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  The explosion was tremendous. Her body pulled a shield around her, and she sat in the flames and rubble, watching it through the glass goggles that were built into the helmet covering her head.

  She reached under the console and triggered her escape explosion. When billows of smoke came from the vehicle, she got out and walked to the corner where Leadra was watching. Everyone else was staring at the smoke, and the vid copters were flying around, watching the wreck burn.

  “Brneary?” Leadra whispered.

  “Yes. Sorry. Wait. Is the suit still on fire?” She started to beat out the flames with her palms.

  “It is. Holy... well, we now know how you survived that first day.” Leadra blinked a few times and moved back into the shadows.

  Brneary followed, and she watched the emergency vehicles arrive to put out the flames.

  “So, you have the report ready?”

  Leadra nodded. “How did you know they would do this?”

  “I haven’t made the first board meeting with me as the head public yet. There is still time for them to pretend I never came back.” She asked, “Am I out?”

  “Mostly. Still coals but no more flames.”

  Brneary pulled off her helmet, and she tucked it under her arm. “Right. Well, put out the press release that my car exploded and nobody was found in the wreckage.”

  Leadra lifted the tablet. “Done. Now, shall we go and get in a vehicle and head home?”

  “That sounds nice. This suit is a little warm.” She took a deep breath in, and when she exhaled, the chunks of armour fell off next to the wreckage from her vehicle. It had certainly exploded with a lot of force.

  Alfus was waiting for them, and he was shocked when she stepped into the vehicle. “I just saw the news vid. That was some explosion.”

  Brneary quirked her lips as she sat back. “Too much?”

  Leadra blinked and gave her a slow smile. “Just enough.”

  Alfus shook his head, and they pulled away from the parkade, heading down the street with the heavily shaded windows of the vehicle blocking her from the light of the afternoon sun.

  “So, when do we tell folks you are alive?”

  “Four hours from now. Press conference at home.”

  “Good.”

  Alfus looked up at her in the mirror. “Did you really plan the bombing?”

  “Of course. It is what my mother would have done.”

  He and Leadra both laughed. She wasn’t wrong. Her mother would have planned the bombing to point the finger at the board of directors.

  Brneary brushed some soot from her sleeve. “It wasn’t like they haven’t sent three assassins already. This just put it out where they can’t deny it. It will also cause a ton of infighting within their little grouping.”

  Leadra smiled. “It has been nice to practice some of the old skills.”

  Brneary chuckled. Her cousin was a delightfully efficient assassin. “I am glad you could get out and flex those muscles.”

  “Well, you have always been talented at bringing challenges.”

  Alfus snorted and kept driving until they were back at the estate.

  Brneary hadn’t been sure about her plan, but when she checked the news vids reporting the explosion and rumours began to fly about the board meeting earlier in the week, she knew she had made the right call.

  Manipulation on this scale came remarkably naturally. It was a little frightening, actually. Brneary was in a hurry to get the power issue settled so that she could work in earnest on the ultimate project.

  Setting up a hero team that would answer minor incidences and help on worlds where women had no power was important to her mother. The family could have done it, but sending a private army was dangerous, and they didn’t have enough variety of gifts to make a team that would be useful in all situations. The gifts of the family tended to be on the exploding and slashing side. That would not be good in a peace-treaty situation.

  Team Seven was made of researchers, teams one through three were power hitters. The cluster needed a team that could find and take care of the jobs that fell through the cracks.

  Funding the research for technology and equipment had already been put into play. She just had to find the right investigator to fit the bill, without it being connected to her. Monarth was going to have to act as the head of the investment consortium that was going to fund Team Eight, but he would ask her for her opinion when there was no chance of being found out. She trusted him to act the correct way on the day.

  Leadra was her first choice, but there was too marked a resemblance between herself and her cousin. It was far less obvious in Monarth.

  Once she was out of the car, she changed her clothing and then got into makeup. Her cousin Maritha specialised in special effects and created the image of a woman who had just had an explosion with an excellent fire suppressant in her vehicle.

  A sling was pressed into service, and by the time the press was lined up, she looked like hell.

  She walked slowly out of the hall to the podium, and she inclined her head carefully to the assembled press.

  “I hope everyone here is having a better day than I am.” She leaned on the podium with her free arm.

  The laughter and murmurs were quick.

  “Today, I went to the Kiniak Corp offices to get some files that were too sensitive for unsecured transfer. When I left to drive home, glad to be under my own power for the first time in a long time, my vehicle exploded.”

  She took in a deep breath and exhaled. “Thankfully, Kiniak Corp owns several companies, and one of them makes amazing fire suppression systems. I was very glad for that particular acquisition today.”

  More laughter.

  “I may as well announce it. Earlier this week there was a board meeting, and the entire board was dismissed for mishandling assets in the short time since my parents passed. Replacements have been selected from our world’s best and brightest environmentalists and researchers. The first meeting of the new board is scheduled for two weeks from today.”

  She smiled and swayed. “I will take two questions, so make sure they are good. Talk amongst yourselves.”

  The press spoke quickly, and someone raised their hand. “Yes?”

  “How did you survive?”

  “I got out of my car the moment the suppression system let me out. I ran for the building, not sure if I was going to suffer another attack, and from there, I called my regular driver and waited for a ride.”

  “Why not make yourself known?”

  She didn’t smile. The mark on her face was tight enough to remind her not to smile. “As exploding cars are few and far between with cold engines, I thought that there might be something else waiting for me. I got myself safe and then worried about notifying people. Oh, and I currently don’t trust med facilities. Okay, folks. I am done and heading back to my nice, comfy couch. I think I could use a lie-down and another checkup by my physician.”

  She turned and walked away while they were slapping each other for not choosing a better second question.

  She kept walking slowly, knowing that a few vid drones were trying to see inside the house.

  The doors were closed, and she was safe once again. Time to get some combat practice. Any bruises she got today would definitely be excused by her previously recorded activities.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I need to punch something. Shall we go and play?”

  There was a scramble as her cousins all headed for the training facility below the building. It was time to have some fun, in all the ways only her mother’s people knew.

  Hours later, they sat around the table in the kitchen, snickering and poking fun at fighting styles.

  “Miss, you looked like you were fishing in a cold stream.” Leadra chuckled.

  “And you looked like you just fell butt first into that same stream and froze your ass. I have rarely seen a stance as wide.” Brneary made a face.

  Monarth
cleared his throat. “So, Miss, which researcher are you going with for body armour?”

  “There are a few textile plants that I am interested in. Dr. Hemmar is doing excellent work with the existing teams, but I am looking for something more specific. I am thinking, engineering departments of universities. Folks that have a great start but are running out of funding.”

  Tablets came whipping out, and everyone around the table got into the research. They were as competitive about this as they were everything else.

  Mikaro raised his hand. “I have nanite motorcycles.”

  “Living armour.”

  “Solar flares that burn for two days.”

  They went around the table for hours, and each option was discussed, and if it was worthy, it got funded. There was no guarantee that the research would be completed in time for the team assembly, but if it was prepared down the road, ladies could always use useful accessories.

  Monarth frowned at one point. “Why women?”

  “Because there is no all-female team, and on half a dozen worlds, they will be able to go places that no other team would have access to.”

  He nodded. “Fair enough. Right. Who is going to put this team together?”

  Brneary flicked the dossiers out to her clan, and they discussed the merits of each and every one of the candidates.

  Leadra flicked her choice out. “I like this one. Not a lot of experience but enough insight into human behaviour that her intuition functions like a gift. I think she’s a good choice.”

  Brneary looked at the file, and she nodded. “Enough credentials to compile her own team, an instinct that gets her to the scenes moments after the crime occurs, and an excellent rating on her accounting exams. She can stick to a budget.”

  They sat around and ate dinner, discussing the merits of a few more of the candidates before agreeing on the investigator to send the proposal to.

  Getting the Team Project to agree to Team Eight wasn’t going to be a problem. The teams were one of the charities that Kiniak Corp donated to regularly. Getting a meeting with the council head would not take much doing.

  She was going to have to strap on her formal name, but it would be worth it in the long run. She didn’t wear Bromelalia Brneary Ilassis Win Cadein Ornuac lightly. It was a heavy name, and she hated using it. Brneary was difficult to pronounce, but it suited her, and Eerie was what her friends had called her, but they were all gone now. It was funny how thinking about a name could make her feel.

  Monarth cleared his throat. “All right, everyone. Now that dinner is digesting, and the dishes are done, back to the workout room. It looks like the Miss needs a distraction.”

  She looked up, startled. “It was on my face?”

  Leadra nodded. “All over it. Come on. Let’s go punch something that can’t call you a bitch.”

  The Cadein clan jostled her to her feet, and they headed back for a second workout. As Monarth pointed out, disaster wouldn’t come at convenient times when she was feeling fresh, so she had to be able to work with a bruised body and exhausted mind.

  He knew what it took to build a hero. It was the same thing that built a villain but with less self-involvement.

  As she sparred with Mintoss, she thought about how the Cadeins had come into her life. Her mother had insisted on their presence after the third kidnapping attempt before Brneary was two. They were her friends, her playmates, and now her trainers. And they always called her Miss. One slip would give the game away, and being surrounded constantly by family was one card she was not willing to show. It was fortunate that the Cadeins were genetically diverse enough to hide their relationships on a casual basis. Marrying within other thieving clans, and even different trades had always been a practice that they engaged in. You married where there was love, even if it was a rich man that made the rest of your clan roll their eyes and shake their heads.

  She grinned to herself, remembering her mother talking about how insufferable she had found Brneary’s father. Her mom had always been a fighter. Brneary tightened her fist and knocked her cousin to the ground with one uppercut. Her mother would have wanted things that way.

  Chapter Five

  Building muscle took time. Building a legacy was far easier. Building two legacies that took a little bit of juggling.

  Monarth was dealing with the Team Project, and they seemed to have taken the bait. Not only was Jianik offered the chance to begin assembling her team, but she was assembling candidate files from around the cluster. She was literally looking at everyone with a gift, no matter how minor. She was also the only investigator who had taken the hint that an all-female team would be acceptable and desirable.

  Twelve other investigators had gotten the offer and funding to try and put their own team together.

  The agreement was that once the team was selected, the investment consortium would disappear. No trace would come back to them, and they would have no say in the operation of the team. It meant one very particular thing. If Brneary wanted to get on the team, she had to be an active hero on her world.

  It took some research, but she finally found somewhere on her world where she could help. It just happened to be the place she thought she would never have to return to. The energy core of the reactor was still radiating uncontrolled radiation, and the surrounding area was showing the effects. The orb needed to be removed and contained. The containment that was currently in place was rapidly losing effectiveness.

  Brneary got all the data on the reactor that she could. It was easier for her than for most, as Kiniak Corp had been one of the investors for the project. She had all of the schematics and the position of the core in the files. She just had to find a substance that would make her radiation proof. She didn’t want kids now, but she might someday.

  She looked up from her research and asked Leadra, “So, what is security like?”

  “You can bypass it. There is an entrance right here.” Her cousin tapped the position on the map.

  “What? It isn’t on any maps.” Brneary was getting a bad feeling about this.

  “No, it wouldn’t be. It is the air access, but a facility this big, it needs to be huge.” Leadra was eating an apple, and she paused. “You don’t think that that is what happened?”

  “Did anyone look into the cause?”

  “It was all pretty muddled. We were looking into it frantically, and then, you were found. Our focused switched from search to rescue. I don’t think that anyone has gotten back to it.”

  Brneary looked at her. “Who was the primary investigator?”

  “Uncle Temlia.”

  Brneary froze. “You mean my grandfather?”

  “The very same.”

  “Did he tell you what he found?”

  Leadra gave her a serious look. “What do you think?”

  Brneary cursed. “I am going to have to go and see him, aren’t I?”

  “Probably. I wish I could help you, but that is far beyond my clan station.”

  “It’s fine. I will go and see him as soon as I can make an appointment.”

  Leadra cleared her throat. “You have the right to see him. You don’t need an appointment.”

  “He doesn’t want anything to do with my family, so I will abide by the formal regulation. I will make an appointment and go when he has time to see me. I will not trade on a family relationship that isn’t there.”

  She turned to her data pad and sent the formal request for a conversation to her grandfather’s secretary. She stated what she wished to discuss, and then, she sighed. “Okay. So, now, I wait for a month while he decides how to deal with my request.”

  Brneary smiled sadly and continued her research on the access points of the destroyed facility.

  She was shocked when her tablet chimed, and she read the response to her contact.

  Leadra stared. “You just went white. I mean, whiter. What is it?”

  “Grandfather will be here within the hour. He’s on th
e way.”

  “Shit! I will get the kitchen to get something ready.”

  Brneary got to her feet and tried to remain calm as she walked to her bedroom to change from workout clothing to business formal. She was about to meet with a man she had never seen before, and he had put a price on her mother’s head, and hers as well, until she was two. That was when the clan left his side and turned to her mother, offering her protection from the unending attempts on their lives.

  Now, she had asked him for information on the death of her parents, and he was coming to talk to her about it.

  Monarth met her in the corridor. “Is he really coming?”

  “He stated as much in the message.” She glanced at him. “How is my hair?”

  “White.”

  She quirked a smile. “Just checking.”

  Brneary returned to her study and tried to get a handle on what she needed to do. It was best to walk in during the day, wearing concealing clothing.

  It was another thirty minutes before Monarth knocked on her door. “He’s here, Miss.”

  “I will meet him in the front room.”

  A gravelly voice boomed out. “No need. I am already here.”

  Monarth winced. “Apologies, Lord Temlia. I did not realize you were behind me.”

  Brneary got to her feet and stared as her grandfather entered her study.

  She had never seen him in person before, but the bear of a man had appeared in a number of images that her mother had shown her.

  Her mother had shown her the image of her grandfather, and in a serious tone, she said, “If you ever see this man on the street, Brneary... run.”

  Brneary had asked why, and the only response was that he was very, very dangerous.

  Now, that dangerous man was staring at her, his gaze taking her in from head to toe.

  “Lord Temlia, thank you for coming.”

  He hesitated and then he took a few rapid strides toward her, hugging her tight. “I thought I had lost you.”

  She blinked and waited for the searing pain of a knife. When no pain followed his hug, she patted him on the back and heard his soft sobs.