Crusade For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 2) (50 page)

Hanna took the box and her eyes widened as she saw the names carved on the lid.  Deni gasped as she read them over Hanna’s shoulder.

“It actually works better this way I think,” Valerie said.  “You should receive it together.”

“What is it?” Hanna asked looking a little afraid.

“Something I want you to have, open it.”  Valerie told them sincerely, but she couldn’t help the tears at the corner of her eyes.

Hanna tried lifting the lid and started to struggle when it wouldn’t move.

“I think it’s locked,” she said.

“It’s a puzzle box,” Valerie leaned forward and pointed to three points on the sides.  “Put your fingers on these and squeeze gently.”

Hanna did as she was told and the lid popped open.  Both girls gasped.

“Is that what I think it is?” Deni asked in wonder.

“Yes,” Valerie answered seriously.  “Two doses of Life X.  One for each of you.  You’re both sixteen so you should be eligible for them.  You can check with the Company medic in the morning.”

“The box says Daphne and Bobbie on it,” Hanna said.  “These were for your children.”

“Yes, they were and that’s...  That’s not possible, anymore.  I want you to have them.  Now say thank you, give me a hug and go to bed.”

“Thank you, Valerie,” Deni said as she hugged her.

“You are truly welcome,” Valerie said and Deni stepped back, letting Hanna take her turn.

“Thanks, Mom,” Hanna whispered, so quietly anyone without Valerie’s enhanced hearing would have missed it and the tears threatened to flow again.  Hanna was far too smart, not to have done it on purpose.

“You’re welcome.”  Valerie held Hanna out and looked at both of the girls.  They had come a long way since that dirty alley in Inferno, herself included.  She saw two strong women in front of her, who would now have all the time they needed to show their full potential.

“Go on both of you, off to bed before we all start crying,” she said after a moment.

They both hugged her one last time and left for their own quarters.  Valerie switched off the lights and fell into a deep sleep.  This time there were no dreams.

“Look what I’ve got!” Troll announced as loudly as she could.  The Crew all looked up from where they sat slumped around the living room in Sneaker’s quarters.

“That’s what I call a welcome sight,” Rush greeted her when he saw the beer in her hands.

“Where did you get that?” Sneaker asked.

“You know better than to ask that, Boss,” Troll replied with a wink and made her way round, handing a couple of bottles to each of the men.

“I see you get an extra, Barney,” Hobbs laughed and her partner shrugged slightly.

“Who do you think managed to obtain these wonderful treasures?” Troll said.

“Always the quiet one’s,” Rush said.

“How come you get three then, Troll?” Judge said quietly.

“Am I not the one delivering the beer?  Haven’t I earned my reward for smuggling it through all these military and Rebel types?  Dry ship, whoever heard such nonsense?”

“Someone who knows just how much you reprobates can drink,” Sneaker pointed out before he took a large swig from his bottle.  “We’d never be able to get enough on board for everyone.”

“Where are Hanna and Deni?” Rush asked.

“With Valerie,” Sneaker answered more seriously.

“Good, she needs them,” Barney rumbled.

“Whoa!” Rush joked.  “He speaks!”

“Yeah, yeah, short arse,” Troll shot back.  “He can do that you know,” she took another gulp of beer and turned to Sneaker.  “So what’s the plan now, Boss?”

“Drop this lot off at the Rebel’s Briar Patch and start working with Valerie to get the word out.”

“But how do we get paid?” Hobbs asked.

“I’ve got you covered,” Sneaker answered.

“That can’t last forever, Boss,” Rush pointed out.  “Unless you’ve been holding out on us, your pockets aren’t limitless.”

“Sneaker hold out?” Troll laughed.  “Never going to happen.”

“It’s not just about the money, Hobbs,” Sneaker said.  “Do you want the Privileged lording it over everyone forever?  Don’t you want to do something about it?”

“I don’t like it any more than the next guy, but why us?” Hobbs asked.

“Who else can do it?” Sneaker answered.

“There are over fifteen hundred Rebels on this ship,” Rush pointed out.  “And that’s before we emptied the Rock.  Isn’t it kind of their job?”

Troll belched loudly.  “And how much have they achieved in fifty years?” she asked.  “Two fifteen year old girls managed to do more in under a year.  Why?  Because they’re Blaze Crew!” she hoisted her beer up to emphasis her point and the others cheered.  “How much more can we do with a hundred of our people on board?”

“There’s going to be a lot of wealth floating around if the Families go down.” Judge mused.

“See,” Troll said with a grin.  “We’ll get paid.”

Ding.  Valerie looked up at the sound of the door chime.  The MP armour she used the day before was spread out on the dining room table.  She was sure, the ship’s designers hadn’t had it mind for her to service powered armour on.  To protect it, she spread spare bed sheets she found in the stewards quarters, all over the surface.  The table was the perfect height for her and gave her plenty of room.  The chest piece was finished and looked like new, standing on one of the chairs.  The rest were spread all over the table.

Wiping her hands, Valerie headed to the door.  She had woken from the most restful night’s sleep in three years, to the girls coming by for breakfast.  After they all raided her larder again, the three of them picked the quarters next door for the girls to move into.  They found a storage locker on this floor containing spare beds, though why Valerie wasn’t sure.  It didn’t take very long to get it set up.  She wasn’t the only one who travelled light.

The girls were fully moved in within an hour of finishing breakfast.  They had headed off to talk to Captain Alvis Wadhwa, Shadow Company’s Doctor.  Valerie wasn’t in the mood to start getting into everything with Shannon and the others, so she decided to clean her borrowed armour.  She knew she was hiding, she felt a certain amount of entitlement to it after all she had been through.

It looked like hiding wasn’t going to work, as she saw Shannon standing outside her door on the screen.  With a sigh Valerie pushed the control and the door slid open.

“Good morning, Shannon.”

“Morning, Valerie.”  There was a distinct level of wariness in her tone and Valerie couldn’t blame her.  “Can I come in?”

Stepping back, Valerie waved for Shannon to do so and led her back to the dining room.

“Giving the armour a service I see,” Shannon said unnecessarily.  “We have people who can do that, you know, and they could do with the practise.”

Valerie gave her friend a look.  From the slightly sheepish expression on her face, she could tell Shannon understood.  Valerie regretted the look, this wasn’t easy for either of them.  She owed her old friend more than that.  Smiling in apology she dropped the cleaning cloth on the table.

“I needed something to do before... well, before this I suppose.”

“Yeah, I get it.  You got any coffee around here?”

Valerie smiled slightly.  “I think I can manage that.  This place is very well stocked, come into the kitchen.”

As she brewed the coffee, they spoke of inconsequential things.  Shannon told her about the training missions they were sent to New Titan to complete, while Valerie talked about the meal the night before.  It was the dance all old friends do after not seeing one another for too long.  They talk about the little things, as they remind themselves why they are such good friends, before getting to the difficult subjects life always has a way of throwing at people, since last they met.

With the coffee on the table in front of them in the reception room, Valerie and Shannon leaned back in the comfortable chairs and the conversation turned to what they had to talk about.

“Why didn’t you call me after it happened?” Shannon asked.

Valerie looked away as she tried to find the right words.  “I didn’t think to.  I didn’t think much of anything after it happened.  You know those instincts we have?  The ones they train us to have?  When your cover gets blown to hades, they trained us to run and escape.”  Her friend nodded her understanding.  “Well, that kicked in, I had one thought, to get away, nothing else.  I wasn’t capable of anything else.  It wasn’t until I reached Furioso that it all caught up with me and I went mad.”

Valerie forced herself to meet Shannon’s eyes.  She saw the deep well of sympathy in them and she finally felt strong enough to deal with it.  “I’m not making an excuse, there is no excuse.  All I can do is try and explain, to tell you what happened.  I was engulfed in this ocean of rage, it filled up every part of me and all I wanted to do is lash out.  To strike at someone, anyone and Furioso was the closest target.  I knew it was someone in the Families who was responsible for Tom, Daphne and Bobbie.”  Valerie could see tears in Shannon’s eyes as she explained and was amazed at the steadiness of her voice, how dry her own eyes were.

“I knew all their power and wealth was based on the Pantheon being unassailable, untouchable, and unstoppable.  I wanted to prove to them, and everyone else out there, it wasn’t true.  The Pantheon could be hurt and hurt so badly, it would put them on notice they
could
no longer kill with impunity.”  As she spoke, the rage uncoiled from its resting place deep in her mind.  Valerie found herself leaning forward in the chair, almost shouting at the end.

Taking a deep breath, she leaned back and gave a soft chuckle.  “As you can see, I’m not over it.  I’m not sure I ever will be, even if I do crush the skull of whoever gave that order.”  She looked down at her hands and flexed them.  Valerie could envisage that moment in front of her.  She gave the image to the rage to feast on.

“Most of the rest you’ve probably had from Hanna and the others.  There isn’t much to tell after I left Olympus, to when I met Hanna.  I found a bar and drank a lot of whisky.  It’s what I needed.”

“I understand,” Shannon said quietly.

“Do you!?”  Valerie demanded, the rage uncoiling.

“Yes,” she replied firmly.  “Not the depths of your pain, but I felt their loss as well.  They were closer to me than any of my flesh and blood.  We bled together on too many battlefields to count and I considered those two children to be my own.”

The rage sank back in the face of that shared pain.  “I know you did.  I’m sorry, Shannon.”

“It isn’t you who should be sorry, it’s them.  The question is, what are you going to do about it?”

“You mean, am I going to lead the Legion in mutiny?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think I should do?”

Shannon cocked her head as she studied Valerie.  “If I was you?  I’d do it.  You want to stop what happened to your family, from happening to others?  The Legion is the only viable option.  Baccurin’s Rebellion is a pipe dream and we both know it.  To win, he would have to destroy the Legion and no one is big enough or powerful enough to be able to do that.”

Valerie ran her hand through her hair as she considered Shannon’s words.  She was right, it was the only strategy that had a chance.  There were few in the Pantheon with access to the amount of intelligence open to a Devil company commander.  They knew the weak points, it was their job to protect them, and exploit the same weak points in other nations.  With what they knew, coupled with her reputation as the Battleborn, they could turn entire Legion Army Brigades and Legion Navy Battle Groups to the cause.

That wasn’t what prevented Valerie from agreeing.  She had her own mission, her own crusade and she did not want, could not allow, that to be delayed.  Leaning forward Valerie nodded.

“OK, I’ll do it.  I’ll be the face of this campaign.  I have one condition.  I won’t stop hunting their killers and when I find them, I’m going to kill them.  Nothing else is more important to me than that.”

Shannon sat forward in her chair, mirroring Valerie’s posture, and met her eyes squarely without a gram of give in them.

“Then we do this, but I have my own condition and this is not negotiable.  No more Furioso’s.  We’ll be hitting military targets, that’s a given, but not as part of your quest for revenge.”

Nodding, Valerie chuckled humourlessly.  “Hanna already laid down the law on that one when the girls agreed to help.”

“She’s a smart girl.”

“Yes, she is.”

“I think we need to go and see Billy Bacc,” Shannon suggested and stood.

“I think you’re right,” agreed Valerie as she went to follow her old friend.

“You know, they’re going to call us traitors and this, treason against the Pantheon.”

“I think,” Valerie mused and a smile spread across her face, the predator’s smile.  “The correct term is Revolution.”