Project Terminal: End Game by Olivia Starke

Chapter 1
     
    Amelia paced before the small cabin. Set back in a thicket of pine trees with the surrounding snowcapped Rocky Mountains, it was a picture perfect place for someone who loved the outdoors. She enjoyed the crisp mountain air and the freedom of being outside, but this wasn’t a vacation, not by a long shot. Her footfalls crunched the dried pine needles, her patience wearing thin. She checked her watch again.
    “Damn it, Morris.”
    Bastard was always late; he’d never have made it in the Air Force. Gabe Morris called Special Ops home, and that group worked on timetables all their own.
    She mulled over the call she’d received from Adam Reed. He’d been vague; using code they’d created after leaving Project Terminal to communicate important information. This time Preacher had given her GPS coordinates leading her to the cabin, a short message, and instructions to wait for Morris. He had the second part of the communication.
    A twig snapped far to her left. In reflex, she dropped down, putting the corner of the cabin between herself and the intruder. Could be wildlife. She closed her eyes, holding her breath, focusing her sharp hearing. Since undergoing the modifications making her a super soldier her senses were five times better than a normal human’s. The nearly imperceptible steps compressed the pine needles. Carefully placed feet. Human movements. A hunter’s movements.
    Amelia waited—Morris wouldn’t be sneaking up on her. Surely he wouldn’t do something so foolhardy and dangerous. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Regardless who it was, they were about to learn a nasty lesson. She removed her shoes and socks. The cold earth bit into the soles of her feet, but being barefoot left her at an advantage against her stalker. She moved soundlessly, taking a wide berth, coming in behind the intruder.
    The forest had fallen silent. Amelia inhaled the cool air, trying to pick up the odor of deodorant or aftershave—a beacon to point her in the exact direction. Nothing but soil, pine, animal life, and something dead—she wrinkled her nose against the fetid odor, guessing by the overpowering stench a large animal. She turned her attention from the distraction, trying to judge where the person had headed. West. She eased ahead and couldn’t suppress a grin—a surprise ambush on an ambusher.
    It’d been too long since there had been any stimulation or excitement in her life. She’d left active duty and spent most of her days teaching online math and science courses. A waste of her engineering degree, but since going through Project Terminal she’d found it hard to integrate back into society. Always an outcast, the enhancements had left her feeling even more the outsider. Teaching classes kept her mind active, though at times the boredom felt like a disease.
    A magpie quarreled, its aggravated chatter warning of an intruder and placing her stalker. Bingo, gotcha. Amelia eased forward, carefully placing her feet one in front of the other. A breeze kicked up, rattling the aspen leaves, the stench of the dead animal making her stomach roll. She covered her mouth and nose, waiting for the wind to calm. Her other hand hovered over a knife she kept in a holster on her belt; she’d left her sidearm in her car. Not that it concerned her; she was just as deadly without it. She crouched, searching through the shifting shadows beneath the overgrowth of pine and aspen.
    The hair on her arms and neck rose, a chill settling down her spine. She lowered her hand from her face, balling her fingers into a fist.
    Damn it. Instinct warned of the presence directly behind her and a second later she knew what it was. She swung a leg around in a roundhouse kick, but a heavy weight slammed into her back, knocking the wind from her lungs.
    Pinned to the ground, she growled like a cornered dog. “Get the fuck off me before I cut off your balls.”
    Hot breath fanned her ear. “Talk like that gets me hard,