Reason For Vengeance (Dark Vengeance Book 1) (47 page)

A full glass of whisky sat in front of her, an almost full open bottle next to it.  Just behind them on her desk sat the holo cube.  For the first time it displayed her family.  Valerie had been sitting and staring at the three items for hours. 

She didn’t quite know what to feel.  For so long it was simple.  Grief and rage.  One or the other would be at the fore and drown everything else out.  It was different now.  She felt like she was a child learning to walk as she tried to sort through it all. 

Elation?  Yes, there was some of that.  Another one of the people responsible was dead.  Satisfaction?  That as well.  Bjorn died in pain and his daughter got to know why.  Closure?  No, not that.  There were still more behind Bjorn.  More people responsible.  Peace?  Never.

The fourth item on her desk drew her eye.  A datapad sat there and currently displayed a report from Hanna.  Granath & Dietze were a law firm based only on Olympus.  Their client base was highly secret, but rumoured to include only the oldest and most powerful of the Families.

Picking up the glass of whisky, Valerie walked into her shower unit and poured it down the sink.  She was just in the process of resealing the bottle, when there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Valerie said and Hanna walked in.

“I was half expecting to see that empty,” Hanna said looking at the bottle.

Valerie smiled slightly in response.  “Only half?”

The girl shrugged and dropped into one of the chairs across from the desk.

“Something woke up inside you yesterday.  Before Bjorn.”

Sitting down herself, Valerie leaned back as she thought about that.  “Yes, it did,” she paused, not sure of what to say next and decided to stick with the mission.  “Was Noomi dropped off OK?”

Hanna nodded.  “Safe and sound in Pompeii.  I imagine the Police are going to wonder how and why she ended up on the other side of the planet.”

“As long as it keeps them away from our door and she delivers my message, they can keep on wondering.”

“With all this heat we’ve stirred up, someone is going to link the dark haired, cold eyed killer to Sneaker’s Chief Enforcer.  I’ve made sure there are no images of you, but there must be hundreds of eye witness accounts.  Are you sure leaving her alive was the best play after she saw you and you told her your name?”  Hanna asked seriously.

Shrugging, Valerie shook her head.  “She knows a name and the number of people who can link that to Valerie Carter are very few.  Cestari is one of those and I want him to know.  As for Blaze PD?  There are millions of dark haired women and thousands of them work as Enforcers.  You’re right though, I do need to lay low.”  Not comfortable sitting still Valerie stood up and walked over to the open armoury safe. 

Gently, she picked up one of the children’s drawings.  It was Daphne’s.  Valerie stood their looking at it for a long time and Hanna sat quietly waiting.  The girl seemed to be able to read Valerie’s moods very well.  It was the first time she noticed it and Valerie thought back.  It had been there in the very beginning, when Hanna somehow knew Valerie was not going to harm her, despite what she just witnessed being done to Tern.

“I’m not going to stop, Hanna,” Valerie said with a sigh.  “I’m not going to stop until they all pay or I’m dead.”

“I know,” Hanna said quietly.

“And I can’t continue it here.  I need to go to Olympus, into the jaws of the lion.”

“Huh.”  Hanna grunted with a chuckle.  “More like a Stone Dragon in the midst of a herd of Tofu.”

Turning Valerie couldn’t help the smile that came to her.  The predators smile.

“True.”

“I’m in,” Hanna said seriously.

Valerie thought about that for a moment before answering.

“Good.”

The low sun shone through the windows of Antonio Cestari’s office behind him.  They automatically adjusted to keep the glare to a manageable level.  It was getting close to the end of Friday’s working day and all of his meetings, along with most of his paperwork, were complete.  He was working through the last of it when he was interrupted by a call from his assistant.

“Yes, Alastair?” he answered.  An image of Captain Aguilar’s head appearing over Antonio’s desk.

“Admiral, I have a call from Secretary of Interior Soetemeyer.  Do you want to take it?”  Not that long ago, the question would have been perfectly valid.  He would have Alastair give some excuse on his behalf.

It was strange how much difference two short years made.  “Yes, Alastair.  Please put her through.”

The image of the Captain was replaced by Soetemeyer’s much sterner features.  “Hello, Madam Secretary.  I trust you are well.  What can I do for you?”

“Admiral, I have come across some disturbing news.”  It was not usual for her to get to the point of her conversations without any preamble.  “She’s alive.” 

Antonio prided himself of always being in the loop.  With his closer working relationship with the Secretary of the Interior since Furioso, that had increased.  Now he wasn’t and didn’t know to whom Soetemeyer was referring.

“You have me at a loss, Petra.  Who’s alive?”

“Valerie Carter.”  Those words sent a chill up his spine.  The political ramifications of her turning up with the truth of what happened would be devastating.  She had been well known and liked throughout the Legion.  Her ‘death’ on Furioso was keenly felt.  Behind all of this and many more problems that would cause him professionally, there was something creeping up the back of his spine, something far more personal.

“What is your source?  Have you managed to confirm it?”  Antonio asked. 

“No, it’s not confirmed.”  Soetemeyer replied brusquely.  “A senior manager for Orobello was kidnapped on Blaze a couple of months ago.  His daughter was taken with him and then turned up the next day half a planet away.  Her father never reappeared.  The Police have blamed the disappearance on her and claim she murdered him for the inheritance. 

“A grandson of mine is acquainted with the family.  He told me an interesting story at lunch today.  The girl, Noomi Pomykala, claims they were kidnapped and her father, Bjorn Pomykala was brutally tortured and executed.  The killer, a dark haired woman, claimed Bjorn killed two children and a man, before shooting her father in the head.  The killer then gave Noomi a message.  It was for you, Antonio.  The killer claims she was Eleanor Doherty and she is coming for everyone responsible.”

“Where is this Noomi Pomykala now?” he demanded.  The creeping up his spine increased.

“She is still on Blaze as far as I have been able to determine.  I would suggest we send someone to retrieve her.  Would one of your ships be available?”

“That won’t be a problem,” he thought for a moment.  “I’ll send a squad of Devils on board to do the actual retrieval.  When precisely did this happen?”

“Sixty four days ago.”

Antonio felt the blood drain from his face.  “Carter could already be here.”

Soetemeyer only nodded.

Adrian D Roberts was raised in Essex, England until relocating to Northamptonshire in his thirties.  When growing up, he dreamt of being a Police Officer and managed to realise that dream straight from School.  Dreams don’t always work out.  After two years as a Constable, he joined a Paper Merchant and begun to sell paper for a living.  With fifteen years in sales and buying under his belt, he decided to accept voluntary redundancy to work on his new dream of writing. 

With a daughter he dotes on, he is a keen cyclist and reluctant runner.  An avid reader of just about everything, but majoring in Science Fiction and Fantasy, his other hobbies include Karate, indoor climbing and arguing alternative points of view.

Any and all comments are welcome, so please e-mail the author:

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To the Reader

This is my first book and I hope that you enjoyed it.  The story came to me in about October 2013.  I really wanted to get it out to see what people thought of it.  Valerie certainly became much more than I originally envisioned and that was nothing compared to how Hanna turned out.

They’ll be both be returning in the second book - Crusade for Vengeance.

In the meantime, I would be very grateful if you would leave a review and let others know what you think.

Regards Adrian.