The Red Widow Group: The Golden Donderi Saga Read online

  Daniel Dore

  The Red Widow Group

  Copyright © 2022 by Daniel Dore

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

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  Contents

  1. Chapter 1

  2. Chapter 2

  3. Chapter 3

  4. Chapter 4

  5. Chapter 5

  6. Chapter 6

  7. Chapter 7

  8. Chapter 8

  9. Chapter 9

  10. Chapter 10

  11. Chapter 11

  12. Chapter 12

  13. Chapter 13

  14. Chapter 14

  15. Chapter 15

  16. Chapter 16

  17. Chapter 17

  18. Chapter 18

  19. Chapter 19

  1

  Chapter 1

  Daniel Dore

  101 Francois Brunet

  Terrebonne, Quebec, J6V 1R2

  Tel: 514-462-9627

  [email protected]

  68981 words

  THE GOLDEN DONDERI SAGA

  THE RED WIDOW GROUP

  A Novel by

  Daniel Dore

  Alone at last. I thought he would never leave for his stupid board meeting. Hopefully he will have to leave for a long trip to some other world and the swelling on my face will come down enough that I could cover it up with makeup and eat out at a restaurant or something. He might be one of the richest men in all the systems, but I would settle for a modest man with barely enough money to live by if it meant he would love me and treat me right. But I can’t leave Alan as he has a clause that if I leave him, I get nothing for the six years of marriage and find myself on the streets and pray to anyone out there who will get their hands on me.

  So, I bid my time and hope that I will survive long enough to get the one million credits promised me if we are married more than fifteen years. Only nine years to go of getting beaten up regularly and sex that feels more like rape then love.

  I slowly get out of bed, the pain in my back just shy of crippling, and put on a day gown. I walk to the stairs and make my way as best I can down to the lower level of the Penthouse Alan owns over one of his numerous OK. I haven’t been out of this apartment ever since arriving after our wedding, a heartless affair in front of his family and friends, where all of them looked at me like a piece of meat. Some of the male guests actually came up to Alan and asked him when they could have their turn on me. His answer should have rung sirens in my head as he told them ‘not yet’. He didn’t say never, just not yet.

  Well since then a few of them had their turn with me and they were even worse than Alan. I can only imagine their wives and the torture they are getting right now. Some days I’m not even sure I’ll survive the night, but I always seem to pull through and, in the morning, Alan almost looks disappointed when I get up from bed to take a shower.

  I’d probably leave even if it meant being broke, but Alan has the place watched twenty-four seven, the old Earth term for all the time. In the kitchen I find the trusted and always present Gregory Hick. Personal Aid to my husband, he is always by my side whenever Alan needs to leave for extended periods. A small smile crosses my lips but I wipe it off just as fast before he sees it. Alan might think himself clever, ‘giving’ me a shoulder to cry on, but I quickly found out that Greg reports every single word I usher to him right back to Alan.

  I walk up to the food dispenser and ask for an herbal tea, no sugar, take the cup and slowly walk to the table to read the news on my tablet. After a few redacted pages I switch to the out of system news, see what I can find out about the Alliance that I might learn that hasn’t been blocked.

  Alan gave me the tablet the next day after the wedding and I had the ‘nerve’ to ask him why I couldn’t read about a certain system where my parents lived. That day was my first beating. He told me that I read what he wants me to read, I eat and drink what he wants me to eat and drink, and if I gained an ounce of fat I would get beaten until I lost it and then some more for me to remember the lesson. That day when he left for work, I tried to slip away but came face to face with Gregory Hick. He showed up with a smile on his face and a shoulder to cry on. It took me four months to put together that he was Alan’s favorite dog and reported back everything I said back to him. Since then, I have kept my comments to a minimum.

  Greg sees that I’m not in a talking mood and he simply heads to his office closing the door. No doubt he’ll be watching me on his numerous monitors all day long. I can feel his eyes when I go to the bathroom, when I eat at the table, and even when I take my shower, no doubt tossing off at the same time. He’s never asked Alan for his turn with me but I’m sure he’s got permission to please himself while watching me. Knowing Alan, it’s probably written in his contract.

  I head back to the room and give Greg his daily pleasure before crawling back in bed and sleeping the pain away for a bit.

  * * *

  The most beautiful scenery stands before me, with dozens of different kinds of flowers all spread in swaying patterns that attract the eyes and bring a smile to your face. No one else around stares at the flower beds, but all have the same smile I do. I walk a few steps toward the closest flowers and stop suddenly, noticing that I have a flowing gown of spun gold that envelops my body to leave nothing to the imagination. The perfection of it even surprises me, but I notice something I haven’t noticed in a long time, the absence of pain.

  I slowly bend down to the soft petals and lose myself in their incredible smell. Suddenly a warning tickles my brain and I swirl around faster than I ever did and push my hand toward a trio of very large men walking toward me. The men go flying backwards hitting a few people in the process.

  All around people run away screaming and a little farther away, too far to help for now, the city guardsmen are running in this direction. They will never get here in time to save me, why I know this is beyond me. A burning feeling inside me rages through my veins and all of a sudden, my vision turns red and I can feel power like nothing anyone has ever felt. The three men are back on their feet and spreading out to surround me, but it won’t matter anymore, as the power has awakened inside me and there is nothing these Vuldalian soldiers can do to stop what’s coming their way.

  The power forms inside me, guiding me to the best way to get rid of the threat and I spread my fingers wide at the same time as I spread my arms wide. I instruct the power to take out all Vuldalian assassins in the area. Believing the power would spread into three rays of power, I’m as surprised as everyone else when seven rays extend from my fingers and not only do they find the three soldiers in front of me, but also a sniper in the trees across the garden and three other assassins hidden in Conranian clothing.

  As the rays stop and the after effect of the bright light in my eyes diminishes, all that is left of the enemy soldiers is ash. Even the body armor they had been wearing is gone. I expect everyone around to keep screaming and running away but all come back and a few walk up to me asking if I am OK. Others walk to the ashes and simply brush them aside with their boots, as you would dirt or garbage.

  And then one person asks something I never would have thought to hear.

  “Princess, how’s the baby taking the power surge?”

  * * *

  I wake with a start, breathing hard as if I had just been in an incredible battle instead of sleeping in bed. Steps outside the door announces the coming of Gregory. I already know what he’s gonna ask before he even opens the door.

  “Nightmare my lady?” he asks, making the question sound disgusting instead of respectful.

  “Yes Greg. Nothing new.”

  As he leaves the room, I know nothing about the dream had been normal, or old news. I’ve never had anything like it in my life, so real you believe you’re actually there.

  Princess? A baby? If anything, I was far from a Princess and definitely not pregnant, Alan made sure of that. But it was still clear in my head, as if I was that person in my dream. Something about the dream made it impossible. Conranian. The me in the dream had said the assassins had been dressed with Conranian clothing to blend in, so that must have been on Conra V, the mythical planet where the supposed super beings lived in the far past. The stories went on that they had been eliminated by a race called Vuldalian, bred to eliminate threats like the Conranians.

  This was back a few centuries if the stories were even true. So, it was impossible the person in my dream would have been me. Could it have simply be a normal dream and it just felt like it was real? But something in it felt real, not just the woman but the whole surroundings. Even though I’ve never set foot on Conra V, it has been destroyed for a few hundred years, I could recognize several of the items I could see in the dream. I slowly get up from bed and grab a night gown even though it’s still morning. Before I can put it on Gregory’s hurried steps come walking to my door. No knock or anything, he storms into the room screaming.

  “How did you do it bitch?”

  The level of hatred in his voice tells me something bad has happen, and of course it’s my
fault.

  “What are you talking about Greg?” I barely get out of bed before he slaps me across the cheek.

  “Who did you hire? You’re going to answer me bitch or I’ll slap you until you die.”

  He slaps me again on the other cheek. The force is almost as hard as when Alan slaps me. I can hear several more footsteps coming up the hall toward the room, one of which is heels. Greg goes to slap me again but a large voice stops him.

  “Sir! The Master has forbidden you from hitting her too hard. I will have to report this.”

  “Report it to who Jansen. The boss is dead. His ship just exploded before jumping out of the system. No one saw any pods escaping. That bitch did it somehow, and I intend to find out how.”

  Both huge bodyguards turn fire filled eyes toward me, and I know my time has come. Suddenly something builds inside me, the same feeling I felt in the dream. As if the dream was telling me I would need this power, the energy filled every pore in my body and sparks start to fly between my fingers. I don’t wait for them to move another step and spread my hands open to release three spears of lightning strong electricity. All three men are stopped and a split second of fear appears in their eyes before they burn to ash and the power leaves my hands back to normal, but doesn’t leave me altogether like it did in the dream. Seems more enemies might be nearby. I remember the heels and look toward the door to find Geraldine Cameron, Alan’s accountant and I believe my only friend in his empire.

  Geraldine approaches slowly and looks at the three ash piles on the marble floor, then at me, also with fear in her eyes. She has something else in there as well, but I can’t explain what it is I see.

  “Sherry-Ann, are you OK?” she asks.

  “Not sure how to answer that. First, is the news about Alan true? He’s really dead?”

  “He is, I made sure of that. I knew something was up last month when he hired those two mountains by the door. I dug deeper without him knowing and found that he had taken a blood sample from you and had it tested. Something about how fast you healed made him nervous. I found the blood results in an email he sent a group of crazy people that call themselves the Cleansers. They are a race called Vuldalian and are only after one race, Conranian. I checked the blood sample again and found you were of that race. The two goons were to come in and kill you as soon as Alan was out of the system, preventing anyone from accusing him. I made sure his ship would blow up before he made it to jump.”

  “But those two did come in to kill me, so your plan failed.”

  “Well, I stormed onto the floor as soon as I got confirmation of the ship explosion and that no survivors had been found, but Greg was faster than I was. I had already brought something to surprise the two out there.”

  She pulls a blaster out of her handbag. Somehow, I knew it would not have done much against them.

  “Well, now you don’t have to do anything to them. What now? I’m pretty sure more of his goons are closing in on the penthouse to finish what Greg wanted to do. Alan had thousands of men at his disposal.”

  “He did. Not anymore. Now all of it is yours.”

  2

  Chapter 2

  “Geraldine, what are you talking about? Alan would never leave me anything. Hell, in the back of my mind I was even wondering if he would have me killed right before our contract came up just to save some money.”

  “That’s exactly what he was gonna do, and that’s only if you lasted that long. All Alan ever cared about was money, nothing else.”

  “Then why would he leave me anything at all, let alone everything?”

  “Because I tricked him into doing it.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Alan is overcautious about his assets, so I had to be creative. When I learned who or what you are, I knew the time had come to put it in action. I created a program that copies the opened document in style and form, but with the information I wrote on it. I wrote up a will placing you as his only receiver of everything he had at the time, making all wills before that one void. Since Alan was always paranoid, he changed his signature every week and sent a copy to it to his bank to make sure no one could use an old one to forge a document. So, I had to make sure the plan would happen before the week was over.

  My half-brother, one Alan knew nothing about, was hired several years ago to work on his ships as a mechanic. He happens to be an ex-military special ops explosive expert, hates women beaters, and was able to rig the primary ship Alan used to blow up just before jump. All he had to do was enter a series of numbers that no one would see as other than diagnostic requests. The second I knew he was going off on one of his trips I activated the plan. As I knew Alan was leaving today, I had him sign some documents yesterday and made sure my best friend, a drop-dead gorgeous woman, was assisting me in filing some physical documents, and that she would bend over at just the right moments so that Alan would be too busy looking at her ass and cleavage to pay attention to anything he was signing.

  Just before he left my office and was gonna ask my friend to join him, I reminded him that he had a meeting a few minutes later with the planetary President so all he ended up doing was slap her ass. Katherine was glad to take the slap for you as she was once in the same shoes, with a man that treated her like trash. I sent the real document as well as the will at the bank for certification and then set everything else in motion. Now you own everything.”

  I stand silent for a moment before remembering that other people will be here soon to see what has happened in the room, or to check up on what’s really going on with Alan. I need a game plan for the immediate future if for no other reason than to survive long enough for the information about me owning everything comes out. After that we can see. Something Geraldine said comes back to mind and it gives me an idea.

  “Well, if I own everything my first order of business is to hire you as my personal aid and accountant, with a much-needed raise I might add. Not sure how much you make but for now just double your salary and we can go from there and adjust up later. Second, I need personal security. Your half-brother looking for a new job? I find myself in need of someone I can trust to lead a new security force.”

  “Well thank you boss. I’ll give Brad a call right away. I’m sure he’d love nothing better than working for you.”

  “Good. Oh, also ask him if he has similarly minded ex-military buddies also looking for a job. Men or women are welcome, as long as they are all on the same page.”

  “Do you have a plan already boss on what you want to do with your new found fortune?”

  “Not quite yet, but I have a feeling we’re gonna make a lot of enemies really mad in a very short period of time, and having a good security force surrounding us might be a good strategy.”

  Geraldine nods and grabs her comm to call Brad. I’m not sure how many of Alan’s business buddies really liked him, but with the amount of money he helped them make, the number could be very high, all with literal armies at their disposal. I walk to Greg’s desk and scroll through the security screens still open. I was right, he could see me in the shower and I will definitely need to clean this desk off before anyone works on it. No one else seems to be inside the penthouse besides Geraldine and I, but when the first elevator screen comes on it shows several very large men in the same uniform as the two large guards that came in my room. I’m not sure I can replicate what I did earlier but I might have to if we’re going to survive the next few minutes.

  Geraldine walks fast toward the desk with a bit of fear in her eyes. She’s probably heard the elevator doors open and the numerous booths hitting the ground coming toward us.

  “I can’t reach Brad and his boss told me he left his shift early and has not been seen since. I hope Alan’s goons haven’t figured out he’s the one who rigged the ship to blow. Oh God what have I done?”

  “Geraldine, relax. Now’s not the time to come apart. We have a more pressing problem to handle first.”

  I nod toward the entrance doors and soon five men, no make that five mountains barely fit in the door jam and purposefully walk into the penthouse. All are armed for war and the leader’s face could probably break rocks just looking at them. Let’s see if I can make a convincing CEO. I get up from the desk and walk closer to them, confidence I don’t feel showing in my walk and gestures.