Henry continues his mission of exfiltrating the leaders of the rebel colony, even as he fights his desire for the colony's leader in Exile of the Mind: Shadow Protocol 2, available on Body Swap Stories, Smashwords, Amazon, or wherever ebooks are sold.

The fourth book in the Exile of the Mind series.

Henry's new body is powerful and strong, but there are remnants of Leila's mind that hunger for Darren Vaughn. Even as he carries out his mission, undermining the rebel colony of Stofdorp by exfiltrating the leaders one by one, his thoughts are consumed with Darren.

Henry must put aside the needs of his body for the sake of the mission, hunting each leader down and carrying them out of the colony along a secret route. He carries with him the knowledge that succeeding in his mission will destroy his relationship with Vaughn. He can't fight the needs of his sensual body entirely, but maybe he can sate them enough to do what he has to do.

Henry and Darren arrived together at the great hall for breakfast. Councilor Charlotte, overseer of propaganda and civil cohesion, was already seated with a sour look on her face. Her thin lips pressed even more firmly together as they approached. She was once again in her black and blue robes. Her grey hair meticulously styled up in a fanciful bun.

Henry, in Leila’s form and taking on her role as Darren’s bodyguard, nodded stiffly to Charlotte and sat beside Darren. He’d been given a change of clothes, tailored to his build, from one of the particle replicators. It was a sleek black jumpsuit that clung loosely to his body but allowed for a range of movement. They’d returned his plasma knife and he kept it in a sheath about his waist. In the few short days Henry had been in Leila’s body, he’d adjusted to her close quarters combat preferences. With her reach, agility and strength, she was a formidable opponent. And now Henry had that power.

Henry took his cue from Darren and the hours of footage he’d watched prior to the mission. When others were around, Darren and Leila hid their feelings. Henry maintained a professional relationship as Darren’s personal bodyguard. No one would have known that Darren and Henry had spent an intimate night together just from looking at them. Though, no doubt, the rumors would have spread if someone saw Darren leaving Henry’s quarters last night.

The three other members of the Stofdorp High Council—Brian Townley, Will Thomson and Isaac Holt—trickled in for breakfast. The Councilors held their meeting as they ate, Darren presiding over the others as they read off field reports and discussed the minutiae of governing. Henry absorbed as much as he could.

“Grain production is up eight percent overall this month,” Isaac—the agricultural strategist—said, reading from a handheld tablet, his arthritis-ridden fingers awkwardly tapping the screen. “If this keeps up we’ll no longer need resupply on a monthly basis.”

Brian—the biogeneticist specialist—broke in, rubbing his hands nervously together, “The new strain grows fifteen percent faster and is more nutritionally dense as well.”

“Good,” Darren nodded. “I want Stofdorp to be completely independent. It’s only a matter of time before the UN discovers the drops and puts an end to them so they can starve us out.”

He turned to Charlotte. “And what have we learned from yesterday’s attempted assassin?”

Charlotte glanced quickly at Henry before speaking. It appeared she still didn’t trust him. “He’s cracking. We believe there may be others.”

“Of course there are,” Darren growled. “He didn’t get in here on his own. You’re not harming his body, are you?”

“No,” Charlotte replied with a slight smile. “Mind knifing is delicate work but sometimes leaves a mess.”

“That’s fine,” Darren said. “He was a young man. Seemed fit. When you’re done with him give his body to someone who needs it. Perhaps Isaac here would prefer it.”

“That would be most welcome,” Isaac agreed. Surgery had made his face seemed boyishly youthful, but the age spots on his skin and his wrinkled fingers belied his true age.

“Make sure the spy sees what you’ve done,” Darren said to Charlotte.

Isaac smiled cruelly. “I shall twist the final mind knife myself so he can see his death is by his own hand.”

Charlotte must have caught a micro expression from Henry because she turned to him and frowned. “You disapprove?” Henry could sense her bionic eye examining him, studying his pulse, his breathing, his heat markers. Did she have Leila’s original readings in there? Would she see a difference with Henry’s mind inside?

“It seems…needlessly cruel. And a waste of time,” Henry said levelly.

“Leila,” Darren said, looking at him. “Things have changed since you’ve been away. We must set an example of anyone who acts against us lest they cause others to question us. It is, unfortunately, a necessity in our current precarious state. When we have taken Salopia and are no longer threatened by the UN, then we can afford to relax.”

It was the first Henry had heard of Darren’s plans to take Salopia and he kept his face carefully neutral.

When they finished eating, Henry was given a small vidscreen that fastened around his forearm. With it, he had as much access to the colony’s files as Darren allowed. Will led Darren and Henry out of the Council facility for a tour of the new mines. Henry got his first real look at Stofdorp from the steps of the council facility. The colony was in a wide valley carved out of the crust of Triton and walled with tarnished metal plating that rose up about twenty stories to the roof. A ceiling enclosed the colony and protected it from the harsh weather on the moon’s surface. Inset into the ceiling was a series of lights that mimicked a sun and gave everything a harsh, slightly bluish glow. The mining facility sat at the end of a wide road that led down through the valley. From the vantage point on the steps Henry could see all the way to the other side and the entrance he’d come in through just the night before. In between were all manner of domes and towers and markets and fields, all filled with people going about their daily activities.

The trio took an aircar—the only one Henry had seen in the colony—and flew slowly over the valley. Darren pointed out a few of the sights for Henry’s benefit: a heavily guarded boxy structure that stored weapons, several connected domes where agricultural or weapons research was conducted, the domes containing the animal pens, the training grounds where a few heavily armed soldiers held firing exercises.

The mine entrance Will was referring to was not the same one Henry had used to enter Stofdorp but a huge gate on the opposite side of the valley. It had been carved out of the crust, solid steel doors opening to reveal an airlock and another set of huge steel doors. As the aircar landed, the gargantuan doors squealed open and a huge six-wheeled hopper carrying a load of ore trundled out, heading towards the nearby processing facility.

Will hopped out and was eager to show off his operations. Smaller and stouter, Will had to take two steps for every one of Henry’s but seemed no less energetic for it. With a hearty laugh, he bragged about the improved destructive capabilities they were able to achieve by extracting the nitrogen from the moon’s crust.

Read the rest on Body Swap Stories, Smashwords, Amazon, or wherever ebooks are sold.

The fourth book in the Exile of the Mind series. https://bodyswapfiction.com/enter/?p=14943