better. If he didn’t get to them fast, they’d vanish exactly like Lucia and he didn’t want to think about what it might mean.

The fact that they’d surfaced in the underground news was a sure sign of that. Everyone knew the Regime had agents everywhere. In addition, all kinds of people made money by selling what they heard.

His friends were in more trouble than they knew.

He took the stairs two at a time and pushed out the side entrance into a narrow street. A guy huddled in the doorway and scowled at the rain.

“Do you live here?” John snapped and the stranger jumped and looked guilty.

Before the man could say anything, he held his room key out.

“Apartment Twelve. It’s open. I’ve paid until the end of the month and left food on the table. It’s yours. I won’t be back.”

The vagrant hesitated like he was looking for a catch, so he tossed him the key and kept moving. He heard the jingle as he reached the narrow sidewalk and assumed the man had caught it but he didn’t look back.

A bus was about due.

He flipped his jacket hood over his head, thrust his hands into his pockets, and hurried to the bus stop.

_________

The Federation can’t be that bad can it? John wouldn’t have suggested the plan if he didn’t think it had a possibility to work, right? Stay tuned to see what plan John and his friends have come up with to disrupt the Federation.

Get the jump on downloading the First Book in The Heretic of the Federation Series: The Heretic Lives. Pre- Order is available NOW and the book will be fully ready to devour on Kindle Unlimited, October 31st.