Valkyrie (Chooser of the Slain Book 1) by Michael Anderle

Author:Michael Anderle [Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2022-08-14T14:00:00+00:00

Mustashfaa Lil’amrad Alnafsia

Casablanca, Morocco

Saturday Afternoon

If Val hadn’t known that Alnafsia was a prison for the criminally insane, she would have loved the building and architecture even more than she had liked Global Ventures or Manzil. Bright white walls, wonderfully elaborate chipped-tile mosaics on the floors, and high, arched ceilings. The atmosphere in the lobby was borderline religious.

Unfortunately, armed guards at every doorway and the lack of windows ruined the effect. The potted plants were fake, too. That struck Val as particularly egregious, like the whole operation was a cheap front masquerading at some noble purpose.

The guards looked around disapprovingly at every sound, as if the heels of Val’s sneakers broke some obscure rule with every faint squeak. They wore uniform vests with circular emblems on the shoulders, the logo of the company that provided security for the prison.

Val and Jacob were subjected to a thorough security pat down, which was fair enough, considering the situation. When the guards tried to put them in separate rooms for the checks, though, Jacob put his foot down.

He growled some decidedly unfriendly-sounding Arabic to the guard when he tried to guide Val through a closed door. It was a tense moment, not at all helped by the deadly silence of the entire facility. The quiet was shattered when the chief security officer returned from the back room and told his man to stand down.

“Your boss has talked to my boss,” the chief told Jacob. “Mr. al-Abbas vouched for you. Come on. He’s waiting.” He waved for them both to follow him through the reinforced doors into the heart of the facility.

“This could be a blood bath,” Val murmured. She tasted the tension, heavy and sour, in the air.

Beside her, Jacob nodded grimly. “Perfect chance for a couple of enterprising young fanatics to spring an escape if this goes FUBAR.”

She studied him out of the corner of her eye as the guard led them through hallways lined with offices and conference rooms.

Jacob strode with his shoulders out. His swinging fists clenched and never strayed far from his holster. It was the walk of a man who had been here before. Maybe not in Alnafsia specifically, but in dozens of places like it. As she had back in La Empresa, Val felt a twinge of unease regarding her partner. Despite Dad saying that Jasper Taggert had a reputation for running clean operations, contractors like Viking Inc. tended to be landing pads for bad eggs that had washed out of the military for one reason or other.

Val wasn’t sure Pinkerton was Jacob’s real name. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know his real name.

The security chief waved a keycard in front of a sealed door and stood aside to let Val and Jacob step into the server room. It was a soulless office—all steel benches, uncomfortable chairs, and no-nonsense filing cabinets. A box fan in one corner circulated the hot, stale air pushed out by all the electronic equipment.

A tall, lanky man with midnight-dark skin and a shaved scalp sat at a central computer.

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