Act of Surveillance: Paranormal Security and Intelligence® an Immortal Ops® World Novel (PSI-Ops/Immortal Ops Book 7) Read online

  Act of Surveillance

  Paranormal Security® and Intelligence® (Psi-Ops®) an Immortal Ops® World Novel

  Mandy M. Roth

  Act of Surveillance (PSI-Ops®) © Copyright May 2021, Mandy M. Roth

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  All books copyrighted to the author and may not be resold or given away without written permission from the author, Mandy M. Roth®.

  Mandy M. Roth®, Immortal Ops®, PSI-Ops®, Immortal Outcasts®, Paranormal Security and Intelligence®, and Paranormal Security and Intelligence Ops Shadow Agents® are registered trademarks of Raven Happy Hour, LLC

  This novel is a work of fiction. Any and all characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or events or places is merely coincidence. The book is fictional and not a how-to. As always, in real life practice good judgment in all situations. Novel intended for adults only. Must be 18 years or older to read.

  Published by Raven Happy Hour, LLC

  Oxford, MS 38655

  www.ravenhappyhour.com

  Raven Books and all affiliate sites and projects are © Copyrighted 2004—2021

  To Felicia, Gina, Maya, Carrie, Yukie, Graham, Stephan, and Jenna, thank you for the swift kick in the backside that I clearly needed. Getting out of my own way is something I have yet to perfect the art of. I can’t stress how much your words of encouragement have meant to me.

  To Charise Studesville, Nicole Rosas, Stephanie Berchiolly, Robert Flowers, Aaron Cabrera, Jayson Smiley, Jason Wilkinson, Kody Chamberlain, Curt W., Doug Penikas, Andre W., Mark Pritchard, Sam Liu, Mercies May, Sebastien Bazile, Jed Shepherd, Kam Khan, Adam Gierasch, Jace Anderson, Koek, Mitch, Future, Stan Bravo, Hank Peña, Charles, Sarit Catz, David McInerney, Greg Blackmon, Thomas Hamilton, Thomas Moore, Ryan Scafuro, Jack Downs, and Peter Kaufman (I’m sure I’m forgetting someone), thank you for filling the silence, for providing a wonderful gathering spot that more than adheres to social distancing guidelines, and for the laughs.

  To Heather, Cat, and Becca, for dealing with my insanity and still talking to me the next day.

  To Jenn and Kelli, for slapping the book into shape. And to Mr. Mandy, who loves me even when I’m being a jerk.

  Contents

  Suggested Reading Order of Books Released to Date in the Immortal Ops Series World

  Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Sources

  Immortal Ops® Series Helper

  About the Author

  Suggested Reading Order of Books Released to Date in the Immortal Ops Series World

  While books in the Immortal Ops Series World can be read in any order, the author suggests reading them in the following order:

  Immortal Ops (Immortal Ops)

  Critical Intelligence (Immortal Ops)

  Radar Deception (Immortal Ops)

  Strategic Vulnerability (Immortal Ops)

  Tactical Magik (Immortal Ops)

  Act of Mercy (PSI-Ops)

  Administrative Control (Immortal Ops)

  Act of Surrender (PSI-Ops)

  Broken Communication (Immortal Outcasts)

  Separation Zone (Immortal Ops)

  Act of Submission (PSI-Ops)

  Damage Report (Immortal Outcasts)

  Act of Command (PSI-Ops)

  Wolf’s Surrender (Shadow Agents)

  The Dragon Shifter’s Duty (Shadow Agents)

  Midnight Echoes (Crimson Ops)

  Isolated Maneuver (Immortal Outcasts)

  Expecting Darkness (Crimson Ops)

  Area of Influence (Immortal Ops)

  Act of Passion (PSI-Ops)

  Act of Brotherhood (PSI-Ops)

  Healing the Wolf (Shadow Agents)

  Wrecked Intel (Immortal Outcasts)

  Bound by Midnight (Crimson Ops)

  Out of the Dark (Shadow Agents)

  Act of Surveillance (PSI-Ops)

  Act of Freedom (PSI-Ops)

  Bat Out of Hell (Crimson Ops)

  This list is NOT up to date. Please check MandyRoth.com for the most current release list.

  Mandy is always releasing new books within the series world. Sign up for her newsletter at MandyRoth.com to never miss a new release.

  You can read each individual series within the world, in whatever order you want…

  PSI-Ops: Paranormal Security and Intelligence

  Act of Mercy

  Act of Surrender

  Act of Submission

  Act of Command

  Act of Passion

  Act of Brotherhood

  Act of Surveillance

  Act of Freedom

  And more…

  Immortal Ops:

  Immortal Ops

  Critical Intelligence

  Radar Deception

  Strategic Vulnerability

  Tactical Magik

  Administrative Control

  Separation Zone

  Area of Influence

  And more…

  Immortal Outcasts:

  Broken Communication

  Damage Report

  Isolated Maneuver

  Wrecked Intel

  And more…

  Paranormal Security and Intelligence Ops: Shadow Agents

  Wolf’s Surrender

  The Dragon Shifter’s Duty

  Healing the Wolf

  Out of the Dark

  And more…

  Paranormal Security and Intelligence Ops: Crimson Ops Series

  Midnight Echoes

  Expecting Darkness

  Bound by Midnight

  Bat Out of Hell

  And more…

  Paranormal Regulators Series and Clear Sight Division Operatives (Part of the Immortal Ops World) Coming Soon!

  Blurb

  Paranormal Shifter Military Special Ops Romance. Book seven in the bestselling series PSI-Ops!

  Paranormal Security and Intelligence Operative Rurik Romanov has been put on light duty while he recovers from a brutal attack orchestrated by The Corporation and their genetically engineered hybrids. The alpha-male Russian bear-shifter is not exactly thrilled with his new assignment—babysitting a person of interest—but he’s a soldier, and an order is an order. The woman he’s tasked with keeping an eye on has ties to the very organization that left him injured in the first place. He isn’t sure if she’s friend or foe, but he does know his shifter side has a primal interest in her.

  Chapter One

  PSI Division B Headquarters, location classified, just over twenty years ago…

  Special Operative and bear-shifter Rurik Romanov entered the bullpen area of Paranormal Security and Intelligence (PSI) Division B Headquarters.
It was one of many headquarters throughout the world and had oddly become one of his favorites. As with most of them that were within the United States of America, it was larger and newer than most that were overseas. Some, especially the ones in Europe, made him feel claustrophobic.

  That was part of what made this branch’s headquarters nice to be stationed out of. As a supernatural male, he was large. Nearly all he knew were. That meant they took up more space than others. Hitting his head on doorframes and overhead light fixtures was a real issue. He’d given himself a monster of a headache at the London PSI facility once by way of a low-hanging archway. The ordeal had earned him more than one laugh from his fellow operatives.

  He stared out at the exceptionally large bullpen, which seemed to have been bathed in shades of gray, housing most of the field operatives’ desks and work areas. They were separated according to teams.

  The building always smelled like a melting pot of supernaturals because that’s what it was. Right now, his shifter side was picking up on the number of vampires that were in the room. More than made the bear in him comfortable.

  The Crimson Sentinel Ops Division of PSI—or Fang Gang if you asked the right person, since it consisted of vampires—had their own off-shoot division headquarters scattered throughout the world, but as of late had been working closely with the main branches of PSI. That meant he was seeing more and more of the Fang Gang than normal. It also meant the bullpen tended to be crowded.

  Such was the case now.

  Rurik had half a mind to turn around and go back in the direction he’d only just come from—the lower-level holding area. So far, Rurik’s team captain, Garth Ingersson, was going on a week of being locked away down there. Seven days of being chained while stuck in shifted form, full of nothing but rage. Seeing a man Rurik respected greatly and thought of as a brother chained like a wild animal was hard. As much as Rurik wanted to free Garth from the shackles holding him, he couldn’t.

  The captain was being restrained for everyone’s safety but explaining as much to him wasn’t possible. Not in his current state. Like the man in the cell adjacent to Garth’s, he wasn’t exactly himself. His shifter side was doing all the decision-making, and that never went as well as anyone might hope.

  When not stuck in wolf form, Garth was a twelve-hundred-year-old shifter who came from the Viking age of Scandinavia and headed PSI-Ops Team Eight. And when Garth wasn’t covered in fur and foaming at the mouth from sheer rage while walking on all fours, he was pushing seven feet tall, with a head of long blond hair that Rurik thought was a touch on the girlie side.

  Not that Rurik had a ton of room to talk.

  It wasn’t as if he kept his hair short, but he didn’t braid it like the captain. Sure, they were tiny braids hidden throughout Garth’s hair and the practice dated back to the man’s days of longboats and raiding villages, but they were braids all the same. It would be an extra-fucking-cold day in Siberia before Rurik braided anything, so there was no risk of them appearing in his hair.

  A week prior, when Team Eight, along with members of the Fang Gang, had raided the estate of a man who ran drugs and guns for the enemy, they’d assumed it was an open-and-shut case. Rurik had thought the arms dealer was scum for more than one reason, so when he’d happened upon the man’s taxidermy collection—bears and wolves included—he’d wanted to rip him into tiny pieces. To hunt the non-shifter variety of their species was too much. That alone warranted the man’s death.

  When an underground laboratory was discovered, containing test subjects who were all children, it had been all Rurik could do to temper his inner beast. Born a bear-shifter, he liked to think he had decent control over that side of himself. The incident a week ago told him otherwise.

  It let him know that when children were involved, all bets were off.

  Unlike humans, supernaturals didn’t reproduce at high rates of speed. He was sure it was nature’s way of balancing everything and keeping the supernatural population from exploding. Children were to be valued and protected at all costs.

  Not experimented on.

  Yet that’s exactly what PSI had uncovered.

  Sadly, that lab hadn’t been the only one unearthed that day, or during the last week, for that matter. Rurik had lost track of the number of facilities that had been discovered and raided. All of which Garth had been absent from assisting with, since he’d lost control during the first of the raids. The enemy had been busy, and PSI had missed all the signs. Now they were stuck playing cleanup and being reactive instead of proactive.

  Knowing the enemy’s history and ties to World War II eugenics, Rurik highly doubted the current labs marked the re-start of the testing. His gut said the testing from the height of eugenics had never actually ended. That the enemy had just gotten better at hiding it from everyone.

  Assholes.

  He had to take a deep breath and count backward internally from ten to calm himself and the animal he shared his body with. The bear wanted a pound of flesh from every bastard involved with the testing facilities. Hell, the bear wanted more than simply a pound. It wanted to consume them all—to rip them to shreds and eat them, leaving no trace behind.

  A line of Russian fell free from Rurik’s lips as he grumbled about how much he hoped to get his hands on the bastards who had dared to hurt children.

  The momentary loss of control and speaking out loud only served to gain him more attention in the bullpen. There were a decent number of men there, and all with their eyes on Rurik. Normally, very few paid him any attention when he entered a room. Right now, it seemed like everyone was paying attention. For a moment, he wondered if his zipper was down, seeing as how all eyes were on him.

  He checked.

  It wasn’t.

  Still, they all continued to stare.

  Some began to snicker, while others averted their gazes quickly as he made eye contact with them, an unspoken challenge in the air. Not a shock, seeing as how his temper was somewhat notorious. It had once earned him a blender from his coworkers—though he still wasn’t sure why the men thought he’d want one.

  “What?” Rurik demanded of Miles “Boomer” Walsh, as he approached the desk the man was currently occupying. It wasn’t Boomer’s desk, but he’d clearly made himself comfortable in it all the same. He reclined in the office chair, with his feet propped on the edge of the desk as he toyed with some metal contraption that seemed as if it was made to hold paper clips.

  Boomer, who always looked more like he was about to attend a vampire-themed nightclub rather than work for an off-the-books organization that fought against supernatural threats, pursed his lips and shrugged. He then ran his pierced tongue over his equally pierced lip. “Dude, I’m not getting involved in this. Don’t look at me.”

  Rurik growled lightly.

  Boomer had the nerve to laugh before he lowered his head. He began to hum what sounded a lot like the United States of America’s national anthem. He then rocked his head back and forth to the beat.

  The cat-shifter was bizarre, so Rurik ignored him and continued onward.

  There were half-wall dividers with ten-inch glass panels at the tops in the bullpen that were built to give the illusion of privacy to the various team sections, but they didn’t provide much in the way of actual seclusion. They did prevent anyone from having a clear line of sight of the entire bullpen though, unless they were in one of the upper offices.

  As Rurik rounded the area to Team Eight’s section, he did a double take as he spotted his desk. The second his eyes widened, laughter erupted around him. It was evident they’d all been waiting to see his reaction to what had been done to his workspace.

  It looked as though a Fourth of July celebration had regurgitated all over the place.

  There were small American flags covering his desk. Some were on sticks, some were like garlands, others were napkins, and some were just loose and strewn about the desktop. All of them sat on top of a tablecloth that had what looked to be firework explosions pa
inted all over it.

  There was also a child’s stuffed brown bear that was wearing a T-shirt with “God Bless the U.S.A.” on it. Next to the stuffed animal was a plastic Statue of Liberty figurine that stood about ten inches high. Its base had a small nickel plate with the words “Welcome to America, Jackass” engraved on it. A coffee mug that read “Proud to be an American” sat next to Rurik’s computer. In the mug were red and blue pens and more flags on sticks. An apple pie completed the nightmarish scene. It was in the center of the desk with a lit sparkler sticking from the center of it.

  Rurik would have asked who was responsible for the scene, but he noticed Duke Marlow leaning against one of the partitions with a cocksure grin on his face as he flicked a lighter in his hand, causing a flame to appear and disappear. In the man’s other hand was a coffee mug that was identical to the one on Rurik’s desk.

  Duke began to whistle the same tune Boomer had been humming. He then sipped his coffee, his gaze never once leaving Rurik.

  The natural-born American wolf-shifter was basically Rurik’s workplace foe. The two butted heads as often as possible, each loyal to their country to a fault, each old enough to remember when their countries aligned against common enemies, only to then end up in an arms race that lasted decades.