Regina Shen: Defiance

By Lance Erlick

“Rich world full of action, mystery and darkness.” – Emily Walsh

“Join Regina Shen as the exciting, great, daring, and dangerous adventure continues” – Sydney Anderson

“Feisty female protagonist who faces down adversity in a futuristic world replete with challenges ... healthy dose of cat-and-mouse intrigue” – D Donovan, Midwest Book Review

“This is a great series of books for people who like this genre.” – Catherine Carrington
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DEFIANT YOUNG OUTCAST CROSSES CENTRAL DESERT ...
RIVAL AGENTS FIGHT TO CAPTURE HER ...
CONTEST OF WILLS.
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Soon they’ll light up infrared sensors like fireflies. Outcast Regina Shen is on the run again.

It’s been months since she freed and resettled her younger sister. Federation agents kidnap her sibling again, taking her across the Central Desert. It’s another trap and the stakes are higher. Consumed by guilt, Regina has to rescue her sister again.

Perfect for fans of the Hunger Games, Divergent, and Maze Runner. Regina Shen: Defiance is the third book in a science fiction thriller series about an ordinary yet strong young woman facing extraordinary hurdles with tenacity.

Abrupt climate change melted ice caps, flooded coasts, and turned continents into deserts. Regina grew up on swampy islands and salvage from sunken cities, including illegal print books from the past, which she committed to memory. Having snuck into the Federation, she finds surviving in this world tougher than in the swamps. At least back home she knew her enemy and how to get by.

The Federation operates with a rigid caste system and the notorious Department of Antiquities. They keep peace and order by destroying evidence from the past. Chief Inspector Joanne Demarco pursues Regina for unique DNA that could prevent human extinction and boost the inspector’s power. Now Demarco faces several ruthless rivals willing to do anything to control Regina in a global power play to determine who will become the new World Premier.

As an illegal immigrant, Regina has to make her way across thousands of miles of hostile desert and wilderness from Virginia to Alaska without getting caught. A pawn in Federation political infighting, she receives hints and clues, and gets help from strangers, but who can she trust? Regina must use every bit of her banned book learning and salvage talents to locate something so important she can barter for her freedom and that of her sister. Political rivalry within Antiquities complicates every move she makes. If she doesn’t play things just right, she could die or face imprisonment in a Federation bio-lab.

In the cat-and-mouse game, can she find allies and ways to escape three warring factions and the dragnet long enough to cross the desert and discover something valuable enough to trade? Will it be enough to free her sister?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lance Erlick
• Release date: Feb 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781943080069

Lance Erlick

Lance Erlick writes science fiction thrillers for adult and young adult readers. In 2018, he launched his Android Chronicles series with Reborn and continued it with Unbound and Emergent. This series follows the challenges of Synthia Cross, wrestling with the download of a human mind and emergent behavior while confronted by humans who seek to control her. Xenogeneic: First Contact is about alien pilgrims who lost their civil war and come to our solar system. They kidnap aerospace engineer Elena Pyetrov to prevent her from discovering them. As their prisoner, she’s the only one who can uncover their plot and stop them from decimating Earth. The Regina Shen series takes place after abrupt climate change leads to collapse and a new World Federation. As an outcast, Regina must fight to stay alive and help her family while she avoids being captured. In the Rebel series, Annabelle Scott faces a crisis of conscience after she’s drafted into the military to enforce laws she believes are wrong. Find out more about the author and his work at LanceErlick.com.

Book preview

TABLE OF CONTENTS

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Eight

Twenty-Nine

Thirty

Thirty-One

Thirty-Two

Thirty-Three

Thirty-Four

Thirty-Five

Thirty-Six

Thirty-Seven

Thirty-Eight

Thirty-Nine

Forty

Forty-One

Forty-Two

Forty-Three

People

Terms

Other Stories by Lance Erlick

Author

ONE

Virginia Mountains, July 20, Year 298 ACM:

Soon we would light up infrared sensors like fireflies.

The sun setting over the lush, green mountainside was beautiful, but we were climbing too fast to enjoy it. Temperatures were dropping from a humid 100. Soon they would fall below levels that ghosted the Department of Antiquities’ drone and land-based infrared equipment. Even our thermal insulating suits couldn’t prevent them picking up our images.

We’d been out longer than expected. Worse yet, we’d failed to rescue my sister.

I sipped from my canteen, mopped sweat from my eyes, and followed Tabitha Rundle and her scout up the slope. Over their thermal suits, they wore Marginal swamp-green canvas clothes and hats instead of their caste-required Working Stiff blue, allowing them to blend in with our surroundings. Despite being three times my age, they set a blistering pace in the heat.

A sky-skimmer drone buzzed above the tree canopy, waiting for us to appear on its scanners. At least the bee-like hum announced its presence for those of us with sharp hearing.

I crawled up a steep incline onto another narrow rocky path. Sorry, I said.

Regina, save your breath, Rundle said without slowing. We should’ve gotten your sister last month.

My fault. I’d hoped leaving Colleen with Aunt Margo would have given her a shot at becoming a Professional, while I sorted out the World Federation’s obsession with me. Now the Department had taken her again, though we had no idea which of various Antiquities factions had her.

We neared the disguised entrance to the cave. Sweat stung my eyes. The thermal insulators reflected back the heat until I was ready to pass out. Rundle and her scout slowed.

I have to rescue her, I said, gasping for air.

Not today. This place will be crawling before—

Regina Shen. The speaker blared from above the treetops like a voice from heaven warning about our sins. I know you’re down there. The raspy voice had to be Chief Inspector Demarco of the Department of Antiquities. Coarse-face herself.

My original sin was being born a Marginal swamp rat after the Federation cast my mom over the Great Barrier Wall into the sinking Richmond Swamps. Hers had been speaking out against the Federation’s treatment of Marginals and other outcasts. I’d narrowly escaped Coarse-face several times. I couldn’t give her another chance.

Sooner or later I’ll find you, she said. The amplified voice reverberated off the trees and rumbled through the mountain like ground tremors. Rock fragments, dirt, and pebbles cascaded down the mountainside in a mini avalanche. You’re better off surrendering to me.

Shaking her head, Rundle continued to climb. I mopped sweat from my eyes and hoped the heat held on a little longer to confuse their infrared sensors.

* * *

Chief Inspector Joanne Demarco piloted her vertical-takeoff-and-landing sky-jumper over a tree-covered mountain north of Charlottesville. Convinced that Regina Shen was hiding down there, Demarco cursed the loss of the last surveillance satellite and the politics that prevented launching a replacement. In her efforts to capture seventeen-year-old Regina, she had to make do with spies, aerial drones, and what equipment an army of agents had hastily assembled.

Joanne Demarco prized her investigator’s sense about finding people, a trait she attributed to her own humble Marginal past. For thirty days, she’d canvassed every farm between Charlottesville and the Barrier Wall to the east. Despite thousands of sightings, Demarco had uncovered no evidence Regina had visited any of those farms.

Someone was helping the girl.

I know you distrust me, Demarco said through the sky-jumper’s loudspeaker, but I didn’t hurt your sister.

Yesterday, Demarco had stumbled on an abandoned car and tracked footsteps partway up this mountainside to where rains had washed away the trail. Her agents and even North American Governor Gina Wilmette said she’d gone mad to concentrate resources on a month-old clue and a single mountain.

Demarco’s instincts told her otherwise.

Drone electromagnetic spectrum ground analysis showed underground springs and passageways beneath this mountain, some big enough to crawl through. She stationed agents, local police, and guard units in a wide perimeter with motion sensors, infrared cameras, and cameras with regular and night vision.

Turn yourself in, Regina. We’ll let your friends go. We’ll even pardon them. She couldn’t without Governor Wilmette’s okay, but that didn’t matter. She scanned thick tree cover in the desperate hope of spotting the girl through infrequent gaps.

In the process of setting up the perimeter and installing listening posts, Demarco’s agents had captured a dozen runaway Working Stiffs foraging this mountain. They claimed to know nothing about any underground hideout or Regina Shen. Then, in the middle of the night, they escaped from custody, up onto the mountain, and vanished from the department’s infrared sensors.

Regina may have found shelter among a clever group of scavengers, but when she came out for food or fresh air, Demarco would grab her. She was sure Regina hadn’t left the mountain. All roads were blocked. An hour ago, one of her agents spotted three people dressed in Marginal green. They disappeared under the tree canopy.

Surrender or we’ll bulldoze the mountain. Demarco hesitated to do that. If the tunnels collapsed and Regina died, all this was in vain.

Regina’s DNA was vital to reversing a worldwide fertility collapse, but only if she was alive. There was nothing left of the blood samples Demarco had already delivered, and apparently blood didn’t provide everything the governor’s labs needed. If Demarco caused the girl’s death, not only would the governor not reward the chief inspector for finding the girl, she would prolong Demarco’s execution over a period of weeks. Of course, failure to find the girl could bring the same penalty.

Regina, give yourself up. I’ll keep you and your sister safe and well cared for. Demarco used the vertical lift capability of her sky-jumper to hover over the mountain not far from the peak.

After two years of matching wits with this now seventeen-year-old girl who knew the inspector couldn’t harm her, dealing with a rival who had tried to assassinate Demarco, and Governor Wilmette’s interference at inopportune times, it felt good to be back in the driver’s seat. That illusion would vanish unless she found Regina soon.

The governor was impatient for Demarco to deliver the girl. Worse, Inspector Vikki Volpe had checked herself out of medical rehabilitation and vanished. In a bungled attempt to grab Regina and kill Demarco, Volpe had suffered life-threatening injuries. Now she’d gone rogue. There was no telling what lengths Vikki Volpe would go to in order to claim credit for Regina’s capture and discredit Demarco. The chief inspector’s sole command of the Department of Antiquities was in jeopardy.

Regina, she said. Inspector Volpe took Colleen. I told her you were too clever to return, but she wants vengeance.

That’ll bring Regina out of hiding.

End this now and I’ll tell you where Volpe took your sister.

* * *

I followed Rundle up the last steep incline with Demarco’s voice grating on my nerves. She acted confident of capturing me, which wasn’t good for my hosts and friends. While I hated Coarse-face for taking my sister two years earlier, Inspector Volpe was worse. The one time I’d met her, she seemed possessed by devils.

The thought of her holding Colleen twisted my heart. It had been a mistake leaving my sister with Aunt Margo. There could be no normal life for her or my friends until I stopped the Federation from hunting me for good. I needed to find something they wanted more than me.

Tabitha Rundle led us through a camouflaged cave opening into darkness. We passed through a set of doors that led to a tunnel system dating to the American Civil War. Rundle’s mother had told her that back then, her Scottish ancestors fought to escape Union troops. Then three hundred years ago, before and during the Great Collapse, others of her ancestors expanded this into an underground bunker. Rundle had inherited the hideout from her parents, along with medical training. Yet these caves, which had sheltered people for 500 years, couldn’t help us fool Coarse-face for long with so many agents on the ground.

Rundle panned her flashlight around the cave to make sure we had no guests. She unlocked and opened a second set of doors.

It’s time I left, I said, removing my hat to fan myself.

We entered a small room with tables in the middle and hiking gear hung along the side walls.

Where would you go? Rundle removed her cap. Her blonde hair looked muddy in the dim light, her face weathered from fifty-plus years spent outdoors. I could see the Viking heritage she was as proud of as her Scottish ancestry.

Her scout took our backpacks and disappeared down a corridor deeper into the mountain.

Tears blurred my vision. Anywhere that brings me closer to Colleen. I removed my thermal suit, a unique design Rundle created using an aluminum polymer mesh. It acted like an infrared mirror while siphoning body heat through the boots, most of the time.

We don’t know where they took her. Rundle placed her rifle in a cabinet and locked it. You’re not considering that agent’s offer, are you?

I have to find Colleen and stop the Federation from bothering us. I can’t let them destroy your home.

Our home is your shelter.

I already owe you so much, I said, a debt Marginals tried to steer clear of.

Nonsense. We help our own.

I lowered my voice. Before I go, I want to give you something. But if the Federation finds out, they’ll hunt you like they hunt me.

* * *

TWO

Naked except for a linen wrap, I lay on the thin infirmary mattress and stared up at a cracked painted ceiling. Someone had attempted to make it look like a pleasant sky. Instead, it mocked me with a taste of what little sky I’d seen over the past month, since arriving here. At least I was no longer shivering in the chilly cave.

Professor Yvonne Cordoba pulled on a bleached white gown. Are you sure you’re okay with this? Her eyes pinched with concern within her angular Hispanic face.

She’d been my biology professor at New Harmony University for the ten days I’d survived there, and she found me this underground refuge in stuffy, human-dug tunnels. She was also the sister of Mo-Mere, my swamp mentor and surrogate mother, after my mom abandoned me and my sister during the storm that took our home.

I squeezed Cordoba’s hand. Everything you’ve shown me confirms that human fertility has collapsed. I won’t help the Federation, but if my body holds the cure, I want to help my friends.

You’re only seventeen.

Almost eighteen. A few months shy.

I’m sure, I said. I wasn’t, though Mo-Mere’s voice rattled inside my head: Discover who you are. Follow your destiny. If my fate involved having strong DNA while Federation women and other Marginals were sterile, then I owed it to humanity to do something. If nothing else, I appreciated Professor Cordoba asking.

Coarse-face Demarco gave me no choice. Twice she’d offered to make me a lab rat. This would further her career and that of Governor Gina Wilmette, our Grand Old Dame. The offer came backed by threats from the Federation’s Department of Antiquities.

What a misnamed group. Antiquities implied they preserved and studied the past. Instead, their job was to destroy everything that had survived the Great Collapse, anything that might challenge the Federation. They also built and policed the Great Barrier Wall to hold back rising seas and to keep out Marginal outcasts like me. I’d made it across.

Cordoba pulled a mask over her face and started an I.V. I can’t promise it won’t hurt.

I studied the tube dripping fluids into my arm. Get on with it.

My stomach still jumped at the thought of the vicious Antiquities inspector getting her hands on Colleen. Pain was good—my punishment for leaving my sister. After all, the Feds had exhausted every possibility that her DNA might help them. Since we shared only one parent, our Chinese mother, they hoped my DNA was better. This procedure would show what my Hispanic parent had contributed. I hope this works.

I’m sure it will, Cordoba said.

Someone knocked on the metallic door, which squeaked as it opened. Ester Grayer stood in the doorway: tanned face, short brown hair, and wide eyes. She was a year older than me and had been my constant companion since I crossed the Barrier Wall from the Richmond Swamps into the Federation a couple of months earlier. I missed my shrinking world, but it was only a matter of time before the swamps sank beneath the sea like the city of Richmond had centuries earlier.

Professor Cordoba turned toward Ester. You can’t be in here. We can’t afford infection.

Ester picked up a mask from the counter and covered her mouth and nose. I’m sure she has any infection I have. She squeezed my hand and leaned closer. You were gone so long, I was worried sick they’d caught you. I should have gone with you.

I smiled. I’m fine. You couldn’t have helped. They took Colleen.

I’m sorry. I had my fingers crossed. Ester kissed my forehead through the cloth mask. I can’t believe you’re going through with this.

I need to leave before Antiquities destroys our new friends. I want to give back for their hospitality. A Marginal barter.

"You need to leave. And you didn’t consider that I’d like to go with you?"

"Yes, I need to leave, I said. They’re after me. I want you to come. If you do, you can’t be part of this experiment."

You want little old me?

Ester? After seven weeks, why even question that? Someone has to make sure you don’t get into trouble.

Oh, right. I’d get into trouble. Ester shook her head. You wouldn’t have made it this far without me.

Okay, I need you. I’m asking. You don’t have to come. It’ll be dangerous. I don’t know which way to go, even. But I have to try.

We need to finish getting you prepped, Cordoba said. If they cut our electricity, this entire procedure will be wasted.

* * *

Chief Inspector Joanne Demarco made one last sweep of Regina’s mountain, checked in with her senior agents, and removed the transponder and tracking device from her sky-jumper. Then she flew low to the outskirts of the Federation’s mountain resort at Buena Vista a half-hour southwest.

The resort acted as a neutral zone within North America. Elite citizens from other continents came to enjoy mountain views and lush vegetation that had disappeared in places like the Amazon Desert. Antarctica still had few trees outside its domes, and no tree-covered mountains. The Blue Ridge was part of the resort’s attraction.

One of the few people Demarco still trusted most of the time was a former agent now chief of security for the facility: Marybeth Royale. The former pupil had cleared renegade Working Stiffs from hills east of the resort and arranged this meeting.

Demarco had no doubt her clever protégé could monitor their conversation. That was preferable to interruptions by resort guards or desperate Working Stiffs.

The chief inspector hiked from her sky-jumper to a ledge with a magnificent view of nearby mountains and the valley below, quite a contrast from growing up in the swamps back east. A gun cocked nearby.

Someone with a thick growth of wavy black hair stood behind a bush. The olive skin was smooth, a young woman’s appearance: the benefit of advanced stem cell treatments. Antarctic Medical Director Melina Farouk emerged from the shadows wearing camouflage hunting gear. She let Demarco see the rifle aimed her way before lowering it.

Some would call me a hero. Melina Farouk gave a coy smile.

Others would consider it a breach of Harmony and an act of war, Demarco said, since they were outside Buena Vista’s protected grounds, and thus on North American soil, Governor Wilmette’s jurisdiction. Demarco approached Farouk and held out her hand. Thanks for coming.

Hunting is good up here, Farouk said. As I’m sure you’ve heard, in Antarctica we have no wildlife worth hunting. Topsoil is too thin to support much vegetation outside our greenhouse domes, and the seals have died out.

I’m glad we could accommodate you. Demarco didn’t like how the Federation and the continental governors’ staffs had privileges at facilities like Buena Vista. This was a breach of sovereignty, though the term was meaningless under the World Federation’s New Harmony. They were one big happy family when the governors got along, but they’d become a squabbling family of three-hundred-and-some-year-old Grand Old Dames, like the pre-Collapse artifacts the Department of Antiquities supposedly destroyed.

I hear you located a promising Marginal specimen and let her slip away.

Demarco grimaced. Inspector Volpe jumped in without my guidance and let the girl escape. I’m closing in on the girl’s location.

Is that why you contacted me?

I thought you should know.

They headed up the steep incline. Demarco waited for her counterpart to offer a deal in exchange for delivering Regina. When Farouk said nothing further, Demarco added, Have you discussed this with your people down south?

It’s an incredible view. Farouk fanned her gun out over the valley below.

I’m expected to deliver the girl to … Demarco hesitated, reluctant to speak the governor’s name. This had to be off the record.

Your matter interests us. However, you of all people know we can’t interfere.

What if I deliver the matter to you?

We’d need a neutral location to avoid a jurisdictional crisis. Farouk stared across the valley at nearby mountains.

You want what I have.

What you profess you can get.

What I will have, Demarco said. What assurances can you offer me? She hated negotiating from weakness, but there wasn’t much time before Volpe surfaced to stir up trouble.

It’s a delicate matter. We could give you all sorts of assurances. If a crisis ensues, those promises vanish.

You want what this girl offers.

Have you confirmed that? Farouk held her gaze on the mountainous horizon.

Demarco wanted to study her counterpart’s eyes. She had to settle for profile, which offered few clues. Close enough. Do we have a deal?

Farouk faced Demarco. Do this because it’s the right thing to do, not for personal gain.

I approached you for that very reason. Alas, I have much to lose while you have much to gain. I ask only—

Rising tides favor all ships.

Unless a storm surge swamps them. This tide will not benefit my boss.

Very well, Farouk said. If you confirm her value and keep this from becoming an incident, we’re interested.

Where shall I deliver the package? Demarco asked.

It must be open Federation space.

Over the ocean?

Farouk nodded. I stress: without incident. We can’t breach Harmony.

In exchange, can you provide me protection in Antarctica?

We’ll do what’s possible. In the meantime, should we be concerned about Inspector Volpe? I understand she’s a wild card.

If I have your assurances of protection, Demarco said, I’ll take care of that minor irritation.

Farouk tilted her head and nodded. We’ll be at the Federation resort near Anchorage in nine days. It’s a coastal spa, cleared of Marginal outcasts.

I know it. Do we have nine days? I mean Premier Rostov. No disrespect, but her health?

We don’t like to talk of such matters, Farouk said. She has perhaps a month. To avoid breaching Harmony, nine days is the soonest we can meet. Given how you’ve failed to grab this Marginal for two years, you’re lucky I’m giving you time to get this right. One chance. Don’t fail.

Demarco got the impression Farouk was more interested than her tone and words indicated.

If you don’t mind, Farouk said, you have a swamp rat to catch, and I have business to tend to. She pulled the rifle from her shoulder and left.

Thanks for the opportunity to serve, Demarco said to Farouk’s back. She wished for a way to deal with Melina Farouk’s arrogance, but that would have to wait until she had a more secure power base.

* * *

THREE

Ester leaned over my bed and mopped my brow. "We will find Colleen. I promise."

Tabitha Rundle hurried into the room. Her rugged face cracked a smile. Sorry I’m late. Her wild blonde hair reminded me of Viking pictures in Mo-Mere’s illegal collection of print books. The resemblance danced in my head, reinforced by knowing her ancestors had come to the Virginia Mountains from Scotland, a land close to the really ancient Viking world.

We’ve received intel on your sister. Rundle put on a mask and pulled on a white gown identical to Cordoba’s.

Colleen? I said. Where?

Is our patient prepped? Rundle washed her calloused Working Stiff hands in a sink basin behind the door.

She is, Cordoba said.

Rundle put on gloves and turned my way. Are you ready?

What about Colleen? I asked.

Are the three young women prepped? Cordoba said.

In the next room, Rundle said. We need to act with precision. Ester, if you stay, please stand back and make room.

Ester moved behind me and placed her hand on my shoulder.

Colleen! I said. Tell me.

Rundle plunged a needle into my left arm. We’ll need a pint of blood. That’ll leave you woozy, but it should give us enough DNA, enzymes, and proteins. She drew blood, filling vials.

It felt strange to offer blood. When I’d gotten my foot caught in an animal trap two years earlier, I’d expected to bleed out. In the dark and rain I couldn’t see how much blood I’d lost before I bandaged it.

Tell me, I said.

We intercepted a message that Antiquities agents took Colleen Shen out west.

Where? When?

Rundle handed the blood vials to Cordoba, who took them out of the room. They said West Coast. She might be in transit.

My breathing grew shallow.

I shouldn’t have said anything until after your procedure. We don’t want you pumping stress hormones into the skin samples. Now breathe.

Nodding, I steadied my breathing. Ester squeezed my shoulder and leaned over so I could see her eyes. She called them brown, though I saw a touch of flame like a campfire.

Rundle pulled out the needle and bandaged my arm. You’re doing well. She flashed a penlight into my eyes. You feel okay?

I haven’t passed out, unless I missed that.

She laughed. You’ve been with us all along.

Did they say where out west?

Something about anchors and banks.

Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska, I said. That’s halfway around the world.

Tabitha Rundle lifted the bed sheet, rolled me onto my side, and took skin samples from my buttocks, high enough so the cuts wouldn’t interfere with sitting. Born a Working Stiff, she’d trained in medicine in secret under her mother and opened a clinic for Working Stiff women.

We’re going to Alaska? Ester asked. Her expression was a cross between excitement and terror.

I’d like you to come with me.

She nodded and clutched my hand so tight it hurt more than Rundle’s cutting.

Professor Cordoba returned, stood over me, and smiled in a way that reminded me of Mo-Mere. The professor put on her mask. I want you to know how much this means to our small community.

Do you believe my DNA can make a difference?

Fertility is tricky, she said.

When the Community Movement took us down the path of an all-female society by using EggFusion Fertilization, they thought they had the kinks ironed out. By extracting live skin cells from one woman, coaxing them to become stem cells, and implanting half the DNA into an egg, they achieved as high as forty percent fertility. Their hubris led them to believe they could get by without males. I’d learned that from Professor Cordoba.

Tabitha Rundle finished taking skin samples and placed a bandage over my wound. That went well. Minimal bleeding.

I felt trapped and irritated. I took a deep breath and reminded myself this was my idea.

The Federation hid flaws that undermined their push for New Harmony without males. They thought they could fix their process. But DNA telomeres didn’t regenerate as stem cells should. Instead, they shortened. The decay rate doubled with each generation. An error rate of one in a million in the first generation became one in a thousand after ten generations, which, evidently, was enough for fertility to collapse.

Why don’t I have that defect? I asked.

Rundle replaced the bandage on my rump and taped it. We don’t know, she said. Are you ready for extraction? It’s minimally invasive, but it’ll feel strange and uncomfortable.

This already felt that way. I nodded and rolled onto my back. Let’s finish this.

I couldn’t stop thinking of how many times Governor Wilmette’s lab technicians had done this to my sister without asking permission. She was twelve when they took her. I blamed myself for failing to rescue her from bounty hunters. Then I left her with Aunt Margo.

Tabitha Rundle inserted something cold, like during a pelvic exam. I couldn’t help feeling robbed. I hadn’t considered having a child; I just couldn’t imagine a time when I wouldn’t be on the run. That was no way to raise a daughter, no better than living in the swamps. My mom abandoned us when I was fifteen. I couldn’t do that to a

Reviews for Regina Shen

[cherylk_44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The further I get into this story the more I grow connected with the character and the storyline. Regina continues to amaze me with her strength. She is a true leader. I appreciate the relationship between Ester and Regina, even if it is really one-sided. I do agree with another reader on the fact that I found Ester at times to be more of a hinder than help. Yet I could see why Regina let Ester come along as in a way she was watching over her and protecting her like a sister as she couldn't do that for her own sister, Colleen. Chief Inspector Demarco is quite the wild card. She had her own agenda that only she really knew about. I am glad I was not the one she was hunting after. Although I had all the faith in Regina. She has come out on top before and I am sure she will again. The addition of the new characters was nice. Than there is the reappearance of Regina's mother. The events that has lead her back into Regina's life adds intrigue to the whole storyline. Plus the new terrain was refreshing as well. I can't wait to read the next book.