Exit Strategy Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  An acquaintance born in a nightmare turns into an engagement that is far from convenient.

  Yna has lost her friends, family, and world. She wears the marks of torture on her skin and blames the man who couldn’t save her in time.

  When the Guardsman who couldn’t save her comes to beg for a favour, she is hesitant, outraged, and refuses. When he tells her that woman’s life is at stake, she agrees.

  Marked to blend in with his people, Yna is going to pretend to love a man she resents in order to save his sister from public execution if her secret is discovered. It is a good thing that she used to be in show business.

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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.

  Exit Strategy

  Copyright © 2017 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-4874-1403-0

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  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.

  Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

  Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

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  Exit Strategy

  Tales of the Citadel Book 58

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Yna smiled as she slowly moved through the crowd surrounding the exhibit. The wealthiest and most corrupt folk in the sector were there, and she was going to take them for everything they had.

  Cocktails flowed freely, and the guests enjoyed the extinction menagerie that had been assembled for them.

  Yna moved among the guests with her tray, taking pats on her backside in turn with the dispensing of beverages. Her tunic was modest, but it didn’t stop the more lascivious guests from trying to get a hand under it as she made her rounds.

  She kept her smile fixed and her pace steady, making her way around the room in a designated pattern. The other servers were doing the same as the bidders gathered around the next specimen up for auction.

  Yna wasn’t the second server to disappear, but she was the fourth, tucking herself into the tube that launched her down into her shielded bunker.

  From her safe space, she set the program in place to launch all of the ships on the station, blow the only connection to her chamber, and drain the accounts of the rich and powerful, diverting the funds to a million charities across the sector.

  Each and every guest to her station had authorized all payments from the station as required for this one day. She was simply sending a searching account virus to find it all and move it elsewhere.

  The ships would circle back in twelve hours, and by then, the arrogant idiots who had come to purchase living beings would know that they had been taken, leaving only the clothing on their backs.

  Yna didn’t whistle, didn’t make a sound as she worked to reroute the thefts through the two thousand outlets to disguise their eventual resting places.

  She moved around her tiny shielded cubicle and sat in the cradling chair when she was working. The time ticked by, and soon, all the life signs on the decks above were gone.

  Just to be on the safe side, she opened all the bay doors and flushed the atmosphere out of the station. The walls of her cubicle shuddered, but they remained intact.

  Yna keyed up her vessel and shut the doors that lead to her private shuttle bay. A mask and breathing unit were all she needed while she used a small charge to blow the access back to the bidding room. The bots she had designed to look like her had taken a bit of a beating. She settled them in their cubicles and programmed the necessary repairs.

  She set the holographic generators to dormant and looked at her trap. It was amazing to her that she had pulled this con seven times and no one was the wiser.

  Grinning inside her mask, she headed to her ship and set the station to re-form itself. The key to a convincing con was location, location, location. Right now, she was needed back at Citadel Balen. The day job called.

  Yna shrugged into her instructor robe and checked her bodysuit under it. Wearing the pattern of the confined talents of Resicor reminded anyone who saw her what she was and where she had come from.

  The light screech outside her door warned her that she had a visitor, and it wasn’t one she could ignore.

  “Come in, Administrator.”

  The door opened, and she inclined her head. “Good morning, Veera. Morning, Fixit.”

  The raptor on Veera’s shoulder lifted its wings in greeting with a short chirp.

  “So, Yna, did you enjoy your vacation?”

  Yna dialled up some tea and gestured for Veera to have a seat at the table. “I did, as a matter of fact.”

  “I have been getting some odd reports from a variety of worlds in the area you said you were visiting.” Veera took a seat.

  Yna took the cups and carried them over to the table. “Really?”

  “Yes. Some rather shady but wealthy citizens were deprived of their ill-gotten gains overnight.”

  Yna sat and took a sip of her tea. “Did they say how?”

  “No. None are stating the source of their penury. It is strange. The same thing happened the last time you went on vacation.”

  “Wow. That is a coincidence.”

  Veera smiled wryly. “Isn’t it?”

  They sat having tea for a moment before Veera murmured, “You can’t keep doing this, Yna.”

  Yna set her cup down. “They sold me, Veera. They locked my talent up, and they sold me. They cut me off from my own skin, and they sold me to the highest bidder.”

  “I know.”

  Fixit gave a commiserating screech.

  “But you can’t keep devastating entire collections of the wealthy and corrupt. Eventually, they are going to put it together.”

  “I am only targeting folks who were on Resicor and purchasing their own private menageries.”

  “Your skill at getting out of situations like that is something we want you to help others learn. Your survival classes are a boon to the Citadel. I want you to keep teaching them.”

  “Are you asking me to curtail my vacations?”

  Veera groaned. “I am asking you to actually go on something relaxing. Take a cruise. Maybe meet a guy. Something fun and normal.”

  “I like my traps.”

  “I know, and we appreciate them here, but out there, you have to let revenge go. It is consuming you.”

  Yna shrugged. “My family is gone, my friends are dead, all I have left is revenge.”

  “You have your own life now. Don’t you think that your family and friends would enjoy knowing that you have continued onward?”

  “They would be happy at the steps I have taken, but yes, I suppose the
y want me to continue on without them.”

  “So, what are you going to do?” Veera sipped at her tea.

  “I am going to teach my survival class, and then, I am going to Myella’s baby shower.” She shrugged.

  “What are you going to do for yourself?”

  Yna chuckled. “I am going to go to work tomorrow and the day after, and every person I teach to survive is my legacy.”

  “What about family?”

  “I don’t have a family.”

  “I mean starting one of your own.”

  Yna blinked slowly. “I don’t self-replicate.”

  “Then, will you find anyone to replicate with?” Veera raised her brows.

  “Not in my plans. Why?”

  “Just asking.” Veera chuckled. “Stanik was asking.”

  “Right.” Yna sighed. “You know what I went through and what is still left on my skin. It isn’t something that I would expose to a lover.”

  “You would be surprised at what men would be attracted to.”

  Yna gestured to her suit. “Attracted to what is under this suit? That would be a particularly skewed individual.”

  “You underestimate yourself.”

  Yna pulled her instructor robe open and dispersed the Masuo over her torso. Ridges of scarring that had followed the edge of her suit were exposed.

  For three years after her capture, she had been used on news vids as an example of the dangers of Resicor talents. They had held her family’s safety over her head to make her act in the manner they wished. At the end of the third year, her sister had told her the horrible truth. It was her family that had turned her in. She escaped for the first time that evening.

  Her suit was fused to her skin and exposed her like nothing else in a world where it marked her as dangerous. She was captured over and over after every escape, finally being sent off world where she was sold from owner to owner, with one particular gem leaving the marks on her body. He had deducted that it was possible to use the restrictor suit to carry a charge. She had been scorched and on the floor when the Sector Guard first found her.

  The Masuo had been given to her as a medical aid to keep her skin from getting an infection from the burns. The genetic binding mixed with the electric field had turned the edges of her suit into branding irons. When she was healed, she chose the restraint suit as her daily wear. It just felt right.

  “You need to make peace with it, Yna.”

  “I have; I just don’t expect anyone else to.” She reformed her suit and settled her robes back into even lines. “Is there anything else?”

  “It can wait until after your class. Come see me before you go to the shower.”

  “Yes, Administrator.” Yna bowed and winked at Fixit. “You too, mighty beast.”

  Fixit preened and fluffed out his feathers, showing off his wingspan from his perch on his person’s shoulder.

  As a tiny group, they left her quarters, and she headed to the classrooms while Veera headed for the stairs.

  Yna walked to her classroom and excused herself for being late.

  “Now, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to continue our journey into the fine art of lock picking.” She grinned and brought out the sample locks that she had selected. “You may find yourself on a low-tech world with limited options and an escape window that is rapidly closing. You need to learn to get out, and picking locks is a key component of a good exit strategy. Now, class, line up around the workstation, and let’s begin.”

  She took them through the use of implements, talents, and force. Two hours after she had begun, her class was rubbing their fingertips and trying to guess the type of lock she would point to next.

  The chime rang, and they all groaned with disappointment. Yna chuckled and inclined her head. “You can practice with the locks I have put in the simulator. I expect you to be able to open a lock without difficulty by next week. It doesn’t matter which one, you just need to open one to pass this part of the class.”

  They grinned, nodded and filed out. She put her sample locks away and closed up the classroom. Veera was waiting.

  Chapter Two

  Stanik smiled from his desk outside Veera’s office. “They are in there.”

  She nodded and headed through the doors. The squeaking coming from the basket on the desk let her know that Stanik was babysitting some of Fixit’s relatives.

  The soft smile was on her lips when she entered Veera’s office, and it faded when she saw the man sitting across from the administrator.

  “You.”

  He got to his feet until he was face to face with her, and then, he kept rising. She was staring at the small sigil over his left pec when she grunted. “To what do I owe this singular experience?”

  Veera cleared her throat. “Guardsman Ahlgos has requested your assistance on a mission.”

  Yna stubbornly stared at the reinforced chest in front of her. “I decline.”

  “It is a personal matter. I will ask her myself if you will give us the room for a few minutes.”

  Veera and Fixit couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

  Ahlgos remained close, but he started speaking. “Specialist Yna, I have a favour to ask of you.”

  “What is it, Guardsman?”

  He paused and seconds ticked between them.

  “I need a date for my brother’s wedding, and I would like that date to be you.”

  She was shocked into staring up at him, his deep green skin a darker shade than normal, but the silver rank markings were clearly etched in his cheeks. “What?”

  “Your hair is a shade common to my people, and you can pass for a half-blood. I would like you to come with me and help me get through the wedding.”

  “Why me? There are other green-haired women.”

  “Are you really going to make me say it? You didn’t like it the first time.”

  She scowled. “I was being sold in a public auction, and you bid on me!”

  He grunted. “I was trying to get you free.”

  Yna hissed. “You were in Peacekeeper uniform, and you let them send me to that bastard!”

  He winced. “I put a tracker on his ship so that we could find you.”

  She growled and turned to leave. He grabbed her arm.

  “I can only say I am sorry so many times. What happened is a regret that I must live with.”

  Yna tensed at the feel of his hand around her arm. It easily wrapped around her bicep. She wanted to lean into that touch, but her hurt was a formidable barrier.

  She had met his dark green gaze while she was on the stand being sold. The compassion in his look as he bid on her had given her hope, and that was what hurt now. A black hole had grown where the hope had been.

  “You didn’t answer my question. Why me?”

  He closed his eyes and opened them slowly. “Because I have felt a connection to you since that first moment. The strictures of my assignment caused you pain, but it doesn’t change the fact that you are the one I think of when I close my eyes. When I got the order to go home for the wedding, there is no other woman that I wished to have at my side, facing my family.”

  “Why?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Because they are expecting me to announce my engagement at the ceremony, and I want a woman there who can pass for a fiancée.”

  She jerked out of his grip. “You have to be insane.”

  “No, it is the way my people do things. Once my brother is wed, I am next on the roster. The younger siblings cannot get married until the older ones are.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I just need you to pretend to like me until we leave. I can announce that we are going to wed on your world and that aliens are not allowed. That is accepted, and then, my younger siblings can announce their engagements.”

  “What is your damage? I don’t want to be near you.”

  He nodded. “I understand, but there is something else at stake.”

  “What?” She crossed her arms and glared at him.

  “My sist
er’s life is being threatened, and if she can’t get married within the next four months, she will suffer and possibly be murdered.”

  Yna froze. “Why don’t you do something?”

  “I am doing the only thing that I can. I am faking my engagement so that she can get married before her pregnancy is discovered. It is all I can do.”

  The helpless expression on his features showed genuine emotion.

  “Why? What is wrong with a pregnancy?”

  “Her chosen mate is in one of the high families. For a woman to lose control enough to let herself be alone with a male courting her is bad self-control. For her to be pregnant shows a lack of character.”

  “What about him?”

  “His family will find him a chaste female of good family. He will be forced to wait a decade to consummate his marriage.”

  “Why is she punished and he isn’t?”

  He drew in a shuddering breath. “Because my family is middle class and his isn’t. There is a higher burden of purity on the lower classes.”

  “Oh, then why did she...”

  “I was engaged. She objected to my leaving and broke off the arrangement. If things had proceeded on schedule, I would have been married by now, and she would not be in danger. I need you to help me keep her safe.”

  She wanted to kick him in the groin. His sister’s safety was a tool to get her to agree, but it was effective. “Fine. When do we leave?”

  He reached out to her but clenched his fists and put his arms at his sides. “We can leave as soon as we notify the administrator.”

  Yna turned her head. “Veera, you can stop listening at the door. I am going.”

  The chirp from the outer office was a guilty sound. Veera opened the door and handed Yna a data slip. “Here are your travel funds and the order for rank marks to be installed in medical before you leave. Thanks for doing this.”

  Yna took the slip, waved it over her wrist and checked the display on her implanted unit. “That is a bit of cash.”