Ice Princess (Alpha Agency Protectors Book 4) Read online

  Alpha Agency Protectors 4

  Ice Princess

  By:

  Scarlett Winters

  Copyright 2020 Scarlett Winters

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any way or by any means. Including but not limited to recording, photocopying, any electronic methods, without the prior written consent of the publisher. This book is strictly a work of fiction, any references to persons, places or things are all completely fictional.

  Warning: This book is for adult audiences.

  Contents

  A Free Gift for You!

  Chapter One ~Raven

  Chapter 2 ~Blade

  Chapter 3 ~Raven

  Chapter 4 ~Blade

  Chapter 5 ~Raven

  Chapter 6 ~Blade

  Chapter 7 ~Raven

  Chapter 8 ~Blade

  Chapter 9 ~Raven

  Chapter 10 ~Blade

  Chapter 11 ~Raven

  Chapter 12 ~Blade

  Chapter 13 ~Raven

  Chapter 14 ~Raven

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  Chapter One ~Raven

  She steps back from the table and looks down at her handiwork. The cut is clean; the appendix removed before it burst the patient should make a full recovery.

  “Daniel, would you like to close?” Raven asks looking at the young hungry resident on the other side of the table. She reminds her of what she was like as a resident. Dr. Daniels is dedicated, intelligent and her sutures are picture-perfect each time.

  “Yes, Dr. Ballenger.” She tells her eyes lighting up and Raven can sense the smile under her surgical mask.

  “Then have at it. I need to do rounds.” Raven walks out of the surgery center, snapping off her gloves and taking off her apron. She feels the eyes of the other staff on her as she leaves. She tries to pretend it doesn’t bother her.

  It is hard to be one of the youngest surgeons on staff. At age 26 Raven is much younger than the others, having started college at 16, and medical school at 19. She has always fought her image. Petite with sunny blonde hair, blue eyes, and when she chooses to show them, dimples. Raven looks like she should be serving coffee at the local Starbucks, not cutting people open on an operating table.

  She walks down the hall, stopping in the office to grab an iPad before seeing her first patient. The nurses don’t look her in the eye, averting their gaze as she walks past. Raven is known for expecting perfection from the staff. They call her the ice princess and believe she has a heart like a stone, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.

  Raven expects excellence from her employees as well as from herself. They are saving lives here and one screw up could kill someone. They can call her the Ice Princess if they like as long as they perform their jobs to her satisfaction, Raven couldn’t care less.

  She swings into the first patient room and finds the first smile of the day.

  “Mr. Ferguson, how are you feeling today?” Raven asks him as she quickly reviews the nurse’s notes that have been uploaded to his chart.

  “With my fingers Doc.” He grins at her.

  He is currently her favorite post-op patient in for the removal of part of his liver due to non-alcoholic cirrhosis he constantly has a joke on his lips and a sparkle in his eye.

  “It says here that your incision is healing nicely. Mind if I take a look.”

  “A pretty and smart young lady like you, I wouldn’t mind having your hands on me.” He winks as she comes to the side of the bed and lifts the bandages to look at his incision.”

  “It’s healing nicely. You should be able to discharge tomorrow. Do you have any questions for me?”

  “Nope, not unless you have considered my marriage proposal again.” He winks at her. Mr. Ferguson is in his eighties and has asked every pretty young nurse, or in Raven’s case doctor, to marry him.

  “Sorry, Mr. Ferguson I am married to the job.”

  “A pretty girl like you needs to get out, date some.”

  “I am too busy being a doctor. I will be back to check on you in the morning and sign your discharge orders. You need anything just tell the nurse I will swing back by.”

  “Thanks, Doc. You have been a real lifesaver. Pun intended.” He cackles, and she laughs a little with him before leaving the room to check on the next patient.

  There is a little bounce in her step after leaving Mr. Ferguson’s room. The feeling of helping someone was one of the reasons Raven became a doctor. The human body was like a puzzle, and she loved spending her days figuring that puzzle out.

  She stops at the nurse’s station to write up some notes in Mr. Ferguson’s chart, trying not to roll her eyes as one of the nurse’s hurries away.

  “The Ice Princess strikes again.” Raven looks up to see her best friend striding towards her.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be up on the psych floor? I didn’t know they let you out to roam the halls.”

  Taylor grins at her, “They had a psych consult on this floor and when I saw the nurse scurrying away from the desk and your ponytail, I knew it couldn’t be anyone but you.”

  “I don’t know why they think I am so frightening.”

  Taylor taps one blood-red nail against her lips. We met in college, both young girls with big brains and blonde hair being constantly underestimated by everyone else. She was young to 17 when she entered college. They had become fast friends and now worked at the same hospital Taylor had become a psychiatrist while Raven had opted to become a surgeon.

  “Do you have time for lunch? We can zip down to the cafeteria and grab a couple of salads. I can update you on all things, Jared.”

  Raven consults her watch and sighs, “As much as I want to know about your latest conquest, I have another surgery in thirty minutes, and I need to finish rounds.”

  “You work too hard, Raven; you need to slow down, or you are going to burn yourself out.”

  It was an old refrain from Taylor she was constantly trying to get Raven to work less, to do self-care as she called it. What she didn’t understand was that this job was everything to her. Raven had worked hard to get where she was, and she wanted to rise up the ranks. Raven had even been contemplating doing a rotation in cardiothoracic surgery to get more of a challenge.

  “So, you have said before, but you know me I love the job.”

  “That is what worries me. You need some work-life balance, girl.”

  Raven pats her face and grabs the iPad, “Maybe tomorrow right now I have rounds and gallbladder to remove. How about a drink after a shift?”

  “Sounds good! Meet you at The Spot.”

  “Sound great.” She waves and Raven turns her mind back to work. A margarita at The Spot with Taylor sounds like the perfect way to end the day. Raven stops and calls out to Taylor.

  “See I agreed to a drink work-life balance.”

  She rolls her eyes and
keeps walking.

  Raven shrugs and walks into the next patient room.

  Chapter 2 ~Blade

  Blade stands in front of a screen watching the jumpy body cam video as one of his teams enters a village in West Africa.

  “Master Chief Benson we are entering the village now, it looks as if we have some infected dead.”

  “Roger that, be careful. This disease can cause some aggression.”

  “Copy.”

  Then Blade feels his muscles tense as he looks at the scene of devastation. Someone has been testing bio-terror weapons in remote villages. It hurts his heart to look at the scene, but he has seen too much to show it outwardly. Growing up in a military family the Navy Seal program is all he ever wanted. Blade achieved his dream and found the infectious disease was his calling. Now after completing a Ph.D. in infectious disease, he is the senior officer on the bio-weapons task force protecting Americans and our allies from the threat of bioterrorism.

  “It looks as if it wiped the entire village, Master Chief.” Owens one of the most senior officers’ radios back.

  “Do the recon make sure that no one got out of the village and create a containment field for 25 miles around the village. Check for survivors and get back to me.”

  “Roger that.”

  “Owens?” Blade says, waiting for him to respond.

  “Yes, Master Chief.”

  “Be careful and come home safe.”

  “Will do. Owens out.”

  The feed disconnects and Blade walks out of the briefing room. The last month has been brutal. He lost two of his closest friends and officers to an Ebola outbreak and now this new virus was spreading terror and panic. From the analysis, it was a man-made combination deadliness of Ebola with the longer shelf life of other viruses. It seemed to be able to live outside of the host for 24 hours. If it was to get out and into a major metropolitan area, it would be devastating. From their limited exposure to N562 or as it was being called The Kraken Virus due to the virus somewhat resembling the sea creature of old, it had a 75% mortality rate.

  The only good news was that it was not airborne and had to be spread by direct contact.

  “Master Chief there is a phone call for you.” His assistant said coming into his office.

  “Send it through.” He says picking up the call as it rang through.

  “Is this Master Chief Benson?”

  “Charlie is that you?” Blade finds a smile and kicks back in my chair. Charlie went through Navy Seal training and the infectious disease program with him at Columbia.

  “Blade, how the heck are you?”

  “Busy, busy the terrorists just keep making more bio-weapons and we keep rooting them out.”

  “I hear that. I wish this was a social call, but no such luck. I am afraid I have some news. I received word that there is chatter about a possible bio-weapon attack on the United States.”

  “Is it Tuesday?” Blade laughs along with Charlie.

  “Isn’t that the truth? This is credible and we think that the terrorist is armed with N562.”

  “There is chatter that someone has brought Kraken into the United States.”

  All humor leaves the conversation as Blade thinks back to the video of the village from Owen’s body cam.

  The bodies littering the dirt, the screaming of the dying. Blade thinks about that village except imagine it as a major American city and shudder.

  “Do we have any way of knowing where he may have come in at?”

  “Not at this time. All we have so far is the chatter that he is in the United States. That was all we got from the source before he was found dead in his apartment.”

  A chill works its way through his body.

  “What was the cause of death?”

  “He was shot in the back of head execution-style,” Charlie says and Blade feels numb.

  “I will have a team readied in case the threat is identified to a specific location.”

  “Appreciated. I will keep my ear to the ground and if we get any specifics, you will be my first call.”

  “Thanks, Charlie, give Sandra my love.”

  “Will do. You met anyone yet?”

  “No, you know me this job and the military is my life.”

  “Eventually you are going to have to get back out there in the real world and find yourself, someone man.”

  “You know me, Charlie, I am a lone wolf.” Blade tells him, leaning back in his chair. This was an old conversation with Charlie and the few other people that Blade is close to. They don’t understand that he is ok with this job being his life and he doesn’t want to leave a widow behind when something happens to him on the job.

  “Alright keep your phone on and near you, be ready to jump on a plane at a moment’s notice I don’t have to tell you the seriousness of Kraken loose on American soil.”

  “We will be ready.” Blade tells him before hanging up.

  Blade needs to get a team on standby and the equipment packed and ready to go. If this disease was to get out in the general population, it would be catastrophic and that would be before it might mutate.

  He starts getting things into motion and his adrenaline spikes, this was the worst and the best part of the job. Blade crosses his fingers that the man is either found before he can infect someone or that the threat is bogus because the U.S. is not ready to deal with a pandemic on this scale.

  Chapter 3 ~Raven

  “Dr. Ballenger, we need you to ER stat.” Raven sits up and rubs her eyes, swinging her legs off of the on-call bed. She is at the end of a long shift and hopefully this will be her last call of the night.

  She walks swiftly down the hall to the elevator, pushing the button for the ER. When the doors open, she walks into chaos.

  “Dr. Ballenger we have a gunshot wound to the abdomen, he is losing blood rapidly and is combative we will have him ready and waiting in OR 4.”

  “I am on my way.”

  “Doctor! Doctor!” Raven turns to see a man covered in blood standing in the lobby.

  “I need to tell you something it is important.”

  “No, time if you want your friend to live, I need to get him to surgery now.”

  The man continues to scream at her, but she ignores him, walking into the triage room.

  “His BP is falling.” The nurse calls out as Raven is gowned and gloved.

  “Push one milligram of epi and get him hooked up to O negative Stat,” Raven calls out as the nurse puts on my face shield.

  She walks up to the table and takes a deep breath. Gunshot wounds are hard, and she digs deep for that ice princess calm that she is famous for. During her ER rotation, she was assigned to one of the inner-city hospitals. While assessing a man with a gunshot wound a rival gang member came in and shot him as well as the other doctor working on the victim.

  Raven was only grazed, but Dr. William Wolfe her mentor and friend didn’t survive his injuries. She tries to stay away from gunshot injuries, but as a surgeon, it wasn’t always possible.

  Her hands try to shake, and she takes a deep breath to steady her nerves.

  “Let’s get him stable and up to an operating theater.” She looks at the gaping wound in his side and sees where the bullet had ripped out a good part of the man’s intestine.

  She focuses on the wound and not what caused it. The team works in concert with each other, each member performing their duties until the man’s blood pressure and vitals are stable.

  “Alright he is stable let’s get him up to the surgical floor so I can remove this bullet and repair the damage.”

  Raven walks beside the bed to the elevator, watching the beeping monitors closely. He might make it if she can close up the hole in his intestines. He might end up with a bag, but at least he will be alive.

  ****

  “I think he is going to make it. Good work team.” Raven stretches her back to alleviate the cramp from bending over. She snips off the last stitch and stands back, making sure that they are going to hold the
wound closed.

  “Doctor Ballenger. I need to speak to you it is urgent.” She looks over to see one of the ER Doctors up in the balcony. Raven frowns up at him. It is a well-known fact that she does not like being uninterrupted during a procedure.

  ‘Dr. Mason, I am in the middle of a procedure as you can see, can this wait?” Her voice is icy, her showing displeasure at his interruption plain.

  “I apologize but this is an urgent and developing situation that needs your immediate attention.”

  Raven sighs, “Dr. Daniels, please come take my place and watch for any signs that these sutures are not going to hold.”

  “Yes, Dr. Ballenger. Raven waits for her to come around the table before going to the door of the surgery suite to meet Dr. Mason and find out what could be so urgent.

  “No Dr. Ballenger, please do not leave the surgery room.” He says through the door, pointing at the phone hanging on the wall. She feels the first cold fingers of dread down her back.

  “How can I help you, Dr. Mason?” She says voice cool, not betraying any of the anxiety she feels looking into his worried eyes through the door.

  “We need a sample of your patient’s blood. The man that brought him in? He is the shooter. He is claiming that your patient was injected with a biological weapon. He called it Kraken. We need a vial of blood to test. You will need to remain in the operating room with the patient until the blood is tested.”

  “Copy that.” Raven walks back to the patient and looks down into his pale face.

  “Nurse Claus may I please have a syringe and vial please.”

  “Is there a problem, Doctor?” She asks, handing Raven the supplies requested.

  She falls back on her Ice Princess persona. There is no reason to worry about the team until the presence of a bio-weapon is confirmed.

  Raven looks at her, making her eyes as cold as possible. She draws the blood and is careful when inserting the needle into the vial. Shaking it and then walking to the door of the surgery center, inserting it into the little slot for taking samples in and out.