Diva (Jit'Suku Chronicles) Read Online Free

the civilian world—though he was never completely free of his military minders. Generally, Enhanced men who could no longer fight on the front lines ended up in intelligence circles, running covert ops or seeing to their own stable of spies and informants while keeping up a civilian façade. They certainly didn’t eat military rations with their usual load of contraceptives. And they certainly weren’t monks.
    So Diva and a small handful of other second generation Enhanced children existed quietly and in secret, their pasts shrouded in mystery. Just about every one of them did covert work for the military. That, it seemed, had been passed down from their soldier fathers, along with some of the Enhancements.
    Diva thought she recognized a fellow Enhanced in John Starbridge, but she would never know. Nor would he ever know about her. It had to be that way for their own safety. Enhanced soldiers weren’t accepted very well, but there were more than a few out there, doing the job, volunteering for the Enhancements and fighting the good fight. Diva would bet John was one of them.
    He certainly had the body to prove he was more than human. His shoulders were broad and muscled, his torso lean and sculpted. His biceps literally made her drool, and he was a good foot and a half taller than she. All in all, he dwarfed her, giant that he was, and she liked the feeling of security that gave her.
    Diva remembered her father being a big man, though in reality, he’d probably been at least six inches shorter than John. Still, he’d made her feel small and loved as he swung her around in the air. He’d been such a great father and an even greater soldier.
    She began to strum the strings of the guitar, pausing a moment to tune one of them. John had pulled on a short robe, and she regretted losing sight of all that hard muscle, but she knew it was probably for the best.
    “I told you about my dad, didn’t I?” Diva watched John settle in the chair across from her.
    “You told me he died in the Rim Wars.”
    “That’s true, but not exactly.” She wondered how much she could tell him without giving too much away. It was important to her that he know a bit more of the background to her latest composition so he could understand it fully. She didn’t care if others didn’t get all that she meant by her carefully crafted words, but for some reason, it was important to her that John understand. “My father went missing in 2416 while doing recon out near the Pyramid.”
    She knew he’d understand the star jockey’s slang for a region of space bounded by five stars in a roughly pyramidal shape. The region was as notorious as the old Bermuda Triangle back on Earth, swallowing many ships and cargoes whole, never to be seen again. Legends abounded about the place, and it was no coincidence that the area contained the only known naturally occurring jumpsite in the galaxy. That it was notoriously unpredictable was no big surprise to anyone, and the region had been cordoned off since the discovery was made—just after her father had gone missing all those years ago.
    “I’m sorry, Diva.”
    Suddenly, that name grated on her ears. “My father named me Maggie, after his mother. Diva is a stage name. I’d say you qualify to call me by my real name, John, though few people do nowadays. I trust you not to go telling anyone.”
    “Is it a secret?”
    She shrugged. “Everything about me has to be kept under wraps unless I want to see it splattered across the news vids. I like some privacy, so I’ve kept my real identity as quiet as possible. We all have our tragedies. I don’t want to exploit my father’s disappearance for my own gain. If the paparazzi got ahold of his story, it would be all over the place. People would be distracted by that and not hear my music, and that’s what I’m all about. Not my past.”
    It sounded good, but it wasn’t quite the truth. She was very much influenced by her past, though she could never really