Torrent (Cosmic Forces Book 1) Read Free

“No. No questions at all.”
    Throttle called out, “Control, we got company.”
    Torrent tried to listen in to what Throttle was telling Control. He couldn’t hear anything over the transport’s noise and the others’ laughter and conversation.
    The transport jerked, and a crashing sound made the team shut up and freeze.
    Control turned back to face the team. “We’re going down. Privateers hit us. Strap in.”
    Vector rolled his eyes, as if to say, Now what? Torrent shrugged and buckled in.
    “Take them bastards out. Fucking privateers.” Control ground the words out. “Just because the Leaguers work with them and support their bullshit doesn’t mean we have to.”
    “With pleasure,” Throttle said.
    Torrent caught Throttle’s wicked grin reflected in the windshield.
    One pull on a red trigger, a flash, a quick explosion, and the privateers were no more.
    “Back to your regularly scheduled programming, folks.” Throttle pulled back on the wheel, turning the nose up.
    “What’s the situation? Can we carry on?” Control asked Throttle.
    “I can get us there. You’ll need to call in for another transport, though. And hold on. May be a rough landing.”
----
    C osmic Forces were in a grove , the team and their transport hidden by the thicket of trees.
    Torrent shouldered his backpack, and Control slapped him on the arm. “Vector’s going to escort you to the wall, and provide you with backup until you scale it—just in case. You got it? You good to go?”
    “Good to go.” Torrent nodded. He didn’t like the idea of fetching a kid. What about the kid’s parents? There was something about this that didn’t sit well. What bothered him just as much was that he had thought CRBE had implanted in him an interface that would take these emotions away, and yet, they were here. Should he tell Control how he felt about it? Should he have these feelings? His job was not to ask why. He wondered if Control wasn’t having similar thoughts, from the way his jaw was working, the muscles clenching and releasing repeatedly.
    Torrent and Vector started toward the east, boots making little sound. In the pitch dark, only the team could see them, what with their enhanced vision, yet another bonus of the interface that gave them enhanced hearing, vision, smell, reflexes, and strength.
    The two best friends began their trek. Houston was their target.
    Torrent’s enhanced memory pulled facts from the files Control had shown him. A city barricaded behind a wall taller than twenty feet, in some areas forty feet. A city patrolled legally by Leaguers, and semi-legally by privateers, but they were under the acquiescent eye of the Leaguers. Privateers did the Leaguers’ dirty work and they collected handsomely.
    Why would the government allow a group to behave outside the law the way the privateers did, terrorizing the locals?
    He didn’t realize he’d sighed out loud until Vector said, “Yeah, it bothers me too.”
    “What’s that?”
    “The kid.”
    Torrent didn’t respond. He couldn’t. He didn’t want to say what he was thinking about that. “Houston’s a mess.”
    “All of the Texas cities are,” Vector agreed.
    “Steep price.” Torrent was referring to the Texans’ penalties for attempting secession.
    “Steep doesn’t begin to cover it. Poor bastards. League of States put barriers in place, though. Texas won’t get a chance to try that again. They got them locked down tight.”
    Torrent exhaled. “I want to get this mission over with as quick as possible.”
    “And get back to Delta Lambda Four. I have plans for the blonde with legs up to her neck,” Vector announced.
    Torrent’s mind went back to the pictures of Houston, most of the buildings in shambles, the people bussed to work in mass transport vehicles that had no windows so they couldn’t find the location of the factories. The payment was in tokens so they couldn’t build cash to fund any activities outside of their city—like paying for