STEELE Her Heart (Project STEELE: Book One)

By Liz Rein

In 1958 Dr. Jack E. Steele, a medical doctor and retired US Airforce Colonel, coined the term bionics. Bionics originating from bion meaning unit of life and the suffix ic meaning like. Bionic: like a unit of life.
This new science focused on giving superhuman powers with the use of electromechanical implants. DARPA, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is responsible for developing this technology under the classified program called Project STEELE.
Betrayed by a mole in the Black Ops, Captain Grayson Foster’s team was severely injured. Now with the help of the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency and experimental high tech bio-mechanical and DNA manipulation research, they are healed with new enhancements. Now on the hunt for the mole Grayson rescues Sara, a photojournalist, who can identify the culprit.
Can they put aside their attraction while they search for the traitor?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Free Rein Books
• Release date: Aug 3, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476121147

Liz Rein

Liz Rein is a thirty year old single girl living in southeastern Washington with her two dogs Cooper and Mikey. She spends her days flexing her creative muscles, working with clients developing marketing plans and materials for small businesses. When not working you can usually find her curled up with a good book, most likely a romance novel. Liz started reading when she was thirteen and never looked up. Now seventeen years later she finally put the book down and picked up a pen. Encouraged by her mother she wrote her first book on a lark. The second, when inspiration struck.

Book preview

Steele Her Heart

Project STEELE: Book One

By Liz Rein

Published by Free Rein Books

Cover Art by Free Rein Marketing

www.FreeReinMarketing.com

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Steele Her Heart

Project STEELE: Book One

Betrayed by a mole in the Black Ops, Captain Grayson Foster’s team was severely injured. Now with the help of the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency and experimental high tech bio-mechanical and DNA manipulation research, they are healed with new enhancements. Now on the hunt for the mole Grayson rescues Sara, a photojournalist, who can identify the culprit.

Can they put aside their attraction while they search for the traitor?

Prologue

In 1958 Dr. Jack E. Steele, a medical doctor and retired US Air Force Colonel, coined the term bionics. Bionics originating from bion meaning unit of life and the suffix ic meaning like. Bionic: like a unit of life.

This new science focused on giving superhuman powers with the use of electromechanical implants. DARPA, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is responsible for developing this technology under the classified program called Project STEELE.

Chapter 1

Grayson Foster was always underestimated; most people thought that such a large, powerful man had lower than average intelligence when the opposite was true. First in his class and a master strategist as well as a star athlete he was recruited by the government right after graduating college. Showing an excellent aptitude for unconventional solutions, he was transferred to a covert military program under the CIA: Black Ops.

By now Grayson was used to being underestimated even within the Black Ops program. Other team leaders and some of his superiors expected him to blindly follow orders. They soon learned that there was a reason why his team was the best and it was not brute strength.

After receiving new orders from Colonel Beckford, he laid on his bunk in the underground facility where they lived. His team like other Black Ops teams, were discouraged from leaving the government’s secret base. While On leave they stayed in their own homes but while working, they stayed on base.

The orders were very clear. Intel suggests that a friendly government was building nuclear weapons with plans to sell them to the highest bidder.

Reading the file Grayson noticed a lack of concrete evidence, especially since this was a supposedly friendly government. Someone must have a highly classified mole that was credible enough to operate a covert mission without any proof.

Getting up he left his room and walked down the hall. He stopped at the team’s rec room. Loud noises of men horse-playing bled through the thick door. When the men have down time they play like they work, hard. Opening the door he poked his head into the room. Spotting Gage, he beckoned him. The other team members who were playing a vicious and competitive game of ping-pong set down their paddles. Looking at each other they all got up and joined Grayson in the hall. From his serious expression they all knew that they had a new mission.

Together they walked down the hall to the state-of-the-art briefing room. While the Black Ops facilities were barren, made of solid concrete, they had the most advanced technology, and the juxtaposition was noticeable. Flat screen televisions lined the walls with one huge screen holding center stage. The only furniture in the room was a large conference table and chairs.

They sat down in the chairs and pulled the hand-held tablets that were sitting on the table towards them. Grayson entered his username, password and scanned his palm print. The file appeared on his tablet and he transferred it to the main screen.

Without preamble Grayson started breaking down the details of the file and the mission. Intel suggests that the Qirani government is building and selling nuclear weapons. We are to scout the area, find out who the buyers are and destroy the facility and equipment.

****

Grayson always liked to check as much of the Intel as possible, he liked to know where all the chess pieces were before he started to play. With the file as thin as it was he was especially diligent. After the men were able to read the file in full he began giving orders.

Grayson turned to Quinn. A master linguist, he knew seven languages fluently and who knew how many more dialects. His medium brown hair and average size let him disguise himself with very little work on a nationality, and let him infiltrate any situation. He was the go-to-guy for spying on the enemy or finding out information. Quinn I want eyes and ears on the ground. Scout the location, talk to the locals about suspicious activities and see if you can find out any information. Let’s see if this deal is really going down and who the buyers are.

Without waiting for Grayson to finish giving orders to everyone else, Quinn left the meeting. He had to get to Qiran ASAP. He wanted to have some Intel before the rest of the team met him. Any other information he needed he could get via satellite.

Grayson turned to another team member Colten, hack the Qirani government and see if you can find a schematic of the facility, I don’t want us going in blind.

Yes, sir Colten replied. You would never think that a good old boy with a thick Texan drawl would be a computer genius, able to hack into anything. The whipcord lean sandy haired man, even as the youngest member of the team, looked nothing like the computer geek he was. In the Black Ops they all had to be in tip-top shape.

Ryker, start building an explosive device that would destroy everything. I want to be able to take down the building from top to bottom. If they are building nuclear weapons I want them to have to scrap the whole base.

Ryker was an expert in munitions. Like Macgyver, he could make a toothpick explode using duct-tape. He was not much of a talker so with a nod he accepted his assignment. He was the epitome of the strong silent type. His dark hair and complexion made him intimidating to most people.

Focusing on Gage he said, Gage, find us a good entry and extraction point. Liaise with the extraction team and make sure that they know we want this whole mission on the QT.

Gage was Grayson’s best friend as well as second in command. They were as opposite as any two men could be. With the exception of their height Grayson had dark hair, almost black, while Gage was blond. Grayson was muscular and Gage was what you would call rawboned. He trusted him with his life and