The Pack-Retribution (8 page)

Jumping up, she pivoted to help the others. Fury now laced her attack.

Hedi was holding her own. She took a punch and was thrown against a nearby wall. Hedi’s attacker raised his gun, aimed at her head.

Shamira leaped up behind Hedi’s assailant and grabbed him around the neck, then twisted his chin. With a crack of his neck, she released the dead assassin. Within seconds, he disintegrated into an ashen heap on the ground. She wouldn’t lie to herself and claim guilt, the old energy inside her loved a revenge kill. And this was that—for Cal.

“Yuck!” Hedi slumped against the wall. She coughed, waving a hand in front of her. “It stinks.”

Shamira chased the other attackers who fled. One shot several small fire-laced missiles into the air. Ducking, Shamima stopped. The bombs landed with a crash through the upper windows of Nan’s building and within seconds the entire top half of the building exploded, filling with fire and smoke.

Shamira’s heart sank. A scream exploded from her throat. The reflex to save Nan kicked her into a run. Anthony came alongside. As they reached the building, a thundering explosion ignited the entire thing and rocks, glass and debris lit up the sky. Anthony grabbed her, yanked her to the ground and shielded her from the blast. Hot tears of disappointment and failure filled her eyes. Pelts of debris hit them, but all Shamira felt was the pierce of another failure.

What had she done? Brought death to Nan and her family? She had to find out who was stalking them, and then she’d kill them. Kill them for Cal, for Nan and for Mars.

Mitch limped to where they stood holding the bleeding wound at his hairline. “Hell, who’s calling headquarters this time?”

Shamira closed her eyes for a brief moment before waving her finger over her earlink. “Me. Freak! Two interrogations in less than two days. I’m good as fried.”

Chapter 12

Hedi smiled slyly at Shamira. “Guess I’ll show our actual location now. Screw! I’m telling you if they ask about this—no one, I mean no one better talk.”

Everyone agreed to keep their mouths shut with nods and grins.

Shamira added, “I don’t think we should tell them about the leads we got. If we do, we’ll be placed on office detail.”

“I ain’t sayin’ nothing,” Anthony agreed.

“Us either. I’m tired of being cooped up at headquarters. This is what we all signed up for, not sitting on our butts all day researching bull,” Kurt said. “We are street and they’ll never take that edge from us.”

Shamira crossed her arms. “Yeah, now this is war. It feels like it’s directed at us personally. Why would they blow up Nan’s building?”

She felt sick every time her eye caught a crackle or pop off the rubble beyond them. No one—not one of them were able to make it out alive. Let the bodies hit the floor. One down and many more. Her tongue forced back the vomit that threatened to strip her of her fake composure over the disaster that befell Nan and the others. Part of her really just wanted to scream and kill something while crying.

Valens sighed. “God, I feel like…” his shaking hands raked through his hair. “Damn, we were the last people she spoke to.”

Shamira watched the grief on his face and she went to hug him. “I’m sorry Valens. It’s my fault for asking you to take us to your lead. We all feel bad about this. Our only choice is to bring these guys in now.”

A growl erupted from Valens. He squeezed her tightly. “I know. Now we have to face the force.” His angry eyes traveled heavenward as the helicopters and Security Force Elite vehicles swarmed the area. Fire trucks followed, a signal that their respite was over.

They all stood still and waited for the onslaught of Security Force Elite to settle in and assess the environment. More people dead, and all because of her mistakes. Releasing a deep breath, Shamira’s eyes turned in the direction of her father. He wasn’t smiling. He was angry. As luck, or bad-luck, would have it, Finch and Dax were with him.

“What happened here?” her father growled. “Looks like a massacre.”

Shamira flicked a glance at Anthony. “We were visiting a friend. Then we were attacked. Several of the men that came at us killed themselves somehow when they were hurt. The remaining men shot at us and hit the building with our friends in it.”

She heard Valens gulp down a swallow at her half-lie. Her father eyed her suspiciously. “I’ll buy it—for now. Elites Officers, Finch and Dax take the others back to headquarters for questioning. Cadet Shamira is riding back with me.”

She fought hard not to close her eyes in distress. If her father wanted her to ride with him…he didn’t completely buy her story. Dang! Fine, she would tell him some, but not all. Something in her felt that this war was personal, not just against the Force for taking down Monev…but somehow she felt it was targeting her. Terror rushed through her at the thought of what that could mean for her family and friends. Hopefully, they just wanted her, and not to hurt her by hurting the ones she loved.

Valens whispered, “Good luck,” then walked past her to follow Dax.

Her father grabbed her arm and dragged her to the car. She hurried to catch up to his long stride. At over six-foot-five, he towered over her petite frame, but she kept up.

He gave her a slight push toward the door. “Get in. Program Pearl to drive to headquarters. This is going to be a long ride.”

She flicked her wrist and commanded her motorcycle to go to headquarters and park. In a huff, she settled into the seat next to him. Her chest felt a slight pull from her guilt at disappointing her one champion, her dad. But yet again, she had to do it in order to save them all. Shamira clasped her hands tight against the tremor caused by her final look at Nan’s burning building. It didn’t help her to fake a straight face for the purpose of keeping calm for her father’s interrogation.

He climbed in, punched several buttons on the dashboard, then took several audible, calming breaths. “Cut off coms. Top Secret discussion—on mute.” He ground through his lips the command to his vehicle’s security system.

Uh-oh, it’s going to be one of those talks. She sat back in the seat and closed her eyes while she feigned calm.

“What the hell is going on? And don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m asking you.” The car pulled forward.

She swallowed slowly to stall for a response. “We were visiting a friend, like I said. Valens had been helping her family.”

He mumbled, “Yeah right, this is rather far from the movies you told your mother you were heading to.” His fingers squeezed the wheel. “You want to give me the actual reason you were down here? Mysteriously, the same place as the old Monev gaming club Snake Ice used to be?”

“I know what it looks like, but we wanted to check on Valens’ friend. He thought she might know something. I won’t deny we want to be on the case to find Cal’s killer, and now who blew up the people that lived in that building. But this visit—it was personal.” She blinked back tears, feeling guilty telling a lie to her father.

“Why do I think you are holding something from me?” He pushed backwards in his seat. “Well, I’m going to be crystal clear here. I know you kids want in, but you are still cadets. You have another two years of advanced, focused training after you graduate. That training doesn’t involve working on active cases in highly dangerous situations.”

She glanced at him. “That’s not the only way we are useful to the Force. Let’s face it, we have hidden entrée to leads that you don’t have. Those leads shut up when grownups come knocking at the door. Especially the Security Force or the Mars Police, and you know it. I don’t see why we can’t be promoted. It’s what Cal would’ve wanted.”

“Right now, you guys are not being promoted. You know what your promotion is based on? You staying out of trouble!” His fist hit the wheel in sync with his last words. “Don’t mess this up for yourself or your team. I know you kids aren’t the cause of Cal’s death. Cal made a big mistake. He should’ve taken another Elite with him for your final training. It’s done that way. Always. But knowing him like I do, he felt he could protect you and also felt that you all were more than ready for a promotion.”

“Do you know if he had any suspicions? Or thoughts that he had to investigate something that was starting up? Like a new copycat to Monev?”

He laughed. “Why should I spill it to you? Give me something and I’ll give you something.”

At that moment she knew her dad had more information that he was holding. “You first.”

He shook his head. “Negative. I’m your father so I call the rules. You spill, then I’ll decide if I want to.”

“Okay. I think the attack is personal. That it’s an outright attack at the Force—but more specifically on my team. When I downed one of the guys who attacked us, he threatened that there was more to come.”

Her father nodded and slowed the car in slight traffic as they approached the Force. “Cal didn’t take anyone on your final training session because he wasn’t confident all Monev’s moles within the organization were flushed out.”

She inhaled a deep breath. “What now?”

He winked at her. “I’m leaving that up to you, Security Force Leader in training.” Pulling in to the garage, he searched out a space amongst the chaos of other cars returning from the explosion site.

His expression turned serious. “Internal Affairs, Elite Officers, Logan and Garcia will be questioning you. Be glad it’s not Elite Officer Dax again. Get out and go straight to Intog. ”

Chapter 13

Great! This is freakin’ unreal. I’ve got to figure out who’s doing this. Whether it’s revenge on me, the people directly part of Monev’s death, or the Security Force.

Shamira wasn’t in the mood to deal with that snake Garcia and her sidekick Logan. They loved playing that good cop, bad cop scenario. Today though, she’d be one of their victims and she hated it because right now, her team appeared like they weren’t able to hold it together. That they were bringing some hated attention to the Security Force and that the Security Force was losing control over their planet once again. Just great. Now Earth would consider their acceptance of the band of kids from the poisoned organization, Monev, to be a threat instead of a help.

Internal Affairs Elite Officers never seemed to accept her team. Shamira always got a bad feeling from them when they had interviewed her and her team for their indoctrination into the training program. Her team did have a less than stellar background, but they’d proved themselves with their lives—which was something most cadets didn’t have to do to become trainees. All the other cadets had to do was be born to an Elite officer or a member of the police force to be evaluated for acceptance.

She purposefully walked through the halls, a frown on her face that slipped her back to the days before she came to the Force. Days when, as a blind person, she didn’t have to face people’s contempt, hate, love, or laughter head on. The place where she could sit in the dark, smell them, assess their emotions and decide which pile they fit in. The kill pile or the help pile. Now with sight, heck enhanced sight, she had to fix her expression to respond to what she saw and sensed so openly on the faces of those around her.

She’d hope she would get used to this by now, but she hadn’t. As a reminder of what her life had been, she kept the same extremely pale blue eyes, that others had said looked dead. But now those eyes held power to see through walls, skin, and track heat. Lot of good it did her though, it didn’t help her realize they were being ambushed. Nor did it help her to see through the suits of her attackers. It was almost as if those who were after her knew she had to ability to literally see right through them.

The Intog rooms were just ahead, and she spied her team members being led one by one away for questioning. The thick doors with a peek-a-boo window were soundproof, but everyone on the force knew what was going on in there. Someone on the team was getting chewed up and spit out.

Several of the senior Elite Security Officers were conducting their questioning. Shamira inhaled and rolled her eyes as Dax led Mitch away. She grabbed her brown hair in her hands and tied it into a knot at her nape. Taking a deep calming breath, she faced down Elite Officer Garcia.

“Finally.” Garcia folded her arms in front of her tan uniform. Her brown hair pulled in a severe bun that made her pale skin look deathly against the dark bags under her eyes.

“I made it, didn’t I?” Shamira figured why play nice. She wasn’t in the mood to be phony. She didn’t like Garcia, and faking it wouldn’t help her cause anyway.

Garcia narrowed her eyes, barely containing her anger and contempt at Shamira’s insolence. “Last one here, though. What kind of leader in training is that?” Garcia snatched Shamira by the arm.

Shamira sidestepped Garcia’s attempt to grab her. “Don’t touch me—ever. I know my way to the Intog room.” Shamira spun around and opened the door to the same room she’d been in earlier. There sat Logan, smiling kindly at her with his laughing brown eyes, and brown skin.

“Shamira, glad you made it back to us safely.” His hand waved over at the chair across from him and he sent a quick reprimand gaze at Garcia. “Excuse my partner. She’s a bit high-strung.”

Shamira wasn’t falling for their bull today. She wanted out of this interrogation and back on the street to figure out who was doing this to her team. “Whatever. Let’s get this over with.”

Garcia snatched her chair out, and sat down to stare unwavering at Shamira. “Tell us why you were in Sector Seven.”