Scavenger Vanishes by Liza 0'Connor

Scavenger Vanishes

By

Liza O’Connor

I have this fascination with lions, and they seem to be fascinated with me as well…Only not in a good way. When I was in Australia, a male lion left his ladies to come down to the corner of the fence, from where I was admiring him. He started roaring midway there and once he got to the corner and was only a foot away from me, my heart was literally pounding. It wasn’t just the extreme loudness of the roar. I could feel the heat from his breath. Every sense of survival instinct within me screamed “Run Bambi Run”. Instead, I remained frozen to the spot and let him yell at me for nearly a half hour. Then he returned to his females and I moved on, my heart still pounding.

Then when I was in Canada, I came upon another male lion who seemed to want to play with me. He didn’t roar at first. He just stalked me, hiding behind little trees that could not block his giant body from view. Finally, he went into attack mode, rushing towards me. When he neared the fifteen-foot fence, he leapt, hitting it about seven feet up, and to my horror, the fence bowed out as if it wished to fall on me.

He hung there, evidently very proud of himself, then he dropped back to the ground and roared at me over and over.

I hurried off to the main gate and reported the incident to the person at the desk. The lady assured me they were building a new lion exhibit and it would be ready in a month or two. I told her I didn’t think she had that long before the lion escaped his cage. I often wondered which of us was correct.

Lions still fascinate me, but I never wish to encounter one without a sturdy fence between us because something about me sets them off.

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

Alisha was glad to be off the stage. Despite the very brave front she had put on for the general, the rage inside him was palpable and frightening. It reminded her of a time when a massive lion stood just inches in front of her at a zoo and burst into roars of fury. Primal fear had surged through her body as the lion’s hot, deathly breath swept over her. Her chest literally vibrated from its roar.

Powell had not yet roared, but his pent-up anger was even more frightening than a lion’s.

The general called the meeting to order. “Upon reviewing the videos of the battles, I am extremely disappointed with both the planning and execution of the battle.” He then spent fifteen minutes slamming Jack for his substandard efforts. Ignoring Alisha’s participation completely, he moved on to the performance of the men. After he called out the first name and demerits, Alisha spoke up loudly.

“Sir, per reg 6.98, I request transfer of the demerits to myself.”

“Granted,” the general replied, and read off the next name.

Stubbornly, Powell read off every single name on his list, and just as stubbornly, Alisha took on the demerits of every Ryder herself. By the end, she had acquired 15,132 demerits.

The general glared down at her. “Fifteen thousand demerits drops you down to a buck private, Kane.”

SALES LINK

The SkyRyder’s Series, Book 3

Scavenger Vanishes

AMAZON

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 

Check out all my books on Amazon

Be sure to click FOLLOW  on my Amazon page so I can alert you to new books.

Stop by my Author Facebook Page 

which I've dedicate to Sci Fi books

Wander over to my Personal Facebook Page

where I talk and share about books, politics, and other silliness.

Twitter is a great place to find me: @Liza0Connor 

(That's @Liza, the number 0, then Connor)

ALL OF LIZA’S BOOKS

THERE’S OVER 45 OF THEM

Scavanger Vanishes by Liza O'Connor

Scavenger Vanishes

By

Liza O’Connor

Protecting your colonel.

If you are a captain of the SkyRyders, you have considerable power. But if you want to remain a captain, then you had better protect your colonel from any damage his stupidity might cause. Colonel Dryer refused to allow Alisha to take her clothes with her when she got herself demoted from Colonel to a buck private. (General Powel was clearly not amused when she crossed him.)

To make matters worse, Dryer demanded Alisha return the sleepwear to the other female cadet who had loaned her the clothes.  Alisha had already been cold, but now she couldn’t stop shivering and feared she was literally going to freeze to death.

Had she done so, MAC would have been one very upset AI. It would have no doubt court-martialed General Powell and had Colonel Dyrers put in prison. Dryer clearly had no idea how important MAC believed Alisha to be. Nor did Captain Benson. He simply addressed this as a ‘protect your colonel’ moment. So Benson and the cadets wrapped Alisha up in blankets and carried her to the medical site, explaining her near death in a way that in no way implicated Colonel Dryer:  She had been lap-dancing them when she started shivering uncontrollably. So they brought her to the medic ward.

That way Colonel Dryer wouldn’t be implicated and they would all live another day!

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

When Alisha woke, she thought she was in heaven. Everything was white. As she focused on the fluorescent lighting, she changed her mind.

“Good, you’re awake,” Sandy said as she placed a thermometer in Alisha’s mouth. “That was a pretty stupid stunt you pulled last night.”

Alisha stared in confusion as Sandy proceeded to give her a lecture on hypothermia. When the medic finally pulled the thermometer from Alisha’s mouth, she tried to sit up. “How did I get here, and what were you told happened to me?”

Sandy gave her one of those “don’t even try to pull the wool over my eyes” looks. “You were brought in by several of your young men friends, who said that while giving them lap dances you had started shivering uncontrollably.”

“Lap dances!”

“Look,” Sandy said. “I don’t give a damn if you screw every man in this camp. In fact, it’s rather refreshing to hear of a female Ryder with a worse reputation than Jack’s. However, take some advice. It’s winter. If you want to do lap dances, don’t do them outside in the buff. You don’t have enough body fat to protect you from the cold.”

Alisha was speechless. She was going to kill Benson.

“Now, your captain is here to take you back to your quarters. I need this room in a half hour. Anything you wish to do before that is not my concern as long as you keep your activity limited to the exam table, and don’t play with the supplies.”

The second Benson entered the room, Alisha hit him with a jar of cotton swabs. “You told the medic I was giving you a lap dance?”

Benson rubbed his chest where the jar had struck. “It was all I could think of. Don’t throw anything else, and I’ll explain,” he promised.

Alisha couldn’t imagine any explanation that would satisfy her, but she let him approach.

“I knew you were going into hypothermia, but if Colonel Dryer were implicated, I’d be done for. The colonel would no doubt receive a reprimand for his part in it, but he’d still be my colonel. Except now he’d be a pissed-off colonel, and I’d be his rabbit. So I had to come up with something the medic would believe that in no way implicated the colonel, but would explain how you came to be wearing no clothes. Given your reputation, I said lap dances.”

“What reputation?” Alisha demanded.

“Well…” Benson smiled awkwardly. “You know…”

“No,” Alisha replied. “Tell me.”

“Well, first there was Colonel Logan, then you dropped Logan for Sparkes, which we all understood, then there was Ben, then there was you and Colonel Logan in the tunnel, before Sparkes found you. Then you and Logan right before he left, and then Tucker in tunnel this morning.”

“You can stop now,” Alisha said. No wonder the medic had believed Alisha wanted to sleep with every man in the camp. Rumor had it that she had slept with every man in the camp. She sighed. “So now we add lap dances to the pile of BS.”

“I didn’t see what harm it could do.”

“No, you’re evidently right. My reputation is pretty well dragging the bottom. I must be the biggest joke in the Corps.” She looked up at the ceiling, trying not to cry.

“No!” Benson assured her. “We know you’re something special. Normal conventions don’t apply to you, any more than normal aerodynamics or Corps regulations. You do your own thing and we just watch and marvel.”

SALES LINK

The SkyRyder’s Series, Book 3

Scavenger Vanishes

AMAZON

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 

Check out all my books on Amazon

Be sure to click FOLLOW  on my Amazon page so I can alert you to new books.

Stop by my Author Facebook Page 

which I've dedicate to Sci Fi books

Wander over to my personal Facebook Page

where I talk and share about books, politics, and other silliness.

Twitter is a great place to find me: @Liza0Connor 

(That's @Liza, the number 0, then Connor)

ALL OF LIZA’S BOOKS

THERE’S OVER 30 OF THEM

Liza's pictorial sharing of the main characters in Scavenger's Mission.

Today, I wish to share some of the characters from my upcoming new sci-fi romance called Scavenger's Mission.

Meet Alisha: A young woman who refuses to live the life her parents want.

In a single month, Alisha Kane has gone from a wealthy debutante to street girl to scavenger.  While testing her new flying skills in the Cully Canyon, Alisha incurs a near-death crash landing. She’s “rescued” by a colonel of the SkyRyders and her life changes forever.

Meet Logan: A SkyRyder colonel in charge of a sleepy fort with little to do other than arrests the occasional scavenger.

For the first time in his life, Logan’s attracted to a young woman, only she’s probably a scavenger and he’ll have to arrest her.  But first he offers her a shower and food while he checks on his crew. His videographer has captured her extraordinary flight through the Cully and her flying is astounding!

He forgoes arresting her and puts his career at risk by asking MAC to assess her skills and integrity as a potential SkyRyder. If he can get Alisha into the SkyRyders, it will be his greatest contribution to the Corps.

Meet MAC: The Artificial Intelligence that runs the SkyRyders Corps.

Upon seeing her arrival, MAC upgrades Alisha’s test. Her flying skills are not just excellent; they exceed what was previously thought possible. MAC classifies her as its top asset and soon she proves her value. 

But…the SkyRyders remain a male-dominated Corps where Alisha’s sense of right and wrong often clashes with her superiors. How long can a rebellious young woman survive in a regimented Corps?

To be honest, her survival looks dubious on her first day as a cadet. Her new captain is pissed.

DC, the squad captain does not like having a newbie out fly him. So he has his squad stall her out over a ridge...at three hundred feet. For anyone else that would be a death sentence, but Alisha's arsenal of flying skills is beyond an average flier, so she manages to survive with only a damaged kneecap.

However, when he tells her to do it again, she realizes he's not going to stop until she's dead, so she takes a huge risk and flies into the wind farm. If her chute catches on a single blade, she'll be dead in a seconds, but it is her only chance of surviving.

DC and Ollie go in after her with laser rifles, but they never find her thanks to Philly giving them wrong directions as to which was she has gone.

Finally, DC gives up finding Alisha and the squad goes back to the fort. When Logan discovers they have lost Alisha, he makes Philly go out on a rescue mission with him to find Alisha. When he discovers his captain attempted to kill her twice, he opens an inquiry and soon discovers his crew is far more afraid of DC then they are of him.

MAC is alerted to the stress levels of his crew and requires them all to report for assessments. MAC can probe a Ryder's mind and discover everything they think. While it can't verify what they think is actually true, it can determine what they think is true. (Humans have faulty memories that are unreliable at times.)

Since all the crew submitted complaints (by DC's orders) that Alisha was not a qualified flier and caused her own accidents, MAC calls her in, even though she is injured.

Upon recording her landing at the testing center, and assessing the previous video received from Logan, MAC upgrades her test to a captain's exam. 

She flies the exam impossibly well...so good that MAC thinks its database might be corrupted. So it asks her to run the test again, this time using her own catcher. With her own modified catcher, she flies even better, beyond what had previously been thought possible.

MAC makes her a captain and lists her as essential personnel in a battle plan General Powell has planned for the next day. 

The old general is furious with MAC's meddling. Like many, he does not like being bossed about by a damn computer. Nor does he want a female Ryder anywhere near his battle. He doesn't approve of females in war. They should stay home and bake cookies. They do not belong in the SkyRyder Corp!

Since MAC listed Alisha as essential, Powell can remove her. But when she offers to fly into a headwind to get video to prove the ridge is better protected than his strategist, Colonel Sparkes, thinks, the general goes ballistic. Even a one-day cadet knows you cannot fly into a headwind, but Alisha insists she can and MAC agrees.

Colonel Sparkes is now fascinated with this young woman. What she claims she can do is impossible, yet both Colonel Logan and MAC says she can do it. 

Powell is outraged and livid, but MAC outranks him, so he lets her fly out. She'll no doubt be shot out of the sky, but at least then they can get on with this battle.

But to his shock, she gets the video and returns unharmed from what for any other Ryder would have been a suicide mission.  Next, she shoots down Colonel Sparkes battle plan and offers a better plan, only it requires SkyRyders to learn new skills in a single hour.

Can they do it? Will they even listen to her?

You can find out here: 

AMAZON