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    Easy Prey
    Easy Prey
    Easy Prey
    Ebook80 pages1 hour

    Easy Prey

    By Stephanie Barr

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    About this ebook

    Three short prequel stories for the upcoming release of Ideal Insurgent, but these stories can stand on their own.

    "Starstruck" - Bryder wants nothing more than to take the evil Randian Empire to its knees for their brutality and destruction. So, why is he in a class to become a field agent for that self-same empire? And what is with this brilliant but brainwashed teacher? Is she something special despite her adherence and loyalty to Rand? Or is she just another cog in a soulless machine?

    "Easy Prey" - Damon, captain of a growing space pirate fleet, covets capture of an agent ship for his very own, and lays await for one. But capturing this "easy prey" is anything but simple. Who will win this David and Goliath battle for supremacy and ownership of the nimble agent ship?

    "Out of the Box" - when an agent goes rogue, no matter how compelling the reason, it's an issue. It's a crisis if she happens to have power over the entire center at her fingertips. Nayna and Bryder must defuse the situation without losing the center and without putting the rogue agent through another ordeal.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStephanie Barr
    Release dateFeb 17, 2018
    ISBN9781370801077
    Easy Prey
    Author

    Stephanie Barr

    Although Stephanie Barr is a slave to three children and a slew of cats, she actually leads a double life as a part time novelist and full time rocket scientist. People everywhere have learned to watch out for fear of becoming part of her stories. Beware! You might be next!

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      Book preview

      Easy Prey - Stephanie Barr

      Easy Prey

      Precursor stories to Ideal Insurgent

      by Stephanie Barr

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2018 Stephanie Barr

      Discover other titles by Stephanie Barr

      Conjuring Dreams: Learning to Write by Writing

      Tarot Queen

      Beast Within (First of the Bete Novels)

      Nine Lives (Second of the Bete Novels)

      Twice the Man (Third and final Bete Novel)

      Saving Tessa

      Musings of a Nascent Poet

      Curse of the Jenri

      Legacy

      Ideal Insurgent

      The Taming of Dracul Morsus

      Pussycats Galore

      Catalyst

      The Library at Castle Herriot

      Dedicated to Stephanie, Roxy and Alex, always.

      Cover by Brendan Smith

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase 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 only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Starstruck

      Easy Prey

      Out of the Box

      About the Author

      Preview for Ideal Insurgent

      Starstruck

      This is your craziest idea yet, Bryder. Talking to himself wasn't the problem—he'd been doing that since childhood—but he was generally more complimentary.

      He had hated the Empire for as long as he could remember. So, why was he here, training to be an analyst/agent for the self-same Randian Empire? He should have checked himself for a fever before signing up. Had he been drinking?

      Not that he hadn't worked for them before. Everyone did at some level or faced being trapped forever on a backwater planet. Not for Bryder.

      Bryder had set his heart and mind—an extraordinary mind if he said so himself—set on taking down the Empire. Not a practical ambition, he admitted, but it had already taken him further than he expected, even if the solution still eluded him.

      Who would have guessed it would bring him here?

      Someone clicked his heels and an imperfect silence settled over the assembled cadets. They were seated on the floor of a sparring mat like schoolchildren facing another empty mat. Behind and to the side were perhaps a dozen instructors in dull dark colors denoting rank and specialty. The cadets, like himself, wore black. What is this, a funeral? Bryder muttered.

      A woman stepped into the room from the far side, a vision in white. Her jumpsuit was the same utilitarian one-piece as the cadets' but as brilliant and spotless a white as theirs was black. Her pale flawless skin was only a shade or two darker than her clothes and unsullied by makeup or artifice. Her white-blonde hair was cut close to her scalp. Only her brows—shaded somewhere between the black of her lashes and the pale of her hair—and her large gray eyes showed any color in her face. Her face seemed chiseled in white marble but her eyes were more like hardened steel. Who was this woman?

      Attention, class. Though she didn't speak loudly, she had enough authority in her voice to eliminate the remaining murmurs among the cadets. "My name is Nayna Rand. You'll note that I used the Empire as my surname. Those of you who have retained family ties and identities will do the same. When you entered this class, your families, your homeland, your planets of origin, children, parents, friends—those ties are no more. You are part of the Empire now, and your loyalty must not be split with any others.

      He hated her. Cold, proud, callous, ruthless, and selfish, she was the perfect embodiment of everything the empire was and why he was so determined to take it down. That was Nayna, the woman his mother told him about? The girl his mother had reminded him to pity for ten years, explaining why she had no family. The poor child stolen from her mother at birth? The woman her mother had pined over, wept over, fought for for more than a decade? What a waste. He should never have come.

      He should never have volunteered for this class—but he was here. He'd learn all he could about his enemy and maybe throw a few wrenches into the mess before he sneaked out to join the underground in earnest.

      But he needed to get the info first, something that would give him a plan and the leverage to have a chance for success. Knowledge was power and he was going to need more power if he was going to take on the horrific monster that had already sterilized fifty-nine worlds and subjugated fifty-five more.

      He glanced up from his musings to find himself locked in the pale instructor's gaze. Are you volunteering, Cadet…?

      For what? he said. Name's Bryder Kass.

      Several of his fellow students sniggered.

      "Perhaps you think you don't need to pay attention, Bryder Rand? Let's test that notion, shall we? Come, Bryder, spar with me." A tiny, not pleasant smile touched her lips.

      He took in her lithe body, nearly his own height. She wore the self-confidence of someone who knew her abilities and had faith they were superior. She was planning to make a lesson of him.

      His own grin stretched across his face until he could feel his cheeks all but touch his ears. He bounced to his feet. This was going to be good.

      Normally, Bryder wouldn't strike first—his own fighting style was more an adaptive response, instinctively finding the most effective counter move to someone else's attack, but he doubted he'd need it here. This instructor was clearly a by-the-book creature, just short of an automaton. She was not going to surprise him.

      Also, he was riled—at her, at himself, at the Empire. He let his temper lash out with a leaping snap kick as soon as he was in range. Niceties be damned. The kick would have felled most, especially since

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