Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1) by Mariana Morgan (essential reading txt) 📕

in VR. In the meantime, keep your head down, do your job and take it seriously. And it’s Major Toscano to you. Understood?’

‘Yes, Major.’ There was a time to mess around and there was indeed a time take their job seriously. Palmeiro was no fool; he knew where the former ended and the latter began, even if he did like to push the boundaries. He also recognised that finality in her voice.

‘Get out!’ She twitched her head at the door, feeling oddly satisfied as Tilly correctly predicted her next order and unlocked the door automatically. It was creepy to know that the computer system was spying on them, but extremely useful when it anticipated your needs correctly.

With Palmeiro gone she looked down at her hand and extended her fingers gingerly. It always puzzled her how she could finish a fight with barely a scratch but a single punch could hurt her knuckles so much.

‘Fucking karma, girl,’ she mumbled, using the fingers of her left hand to rub the soreness away. ‘You shouldn’t have given in to the temptation, and you know it. He fools around, but he does his job better than most people with such an exalted birth.’

It wasn’t really the smart talking that had made her lose it. His accusations, while just a cruel tease and a bluff, hurt.

They hurt because it was too close to the truth for comfort, and she wasn’t proud of that.

Agnes Ullern had seemed like a dream come true after years of abuse followed by harsh Special Forces training. Toscano had met the younger woman during her first assignment barely a few weeks after graduation, and for the first time had enjoyed relaxing in bed, knowing it was okay to say no. But while it had been possible for her to leave Molina Ortega’s identity and the Leech life behind, Agnes had still been a Leech. At first Toscano had felt a comfortable satisfaction in being able to provide protection for the younger, less experienced woman, but soon things started getting out of control.

To preserve the safety the relationship offered, Agnes had obsessively begun to try to provide everything Toscano might have wished for. She had readily taken the blame for all her problems, offered massages and sex when Toscano had been frustrated or angry. And from that it had been a short step to acting more like a servant than as an equal partner in the relationship.

It had all started almost like a joke, a little bit of roleplay, giggling about the things Toscano could have done if she had been as nasty an Elite as some. But when the giggles subsided, Toscano felt uneasy, realising that the power she had over Agnes was scarily real. Absolutely nothing and no one had stood between her and the temptation to use it.

In a sudden panic, Toscano had broken it off. But there was no way to forget how glorious that surge of power had felt before the guilt smothered it. She never wanted to feel that particular temptation ever again.

CHAPTER 43

Roc de Chere

Lac d’Annecy

Afro-European Alliance

Tuesday 28 April 2725

DAY 9

‘Workable?’ Gonzalez asked, letting his chair tip backwards as he stretched his stiffened arms with enthusiasm. It was late at night, after yet another long day.

Ingram nodded. ‘Workable.’

They had spent the last hour throwing ideas back and forth—Gonzalez mainly throwing them forth for Ingram to give him second opinions while throwing them back.

The more they had looked into Wagner’s files, the more connections to Cassandra they had discovered, and the idea of breaking into their system for a full scan through their network had become a necessity. Cassandra’s security system was breachable from a distance, just like any system ever invented, but it would take time, during which Cassandra’s own IT personnel would give them a hell of a fight. A direct assault on the R&D compound opened up better options; it would be quicker and less predictable. Just like Eloise’s home, R&D facilities had excellent protection when it came to corporate espionage while security features against a brute-force approach were lax. The direct fire-in-the-hole types of raids had been virtually unheard of since the end of the Freedom Wars.

‘Workable’ as an adjective wasn’t really high praise for an assault plan, but it was realistic. After they got burnt at Givors, it had become obvious that their enemy, despite having functioned with impunity for years, was fully prepared to counter-attack. The Cassandra R&D site was likely to have security features that they would only discover once those features turned against them. So ‘workable’ really was high praise, all things considered.

‘By the way, does the compound have a more creative name than “main R&D complex”?’ Gonzalez asked, letting his chair return upright. He rubbed his weary eyes.

‘Olympus,’ Ingram replied, consulting her notes.

‘A compound called Olympus located on the plateau of a mountain? You’ve got to be kidding me.’ Gonzalez cackled, then shook his head with soft indulgence when Ingram’s eyes didn’t focus with understanding. ‘Mount Olympus. Look it up in the database. Ancient Greek mythology, a few centuries BC.’

‘Do I have to?’ Ingram asked, her lips twitching. Such ancient history was somewhat outside of her area of interest.

‘No, I suppose that particular bit of information is totally irrelevant. All you really have to know is that Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece, was believed to be the seat of their major gods. Which I suppose might tell us something about the state of mind of whoever named the damn thing.’

‘The compound is over two hundred years old. Whoever named it is long gone, even with nano-tech.’

‘True, but I doubt some junior worker involved in the construction work got to name it. The offspring of that megalomaniac is probably still either pulling the strings or officially in charge.’

Ingram shrugged, admitting defeat, and then a huge yawn forced her to give her own face a vigorous rub. Gonzalez had ordered everyone else to bed nearly an hour ago, wanting them fresh and rested the