Troy, p.1
Troy, page 1
Troy
Published by Jan Stryvant
Copyright 2022 Jan Stryvant
Copyright Jan Stryvant 2022
Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)
No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without expressed, written consent from the author. The material in this story may feature graphic depictions of a sexual or adult nature and is intended for a mature audience only. All characters in this story are fictional and of the legal age of consent for any activities they engage in. For those who are extremely sensitive to stupid crap, the role of Mihalis was played by forty-two year old Mark Levin, on loan from PPP studios, the role of Rika was played by his wife Charity. So there. Any resemblance between characters, places, or things in this story, and people living or dead, actual places, or events, is purely coincidental. It's fiction; I made it up.
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be copied and given away, or copied and sold, to other people. Got that? No copying, please! If you would like to share this book with another person, it would be really nice if you purchased an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, please consider purchasing your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
#82943
Jan Stryvant Books:
The Valens Legacy:
Black Friday Book 1
Perfect Strangers Book 2
Over Our Heads Book 3
Head Down Book 4
When It Falls Book 5
Stand On It Book 6
Vegas Rules Book 7
Desperate Measures Book 8
Secret Treaties Book 9
It Ain't Easy Book 10
Red Skies Book 11
Demon Days Book 12
Simple Things Book 13
Trying Times Book 14
Firestarter Book 15
Times Like These Book 16
No Regrets Book 17
Everyday, Including Holidays Book 18
Wives Tales Books 1, 2, 3, & 4
(Assorted Short Stories)
The Valens Heritage:
Mihalis Book 1
Sean Book 2
Be of Good Cheer Book 3
Troy Book 4
Dan's Inferno:
Cursed! Book 1
BeDeviled Book 2
Heritage Book 3
Vengeance Book 4
Shadow
Table of Contents
Fridays
Terrain Following
A Small Quiet Party
Rescue Run
Denied
Working Man's Blues
Roosting Chickens
Nothing But You
Comfort Zone
Progress
Flustered and Frazzled
Never Be The Same
Field Work
Just Rewards
Next Up
The 'Rents
Friday
Pest Control
Four in The Morning
Uncontrolled Burn
Mission Accomplished
Afterword
Appendix - Family Tree (Children)
Fridays
Troy yawned and stretched as he got out of bed, putting his hands out way in front of him as he hit the floor on all fours, and arching his back. He slowly stretched out his back, arms, and legs. It was early yet, and popping back up to his feet, he trotted out of his room, down the stairs, out the back door, and broke into a jog.
He ran down the hillside to the small river that ran around the mountain, then followed that a few miles until he hit the road, and ran up that until he made it back to his family's compound. His warm-up run completed, he went straight to the gym and immediately set to working out on the weight machines. They had two sets, of course; one for the 'regular' people, and a second set for lycans, dwarves, and anyone else who might stop by with that level of strength.
Troy knew he was pretty ripped for a cheetah. He was just as big as his grandfather as a cheetah lycan, and in human form, about as big as his dad. Of course, in hybrid form, he couldn't match his father, but he was bigger than everyone else out there who wasn't a lion, and easily as big as the Marine jaguars, who always looked at him in surprise the first time they met him.
Cheetahs weren't supposed to be as ripped as he was, after all.
But then again, most cheetahs didn't hit the gym every morning and bust ass like he did. Hell, most lycans didn't work out like he and the Marine lycans did. Some of the other scouts did—mostly the horse lycans who were draft breeds. All the scouts knew you couldn't always run away from trouble. Sometimes you had to turn and fight.
Especially if you were serious about the job.
Troy smiled to himself as he queued up for the bench press with a couple of the marines he often worked out with. He was serious about being a scout—perhaps the only thing he was truly serious about. He never pranked another scout, and he was never anything less than deadly serious when he was out in the field. That behavior had gone a long way towards gaining the acceptance of the other scouts. As Clyde had once told him: "Your father got you this job, Troy. It's your performance that's kept you in it."
When he finally finished his workout, he did a couple of 'cool down' laps around the property, then went back to his room, showered, and put on a pair of shorts, then headed down to the mess to eat breakfast with the rest of the people who lived and worked up here at his family's home. He could have eaten in the house with the moms and Dad, as well as his younger sibs, but on weekdays, he just preferred to eat with 'The Pack', as he liked to call the folks here.
"Hey, T-Roy, how's it hanging?"
"Hey, Jock-o, pull up a bench!" Troy said as Jack Junior, also known as 'JJ', sat down next to him with his food tray. JJ—who was in his cougar hybrid form—was another scout, though he tended to work the mountains to the west.
"So how's Mihalis doing? I just got back from my four-day last night and haven't had the chance to say 'hi' or anything."
"Got himself a harem," Troy said with a grin between bites.
"Wait, Mihalis has a harem? Are we talking about the same guy? Tall, dark, and brooding?"
Troy laughed. "Oh, you know how the girls like those dark, quiet types!"
"Damn, does this mean we all need to break out the fur dye? So, what are they like?"
"Nice, real nice. Two of them are models."
"Damn, I think I can already hear my mother wondering out loud why I'm still single!"
Troy chuckled at that. "What about you and Fiona?"
"I think it's safe to say that your sister and I have run our course. I like the great outdoors, and she prefers the great indoors."
"Yeah, she does take after her mom more than our dad."
"So, what about you?"
"Oh, I got my eye on someone."
"I thought that Chloë gal wanted nothing to do with you?" JJ teased.
"That was before I rocked her world between the sheets," Troy said with a smirk.
"Uh-huh, right, sure you did. I seem to remember her clocking you a good one, there."
"Eh, she's just a little more aggressive with her affections."
"Well, if she likes you so much, why'd she go back to Chico?"
Troy sighed. "She wants to finish college and get her degree."
"So you gonna visit?"
"Thinking about it."
"Uh-huh. So what else is new?"
"Eh, got a big meeting to go to with Clyde here in a few. SJ apparently wants to go over some more things on his latest nightmare."
"He still thinks they're getting by us, doesn't he?"
Troy nodded. "Yup."
"Do you think he's right?"
"It doesn't matter whether I think he's right or not. What matters is he's worried, and it's our job to find out if he's right or not."
"You know we're all gonna look like idiots if he's right, though," JJ said with a heavy sigh.
"If he's right, I think we're all gonna have a lot more to worry about than feeling like idiots—though to be honest," Troy shook his head, "I'd rather find 'em and feel like an idiot than not find them if they really are getting by us."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Any plans for tonight?"
"The 'rents are throwing a dinner party for some of Mike's new in-laws, so nope, no plans. Why? Something up?"
"Ryan's throwing a bit of a party. He asked me to find out if you were coming."
"Why not call? Or at least text me?"
"Cause it's one of those parties," JJ said with a snicker.
"Did he invite Ian and Craig?"
"Aren't they out of town?"
"Oh, right. I'll see if I can ping them."
"Just don't use your phone."
"Our phones are encrypted. I don't think I have to worry about anyone at the NSA listening in. Besides, Ryla ain't my mom, so I don't have to worry about her going through my message history."
JJ laughed at that. "I don't know. She's a tough one!"
"Uh-huh. I gotta go if I don't want to be late. If you see Ryan before I do, tell him I'll show around eight."
"Will do!"
Getting up, Troy dropped his tray and plates at the wash station and headed off to find out which conference room they were meeting in.
"So, what's all this, then?" Troy asked with a smile as he popped into the conference room, following Clyde, who was his 'boss' these days. Moms Peg and Daelyn were there, as well as his father,
"Close the door, and you'll find out," SJ said, motioning to the door.
Troy nodded and closed it, then grabbed an open seat next to Clyde.
"So, why did you want to see us?" Sean asked.
"And why'd you want me here?" Daelyn asked, obviously curious.
"I wanted you here, Mom, because you'll know which, if any, of the dwarves might have the answer I'm looking for," SJ said from the head of the table.
"And what question is that?"
"Well, Mike and I got to talking after dinner last night, and I'm sure by now you've all heard about the djinn being used to smuggle girls using bottles?"
Troy blinked in surprised and looked around, as his father swore, and both Daelyn and Clyde got shocked looks on their faces.
"Guess that news hasn't made the rounds yet?"
"I heard about it just a few hours ago when I was reading Alska's latest report," Peg said. "I haven't had time yet to tell your father or mothers."
"Well, that explains the djinn, I guess," Sean said with a shrug, "as well as why Nadinc doesn't want to go back. She'd just end up here again."
"Okay, well, now that you know," SJ continued, "Mike and I realized something else no one had thought about."
"Which is?"
"Parts of Nevada are littered with lava tubes from a long time ago."
Daelyn facepalmed so hard, Troy and Clyde both jumped in their seats from the sound of it. His father just swore some more.
"What's a lava tube?" Peg asked.
"Back when there were volcanoes around here," Daelyn said with a very guilty look on her face, "when there'd be lava flows from one of 'em, the outsides would cool and harden up, insulatin' and keepin' the insides hot so they'd keep flowin' along. This'd let the lava flow for miles. Then when the eruption stopped, the lava would empty out, and you'd have this long tube with a hard rock shell.
"Give it a couple million years, and they end up underground, and parts of Nevada are littered with 'em." She shook her head. "I feel like such a fool! Me own brother mines old lava ducts from volcanoes north o' here! I can't believe it never occurred to me!"
"Do we have a map of them?" Peg asked, pulling out her phone and typing.
"I'll have to ask me uncle," Daelyn said. "I know we've mapped some, and the USGS has some others, but…" She trailed off and just shrugged.
"Don't go blaming yourself, Dae," his father said, putting an arm around her and giving her a hug. "You're not the only one here who knows what they are and never considered it."
Daelyn just shook her head, sighing and looking angry with herself.
"So this means we're looking for a hole in the ground where one of these tubes comes out, then," Clyde said and turned to look at him as he pulled out his phone.
"How big are the openings of these things, Mom?" Troy asked, looking over at Daelyn.
"All sizes," she said with a heavy sigh.
"And how long?" his father asked.
"A couple miles at best. I think the longest one any of us have found was maybe three miles long."
"Before any of you get carried away!" SJ said, and both Peg and Clyde stopped texting to look at him.
"Mike pointed out to me last night that if we suddenly scramble to look for whichever lava tubes are out there, that the djevels are using, they'll hide and camouflage them, which will make our job a whole lot harder!"
"Shit, you're right," Clyde said. "We're gonna have to be real careful on this."
"What makes you think they haven't hidden them already?" Troy asked, looking around the room.
"Huh?" SJ and Sean said in unison.
"Think about it. Using the lava tubes takes imagination and someone who knows the area. Probably someone who either turned traitor or got possessed knew about 'em."
"And?" Sean prompted.
"Well, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that if they built something over it, like a house, a business, or what-have-you, it'd be a lot less likely for anybody to stumble across it."
"So we pull building permits," Peg mused, "as well as the list of people who got fined for building without one."
"Better yet, why don't we take all te pictures from our satellite we've been archiving and compare them to the recent ones?" Sean said, then looked back at SJ. "What led you and Mike to figure this out?"
"Oluf and his crew tapped into a big lava tube under Bartertown while putting in that tunnel he wanted to Biggs' place."
"Wait, didn't you say Talt knew something was going on at Bartertown? Which was why he didn't want to mess with it?"
"What, you think there might be more running through there?"
"It's too far from the border to the DEZ. That's almost a hundred miles," Daelyn said with a shake of her head.
"So now that we know how they're probably getting out, what are we going to do about it?" Clyde asked.
"First we need to find where the lava tube they're using is going in, or coming out," SJ said. "But we need to make sure we don't tip our hand until we know if there's more than one out there."
"Well, we're pretty sure Basun has one, from what you said you learned on your way to the mountain top, right? So I'd say we start there. We've been implementing those new patrols Troy here suggested, so we might as well do them along his part of the border."
"Don't forget Ennakoida's part as well." Troy added.
"Why there?"
"Because my dad just mentioned that Talt knew there was something going on up there, too."
"Good point." Clyde nodded and made notes on his phone.
"I'll get the guys and gals in my department going over all the photo reconnaissance in the intelligence group," Peg said. "Do we want to ask for any outsider help?"
"No," Sean said with a shake of his head. "This is just the kind of thing that could hurt Steve's election. I'll have Trisha brief him on it in private, so he knows what's up, but I don't want us going public until we have it locked down."
"Actually, Dad," SJ said, looking over at him, "I don't think this is the kind of thing we should ever make public, or even tell our oversight committee about."
"Why not?"
"Why give them any ideas? They may have found this as a fluke or something. That lord I killed didn't know how it was being done, so obviously Basun hasn't shared this with anyone else."
"So if we go public, all the rest of them might think about doing it," Sean said with a sigh.
"And if there's any traitors or other compromised people in the government…"
"Which you know there are," Troy said with a growl. "There's always assholes in our government or one of the agencies out there who'll happily sell us out for a few bucks."
"All too true," Peg agreed.
"One other thing, Dad," SJ said.
"What?"
"Do you think you could have a word with the First and see if maybe he could tell the djinn and the ifrits to stop giving people to the djevels?"
Sean shrugged. "I'll ask him, but I have no idea whether he has any pull with them or not."
"Any idea why the ifrits are even trading with them?" Peg asked.
"Yeah, they're looking for the secret to immortality," SJ said with a snort.
"And they think the djevels have it?"
"Apparently. I don't know what exactly they said to Mike, or what he said back. I just got a secondhand account from Cinn this morning. She was there when Mike talked to them. I figured I'd follow up with him when he got back from Sawyer's tonight. I didn't want to disturb him this morning. I suspect he's more than just a little bit busy with his new wives."
"And the old ones too, I'm sure!" Troy said, laughing.
"I'll catch up with him on it when we head out to Sawyer's after lunch," Sean said, looking at his watch. "If there's nothing else, I need to give Sawyer a call about a few things before heading over there, and then do my weekly with Oak."
SJ shook his head. "Nope, that was it. I just wanted to get the ball rolling on it, because I know this one's gonna be tough."
Everyone around the table nodded. "Yup, but like Rox says," Peg said getting up from her seat. "'Now that we know about it, we can tackle it.'"
"I just hate to think of what would have happened if Basun had let Talt run a large group out through it," SJ said, and then winced just thinking about it.
"I'm surprised Basun hasn't done it already, himself," Sean admitted.
