The Star Thief (Star Thief Chronicles #1)Author: Jamie Grey
400 pages
Publisher: Createspace
Release Date: February 1, 2014
Rate: 4 Brooms
Synopsis:
Stealing another galactic secret will get her arrested, but playing by the rules might just get her killed.
At twenty-three, Renna Carrizal is the most notorious thief in the galaxy. There's just one problem - all she wants is to get out of the business.
But after Renna rescues an injured boy on her final job, she finds herself on the run from the mob instead of enjoying retirement. She unwittingly becomes ensnared by MYTH, a top-secret galactic protection agency who offer her a choice - either help them on their latest mission, or spend the rest of her life on a prison ship.
Forced to work under the watchful eye of handsome but arrogant Captain Finn, Renna learns the former mercenary-turned-hero has a few dirty secrets himself. As Renna works to discover the truth about Finn's past and keep the tantalizing man at arm's length, she unearths a plot to create an unstoppable army. The target? The human star fleet.
Now Renna must pull off the biggest job of her career - saving the galaxy. And maybe even herself.
Chapter One
Renna should have known better than to trust Boyd when he said the job
would be easy. Her hand crept to the stolen pendant at her throat,
squeezing it before tucking it back under her shirt. Damn Boyd and his
powers of persuasion. If she’d known she’d end up spending four days
crouched behind a stinking dumpster, she would have thrown the contract
back in his face. Nothing was worth having the smell of rotting garbage
burned into your nose. Nothing except enough money to buy a small
planet.
She shifted on her heels and studied the hulking steel building in
front of her. The warehouse itself seemed normal—other than the deadly,
high-tech fence surrounding it and the perpetual presence of four armed
guards.
The blue glow of the laser locks on each door cut through the morning
sunlight like a warning beacon. A few high windows let a little light
into the cavernous building, but they were framed with thick, Saltani
iron bars. No matter how much she stared, she wasn’t getting in that
way. Nothing cut through those suckers.
Renna sighed. At twenty-three, she was more than ready to get out of
the mercenary business, but Boyd had asked her for one last job and
retrieving the qualified gamma particle destabilizer was too big of a
challenge to pass up. The newest tech from Aladea Science Investments
could vaporize matter from long distances, even off-world. If anyone
else found out it actually existed, it would start an intergalactic war.
And despite the olfactory assault, her stakeout hadn’t been a
complete waste. She’d memorized the routine of the warehouse down to the
second. Two men on this side, the other two around back. Shift change
every four hours. If she timed it right, she could sneak in the back
door when Guard Number Four went for his daily constitutional.
She shuddered. Whatever the man ate kept him regular as clockwork.
Renna slung her black polythene bag over her shoulder and twisted her
ponytail tighter. She should have cut off her damn hair ages ago, but
the long, dark locks were her one claim to beauty and she was vain
enough to enjoy the compliments.
Not to mention all the secrets she’d been able to pick up with a sultry flip of her head.
She crept from behind the dumpster and down the filthy alley toward
the back of the warehouse. The Cordozas owned most of the block, and
she’d lived in this city long enough to know that a lot of their men
were lazy slobs, more concerned with getting their credits than doing
their jobs well. Definitely made her life easier this time around.
Her black leather boots made no sound as she cleared the corner of
the compound. She smiled at the unguarded pillar grounding the entire
electric fence. Stupid. The Cordozas thought they were invincible. That
no one would dare steal from them. They were about to find out
differently.
She pulled a nanotech spanner from her jacket pocket, directed the
beam at the thick metal casing on the pole, and adjusted the frequency
until the metal hummed for a long moment. The mechanism gave way in a
burst of sparks, and the metal door opened with a clang.
Renna smirked. Sleeping with the chief engineer of the V’Mani
Electrical Company had been one of her better decisions. Give him a few
drinks and the man never shut up.
A few adjustments to the coils inside and a small section of the
fence buzzed and switched off. She tucked her spanner back in her pack
and slipped inside the fence, checking her watch as she darted across
the courtyard. Guard Four would just be getting down to business in the
bathroom. It would only take a few seconds to disable the glowing laser
lock on the door, another hack she’d learned courtesy of the engineer’s
loose tongue.
Renna slipped inside the warehouse, nothing more than a dark shadow
against the steel building. Triumph surged through her, hot and rich.
“Utterly impenetrable,” her ass. Sometimes the rush from this job was
almost better than getting paid. Almost. Still didn’t change her mind
about wanting out of the business though. She’d made enough enemies
since starting out seven years ago that there were plenty of people
who’d love to slit her throat or lock her away in prison for the rest of
her life.
She closed her eyes and let her senses reach out into the warehouse,
gathering her bearings. The scent of spices, Hesperian wooden crates,
and engine oil wove through the space like strands of silk. It smelled
like home.
There was a beep as her cranial implant downloaded the building
schematics from the net, and she opened her eyes, certain now of her
path. On silent feet, she skirted past stacks of crates toward the back.
The Cordozas had headquarters in every major city in the star system,
but the city of Veth was their clearinghouse for the smuggled items and
drugs they sent out across the universe. They were one of the biggest
dealers of clay in the galaxy and always looking for a stronger foothold
in the Outer Rim. When she had been nothing more than a tenement rat,
they’d asked Renna to join their organization.
She’d not-so-politely refused.
Renna wrinkled her nose as she passed a stack of shiny plastic
crates. The smoky, burnt-sugar scent of the drug reached her even from
here. Almost instinctually, her hand moved to her pack to reach for the
lighter inside. Each two-pound bag of clay sold for nearly a million
credits on the black market, but stealing and selling it wasn’t even
tempting. Destroying every last bag though? That, she almost couldn’t
resist.
On any other day, any other assignment, she might have done it. But
today, get in and get out was her mantra, and setting fire to a billion
credits worth of drugs would draw attention she didn’t need.
The muscles in Renna’s neck tightened, and she fluttered her fingers
as she walked, keeping them loose and flexible. She rolled her
shoulders, scanning the warehouse.
Her implant sent a couple of low frequency beeps to her ears as she passed the last row of crates.
Gotcha.
Renna dropped her knapsack on the floor in front of the gleaming iron
safe and rummaged for her tools. A Saltani safe had sixteen manual
tumblers, an electronic lock, and the most advanced internal circuitry
out there, but once she got past the tumblers, it was easy work since
all their safes had a weak point in the circuitry. You just had to know
where to look.
“Ah, there you are, sweetheart,” she said, probing with her tweezers.
A few twists and she’d rewired the combination panel back to its
factory settings. From there, all she had to do was enter the standard
code.
The safe opened with a click, and Renna sank back onto her heels.
Inside were three datapads, which she ignored. Instead, she helped
herself to several stacks of credits and a sleek silver laser gun before
finally spotting the box she needed buried under several bags of
platinum coins.
She hefted one of the coin bags in her hand. Probably worth a hundred
thousand credits. Not chump change by any means. It found its way into
her knapsack.
The destabilizer was stored in a heavy wooden box about the size of
her hand. She unlatched the lid and pushed it open. There was no way
she’d make a mistake on retrieving this item. It was worth more than her
life.
Red velvet cradled the globe of shiny metal, the electronic keypad on
its face currently in sleep mode. She let out a breath, then locked the
box back up and slipped it into her pack. She wouldn’t want to be
within two planets if that thing detonated. Luckily, she was handing it
over to Boyd as soon as she got out of here. And then those shiny
credits would be in her bank account and she could kiss this life
goodbye once and for all.
Renna flipped the safe closed and locked it back up. She tweaked the
wires again, resetting the combination back to what the Cordozas had
set. Nothing quite like confusing the hell out of your targets.
Whistling softly, she slung the bag over her shoulder. Now all she
needed was to slip back out the way she’d come in and turn the fence
back on, with no one the wiser. But she had one quick detour to make
first.
Her implant had detected a store of fibroseparators in the corner of
the warehouse, and she’d almost danced with glee. Each device could
fetch up to fifty thousand on the market, especially if you knew the
right mercenaries—the ones who didn’t want to report their gunshot
wounds or blade slices. And, boy, did she know the right mercenaries.
They would offer double if she could keep them in stock. Plus the couple
she kept for herself. You never knew when a job would go tits up.
She found the stash without a problem and shoved a dozen into her
pack with a smile. She’d already picked out the perfect cottage on a
beach, far away from the drugs and stench of her current life. It would
be peaceful. Relaxing. Safe. She’d change her name, and Renna Carrizal
would finally be dead. She’d worked hard to put the past behind her, to
break away from the tenement life and her abusive mother. Now it was
time to figure out who she was without all that baggage.
Her hand played with the sapphire around her neck idly, and lost in
her dreams, she barely registered the whimper until her implant squawked
in her ear.
“Human presence detected.”
Renna froze, hand on her pistol. She scanned the rows of crates, the
shelves along the back wall, but the warehouse stood still and silent.
Damn this implant. It couldn’t be time for a new upgrade already.
“Report,” she ordered.
“Thirteen meters to the left. Crate 107.” The mechanical female voice
was emotionless as always, but Renna’s heart thudded in her chest. She
turned and stared at the number 107 burned roughly into the wood of the
crate. The thing looked barely big enough to hold a dog, let alone a
human.
Another symbol was burned alongside the numbers: a strange eye
crossed by two spears. She didn’t recognize the mark. Maybe the crate
was destined for one of the Outer Rim gangs. Were the Cordozas
trafficking in slaves now, too?
The whimpering grew louder. “Is someone out there? Please help me.”
She stared at the crate, lips parted at the young voice. She twitched
her heavy bag higher on her shoulder, glancing toward the exit.
So much for getting in and out quickly. This was a complication she couldn’t afford.
“Please! Help me! I know you’re out there!” The terror in the kid’s voice was thick and palpable.
Renna frowned. Took a step toward the exit. She wanted to help, really she did, but…
“Please. I’ve been here for days. I promise my uncle will pay you.” The boy’s voice broke on the last word, and she froze.
If that was the case, she would be more than happy to take the kid
off the Cordozas’ hands. Drugs and weapons were bad enough. She
shouldn’t let them get away with trafficking, too.
“Hold on, I’ll have you out in a sec,” she said softly, using the
spanner to remove the nails from the crate. She stepped lithely out of
the way as the front panel fell to the floor.
Renna’s eyes widened, but she was too good a mercenary to let any
other shock show. Inside the crate was a cage, and inside the cage was a
small, dark-skinned boy, half-naked. The smell of unwashed skin made
her stomach churn. He’d obviously been there more than a few days.
She gritted her teeth as he cowered in the corner, his dark eyes
shadowed and haunted. Bruises and cuts marred his chest and arms. She
dropped to a crouch before the laser lock.
“What’s your name?” she asked gently, careful not to let her anger show.
“Myka. Myka Aldani.”
“Nice to meet you, Myka. My name is Renna, and I’m going to get you out of here.”
The boy nodded and crept forward from his corner.
“So where do you come from, Myka?” she asked as she tackled the lock
with her tools. She tried to ignore how gaunt his bare chest was, every
rib poking from his skin. Her fingers tightened around her nanospanner.
If she ever ran into the Cordozas in a dark alley…
“I was living with my uncle in New Rome Colony, but my parents and I
are from Banos Prime.” His voice stayed expressionless, and Renna
nodded. Banos Prime had been destroyed three years ago. Most of the
population had been wiped out.
“Were your parents killed in the attack?”
The boy stared at her silently before nodding once.
“I’m sorry.” Renna bowed her head over the last tumbler on the lock. What the hell were the Cordozas doing with this little boy?
The last tumbler fell into place, and the laser light shut off.
“There we go. No problem.” Renna smiled at the boy and tugged the cage
front open. “You’re free.”
He stared at the open door as if he didn’t believe his eyes.
And then the shrieking alarms began.
The Star Thief is the thrilling first book in a new science fiction/fantasy series that follows lead character Renna Carrizal across the galaxy - from being a wanted thief to working for MYTH (a galactic protection agency) and then having to basically save the galaxy. The story is full of action, adventure, and romance, which will appeal to readers who enjoy various genres. I loved the world that the author created - exploring it, learning the history, feeling like I was there myself. The use of detailed imagery and vivid descriptions really made it feel realistic and easy to immerse myself into. The characters were all well written, especially main character Renna. She's the perfect anti-hero - a bad-ass thief who's wanted for various crimes, who then faces a moral crisis during what's supposed to be her final job. After making the decision to save the boy she finds, Renna begins to shift more into the heroine that the story needs her to become. She's smart and determined - whether she's using it for bad or good. Then there's Captain Finn - the obvious love interest for Renna. He wasn't what I was expecting either - he's kind of like the male equivalent of Renna. I enjoyed watching them get to know each other and how their relationship developed during the story. The plot was fast paced and I loved the details that were included - the mob, MYTH, and the lives of the characters - all made the story highly enjoyable and a quick read. I'm excited to see where the next installment will take us and what will happen next. Overall, I thought this was a fantastic first book in what promises to be an awesome new science fiction series. Definitely recommended for fans of science fiction as well as action, adventure, and fantasy fans.
Jamie Grey spent most of her childhood writing stories about princesses who saved the day and pretending to be a daring explorer. It wasn’t
until much later that she realized she should combine the two. Now, as a tech-obsessed gamer geek, her novels mix amazing scientific developments, future worlds, and the remarkable characters that live in them.
Jamie lives in Michigan with her boyfriend and their pets, who luckily tolerate her overspending on tea, books, and video games. You can learn more about her at www.jamiegreybooks.com, or follow her on twitter via @jamie_grey.
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