Power Struggle: League of Independent Operatives, #0

By Kate Sheeran Swed

Mary O'Sullivan would rather throw punches than parties. But though her vigilante-league family can fly and support collapsing bridges on one shoulder, Mary's stuck with her wits, muscles, and a desperate need to prove herself. When the league uses her celebrity secret identity to infiltrate a gala, she takes the opportunity to flaunt her skills as an operative. 

 

Mary's decision to bend protocol results in the loss of a dangerous artifact — one that could grant her the power she lacks. Sidelined by the league for going rogue, she pursues the power-granting stone without backup. 

 

But she's not the only one looking for the artifact. If she can't secure it, superpowers will be available to the highest bidder — and the league's anonymity could become a thing of the past. 

 

Power Struggle is a stand-alone prequel to the League of Independent Operatives series. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kate Sheeran Swed
• Release date: Mar 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224238460

Kate Sheeran Swed

Kate Sheeran Swed loves hot chocolate, plastic dinosaurs, and airplane tickets. She has trekked along the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu, hiked on the Mýrdalsjökull glacier in Iceland, and climbed the ruins of Masada to watch the sunrise over the Dead Sea. After growing up in New Hampshire, she completed degrees in music at the University of Maine and Ithaca College, then moved to New York City. She currently lives in New York’s capital region with her husband and son, and two cats who were named after movie dogs (Benji and Beethoven). Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in the Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide Volume 5, Electric Spec, Daily Science Fiction, and Andromeda Spaceways. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Pacific University. You can find her on Instagram @katesheeranswed.

Book preview

Power Struggle

Copyright © 2020 by Kate Sheeran Swed

Cover by Deranged Doctor Design

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

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CONTENTS

1. Mary

2. Mary

3. Eloise

4. Mary

5. Eloise

6. Simone

7. Mary

8. Eloise

9. Mary

10. Eloise

11. Simone

12. Mary

13. Mary

Alter Ego Preview

Also By Kate Sheeran Swed

About the Author

1 MARY

Grapple hooks and cocktail dresses didn’t tend to mix. Which was why, as a general rule, Mary O’Sullivan kept her celebrity lifestyle miles away from her vigilante one. But tonight, her usual rules were shot—or at least they were about to be. Because tonight was a mission and a party, all rolled into one.

Even wrapped in the glitz of her playgirl-heiress secret identity, Mary’s invitation to the Paris opening of Étienne Dubois’s brand new gem of a skyscraper had taken significantly more wheedling and called-in favors than usual. Her celebrity world revolved around night clubs and cocktail parties, not serious business ventures. She could only hope no one had taken notice of her interest.

Nerves settling deep in her stomach, she breathed. And she looked out the window, assessing the situation. Nestled in the commercial district of La Défense, the freshly opened tower twisted skyward in a spiral of glossy silver, patches of green garden patios interrupting the flow of metal and glass like plumage. Craning her neck, Mary could just make out the bottom of the tram Dubois had touted as the first of its kind, a ride to carry cars of tourists from the top of the building to a restaurant in the middle.

Do you need a review of the operation? Her sort-of boss, sort-of sister chimed into the com link in Mary’s earring. The dangling diamonds had made it easier to install hidden mics, typically a challenge on undercover missions. Harder by far had been the challenge of concealing enough weapons while wearing a dress that hugged her figure like a straight jacket. Or so it felt, sometimes.

One couldn’t simply enter a fancy party armed to the teeth. So Mary created workarounds.

I thought we were going radio silent, Mary said.

As soon as you’re out of the car. Eloise’s irritation leaked into her tone, which only made Mary want to dawdle longer. Which will be...?

Mary exaggerated her sigh for maximum little-sister effect. Any minute now.

She wasn’t used to having Eloise in her ear during celebrity playtime. But talk-of-the-town though it might be, Étienne Dubois’s skyscraper was hiding more than fancy office suites. And since Dubois’s secrets apparently involved enhanced abilities in humans—the kind that made them fly, go invisible, or super-punch through walls—Mary’s job was to find out what he was up to.

Actually, it was Mary’s colleagues in the League of Independent Operatives—LIO for short—who would get to do the fun part. Sneaking and spying and hero-ing, if called upon. Mary, on the other hand, was saddled the very exciting task of opening a window.

They couldn’t do the job without her, but they refused to give her real responsibility, either. As the only league member without enhanced abilities, Mary was used to the grunt work. That didn’t mean she liked it.

Clock’s ticking, Eloise said. Go, Mary.

Once upon a time, El had understood how difficult it was for Mary to move between worlds. Mary nodded to her LIO-hired chauffeur, who came around to open the door. Roger that, captain.

Eloise sighed, and the radio fell blissfully silent.

The red-carpet gauntlet was an experience Mary had repeated hundreds of times since childhood. Her ticket into the skyscraper’s lobby depended on smiles, waves, and a well-placed comment or two. With cameras clattering from every side, Mary paid her dues and secured her passage across the ten feet of red carpet and into the lobby of Étienne Dubois’s tower.

From the outside, the tower was impressive. Pretty.

On the inside, it was a masterpiece. That was all Mary could think as she paused at the door to smile for Étienne’s official cameras while taking in the scene. A waterfall tumbled through the center of the lobby from several stories high, the water disappearing through a gaping hole in the floor and giving the whole room an impression of elevation, of motion.

Around the perimeter of the room, guests strolled along an open walkway that twisted upward as though aiming for the top of the waterfall—which disappeared into the ceiling, unreachable. Splashy artwork decorated the walls at wide intervals, and garlands of fresh flowers graced the railings, sending light scents of lilac and rose through the space.

Tonight’s crowd might be less star-studded than Mary’s usual haunts, but the setting was thoroughly impressive. She made her way further into the room, glancing around for a familiar face, unsure of what she hoped to find. A friend could present a complication. Still, she was used to recognizing at least half the people in any room she entered—whether by acquaintance or through their work in Hollywood.