Covert Talents: Age of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Uprise Saga Book 1) Read online

  CONTENTS

  LMBPN Publishing

  Dedication

  Legal

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Endless Advance

  Author Notes - Amy DuBoff

  Amy Duboff Series List

  Amy Social Links

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Michael Series List

  Michael Social Links

  Covert Talents

  Uprise Saga: Book One

  By Amy DuBoff and Michael Anderle

  A part of

  The Kurtherian Gambit Universe

  Written and Created

  by Michael Anderle

  DEDICATION

  To my husband, Nick, for enabling me to follow my dreams

  — Amy

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  — Michael

  COVERT TALENTS

  Team Includes

  BETA / EDITOR BOOK

  Kurt Schulenburg

  Eric Haneberg

  Curtis Johnson

  JIT Beta Readers - From each of us, our deepest gratitude!

  Kelly O’Donnell

  James Caplan

  Joshua Ahles

  Kimberly Boyer

  John Findlay

  Paul Westman

  Peter Manis

  Larry Omans

  Keith Verret

  Micky Cocker

  Nick Rayl

  Editor

  Jen McDonnell

  If we missed anyone, please let us know!

  COVERT TALENTS (this book) is a work of fiction.

  All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2017 Amy DuBoff, Michael Anderle & Craig Martelle

  Cover by Andrew Dobell, www.creativeedgestudios.co.uk

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US edition, November 2017

  Version 1.01, December 2017

  The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2017 by Michael T. Anderle.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Lieutenant Ava Landyn raced down the barren concrete corridor. “Retreat!” she shouted into her comm.

  Behind her, footsteps echoed from deeper within the underground facility. Too many footsteps.

  So much for a quick in and out operation, Ava thought with a grimace, followed by a smirk at the unintended innuendo.

  A shout sounded behind her, then a spray of plasma fire lit up the hall. Ava’s HUD politely informed her that enemies had been detected nearby. Really fucking helpful, thanks.

  She ducked behind a collection of pipes protruding from the wall. It was terrible cover, but she’d take what she could get.

  Glancing toward the exit, she noticed Edwin peeking around a bend in the corridor.

  “I thought I ordered a retreat,” Ava said over her comm.

  “That was before you got yourself cornered,” Edwin Caites, one of the three massive Were warriors on her team, replied. “No one gets left behind.”

  Ava couldn’t help grinning behind the blacked-out faceplate of her helmet. She loved Force de Guerre honor, especially in a time like this. “Lay down some cover fire on my mark. I’m going to try some fancy footwork.”

  “You’ve got it.”

  “Now!” Steeling her resolve, Ava bolted from behind the pipes.

  Her powered armor propelled her down the hall while plasma blasts flew in either direction. She’d only gone three strides when a new warning flashed on her HUD—the concentrated enemy fire was about to overload her armor. Without thinking, she spun in a series of swift circles to diffuse the load on the suit’s electrified skin.

  After seven awkward strides of spinning and skipping, Ava made it to the corner where Edwin was hunkered down. She leaped the final step to safety.

  “Ma’am, you are a graceful angel,” Edwin said over the comm. His opaque helmet hid his face, but there was no mistaking the amusement in his voice.

  “We speak of this to no one.” Ava snatched a concussion grenade from a pouch on her tactical belt and tossed it back down the hall, then pressed herself against the wall.

  Edwin followed her lead.

  A moment later, Ava’s HUD lit up with a flash and heat signature. The helmet muffled the explosion, but she could feel it reverberate through the wall at her back. Try walking away from that, fuckers! That’s what you get for denting my new armor.

  Dust and debris flew down the corridor. When the particulates began to settle, Edwin poked his head around the corner.

  “Clear,” he announced. “You do realize that your entire run down the hall is documented on my combat recorder, right?”

  “And that will be filed with the mission report and shown to no one.” Ava glared up at the huge warrior through her faceless helmet.

  “Yes, ma’am, I’d never think of sharing the galaxy’s best blackmail video of all time.”

  Liar. The video would be uploaded to the galactic net before dinner. She’d be a viral sensation.

  Ava rolled her hazel eyes. “At least select a tasteful song to set it to, okay?”

  Edwin bust out laughing again. “I was thinking it’d go great with—”

  The walls shook anew with a concussive boom and series of thuds.

  What the hell was that? Ava swapped places with Edwin and refreshed the info display on her HUD. When she checked the hall around the corner, she was greeted by the sight of a mech twice her height.

  And it looked angry, as enemy mechs tended to when dangerously close.

  “Hello to you, too,” Ava said as kinetic rounds flew from the gun mounted on the mech’s right shoulder.

  She took off full-speed down the side hall with Edwin riding her ass, encouraging greater speed.

  “I thought this was supposed to be an abandoned civilian research facility!” Edwin shouted.

  “Yeah, well, our intel was wrong.” Ava reached an intersection and turned to the right, in the direction her HUD indicated was the exit.

  “Rixon, Matthews,” she raised the two other
members of her team on the comm. “We’re coming out hot.”

  “Looks like you’re having quite the party, ma’am,” Samantha Matthews replied. “But we’re nowhere near the exit. I have a direct link into the local net. I think I can lower a blast door and seal off that section.”

  “Do it, for fucksake!” Ava reached another intersection, this time turning left. “ETA on that—”

  “Done! You’re about to pass through the threshold…”

  Ava spotted the thick, metal strip in the ceiling and along the walls. As soon as she and Edwin passed through, the blast door began to lower.

  The mech let out a synthesized scream as it charged for the door. A handful of kinetic rounds made it under the metal slab before the shield was secured, but Ava and Edwin flattened themselves along the side walls of the corridor to stay out of the path.

  Thuds sounded against the blast door, but there was no way the mech could get through the meter-thick barrier.

  Ava let out a long, deep breath. “That could have gone better.”

  “We do have some good news,” Nick Rixon offered over the comm. “When you had to abort the data retrieval at the alpha location, we set out to access the beta target. Location is secure. Plan B is still an option.”

  “Good.” Ava sighed as she determined their relative position on her HUD. Provided there weren’t any more unexpected mechs waiting for them, it should be a straight shot past some research labs. “We’re on our way.”

  Edwin took point as they jogged down a side hall toward Samantha and Nick’s location. The corridor was lined with doors, and a handful of the labs had observation windows. The rooms inside looked to be sterile chambers, some of which had exam tables in the center surrounded by an array of equipment. At least no one seemed to be around in this section of the supposedly abandoned facility.

  “Creepy much?” Edwin commented.

  Something about the stark white environment and empty medical rooms made Ava’s skin crawl. “I’m with you,” she replied, her eyes scanning every surface for potential threats.

  On cue, an overhead light began to flicker.

  I’m really starting to hate this place. Ava suppressed her nerves and stayed focused on the mission at hand. “I hope that data archive has answers and I didn’t scuff up my new armor for nothing.”

  She frowned at the newest pit on the left arm of her sleek, black armor, which was sustained during the latest volley of kinetic rounds.

  “Better dents in the armor than holes in you.”

  She couldn’t argue with that.

  The corridor terminated in a set of double-doors. Edwin cautiously cracked open the right door and peered into the hallway beyond.

  “Uh… You’ve gotta see this.” He stepped into the room and held the door open for Ava.

  Her breath caught in her throat as she took in a hallway lined with holding cells. Clear plexiglass covered the fronts of the tiny rooms, each containing a cot, toilet, and sink. The rooms looked like they’d been used.

  There had been people here.

  She stepped up to the nearest cell and examined its interior. Her HUD picked up gashes in the white plastic of the side wall. Those are claw marks!

  “Now, Edwin,” Ava began, “let’s stay calm—”

  She didn’t get a chance to finish. A growl came from her companion over the comm, and he ripped off his helmet.

  He turned the gaze of his glowing yellow eyes toward Ava. “There were Weres here.”

  “I know, and we’ll figure out what was going on,” she replied in a calm, level tone. The last thing she needed was for him to shift into his hybrid man-wolf Pricolici form and go on a rampage.

  Edwin growled again and sniffed the air. “This scent is strange. I can’t place it.”

  That was good news. No one familiar would mean he’d keep his cool.

  Sure enough, the yellow faded from his eyes. He looked down at the helmet in his hands. “What do you think they were doing here?”

  “Nothing good.” Ava took a calming breath. “Come on, we need to get to the others. There’s no knowing if anyone else will show up to make things difficult.”

  Edwin nodded and slipped the black oval helmet over his head. Without another word he jogged down the hall, keeping watch to either side in case someone—or something—was in one of the cells.

  Ava followed him at a slight distance, running through the possibilities in her head. Those stupid fuckers in intel. They throw out shit and we have to clean up the mess.

  The assignment was supposed to be simple: scope out an abandoned Nezaran research facility on the remote moon and scour the data archive for any reference to the Alucian government. Like many of the worlds outside the Etheric Federation, not everyone wanted to play nice one hundred percent of the time. The Nezarans had been particularly obstinate of late and were looking for any opportunity to pick a fight with their Alucian neighbors.

  As universal peacekeepers, the Force de Guerre—known as the FDG—were called off-the-record to run some interference and keep the situation from escalating. Ava’s team in particular specialized in gathering information that no one knew was being gathered. The geeks in the safety of headquarters, light years away, analyzed it to determine what it meant. They’d change the information into intel, turn it around, and send Ava on another wild goose chase to fulfill their never-ending hunger for information.

  At least, that’s how it was supposed to work. Throwing grenades tended to undermine the whole stealth thing.

  However, the FDG clearly hadn’t been given the whole story. Whatever was going on, Ava would get to the bottom of it—even if her armor did have to get some scrapes along the way.

  After eighty meters, the corridor of cells opened into a square room filled with what appeared to be monitoring and surveillance equipment. An archway at the back led to another passageway.

  According to Ava’s HUD, the two other members of her team were in an adjacent room. She swept her gaze around while she walked toward the door, recording it for later review. Maybe they could get more clues if the data archive didn’t have the complete story.

  She exited with Edwin and traversed the short distance to the room where Samantha and Nick were waiting. The door was ajar.

  Instead of just Nick and Samantha, though, there was a middle-aged man tied to a chair. He was wearing a white jumpsuit and looked pissed.

  Ava stopped in the doorway. “You didn’t tell me you had company.”

  Samantha shrugged. Her helmet was off, exposing her slicked-back blonde hair that offset her dark complexion. “Well, I said we had secured the beta location. We just need a little help with the rest.”

  “I thought you’d hacked into the local net?” Ava asked.

  “We did,” Nick confirmed, shaking his head of close-cropped dark hair, “but the data we’re after is locked up behind some kind of firewall with encryption I’ve never seen before. Without spending hours on this, getting a password is our best shot.”

  They certainly didn’t have hours. It was obvious why the man was strapped to the chair.

  Her team was looking at her. They knew what she could do—it was why she, a mere human, was the leader of a team of warriors a head taller than her with the ability to transform into half-human, half-wolf Pricolici with fifteen-centimeter claws that could eviscerate an enemy, strength that could crush bones, and the ability to heal rapidly. For all Ava’s weakness and comparatively small stature, she could do what no one on her team—what few others in the FDG—could do. She could read their captive’s mind and extract the information they needed.

  Ava swallowed. “I don’t have the authorization.”

  Samantha glanced at the man tied to the chair. “Then, ma’am, we are unable to access the encrypted files and fulfill the mission objective within time constraints.”

  Protocol existed for a reason. Telepathy and mind-control were a slippery slope, and specific rules were the only way to keep things civilized. But the mission wa
s at stake.

  Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Ava nodded to her team. “All right, I’ll do it. We need to know what was happening here—for the sake of the FDG. Someone wasn’t honest about why we were sent here.”

  Relief filled the faces of her warriors.

  The man in the chair shrank back. “Wait, what are you going to do?” he asked, a quaver in his voice.

  Ava popped the latch on her helmet and slid it over her head. She massaged the fingers of her gloved hand over her scalp to fluff the pixie cut of her red hair. “You’re going to tell me the password to access that encrypted information one way or another.”

  The man shook his head. “I don’t know it.”

  It didn’t take a telepath to know he was lying.

  “Are you sure you want to do this the hard way?” Ava questioned.

  He didn’t reply.

  “All right.” Ava took a step forward and focused her hazel eyes on him. He tried to look away, but Nick placed his hands on either side of the man’s head to make him face forward.

  “What is your name?” Ava asked the man in his mind.

  “Stewart,” came the response.

  Good, he hadn’t been trained in any mental blocking techniques, like the ever-present guards Ava maintained around her own thoughts. This would be easy.

  Ava dove into his mind using the methods she’d been training in since she was a child. Her homeworld of Coraxa was known for the unique properties of the natural ecosystem, where animals across the world shared telepathic bonds linked through the Etheric. When humans settled on the world and consumed the native resources, they found that certain members of the population developed telepathic abilities of their own. No one was sure exactly how the abilities worked, but much about the Etheric was a mystery.