Scavenger Vanishes
By
Liza O’Connor
Two hundred years ago, before the terror wars changed Earth, rules
to prevent inappropriate relationships and coercion between high-ranking
personnel and their subordinates existed in the USA armed forces.
But it never worked well, especially when highly ranked colonels
raped women or men in his service. Even if the victim tried to file a
complaint, the general could and usually would refuse to bring charges and that
ended matters, except statistically the victim, would suffer further abuse for
filing the complaint, which explains why most rapes were never reported
Now, 200 years into our future, MAC, the artificial intelligence
that runs the SkyRyder Corps, evaluates all personnel and ranks them on their
abilities, thus the need to prevent an officer from fraternizing or having sex
with someone beneath them is not against the rules IF both parties are willing
to participate. Since both parties are assigned their rank and job by MAC,
there should be no negative impact if they wish to fraternize.
Sadly, MAC missed the big issue:
As long as General Powel can field promote or demote the
soldiers whenever he likes, for whatever reason, he still has excessive power;
and as long as Powell keeps a list of every mistake a soldier has ever made and
can send it to MAC whenever he wishes to punish the soldier, he still controls his
or her future in the Corps; Thus, Powel continues to wield incredible power over
his men and women.
And like most humans, he’s not always fair or reasonable. In the
excerpt below he demands Alisha to give his men the “same comfort” she has
given Logan’s men. He sees it as fairness. She sees it as coerced sex.
Scavenger Vanishes
By Liza O’Connor
BLURB
Stationed on opposite coasts,
Alisha and Logan must each face their own demons and challenges. On the West
Coast, Alisha loses her rank for butting heads with General Powell and soon discovers
the life of a private can be utter hell. On the East Coast, newly promoted
General Logan discovers his soldiers do not recognize his authority to command.
In an effort to retake control of the East Coast Corps, Logan authorizes
unthinkable actions. When Alisha faces a life-threatening crisis, will Logan
rise above his own troubles, or will she discover love and rescue with her best
friend Jack?
EXCERPT
The moment the door closed behind
her, her ears rang from Powell’s bellowing about her inability to teach his
fliers Class Five skills.
“How many passed, sir?” The general
had stormed off without reading the scores out loud.
“None!”
“Tucker didn’t pass?” she asked in
disbelief. His run had been nearly perfect.
“I was talking about my soldiers!” the general raged. “None
of my soldiers passed. But then you
didn’t actually provide them any of your generous comfort, now did you?”
“I haven’t provided anyone with
comfort.”
He was in her face, roaring just like
that old lion at the zoo, except this time there were no bars protecting her.
“You are addressing a general, Private Kane. You will address me as ‘sir’, and
you will limit your answers to no more than is required to answer my questions.
Is that understood?”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
“Now I want to know why all my men
failed the exam?”
“They couldn’t have failed by much,
sir. They have all the maneuvers down.”
“I don’t care how close they got.
They didn’t pass the test. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir!”
“I want them to pass. You do whatever
you have to do to make them pass in three days. You give them whatever you gave
Tucker. Am I clear?”
Alisha suddenly felt like a virgin
mistress being scolded by her parents. “Do whatever it takes, but keep him
happy and get a baby in your womb.”
Logan, get me out of here! she inwardly prayed as she replied to the general that she
understood.
“Good.” He returned to his desk and
held up a sheet of paper. “I made a mistake with my handling of you. I admit
that. I gave you too much rein. Ironic, since that was the exact problem Logan
had with you as well. You would think I would have learned from his mistake.
Well, I didn’t, but I have learned now. Going forward, there will be zero
tolerance in your behavior. You will be the model soldier.”
“Yes, sir,” Alisha said. “I will,”
she promised. “I recognize what I did at the assembly was wrong, sir. That will
never happen again.”
“Nice words, Private Kane. And they
sound sincere. Would that be because you’re expecting General Logan to come and
rescue you from having to fulfill them?”
SALES LINK
The SkyRyder’s Series,
Book 3
Scavenger Vanishes
Or Go Wide
Apple
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
And MORE through the
link below
About the Author
Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They
hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an
adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New
Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white
sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and
raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur
photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her
entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.
Follow Liza O'Connor
Be sure to click FOLLOW on my Amazon page so I can alert you
to new books.
which
I've dedicate to Sci Fi books
where
I talk and share about books, politics, and other silliness.
(That's @Liza, the number 0, then Connor)
THERE’S OVER 50 OF THEM
