The Pack Read online

  “Fine, but this is the last time. I promise you with every bit of my being that if you get lost or show up late again, no begging or pleading will stop this. You will get tagged if I have to drag you to the doctor myself. Your father won’t save you this time. You brought this on yourself.” She turned and walked back toward the kitchen.

  “Shamira, why don’t you want to get tagged? Mom and Dad are. They couldn’t be part of the Security Force if they weren’t. I thought you wanted to be on the Force when you grow up? You’ll have to get tagged sometime if you want to work for them,” David reasoned while he absently rubbed her arm.

  “I’ll never get tagged, even if that means not joining the Security Force. I just can’t, you hear me? You don’t ever let them do it to you either. I’ll always find you, and I don’t need a tag to do it,” she said and lifted her arm up to rub down the silkiness of his hair.

  “I told you, I’m too old for that,” David said, then hugged her. He then tickled her sweet spot under her arm, and she instantly came out of her melancholy. Only David could do this for her. Her baby brother was the most perfect boy of all.

  “When you’re finished sulking, get in here and eat this great spaghetti I made. I was happy when I got home until I didn’t see my little girl,” her mom yelled from the kitchen. Of course she rubs it in, Shamira thought with a smile. Besides, she hadn’t been a “little girl” for a while now. She was sixteen and felt even older from all the secrets she kept. She headed to the table, knowing that was her cue to eat. In spite of everything, she was still hungry.

  She sat down and waited for her mom to prepare her plate. Conforted by this little thing her mom loved to do for her, the only thing, in fact, that her mom did for her. Shamira was sure her mom did this for David, too, but it still felt nice to be so loved sometimes.

  “So, how was work today?” Shamira asked. She grabbed her fork and twirled the spaghetti around slowly, teasing her hunger with the smell of the sauce and cheese.

  “Today was better than the rest of the week. We got a lead on Lieutenant McCann. It looks like we’re dealing with a new secret organization. How they managed to form it without us knowing is beyond me. Well the good part is we now can figure out who the players are and crush them before they get any momentum.” Her mom smiled, and then said, “We’re also close to finding McCann. Although there is some interference with the location devices, we’re confident he will be home with his family before this coming Monday,” her mom said excitedly. Her mom loved being the key Detective and Agent of the Security Force. She was a hunter just like Shamira; only she got paid for it. Her mom’s work was also something they both liked to share, and Shamira couldn’t help but consider her mother’s gift of information.

  “Well, do you think they hurt McCann? I like him.” Shamira said. She started to think of a way to track him. She decided then and there that she would give the Security Force just two days before she would attempt to find him herself. Her main focus had been on finding the kids, but she didn’t like it at all that McCann was now a victim as well. Kids of various Security Force Elite members and the Mars Planet Police were sporadically kidnapped over the years, never to turn up again. Shamira swore she would find them and bring pain to those that took them. As she sat there daydreaming of what she would do to those who hurt the missing kids and Officer McCann, she heard a crack. Without realizing she was doing it, she’d pressed her fork so hard onto her plate that the plate snapped in two. She gulped and turned toward her mother, knowing she wouldn’t be pleased.

  “Shamira! Look at what you did! How did you do that? Oh, never mind. Just clean it up, will you?” her mom said. She knew her mom was disgusted with her now. It was usual for her mom to get angry with her when she appeared clumsy. Well, it can’t be helped now. She was a bit angry with herself, too, because she was still really hungry. She got up, gathered the mess, and threw it all in the trash. She didn’t miss a single piece of glass when she wiped the table clean.

  “Shamira, I’ll make you another plate,” David said. He got up quickly and scooped a big fresh helping of spaghetti on her new plate. She heard the heavy metal spoon slide against the glass plate and sat down. She liked letting David feel like he could take care of her.

  “Thank you, David. You’re the best little brother a girl could ask for,” she said and picked up her drink to take an embarrassed swallow. She didn’t need to turn to her mother to feel the woman’s angry glare. Shamira quietly picked up her new fork and ate in silence.

  “Well, I have to go back in late tonight. You and David will be here with your dad until morning. We need you to watch him until noon. Don’t go anywhere but to the park. Do, you hear me, Shamira?” her mom said with an obvious threat in her voice. Shamira didn’t hear her all that well since she was concentrating hard at not breaking another plate, but she answered anyway to avoid further wrath and disappointment.

  “Sure, Mom. What time will Dad get home?” she added and then put the fork down.

  “He’s on his way. We have a surprise for you, but we’re going to wait to share it, considering your recent punishment,” her mom added. She got up and went to the kitchen cleaner.

  “Punishment? What punishment?” Shamira asked. She tried to appear calm.

  Her mom hesitated a moment for effect, then said, “Well, you will not be going out without your earlink. If you don’t wear it, it’s automatic tagging. That’s the punishment for at least for one week.”

  Shamira couldn’t win. “Fine, I’ll wear it for the term of my punishment,” she replied. She didn’t want to add fuel to her mom’s fire, so it was best to agree quietly.

  “Good. Now, come give me a hug,” her mom said. Shamira was temporarily in shock. Her mom rarely had time for hugs. Something more must be going on at work than she’s willing to share, Shamira contemplated. She stood when her mom came over and gave her and her brother a much treasured group hug. Shamira felt an inner peace and joy when she hugged her mom tightly back. Her mom was slim, packed, and firm, a tall woman with a great inner and outer strength, which she needed to do her job well as a Security Force Elite member. Shamira loved the smell of sweet roses that came from her mom’s skin, a smell unique to her.

  “You know, it’s a little unsettling how you appear to have sight. You look at me and move like you’re not blind at all. If it weren’t for those extreme pale blue eyes of yours, I’d think you could see. Sometimes it makes me forget that you are,” her mom said and sighed before she continued,”Shamira, I may be hard on you, but I do love you, you know.”

  “I know, Mom. I love you too,” Shamira said and then hesitated to let her mom go.

  “I love you both! Always,” David added with a tight squeeze.

  “Enough of that, you charmer,” Shamira said and then rustled her brother’s hair.

  Chapter 3

  Her mom left to put David to bed and read to him about Earth, part of their evening ritual. Shamira didn’t remember anything about Earth. They’d come here when she was newborn. Her parents couldn’t turn down the chance to work as Elites on newly colonized Mars. They were right under the head of the Security Force Elite Leader on Mars, a coveted position Shamira had heard them mention to others. They’d been chosen from their birth and trained to serve on the Security Force as Elite members since they were children. On Mars, her parents’ organization was the law, the order, and the leading power. It was an opportunity neither of her parents could turn down. They simply had no choice.

  Her earliest memories were faded except for one: the day she died. Her parents said the Security Force were the first ones on the planet. They came a year before the other settlers. However, the oxygen management system had bugs in it that caused it to fail. She was asleep in her room when it happened, and her parents lost consciousness before they could get to her. Shamira was the only child on the planet at the time. She had been born healthy, but when the air system failed, she stopped breathing. Her parents told her that when they awoke after the a
ir was regenerated to find her dead, they were frantic. They carried her to a makeshift hospital.

  They tried everything on her to revive her and finally experimented with injecting her with the enhancements only used on the Security Elite in hopes of bringing her back to life. Little did they realize it was a double-edged sword that saved as well as doomed her to a life much different than any other. She finally came back to life after being clinically dead for several hours. It took months for her to recover, and when she did, she was blind.

  These pensive thoughts filled her mind, but Shamira pushed them away. Mars was her home. She loved it here, and it was a part of her. She knew and understood its people. She had survived, and that was all that mattered. I wonder if they know that in order to save me, they turned me into a freak? Exhausted after her reminiscent thoughts, she went to her room to take a quick nap.

  “Wake me up in two hours,” she said to the home network system. It would make sure her bed shook at the designated time. She wanted to greet her dad with a big hug when he got home. Unlike her mother, her dad was really touchy-feely with his family and loved to hug and kiss them all the time. He was just that type of guy, and she truly loved that about him. Her dad was the only hero she’d ever need.

  The bed shook promptly after two hours passed. Shamira woke up to run to the bathroom and brush her teeth. Throwing cold water on her face, she smiled at the knowledge that her dad would be home in just a few minutes. She brushed her long hair and slipped on the pajamas she was too tired to put on earlier. She walked to the living room and felt the lights come on upon her entrance. Even though she couldn’t really see the lights, she could feel their warmth when she walked through the house. She had asked her parents when she was younger why it would warm up slightly when she walked through the house, and they explained that the smart house they lived in tried to make it comfortable for them.

  She heard the door open when she entered the room. She instantly smelled her dad, and he smelled like a spicy winter day. She ran into his arms and hugged him. He was built of pure muscle, tall, stocky, and hard with the stubbly beginnings of a beard: the result of being away at work for days. She felt totally safe in his arms. He was her dad, her friend, and her champion. He laughed and squeezed her back, then kissed the top of her head.

  “Hey, pumpkin! I knew you’d be up waiting for me. I missed you all today,” he said. He pushed her away gently to look down at her.

  “Sure you did. How did you have time to miss us when you were working so hard?” she asked with a laugh.

  “You’re right, honey, I was working hard. Your mom—the poor woman—has to get up in about an hour to go into work again.”

  He walked past her and put down his suitcase. She heard him walk to the safe and put away his guns, which he rarely ever needed because he was so skilled at martial arts. He could kill a man with his bare hands, and the technosuit all Security Force Elite members wore enhanced his natural strength five times over. He had told her that all of the Elite Force members were fitted with them before they left Earth. The suit was a second skin. She could tell the difference in her parents’ skin texture and the feel of other people’s skin when she was younger. Yet, they didn’t tell her about the suits that only the Elite 200 wore until she was older. She had found out that the Elite leaders of the Force acted as the leaders of each Sector. They were groomed on Earth for the role. The main computer on Earth tracked them until they died and their signal was lost.

  As far back as she could remember her father had been training her. He told her it was her job to train her brother. He said she had to learn how to train the next generation of Security Force members since he dreamed of the day her brother and she would take their parents’ places. Also, he used it for a technique to help her control the power. The power was something her mom noticed in her when they brought her home from the hospital after her death. When she came home from the hospital, she was much different than the baby they had come to Mars with. They hadn’t told her about the power personally. It was something she dug up on her own out of the home network system database bank that held all the conversations and records in the home. They knew she knew how to use the system, but what they didn’t know was that she had figured out how to hack into it. She smiled at the thought.

  “Dad, what have you guys been working on? Both of you are working longer hours than before. These last six months, we haven’t even been able to train together.” There was a slight whine in Shamira’s voice. She lived for those training sessions. When she worked with her father, he was a worthy adversary, someone that pushed her technique by his sheer strength alone. Her dad didn’t even realize that he had long stopped holding back with her and that she’d taken him to the limit of the super strength gained by his technosuit.

  “I know you miss it. So do I, pumpkin, but we have a major storm brewing at work. This crime organization is a much larger problem than we expected. Your mom left work on a good note today, but that’s going to change when she returns to her office. We lost the one so-called lead we had. I, for one, am not going to be the one to spoil that for her, so I guess she’ll find out at work.” He sniffed at the air briefly and asked, “Hey, did she make spaghetti?” He went over to the kitchenaid, a wall appliance that served food and beverages, and then touched the front to go through the food catalogue.

  Shamira answered, “You know she always does when she comes home happy.”

  “Yeah, and I’m starving,” he said. He got a glass of water from the kitchenaid.

  “Sit down, Dad. I’ll fix your plate,” Shamira said with a smile.

  “You spoil me just like your mom. Sure, I’d love that.” After he took his seat, Shamira walked over to the kitchenaid and pressed in the request for a plate of spaghetti. It came out warm, ready and on a plate. She reached in and grabbed it out of the dispenser door. Placing the plate down in front of him, she sat down and grinned.

  “What are you smiling about?” He lifted an eyebrow, and stuffed a fork full of food in his mouth.

  “Well, I’m punished, you know. You weren’t here today to back me up or to tell Mom that I just require twenty more hours in the training room,” Shamira added with a giggle.

  “Your mom’s not going to let me get away with that one anymore. I was warned before I got home not to go soft on you,” her dad said while he talked between bites. She could hear the smile in his voice.

  “Well, that’s okay. I guess I can deal with the punishment. Are you and Mom are going back to work together? She said I have to watch David in the morning.”

  She rested her head on her hand, as if watching him. She did it to goad him, because he often said he was spooked by the fact that she didn’t act blind.

  “Yeah, when I wake her up, we have to go. I was barely able to get away. Look, today you both stay inside. Don’t go out. There is a lot going on right now that requires the Security Force’s attention elsewhere, and I don’t want to risk yours and David’s safety, okay?”

  “Why? Mom even said we could go to the park. You know David loves to go outside and play with his friends. I don’t like being cooped up in the house either, and I know he won’t. Dad, you know I can protect him. He’s starting to take his training seriously. He can fight off most would-be bullies on the playground,” Shamira added. She figured it was best to play naïve. She didn’t want her dad to know that she had an inkling of knowledge about the missing kids.

  “It’s just not safe, okay? I think I’ve shared too much with you as it is, so just take my word for it. You’ve been staying out later and later. I have a feeling, from reports of injured bad guys, that you have been on a scene or two. I’m not positive yet, but the injuries some of these guys have sustained—near death in some cases—makes me wonder if it’s not someone who has been trained to do the job. The only person besides your mother and I to know those techniques lives in this house. I warn you, Shamira, I better not find out it’s you. If I do, your training ends. Do you hear me? You will
go back to being a normal girl,” her dad said with seriousness in his voice. He lay his fork down. She felt his pensive stare, like he was touching her face to find out what she was hiding. She effortlessly displayed calmness and nonchalance.

  I’ll never be normal. “Dad, you know I need the training. You know it’s a good outlet for me. What else can I do? I’m not hurting people. You didn’t teach me to seek out a fight, right? So why would you think I could do those things?” she asked, hoping he believed her lie. She fought to keep perfectly natural since he could read her like a book. Those kids depended on her being able to pull this off. She forced herself to relax.

  “I know the training keeps your nervous energy under control. But, you could try more meditation or relaxation therapy. And that’s exactly all you’ll be doing, Shamira, if I find out you’re acting like some kind of vigilante. You understand?” he added, sliding his chair back when he stood and wiped the spaghetti sauce from the corner of his mouth.

  “Sure, Dad. Hey, Mom said you had a surprise for me. She didn’t get a chance to tell me what it was,” Shamira added, trying to switch the subject. She was more than a bit curious about the surprise.

  “Oh? She didn’t tell you because you’re on punishment. I can’t hold it in much longer, so I’ll let the cat out of the bag. I’ll tell your mom, and she will forgive me, of course. She can’t help it. She thinks I’m hot,” Shamira’s dad said with a laugh.

  “You crack yourself up, Dad.” She stood up and started to jump up and down like a kid while she chanted, “So tell me, tell me, tell me!”

  “We got you an appointment to go to Earth and get your sight regeneration surgery. We had planned on getting it done after the accident… I mean, shortly after you lost your sight… but the colonists were coming to Mars, and your date got pushed back. We never planned on you growing up blind. People don’t suffer with those aliments anymore, and we’re sorry we kept you this way for so long. It couldn’t be helped. Flights to Earth are only once a month, and the surgery is a rare procedure. Not to mention we just couldn’t get off work. We have gotten approval to do this.”