The Pack-Retribution (6 page)

Manny stood behind him. “Me too. Shamira taught us some real dirty moves. I think I’m ready for Anthony.” He pointed at Anthony, and then waved a fist in front of each eye. “I got my eye on you. Done. You’re gonna be so done.”

Anthony bent over and tickled Manny’s stomach, then stopped to rub his wrist. “Itches,” he mumbled absently. “Yeah, little man. I’ll be ready for you later.” He patted Manny on the head. “When you gonna grow some? I was twice your size when I was eleven.”

“Yeah, well, I may be little, but I can still kick your a…”

“Manny!” Shamira put her hand over his mouth. “You trying to get me in trouble? You know Mom thinks you get that potty mouth from us. I promise to practice with you both tomorrow. Cover the training door for us. Okay.”

David winked at Manny. “What do we get for it?”

“Oh please, here.” Hedi rolled her eyes then dug in her purse and gave them some candy. “There’s more where that came from if you keep her parents and Taren up here.”

Manny blew Hedi a kiss. “You are so my favorite, babe.”

Dion laughed. “Get over it, kid. She’s mine.”

Shamira led them down the stairwell to the underground training room she used with her parents. Mostly, she was the only one to use it. Her mother preferred to train at headquarters. Lately, since her father was Deputy Security Force Elite Leader and head of the Mars reconstruction program, he trained at the office also.

They sat in the main training area where soft benches lined the walls. Valens leaned on the wall with Kurt next to him.

Shamira made sure the door was locked then stood in front of them with her hands on her hips. “We have a problem. A big problem. Someone sent me an email soaked in a detonating computer virus yesterday before I left. The message was, Let the bodies hit the floor. One down and many more. On top of that, after I saw the message it disappeared and blue-screened my computer.”

Hedi pursed her lips in thought. “Yeah, I heard about a virus after I left. I went to my desk and did a quick hack job before the entire system went kaput. I knew it wasn’t me, but I downloaded what I could and put it on my drive. When I got home I forwarded it to your system. Did you get a chance to look at it?”

Shamira nodded. “Yeah, and it looks like there’s not much we don’t already know. That means the Security Force doesn’t know any more than we do, which is nothing.” Her arms folded over her chest. “Which means we have zero.”

Kurt smirked. “I wouldn’t give up that easily.”

Shamira’s gaze went from Kurt to Valens. With a nod, Valens winked at Kurt as if they shared a hidden secret.

Kurt adjusted himself on the wall with a slight grimace passing over his features. “There’s talk on the street that unknown people have been hanging around some of Monev’s destroyed hideouts. You know pillaging stuff that was left behind. Sort of like they’re looking for something.”

Shamira’s lips pursed. “Monev had a lot of things someone would want to take over. The list goes from their drug production, organ transplant contacts, and the secret to how they bought the Mars Security Force Elite with the Mars Police to their knees.”

Dion nodded. “Yeah, but let’s face it. No one else on this planet has the smarts, contacts, or money to pull off what Renu and his boys did. They’ll never be another Monev—ever.”

Mitch grunted. “That don’t mean there ain’t going to be a fool who thinks they can pull it off. But that still don’t justify killing Cal. Starting a drug factory can be done quietly and doesn’t have to mean killing the head of the Force. Seems to me this is personal.”

“Personal, my butt. Who the hell cares?” Anthony banged the wall with his fist. “We need to go to Sector Seven. The Force hasn’t been able to implement full clean-up there and the Mars Police force is weak there. I’d bet my keys to my bad ass car that if there’s something going on, it’s there.”

“I agree with Anthony. I think Sector Seven would be a good place to start.” Valens pushed himself off the wall.

“Good. Do we have a contact there? Anyone who’s still around?” Shamira asked.

Valens rested his head on his closed fist. “Maybe one. If she’ll talk to us. Nan’s parents still live in that area. She was denied placement in the Security Force Elite school, because she wanted to take care of her mother who refused drug treatment.”

“Let’s go. We’ll leave out the back door so my parents don’t see us. They think we’re going to the movies. I’ll text them that we’re gone once we get there. If the force knows what we are up to they’ll definitely keep us out of the loop.” She turned her gaze to Hedi. “Think you can cloak us and make it look like we went to the movies?”

Hedi smirked. “You ask, I deliver.” Hedi pressed a button on the mini-computer on her wrist. A 4D keyboard and screen sprang up from the device. After several typed commands Hedi let out a giggle. “Done, I can only scramble it for two hours. As far a headquarters knows, we are at the movie mall together.”

“Thanks.” Shamira went to her weapons closet and pulled out her collapsed sword that looked like a club, clipped it on her belt with the other weapons and led the others out the door.

She climbed on Pearl. Valens slid on behind her. “Mind if I ride with you? My bike’s not working and I rode in Anthony’s car.”

Her chin lifted as she felt the familiar tingle of awareness that always assailed her whenever Valens was near. Her long brown-gold braid hung over his arm. “Program in the location. The others can follow me.”

He reached over and punched in the coordinates to Sector Seven. She tightened her hands on her handlebars and relished in the anticipation of a new lead. She’d been dormant too long and hoped that this Nan would have some answers about the new scum in town.

Chapter 10

Sector Seven hadn’t changed much. It was littered with brown and black buildings huddled together on the city blocks. The streets were dimly lit with sandswept ground separating the bundles of buildings. Shamira sped down the sector’s road and realized the place was rather vacant compared to her last visit a year ago. One thing had changed though, a big thing. It now had an entire city block of rubble in place where Snake Ice, a gaming hell on Black Snake Avenue, used to sit. Thanks to the kids that were enslaved by Monev and their use of the explosive computerized beetles from Valens’ collection of high-tech weapons, they blew up the place.

She pulled to a stop at the end of the Black Snake Avenue. The others parked their cycles next to her.

Valens stood when Mitch came up to meet him. “Why’d we stop short? I thought Nan lived two blocks down.”

Shamira and the others gathered in a circle while scanning the empty street around them.

Valens took some gloves out of his pocket and put them on. “We can’t take these cycles down her street. It’ll scare them off.”

Shamira rested her hands on her hips. “How do you know?”

“I check on them, bring her food and supplies. Her mom had a hard time kicking the dream habit on her own, but she did it. Now her mom works in the center, trying to help others that denied artificial cure, kick their habit and live through the withdrawal.”

“Man, Valens, you just keep on earning my respect, dude.” Anthony gave Valens a soft punch on his arm.

“Now what?” Mitch crossed his arms.

Shamira felt a bit edgy with the silence around them. “We’ll ask her if she’s heard anything on the street. Maybe someone’s still supplying them with a sub-product of dream. If so, we need to find out who that is.”

“Well, let’s take the high road, up the side of the building then down the street.” Dion pointed up at the tall brick structure beside them.

“You’re kidding, right?” Hedi eyes traveled up. “Climbing buildings was not part of my training.”

“No worries, Valens always has a trick in his pocket to help his team out.” Kurt chuckled.

“That I do, my friends, that I do.” Valens reached into his jacket and pulled out a bag. “Put these on your fingertips, knees and shoes. It’ll help us get up the walls, but from building to building…uh, I wouldn’t risk it.” He scooped out a handful of flat, round, metal looking discs the size of a thumb tip. The disc were firm but flexible.

They all put on the discs that bent and stuck on. The devices secured themselves to their fingers, shoes, and knees as though they were skin.

“I’m still confused here.” Hedi gazed warily up at the building.

Mitch and Dion winked at one another. Then spoke in unison. “We got that part covered.”

“The part where we go from building to building?” Hedi pulled on Dion’s jacket. “Like how?”

“Don’t want to spoil it, babe. Trust me, it’ll be a blast.” Dion grabbed her hand, heaved her on his back then ran up the side of the building.

Shamira got a rush of excitement. Valens held out his hand. “Ready?”

“All my life.” Shamira smacked his hand. “Beat yah!” She dodged past him and jumped on the outer brick wall of the ten-story building. Totally trusting any of Valens’ creations, she scrambled up the side like a spider. It was amazing. She held in a snicker. Her grin widened, she couldn’t believe she was actually able to climb a building.

Dion and Hedi had a good lead on her so she cheated. Mentally, she pulled from the simmering energy in her gut. The power was born from her brush with death when she was a baby. It bubbled up to give her extra strength that surpassed the enhanced strength given to them from their technosuits. She practically leaped several feet higher. With a giggle, she pulled herself up by her hands, barely using the tags on the tips of her shoes. Sticking out her tongue, she passed Dion and Hedi.

“Hey, you’re cheating! No sneaking strength the rest of us don’t have,” Hedi called with a laugh.

Shamira was the first to make it to the top. She tugged herself up and slid her foot over the ledge and onto the roof. Dropping to one knee, she yanked Hedi up by the hand while Dion flipped over the ledge. The others followed, seemingly trying to outdo each other on their various flips over the rooftop.

Shamira smiled. “Showoffs!”

“Skill babe, plain and simple skill.” Anthony slapped hands with Mitch and Dion.

Valens slid over beside her and put his hand on the small of her back. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Don’t let them fool you. They’ve been practicing with me while I tried out these babies.”

She stared at him with awe. “How do you get them to be the guinea pigs for your prototypes?”

With a cocky grin, Valens shrugged. “Mitch asked me to create something like this for them. Kurt and Dion have been teaching them some of the slick techniques from their old days as Assassins with Monev. Both could climb without this device. Mitch and Anthony just wanted some help to keep up.”

“No fair you guys didn’t ask us to come along.” Shamira’s eyebrow lifted.

“You were too busy shadowing Cal and learning to be the next Security Force Leader to have time to goof off with us. And Hedi was training with the Computer Security Team.”

Dion came up beside them. “Ready to fly?”

Hedi’s eyes bulged at Dion like he was insane. “Fly? How? You’re kidding, right?”

Mitch lopsided grin got wider. “Naw, we’ve been doing this ancient art of hopping buildings called Free Running. These new toys Valens made for us will help you girls hang. The rest of us have been doing it without the prototypes for weeks.”

Hedi pointed her finger at Dion’s chest. “So that’s where you boys have been sneaking off to at night. You too, Valens?”

Valens smiled sheepishly at Shamira, then Hedi. “Someone had to go along to keep them out of trouble. Besides I had to study what they were doing to find a way to perfect it.”

“I so can’t wait to try this.” Shamira eyed the ledge of the building. Her eyebrow wrinkled while she tried to guess the distance to the next building.

Hedi shook her head nervously. “You would. You’re worse than the rest of them. Can I remind ya’ll that I’m not in training for this.” She stepped back. “I’m the inside computer geek.”

Shamira gawked at Hedi dumbfounded. “You look and act nothing like a geek. And you know you like it. You just need us to give you a little push.”

“Yeah, like this.” Mitch pushed Dion forward.

Hedi yelled in fear. Dion ran then made a laughing leap through the air and over the side of the building out of sight.

Hedi’s hand came up and punched Mitch in the arm. “Are you crazy!”

Mitch laughed. “He loves it when I do that.” He hopped then vaulted into a run behind Dion. Arms opened wide, he flew over the side of the building.

Shamira was itching to try, but she saw the fear in Hedi’s eyes. She grabbed Hedi by the hand. “Don’t let them see you chicken out. I’ve got you—let’s do this together.” Shamira tugged Hedi along as she started to run. Hesitantly, Hedi ran alongside her, then started too relished in the new adventure and sped up.

Valens called behind her. “Duck and roll when you land!”

“Gotcha!” Shamira held tightly to Hedi’s hand while they leaped off the side of the building. “Don’t look down!”

“No way.” Hedi squeezed Shamira’s hand tighter.

Shamira dragged Hedi with her. She spied the top of the building.

Mitch and Dion waved them on. “Now! Flip now!” Mitch yelled.