Military intelligence officer Lieutenant Barb Carolus is ordered to investigate Colonel Locke, a rogue officer suspected of selling military weapons on the black market. Colonel Locke is from Barb’s home planet and she knows exposing his crimes will tarnish the reputation of those rare people like her who’ve escaped the poverty and gangs of their home world to become officers. But orders are orders and she always does her duty.<br><br>For the mission she’s teamed with the unconventional -- and in Barb’s opinion, entirely unprofessional -- undercover agent Taya Borovsky. Working with Taya will test Barb’s by the book approach to the limits, especially when attraction overcomes her irritation with Taya. Bitter about upholding standards nobody else does, Barb gives in to her desires.<br><br>When the mission goes bad, Barb and Taya are on the run and outgunned. To survive, Barb must learn from Taya’s unconventional methods and improvise a solution to complete her mission and save their lives.

Loose Cannon

“You were drunk off your ass and snoring like a bear.”


“Fair enough.” The bunk room door closed behind Taya.


It opened again an hour and a quarter later. Taya looked better, had put some makeup on, and appeared less like death warmed over then before. She handled the controls well enough on the trip to the coordinates, but groaned and put on sunglasses when they walked out of the ship into the glaring light of the sun. Barb didn’t know if they were the same trick glasses Taya had given her last night and that she wore again as they functioned as normal sunglasses, too.


They were on a plain, surrounded by rock formations carved by the wind. An utterly barren rock desert. There might be some lichen in the shadier bits, but nothing lived under the merciless heat and glare of the sun.


Chapter 8