Strategy, page 1
Table of Contents
Copyright
Title
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
About the Author
Strategy
Copyright © May 2022 by Laurel Richards
Cover design by Laurel Richards
Images used under license from Shutterstock.com. Licensed images are being used for illustrative purposes only, and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. This copy is intended for the original purchaser only. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, resold, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review. If you would like to share this book, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Blurb
For years, Ryland Ward has known Dr. Casey Haven is his soulmate, but he hasn’t been able to claim her. His own cousin abandoned her and their son, leaving her with a broken heart. Ryland has waited for her to heal so he can prove he’s much more than a friend.
Casey has always been able to depend on Ryland. As a trans woman with a psychic ability to heal, she isn’t accepted by everyone. When her medical knowledge is needed for an undercover mission with Ryland, she doesn’t hesitate. She’ll do whatever it takes to stop the bad guys from deploying a biogenetic weapon that could kill everyone she loves.
With a dangerous operative plotting an attack and a black ops organization stalking the members of the Sentinel Agency, the stakes have never been higher. These star-crossed lovers will have to come together to save the universe.
Content: m/f romance, love scene, trans woman
Strategy
(The Sentinel Agency Book 3)
by
Laurel Richards
Chapter 1
Standing in the pale morning light, Ryland Ward looked down at where his arms and legs should have been and instead saw a robot body. The sight was a bit disconcerting. He lifted his hand to study it and opened and closed his fist. There was a short delay between his thinking about the movement and his fingers responding.
He turned his head to study the other robot beside him and was startled to discover it was exactly the same height. “I haven’t been this short in years.”
Ryland’s human body was almost two meters tall and currently standing at a VR station back in his office at the Sentinel Agency. Nova Satus was a planet still in the process of being terraformed. The scientists had finished ecopoiesis—the initial stage of planetary engineering—so there was proper gravity and a magnetic field to sustain life. He couldn’t feel it, but he knew the temperatures were tolerable. Synthetic biologists had seeded the planet with genetically engineered microbes that were hard at work creating a habitable environment. Soon plants would be added to accelerate oxygen production, but for now the air wasn’t breathable.
Instead of investing in habitats and space suits, the scientists working on the project did so via robots. A brain computer interface allowed for direct mind control of the robot. Back home, he was wearing a bunch of sensors and VR gear on his head so he could maneuver this thing.
“Try using mental imagery,” Andromeda suggested through his earpiece. “Visualize the movement you want to make.”
Andromeda was his agency’s technical expert. She had hacked into the research station’s operating system in order to borrow these robots. As someone who had needed to replace an arm and a leg with cybernetic prosthetics, she was also an expert on relearning motor functions.
“I feel numb,” Luka complained through the robot next to him. “And sluggish.”
“Best I can do,” Andromeda announced. “We’re a long way from Nova Satus. I’m using every trick I know to boost the information transfer rate and cut down on lag time. You’d better head to the rendezvous point. It’s about a hundred meters in front of you.”
“On our way.” Ryland concentrated on walking forward.
During a previous mission carried out by his security and investigation firm, they had discovered the coordinates for a clandestine appointment here on Nova Satus. The meeting was between a known terrorist named Dr. Noah Bentley and his contact. Bentley had recently smuggled something labeled Specimen ML13 out of a genetic research lab. Ryland didn’t have confirmation yet, but he and his team believed that specimen was a megaliger—a modified lion-tiger hybrid engineered to show extreme aggression. Andromeda and Luka had helped the authorities track down and contain the rest of the megaligers that had come out of New Dawn Laboratories, but Bentley had spirited this one away.
Ryland could only speculate about what the terrorists, who called themselves the Crusaders for Divine Order, would do with the animal. The plan now was to get to the rendezvous coordinates before Bentley. He would eavesdrop on the exchange and try to identify the contact.
“Hey,” an unfamiliar female voice said behind him.
He and Luka both turned. The former supermodel and actor made the about-face look much more graceful than Ryland did.
Another robot faced them with one hand on her metal hip. “Are you the new arrivals?”
“Yes, we are,” Luka answered smoothly. “We were just walking around to get used to the neural interface. Movement is still a bit jerky.”
“You’ll get better at it with time,” she assured them. “You’re early, and you forgot to log in. I wasn’t expecting anyone else for at least an hour, Dr....”
“Please, call me Bob,” Luka said. “I feel silly addressing a bunch of bolts as doctor.”
She laughed. “That’s one way to look at it. I’m Marjorie. You mind helping me with the mass spectrometer? I could use another pair of hands to get it unpacked and set up. If I put so much as a scratch on it, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Happy to help.” Luka motioned for her to lead the way.
Ryland now understood why Delfina—the clairvoyant on his team—had insisted Luka join him. She must have foreseen that he’d need the charming fellow to run interference.
With Luka there to distract Marjorie, Ryland continued to the meeting spot. He stepped carefully through a shallow riverbed that was fed from a lake somewhere up in the sloping mountains. Monoliths of rock the color of peaches loomed on either side.
“There,” Andromeda told him when he’d gone a ways upstream. “You should be in a good position. Find some cover.”
He chose the nearest boulder and hid behind it. There were benefits to being in a smaller body.
Maybe fifteen minutes passed before he heard the splash of approaching footsteps through the water. They stopped about six or seven meters away from his hiding spot. Ryland didn’t bother poking his head out to get a look, since the conspirators would only appear as robots too. Instead he listened intently.
“Noah.” The word was spoken in a synthesized voice, with no clue as to whether the speaker was male or female. “What an interesting place to meet.”
“It’s secure,” Noah Bentley replied. “I couldn’t risk contacting you any other way.”
“Are you certain our audio is not being recorded?”
“Is that why you’re disguising your voice?” Bentley asked. “There’s no need to worry. Hijacking an inactive robot is hard. Hacking into one with an active link is nearly impossible. There are safety protocols in place to protect the human operator. Nobody can hear us.”
No one but Ryland, and he’d left enough distance that he had to pay close attention.
“We’d better make this quick,” Bentley warned.
“Very well,” his contact replied. “You got the specimen out of the lab?”
“Yes. No one saw me. I’ve arranged for delivery, but we have to be careful.”
“You’re confident this will work?” the mystery person asked.
“We can’t afford to be predictable,” Bentley insisted. “The authorities expect cyberattacks and bombings from us now, but this is a biological weapon unlike anything they’ve seen. Human beings were not meant to play god. We’ll show them the horrors that meddling with nature can create, and we’ll eliminate the human abominations before they spread further.”
The venom in the man’s voice was as palpable as a slap. Those abominations he was talking about were people who had inherited enhanced talents from their colonial ancestors. Interesting mutations had sprung up from the original genetic engineering that had adapted some early settlers to their environments. Ryland, with his advanced ability to detect patterns and strategize, was one of them. So were the rest of the members of the Sentinel Agency. His brother, Rave, could read microexpressions and body language so well he was almost telepathic. Rave’s mate, Delfina, saw probable futures. Behind Luka’s robot avatar, the man could change his skin tone and hair color at will. As for their resident doctor, Casey, she had a natural healing ability. She could detect ailments with a touch. Andromeda was the only one who was a regular human, assuming the term applied to such a computer genius. The Crusaders hated her because of her cybernetic limbs. They didn’
“How lethal are we talking?” Bentley’s companion asked. “What’s the fatality rate among the target population?”
“Simulations predict eighty percent,” the scientist replied. “It’s highly communicable and not so fulminant that it won’t have time to do maximum damage. I couldn’t create more at the lab. I only have the one specimen. You’ll have to get it to someone who can reproduce it.”
“And it will only kill those with enhanced talents?”
“Yes,” Bentley said. “I engineered it to target specific genetic markers.”
Ryland frowned, though the robot didn’t have a mouth to display the expression. Had they somehow trained the megaliger to only attack people like him? He hadn’t known that was possible, and the terminology they used didn’t fit. Clearly he was missing something.
“I’ve arranged to transport it on the upcoming charity mission to Faraqa,” Bentley continued. “One of our operatives will be with the United volunteers. They plan to visit two hospitals. Disguise yourself and show up for an exam when they reach the town of Mbanza in the Southern Prefecture. Use the name E. Krol. Our operative will find you and transfer the specimen to you then.”
Ehmet Krol was the father of the terrorist group. Centuries ago, the man had led the Society for Bioethics. This activist group had done a tremendous amount of good and had helped enact the laws governing genetic experimentation that persisted to this day. Krol had felt the Society wasn’t extreme enough, however, and had gone on to establish a splinter group that opposed all human modifications, including medical implants and many life-saving surgeries. The Crusaders for Divine Order had evolved from this more radical faction. This pair must have thought they were honoring their founder by using his name.
Silence descended, only broken up by the sound of the robots walking through water. They were moving away. Ryland waited five extra minutes to be sure before he broke cover. The area was now empty. He did the local researchers the courtesy of walking the robot back to where he’d found it before he disconnected.
When he pulled the VR headgear off, he returned to his normal height and was looking at the inside of his office. Andromeda must have notified Luka that he could disengage too, because Ryland found the other man standing outside his door. They had split up and used his and Rave’s offices so they could have the quiet they needed and not pick up an echo when they talked to each other.
Everyone else was gathered in the huge common room. They looked at him expectantly when he came out.
Ryland repeated what he’d overheard, as close to verbatim as he could manage.
Casey, who was already fair-skinned, turned deathly pale. “He used the terms ‘fatality rate’ and ‘fulminant’?”
“Yes. I take it that means something to you?” He relied on the doctor’s expertise when it came to science and medicine.
“They weren’t talking about a giant predator,” she announced. “They were discussing pathogenic potential.”
“What?” Rave demanded.
“We were wrong about what kind of specimen Noah Bentley smuggled out of the lab,” Casey explained. “We’re not looking for something big. The biogenetic weapon the Crusaders are planning to use is a contagious bacteria or virus. Bentley is a geneticist. If what he says is true, then he customized a disease to infect and kill people who have enhanced talents.”
“I know computer viruses, not real ones,” Andromeda said. “Is it even possible to make a disease that specific?”
“It violates confederate and humanitarian laws, but yes. The same science that goes into procedures like personalized gene therapy can be twisted into something malign.” Casey shook her head and appeared baffled as well as appalled. “The thing is, Bentley shouldn’t have had the resources to create a pathogen like that. I reviewed New Dawn Laboratories when their name first popped up in our investigation. The building isn’t registered as a containment facility. Any facilities working with infectious biological agents have to have negative pressure to keep contaminated air from reaching the general environment. They have special monitoring systems, waste disposal, and other protocols. This isn’t something you cook up in a back room.”
Andromeda exchanged a look with Luka. “We were in that lab. I didn’t see anything like what you’re describing, but we never checked the second floor. Once we had some pictures and the data we stole, we hightailed it out of there.”
“Biomed United,” Delfina announced. The foreseer didn’t elaborate.
Luka cocked his head. “I’ve heard that name.”
“Bentley mentioned an operative disguised as a volunteer with a charity called United,” Andromeda said.
Luka shook his head. “It’s more than that. Don’t you remember? The charity the Excelsior Foundation was funding with their auction was called Biomed United. I still find it hard to believe that the same criminals who were selling illegal goods and animals were doing it to support a worthy cause.”
“The ruse gave the auction an air of legitimacy,” Rave said, “but I’m willing to bet this charity isn’t much cleaner than the foundation.”
Ryland could feel the connections snapping into place inside his mind. “Tell me about Biomed United.”
Andromeda pulled up a description on her computer. “Biomed United is a nonprofit humanitarian organization. They bring medical care, supplies, and training to areas of the universe that need it. Doctors, nurses, and lay people volunteer from all over confederate space and then go on missions together. The organization has its central office in Juniper Hills in the Helvetic Republic on Agenor.”
“Check their finances,” Ryland told her. “We’ve been trying to trace the auction money from the foundation to whoever got it. Find out if Biomed United received a generous donation in the same amount.”
Andromeda’s fingers flew over the keys, and she ran multiple displays at once. A few minutes later, they had their answer.
“Biomed United did receive a big donation after the auction,” she announced, “but not in the same amount as what the foundation brought in that night.”
“Show me.” Ryland leaned forward to look at the two figures. He saw it immediately. “Our money-laundering fundraisers took a twenty percent commission off the top.”
“With those kinds of funds,” Casey warned him, “the Crusaders can set up a lab and produce enough of their virus to hit every planet in confederate space. It will take a few years for the disease to spread across each world, but a lot of people will die.”
“We need to stop the operative from making the exchange,” Rave said. “That’s the best way to prevent this.”
“Agreed.” Ryland’s talent kicked in. As if he were studying a 3D chess set, he could see exactly how all the pieces needed to move. “I want everyone working on this. Andromeda, you stay here and work your tech magic. Dig into all the staff, volunteers, and every last financial transaction Biomed United has. Luka, I’m putting you on a flight back home to Montalvo. Take care of whatever you have to do to finish relocating here.”
As their most recent employee, Luka hadn’t had time to fully move.
Ryland had more than one reason for sending the man back to Montalvo, which happed to be where New Dawn Laboratories was located. “While you’re there, I’ll put you in contact with someone at the CPPA. Arrange a face-to-face meeting with the authorities investigating New Dawn Laboratories, as well as any of Bentley’s coworkers you can track down. Someone must have seen or overheard something. Find out what you can about what Bentley was up to in that laboratory.
“Rave, you join Biomed United at their headquarters. Investigate them from within.” Before his brother could take umbrage and point out they were equal partners, he added, “Please.”
Rave gave him a crooked smirk and nodded. “I’m sure Andromeda can help me create a good cover identity.”
“Challenge me, why don’t you?” their tech expert retorted.
Ryland drew a deep breath and released it. Managing such strong, talented people often required patience.
