Loonie, page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
If the game doesn’t leave you any winning options, change the rules.
Part One—Employment
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Part Two—Broker
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Part Three—Radiation
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Part Four—Hideout
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Part Five—Reconnaissance
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Part Six—Girlfriend
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Part Seven—Rearmament
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Part Eight—All In
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Chapter Eighty
Chapter Eighty-One
Chapter Eighty-Two
Chapter Eighty-Three
Chapter Eighty-Four
Chapter Eighty-Five
Chapter Eighty-Six
Chapter Eighty-Seven
Chapter Eighty-Eight
Chapter Eighty-Nine
Chapter Ninety
Chapter Ninety-One
Chapter Ninety-Two
Chapter Ninety-Three
Part Nine—Cult
Chapter Ninety-Four
Chapter Ninety-Five
Chapter Ninety-Six
Chapter Ninety-Seven
Chapter Ninety-Eight
Chapter Ninety-Nine
Chapter One Hundred
Chapter One Hundred And One
Chapter One Hundred And Two
Chapter One Hundred And Three
Chapter One Hundred And Four
Chapter One Hundred And Five
Chapter One Hundred And Six
Chapter One Hundred And Seven
Chapter One Hundred And Eight
Chapter One Hundred And Nine
Chapter One Hundred And Ten
Chapter One Hundred And Eleven
Part Ten—Arrested
Chapter One Hundred And Twelve
Chapter One Hundred And Thirteen
Chapter One Hundred And Fourteen
Chapter One Hundred And Fifteen
Chapter One Hundred And Sixteen
Chapter One Hundred And Seventeen
Chapter One Hundred And Eighteen
Chapter One Hundred And Nineteen
Chapter One Hundred And Twenty
Chapter One Hundred And Twenty-One
Chapter One Hundred And Twenty-Two
Chapter One Hundred And Twenty-Three
Chapter One Hundred And Twenty-Four
Chapter One Hundred And Twenty-Five
Chapter One Hundred And Twenty-Six
Chapter One Hundred And Twenty-Seven
Chapter One Hundred And Twenty-Eight
Chapter One Hundred And Twenty-Nine
About the Author
To boldly go where no sane girl has ever gone before
The village is a fortress, but the walls are invisible—deadly radioactive contamination. The people inside haven’t seen a policeman for decades. The strongest rule, as simple as that. Women are traded for entertainment. Not the best place for a pretty female thief to be caught in the action…Only a lunatic would accept this challenge.
Johanna—or short, Jo—no longer regards herself a loser. She’s a successful whore, thief, gambler. But her game is dangerous, outright lunatic—more and more often she sets out to cause trouble for the worldwide organized crime, called the Cartel, only to go into hiding again. How long can that work?
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Loonie
Copyright © 2013 Valerie J. Long
ISBN: 978-1-77111-513-1
Cover art by Carmen Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Lioness’ Legacy II—Loonie
Zoe Lionheart 13
By
Valerie J. Long
If the game doesn’t leave you any winning options, change the rules.
Part One—Employment
Chapter One
I must be a total lunatic. That thought suddenly shot through my mind, and I paused in my movement. My nude body clung tight to the building’s mirror-like face. With nothing more than the suckers at my finger and toe tips, I stuck like a gecko almost three hundred meters above the ground on the outside wall of the Frostdragon corporate skyscraper. I must be a total lunatic. However, of course my climb made sense.
The four-hundred-and-seventy-six-meters high building was practically impenetrable for a burglar. The main and rear entrances were well guarded, just as the accesses to staircases and elevator shafts were. The roof held a landing pad for helicopters or Tigershark planes with perfect surveillance. In between, the building was wrapped in panes of diamond-hardened armor glass, almost without grooves, only interrupted by finger-sized openings for the antennas of metal and motion detectors. Glass cutters were useless—there was no way through! But far above, at four hundred thirty-eight meters, there was a maintenance access for the illuminated company name. If you could get out there, you could get in there, too. At least, I assumed so—I’d have to have a look once I arrived there.
Metallic equipment was out of the question, as such would make all bells ring. The motion detectors—yes, I could deceive them, at least until now. As with other, rather ground-bound missions, their sensitivity had been toned down so that no ordinary bird would raise an alarm. Moreover, the surveillance didn’t reach the windows, according to the vendor’s specifications. I only had to stay close to the wall.
The suckers on finger and toe tips had been morphed forward. With some preparation, that worked just like more robust skin, against scratches and such. I could camouflage my skin and my stubbly hairdo like a chameleon. Here, no pale blot stuck to the façade—I was as dark as the unlit room next to my belly. At my fingers and toes, I felt the air conditioner’s fine vibrations. All that still appeared like a dream to me, but I didn’t want to pinch myself now. The nano machines that I had injected myself with were making all this possible. I could comprehend it in my mind, but, to my feelings, it was still strange. Better senses had developed as subtly as my athletic skills—faster, stronger, more precise. Was a three-meter jump from standing to the second floor normal? For me, it was. Whatever could make me better was welcome. I took what I could get and then made the best of it. Good wasn’t good enough for me. So I asked myself—which other special abilities could my nanos create for me? I had had to take so often, I desired more resistance. I need more power!
—Performance enhancement program is not completed yet.—
Oops. Hello, Ghost.
Almost everything worked intuitively. To me, it seemed awkward to talk to myself. Moreover, it was dangerous. What if I accidentally talked to myself aloud? And why should I? I knew what I had to know about myself, and I could control myself, like, for example, my camouflage. This nano integration was ingenious even if I didn’t walk around in my head.
Technically, I was lunatic—that is, deviating from the norm, different than other people. At the same time, thanks to my nanos, my mind was clearer than ever before. So why did I hang from a skyscraper three hundred meters above the ground? Because I was loony enough to try.
Three of four extremities—fifteen suckers—should have contact simultaneously to carry my low body weight, otherwise I’d be going down! That, too, limited the amount of equipment I could carry around. I had to save on clothes, so instead my skin showed the right camouflage coloring. Hey—I had never before burgled nude! Wasn’t that loony?
Too much dust on the glass or even soap would have been the end of my climb—bye, Jo! Rain would be the last thing I needed now, but that’s what weather forecasts were for. I could have guessed that it would be rather windy up here and thus chilly—now I simply had to suffer the temperatures. I shouldn’t even tremble!
Okay, one third of the distance still lay ahead of me, so I should tackle that remainder now. It was the right foot’s turn. Cautiously, I detached the five toes from the window and applied them ten centimeters higher again. A quick test proved to me that they had suction, so I moved my body some way up. Next was the left hand. And so on.
Chapter Two
Move by move, I approached the green lit letters. Move by move, I adapted my body color to the stray light. Where exactly would I find access now?
A narrow grid catwalk ran between the letters and the wall. Great! Not only that I’d finally find a safe hold there, this catwalk wouldn’t be covered by motion sensors. After the hours-long climb, I looked forward to a short break—even if it only was for my nerves, which hadn’t found a moment’s rest. I shouldn’t rush now, though—the last moves had to come patiently, so that I wouldn’t lose my grip on the last centimeters.
It cost me more self control than power to reach the catwalk. After more than two hours of climbing, I was simply worn out. I could grant myself a few minutes there, control pulse and blood pressure, take a deep breath, and relax my muscles. I soothed my bad conscience by telling myself I’d wait and see whether my presence would trigger any reaction, and moreover, I needed calm hands for the next step.
With the climbing alone, I wasn’t done yet. I wanted to get inside the building, to the executive floor and into one of the offices there. In order to get there, I first had to deal with the door, probably locked from inside, that led to my grid catwalk.
This proved easy. As it should be primarily impossible to reach, with the catwalk undetected from outside, sloppiness had snuck in—nobody had cared to lock the door. Thus the door—which could never remain open due to the strong wind at this height—could simply be pulled open at its lever. Next I stood in the spacious airlock chamber. Right next to the door I could read advice in multiple languages to always keep the outside door shut and never open it together with the inside door, so that the rush of air wouldn’t cause havoc inside the building.
Most importantly, I wasn’t interested in a rush of air stirring up the guards, so I nicely closed the outside door before I very gently pulled at the inside door. Gently, so that the pressure equalization inside the chamber wouldn’t trigger any plop or crack sounds inside the building. Then I was inside, and nobody knew of my presence.
In order to keep it that way, I adapted my skin color to the dull-pale wall color. I knew roughly how many surveillance cameras had to be installed inside the building overall, because I had procured the respective vendor data before—only one of the numerous exploration missions I had performed in preparation of this prowl. From the number, I could easily tell that not only emergency staircases and elevator access were secured. However, I hadn’t been able to find precise installation plans for all floors—there was a general instruction for just these staircases and elevators and a few detailed sketches for the reception area and the executive floor. If one of the cameras was aimed at this door, my mission would fail here and now.
No, tonight fortune favored the bold. Nobody could observe the maintenance door opening and closing. Despite my invisibility, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.
I still faced a similar problem, as I’d have to cover another twelve floors to reach the executive floor. I could use the camera-guarded elevator or a well-secured emergency staircase—or had I rather follow the cliché and use the tight, always silver-colored, rectangular, and astonishingly well-lit air condition duct?
Neither of these options appealed to me. I instead searched access to the maintenance shaft for the in-house network, squeezed through the maintenance flap and began the strenuous climb between the glass fiber cables. If I wasn’t susceptible to acrophobia outside, now my disposition toward claustrophobia was put to the test. Only someone of my stature would fit inside here at all, and only someone with a nano-technically adapted skin could wind his or her way between the cables and cable bridges without cutting him or herself a few dozen times. Of course, my stamina was also tested another time, even if I only had to cover about thirty meters.
Chapter Three
Frostdragon’s executive floor indeed seemed to be deserted this night. This wasn’t typical for a large international corporation, but there were nights like these, when the entire board of directors, including their respective staffs, had to attend an external event. These events weren’t exactly broadcasted to the public, but those who could read the signs could find out something. The best sources were the host’s preparations—Frostdragon Australia had perked itself up, so they expected important visitors.
The fireproof flap to the cable duct was diligently closed again. Before I stepped from the small service room into the hallway, I checked the surroundings with a little mirror—one of the few devices I had brought, after all there wasn’t much room in my cheek pouch. It wasn’t just the afore-mentioned weight problem. To maintain my camouflage I also had to wear any equipment inside my body.
I’d only regard this floor as empty once I’d checked that personally. The little mirror with the folding grip not only told me that the hallway was empty, but also that no camera lens was observing the door, before I pushed it farther open and stepped outside.
My skin was already adjusting to the high-class wooden tiling’s patterns that were predominant on this floor. First, I cast a brief worried glance down—how much did the carpet give in under my bare feet? All my camouflage wouldn’t help if I gave myself away there.
No, I didn’t give myself away. The decorator hadn’t opted for fluffy luxury, but for practical, coffee-proof, antistatic, difficult-to-ignite carpeting with pepper-and-salt pattern, on which I could sneak along marvelously quietly.
I’d have most liked to keep my track short and pick the office right behind the next door. But the offices on this side faced the city and thus also were visible from there—I needed an office where the computer screen would shine on an uninhabited area, and that could only be found on the ocean side. For this purpose, I had to round the floor once, across the elevators and the emergency staircase door, and across the reception for the administrative office of the board and the guard located there, too.
The presence of a guard didn’t surprise me. First, no responsible head of security would rely on electronic systems alone that could fail or be cheated. Second, surveillance cameras couldn’t act against intruders like me. Until an express elevator from the ground could arrive here, precious seconds would have passed.
Moreover, the man wore a Frostdragon armor suit made from nano material. This way, he could camouflage himself almost as well as I could, was protected against light firearms, blades and fire, and his visor gave him infrared view, motion detection and similar gimmicks. For guard service, there was no need for the backpack with micro fusion reactor and heavy linear cannons—after all, we weren’t at war—instead he wore an ordinary pistol in a holster made of nano material at his hip. This way, it would be camouflaged, too, as long as he didn’t draw the weapon.
