The Face of a Rogue Read online

  The Face

  of a Rogue

  Absorbing Lives

  series

  Book 2

  LT Anderson

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Rogue Street Entertainment.

  The Face of a Rogue / Les and Taylor Anderson (LT Anderson)

  Summary: Banishment from the Punks forced Krystal to seek friends within the Changers Underground. Defection from the Changers had cast Krystal as one of many Rogues. Courtesy of Dr. Felix Yaz, she was a special Rogue. Felix’s experimental procedure reversed the Change, giving her enhanced eyesight, hearing and physical prowess. Forcing her way back into the Punks would give her access to Curtis Dyer.

  Edited by Lisa Gilliam – lisagilliam.com

  Cover Design by Dane and Team – ebooklaunch.com

  Interior Design and Format by Lisa Gilliam – lisagilliam.com

  Beta Read by John Kozina

  ISBN: 978-1-7321795-3-0 (hardcover)

  ISBN: 978-1-7321795-4-7 (paperback)

  ISBN: 978-1-7321795-5-4 (ebook)

  Visit us on the Web – ltanderson.com

  Also by LT Anderson

  ABSORBING LIVES

  A world where the cost of immortality is your neighbor’s life.

  Chapter 1: The Return

  Chapter 2: Insider Out

  Chapter 3: Disturbance

  Chapter 4: Security Shuffle

  Chapter 5: Outsider In

  Chapter 6: The Appointment

  Chapter 7: About Felix

  Chapter 8: Majority Rules

  Chapter 9: Location Unknown

  Chapter 10: Changing Curtis

  Chapter 11: Connecting Dots

  Chapter 12: Unlikely Allies

  Chapter 13: Irony

  Chapter 14: Video on Cell

  Chapter 15: Minds of the Children

  Chapter 16: Yaz

  Chapter 17: The Team of Four

  Chapter 18: End of a Punk

  Chapter 19: Destination Demo

  Chapter 20: Dead-End Doris

  Chapter 21: Amok Raymond

  Chapter 22: The Xander Plan

  Chapter 23: Talking Down

  Chapter 24: Convergence

  Chapter 25: Ray's Way

  Chapter 26: I Spy

  Chapter 27: Looking for Lace

  Chapter 28: 225

  Chapter 29: Mama's Boy

  Chapter 30: Assembling the Pieces

  Chapter 31: Old Town

  Chapter 32: Familiar Strangers

  Chapter 33: Manufacturing People

  Chapter 34: Oh Baby

  Chapter 35: Not My Mission

  Chapter 36: I Did It for You

  Chapter 37: Silver Rising

  Chapter 38: Love

  Chapter 39: Exit

  Chapter 40: Payback Time

  Chapter 41: Bird to the Monster

  Chapter 42: Earth Movers

  Chapter 43: More Than Friends

  Chapter 44: Outside the Box

  Chapter 45: Boy in the Cage

  Chapter 46: The Plot Against Levi

  Chapter 47: Potshots

  Chapter 48: The Hot Zone

  Chapter 49: Promotions and Emotions

  Chapter 50: The Face of a Rogue

  Chapter 51: The End of the Beginning

  THE FACE OF A ROGUE is dedicated to the Protectors

  of the small, the weak and the bullied, the victims of abuse, ridicule and scorn.

  To the Comforters of the lonely.

  To the Voice of Strength for the fearful.

  To the Warrior who fights for these.

  Chapter 1

  The Return

  The people who hated Krystal Peterson more than anyone in the world were about to welcome her with open arms. Forsaken, deserted and abandoned by family and friends, and targeted for death by her enemies, this outcast was poised and confident. She stood atop the hill outside the Punks’ headquarters at Checkpoint One.

  The Punks. Only a few months ago, Krystal had been one of them, held in high esteem. But she was also a Changer. The two don’t mix. So she was branded and banished from the Punks’ organization.

  After the Information Age, the Changers controlled all information and technology. They had harnessed immortality and the ability to change their appearance at will. But to retain their immortality they must absorb innocent human lives. So they had erased state boundaries and walled off sections of the country to control the human population as a life source.

  The Punks objected to the absorption of the innocent to feed the elite, and they rebelled. After years of fighting and countless deaths, the Changers and the Punks established a treaty. Until recently, the Punks had protected the Bystanders from the Changers. Their method was simple: control the food source to control the Changers.

  Growing weary of the Punks’ power over their lives, the Changers devised high-tech AI weapons, hybrid Changers, to eliminate the Punks. And the Chybrids attacked.

  The underdog Punks had refused to be intimidated. With a rag-tag group of misfits and society’s rejects, the Punks fought back. But their casualties numbered in the thousands. They were losing the battle. Until Krystal Peterson returned.

  From day one, Krystal had been defiant, a misfit, a blemish. She didn’t fit in with anyone, with any group. She had been rejected her entire miserable life.

  But today was a new day, and Krystal had chosen sides. Despite the cold breeze, the warmth of the rising sun heated her back. Her leather duster whipped randomly, furling and unfurling like a black flag.

  She gazed intently down the muddy incline before her. Remnants of AI humanoid mechanical creatures ascended methodically, deliberately. The battlefield behind them was strewn with chunks of metal—vehicles that were once the backbone of the Punks’ armored fleet. Bodies and limbs of the dead and dying filled in gaps between the vehicles, rocks and sagebrush. Beyond that, the imposing Perimeter Wall and Checkpoint One.

  A remote-controlled drone hovered directly in front of Krystal’s face. Two AR-15 rifles hung on custom straps—one on each shoulder. She lifted the rifle on her right and cracked off a shot, disabling the drone. The damaged aircraft spun wildly in the air as she glanced at a cell on her wrist. “Time to accept the unacceptable, Punks.”

  Expressionless, she watched the drone crash to the ground as the wind swept her light brown hair from her scarred face.

  Punk headquarters at Checkpoint One remained in shambles. Word of the Punks’ defeat had spread quickly through the Bystander grapevine. As the Bystanders accept free homes and technology from the Changers, they question the necessity of a Punk presence.

  The world was in a new stage of disarray. The eternal Changers were preparing to launch the next phase of their quest for global dominance. The wounded Punks were picking up the pieces of their once-formidable war machine.

  Banishment from the Punks had forced Krystal to seek friends within the Changers’ Underground. Defection from the Changers had cast her as one of many Rogues. But courtesy of Dr. Felix Yaz, she was a special Rogue. Felix’s experimental procedure reversed the Change and gave her enhanced eyesight, hearing and physical prowess. Forcing her way back into the Punks would give her access to Curtis Dyer.

  Curtis. Krystal’s reason for living. Her thoughts turned to the night she had broken away from him. Her last words to him ec
hoed in her mind. “And I love you, too,” she had said. “But I don’t need you now, Curtis.”

  I’m so sorry! she thought. I do love you. And I do need you. She wiped the tear before it fell and stepped toward Punk headquarters.

  Chapter 2

  Insider Out

  In the Southern California desert, two and a half miles from the Colorado River, Curtis Dyer slowed his armored Chevy van and turned off Interstate 10 at the Highway 95 junction. He headed north toward the Changers’ Underground City. Thankful he was no longer facing the rising sun, he flipped the driver’s visor up as he glanced in the rearview mirror.

  Johnny Logan sat in a jump seat behind the security screen that divided the front buckets from the rear of the van. “So you’re actually hauling me to the Underground?” He yawned. “What makes you think I’m not gonna just turn you over when we get there?”

  Curtis smiled. “Because I got you figured out, Logan. You’re not as dumb as you look.”

  Johnny pressed his face to the screen. “You’re right about me not being dumb. And I’m devilishly handsome, if I do say so. Why would I change my looks to be anything other than handsome?”

  Curtis couldn’t help shaking his head when he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, anyway. I’m about to make you look good to your boss if you play things my way.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Easy. You’re going to get me into the Underground because you’re going to tell your boss I’m defecting. I want to receive the Change.”

  “Ha!” Johnny fell back in his seat. “The Change is expensive, man. And I didn’t hear your name drawn at the Lottery.” His eyes widened, and he leaned forward again. “Hey, you didn’t suddenly come into a bunch of cash or something, did you?”

  “You may not be dumb, Logan, but you’re a little slow on the uptake.” Curtis rolled the driver’s window up. “I hold rank with the Punks. You guys need me. I know the Punks’ organization inside and out. If you’re the guy to bring me to your boss, you’ll be looking good with the Changers. That’s better than just turning a Punk over to be killed. Anyone could do that.”

  Johnny smiled his characteristic full-toothed smile. “Sure, okay. If that’s the way it is, me and you are gonna hit it off just fine.”

  Curtis turned the heater on and pointed the vents downward. “Think whatever you want. Just know I’m your ticket to the big time.”

  “You’re sure putting this little operation of yours on a heckuva pedestal, buddy. From what I heard, you’re a demoted Punk. Fourth level, right? You’re not much of a prize anymore. Me, I’m different. I mean, after you guys blasted Scotty back in Tremayne, I got word I’m in Levi’s inner circle now.” Johnny sat up straight and puffed out his chest. “That’s about as high as a guy gets in the Changers, you know.”

  “I’ll give you that. But consider this. Since I used to be higher-ranked in the Punks’ organization, I know a lot. If someone else in your boss’s inner circle brought even a former high-level Punk to the Underground and sponsored him to be a Changer, wouldn’t that individual rise in the eyes of your leadership?”

  “Yeah, gotta say he would. Gotta say he would.”

  The highway expanded to eight lanes about a mile and a half from the main entrance to the Changers’ Underground City. Curtis took the far-left lane and accelerated the van to ninety miles per hour. “Never been this close to your city.”

  “Of course not.” Johnny smiled again. “You’d be dead meat if you ever had.”

  Developed after the Punks’ rebellion, this underground city was the Changers’ headquarters and home to all Changers in the western sector of North America. The thirty-foot-high main entrance was a quarter of a mile wide. Several layers of reinforced high-strength steel framed the entrance. Triple-thick bulletproof glass served to defend the opening against incursion by the Changers’ enemies.

  “Impressive,” Curtis said as he glanced up to read a series of electronic signs stretched across the highway.

  CHANGERS NORTH AMERICA

  UNAUTHORIZED NON-CITIZENS PROHIBITED

  PREPARE TO SURRENDER WEAPONS AND VEHICLES

  Johnny leaned forward to see out the windshield. “Best let me drive before we reach that wall up there. No offense, but the way this looks, they’ll shoot you and then ask me what’s going on. It won’t be the other way around.”

  A fourth aerial structure appeared as a faint blue light spanning all eight lanes. As the van passed under the structure, the blue changed to bright orange, then back to blue.

  “We just got scanned,” Johnny said.

  The ten-foot-high, three-foot-thick wall blocked all lanes into and out of the Underground City. It extended beyond the highway on both sides. Each end connected seamlessly to perpendicular walls that tapered upward to thirty feet high, where they blended with the city’s massive entryway.

  Curtis glanced in the rearview mirror. It was filled with Johnny Logan’s smiling face. Nervous butterflies roiled Curtis’s stomach. He slowed the van and pulled over. He sat and stared at his 9mm Beretta handgun on the dash.

  “I wouldn’t try anything with the nine,” Johnny warned. “They’ve already got cameras on us. They can see right on into this buggy.”

  “Right,” Curtis said. He gripped the steering wheel to prevent his hands from trembling.

  “There’s no turning back, buddy. From here, they already know your eye color. Once you get up to the gate where those guards are, they’ll have a retina scan done on you before you say hi to the greeter guard.”

  Curtis flipped the heater off and opened the driver’s window. The faint scent of gasoline in the van’s interior sickened him. He welcomed the early winter wind that swirled into the cab. The sweat trickling down his temples turned to ice water.

  Johnny sat back in his jump seat. “The longer we sit, the more nervous they’ll get.”

  “Okay, already.” Curtis unlatched his seat belt. He hoped the vibration from the van’s idling motor was enough to hide his trembling. What the hell, muscles. “Just remember, I want to be a Changer. I’m on your side now.”

  Johnny sat up and waited for Curtis to open the side door of the van. “Oh, I remember. Just let me do all the talking.”

  Curtis exited the van and walked around the back to the passenger side. He unlocked the door and swung it open. For the first time in years, he wished he could ditch his Mohawk.

  Johnny stepped out and held the side door for Curtis.

  “What?” Curtis said. “I’m riding shotgun, right?”

  “Aw, no way, buddy. I’m bringing you in to the top brass, remember? I can’t have it be like we’re friends or something.”

  Curtis locked eyes with Johnny. “I could have taken you back to Punk headquarters like…” He choked. Dammit! “…like Ryker ordered me to.” He swallowed hard. “You know that, right?”

  Johnny stepped forward. His huge hand gripped the back of Curtis’s neck. “Get your fuckin’ ass in the back of that van. Why you being so dense, dude?”

  “Attention, citizens. Attention, citizens. Remain where you are. A security team has been dispatched.” A male voice from the high-powered PA system seemed to come from directly above the van.

  “What’d I tell you? Now get in there!” Johnny shoved Curtis into the back of the vehicle and slammed the side door shut. He locked it from the outside and turned toward the city entrance. Curtis pressed his face against the security screen and gazed through the windshield as Johnny stood still with his arms extended to the sides.

  Moments later the PA sounded again. “Attention, Changer. Body scan is complete. Proceed to the security checkpoint immediately.”

  Curtis pulled himself off the floor and climbed into the jump seat. He glanced around the interior for something, anything. I don’t even know what I’m looking for. He’d cleared the area before taking custody of Logan back in Tremayne. Stay cool. Keep your eye on the prize. I’m coming, Krys.

  Eight guards�
��four on each side of the security house—stood at attention as Johnny rolled the vehicle to a stop at the City’s entrance. A ninth guard saluted as the Changer leaned out the driver’s window.

  “You’re good, man. Relax.” Johnny smirked and bobbed his head in mock seriousness. “As you were.”

  “Good day, sir.” The guard completed his salute and crossed his hands behind his back. “Will you need a valet today?”

  “Nah. I’m gonna park in the structure.” Johnny caught Curtis’s eye in the rearview mirror and winked. “The executive section.”

  “Very well, sir. And your passenger?”

  “Yeah. He’s with me. I’ll be his escort.”

  The guard stepped back as three steel-reinforced concrete pylons descended into the ground in front of the van. Johnny guided the vehicle to the left toward a four-lane ramp into an underground parking garage. An orange beam scanned the van when it passed under the entrance. The parking garage was nearly full. Exotic vehicles—mostly electric—lined the outer walls of the first level.

  Curtis eyed the array of Mercedes, Fiskers, Aston Martins, Bugattis, Porsches, Teslas, Audis, Koenigseggs and McLarens. Wow, he mouthed.

  An electronic banner overhead directed drivers to additional parking and to various locations in the Underground. Beyond the banner was a rectangular tunnel covering a four-lane concrete roadway. Johnny steered the van into the tunnel and accelerated to sixty miles per hour.

  “Dang, Johnny,” Curtis said. “You people actually have roads underground?”

  Johnny shrugged. “Cities have roads, right?” He followed the smooth thoroughfare for about a half mile before slowing down. “Well, by golly, my friend, here’s our turnoff.”

  “I thought you said you were going to park. Executive section, remember?”

  Johnny pressed the brake and glanced at Curtis in the mirror. “I did say that. One thing you’re gonna have to do is trust me. I’m good for my word.” He grinned. “Everybody knows that.”

  Curtis felt nauseous, and his stomach burned. He fought to keep his voice from shaking. “So is this where I get to meet your leader?”