Page 5 of Stealing Jia

Chapter Two

The Carabinieri are a military branch of the Polizia and their weapons bunkers have all sorts of goodies. I bypassed their security systems and went on a shopping spree. Some thermite grenades, a nifty sword, an Asus laser rifle, a matching pistol, and body armor. Not the good stuff like the Coletti warriors wore but more protection than my jeans and a tee-shirt would provide.

I paused by a crate of Falcon rocket launchers. Hmmm. Would I need one? A mental picture of Giovanni’s lab formed in my mind. He had a small army of thugs working for him and I was going in without any sort of backup.

I’d admit I had serious trust issues after Bianca, my former best friend, framed me for a series of murders. Not only did Bianca look enough like me to be my twin, she claimed she was my cousin. She knew how much I wanted to find my family and used it against me. Only my talent to cloud minds kept me from being arrested. There were only two people who were loyal to me. Sister Sarah and Adam, the brother I had always wanted. But Sister Sarah was pushing eighty and the evil scientist was doing God knows what to Adam. I would save him, no matter what the cost.

Merda! The crate didn’t list any instructions for the rocket launchers. Hopefully, it was a simple point and shoot. I plucked one out of the crate and placed it on my platform cart. I now had enough weapons to hold off a small army. Once I rescued Adam and the other kidnap victims, I would take great pleasure in obliterating Giovanni’s entire base. If some ancient stiffs got toasted in the process? C ’est la vie.

Walking past several unconscious guards; I loaded the stolen goodies into my battered van and headed for the tourist trap known as San Gagliano. It’s a centuries-old medieval settlement filled with quaint stone houses and an abundance of olive trees. Majestic snowcapped peaks rose behind the town and to the east was the Adriatic Sea. It was popular with the Americans.

I did a quick surveillance of the area. To my amazement, there were no guards patrolling the ancient church and a three-year old could bypass Giovanni’s security systems. Either the mad scientist was extremely careless, or he had booby trapped the place. Cazzo! I gave myself a mental head smack. Why hadn’t I taken a gas mask too?

Parking my van behind a crumbling stone chimney, I glanced out the windshield. It was a perfect summer day. A turquoise sky, cascades of purple flowers covering the ground and a cool ocean breeze. For a fleeting moment, I wanted nothing more than to be a normal girl intent on having some fun in the sun. I expelled a long breath. That life would never be mine.

If I didn’t get my head in the game, I wouldn’t live to see tomorrow. I quickly applied camouflage face paint, pulled on the tactical gear, and stuffed my long hair under a skull cap. With a couple of keystrokes, I took down Giovanni’s systems. Nerves fluttered in my stomach. I really hated catacombs. All those creepy bodies and the monstrous rats that lived in them. Ugh.

An armored shuttle suddenly landed by the olive grove.

My psychic senses went on red alert. Merda! There were two or more Coletti warlords onboard. Were they after Giovanni too? If they were, a smart woman would let them go in and take him out. I smiled. In all the confusion, I could easily free Adam. I scampered up a nearby tree and pulled out my binoculars for a better look at them.

“The Coletti warriors are here to capture you. Do not expect any assistance from them in freeing Giovanni’s prisoners,” a harsh male voice said in my head.

I stiffened in shock and psychically scanned the area. The only lifeforms I could locate were on the shuttle. The voice in my head wasn’t one of them. “Who are you and how do you know that?”

“You may call me Loki. My brothers and I have had many run ins with the Coletti and do not want them to forcibly mate you to one of their warriors as was done with our sister.”

“They took your sister?”Not that I was surprised.

“A warlord named Wulf hunted our sister, Yakira, from the time she was ten years old.”

Merda!“They go after children?”

“Any psychic female is hunted. They never stop until their prey has been captured or killed,”Loki spat.

Some bad blood there. “Did Wulf capture Yakira?”

“He did.”

I had never heard anything about the Coletti taking child brides. Loki was probably giving me his version of the truth. From his mental signature, he wasn’t human, so what kind of alien was he? Did he have tentacles or scales? My biggest questions were: how did he know about Giovanni and me? More importantly, what did he really want?“Why are you telling me all of this?”

“You humans have a word. Ah, yes, payback. We wish to take from the Coletti as they have taken from us. Family is everything to the Bjarke. We will help you rescue the one called Adam.”

A humorless laugh broke from me. Nothing was ever that easy. I was being conned. Loki wanted something from me, but what, and where, was he getting his information? “What is your price for helping me?”

“You are a thief, and we require your skills to obtain an object,”Loki replied.

It was never a good thing when a client became evasive. It usually meant the odds of pulling off the heist were poor, and I didn’t want to end up in some alien jail.“Is this object on Earth or another planet?”

“We will provide you with the necessary details when Adam has been rescued.”

Merda. Loki planned on using Adam as leverage.“Sorry, but I’ll have to pass on your generous offer.”

“We will speak again.”Loki’s presence vanished from my mind.

Not if I could help it. My attention was drawn to the shuttle as the landing ramp lowered.

Singing off key, an old man wearing a bright red shirt covered with snarling blue coyotes and yellow Bermuda shorts staggered out of the shuttle.

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