The next morning, I tried to get Ata to leave her back feathers free, and she really wanted to, but she was not comfortable doing so in front of strangers at the breakfast table. There was no way she would fit anything of Carla’s or Soph’s. As I had discovered first-hand last night, she was a big, powerful woman.
Carla and Soph were eating at the breakfast bar when we entered, and I introduced Ata.
Carla got up and gave me a high-five and then did the same to Ata. “Good sex should be celebrated,” she said.
“Where’s Sam?” I asked as I showed Ata where things were.
“She has already eaten,” Soph said. “She is about to leave.”
Then I heard the sound of the incoming chopper.
“When do you report for duty next?” I asked Ata.
“Tomorrow morning, on account of I was working last night.”
“You were definitely working hard last night,” I said. “Speaking of, what is the deal with Kate? She followed us. She even got into the grounds. I know she was watching us swim.”
“Everybody was watching you swim,” said Carla.
“Even my mother,” added Soph.
I could tell Ata was a little embarrassed by the talk, but I couldn’t tell if she blushed under her chocolate-coloured skin.
“Those are beautiful feathers,” said Carla. “We should find you something to wear where you can show them off.”
“That would involve a shopping trip,” Ata said.
“That would be a bit difficult for us right now,” Carla said, indicating her scales, “but we can look online. If you don’t have to rush away, we can hang out, basically nude, if you like. We don’t mind. Look at my scales and her fur. Bob is the only light-coloured skin around.”
“I don’t want to be in the way, but I could hang for a bit. I don’t have anywhere to let my feathers out, and they do feel uncomfortable under clothes.” Ata said.
“Great,” said Soph. “I bet you we can find you some great open-backed dresses. You would look stunning.”
“You never did say anything about Kate,” I said before they got carried away.
“I don’t know much about Kate. I was told to meet her, make sure she recognised you and then follow her instructions,” Ata said.
“She never gave you any,” I pointed out.
“No, so I just did what I wanted,” Ata said.
“Good choice.”
“I am not going to be in the way if I hang out,” she asked.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Definitely not,” I said. “I will be on my laptop most of the day reading research papers and planning my escape away from everyone, including the Navy.”
“Should you have told me that?” Ata asked. “That is the thing we were supposed to be preventing.”
I shrugged, “I doubt I will be hard to find. I am too predictable.”
“Piha is the first place to look,” Carla said.
“OK, then,” Ata said uncertainly.
“This clod tends to leave his phone off a lot. Let them know that I can always contact him in an emergency, and by emergency, I mean an anomaly appearing,” Carla said.
“Really? That will help,” Ata said.
“There you go. You have slept your way into the information you needed,” I said. “I will leave you guys to it. I am going to find a nice shady spot with my laptop, probably a balcony where I can ogle all the naked ladies.” I left them to it.
I ended up on a downstairs patio so the dogs could come and go as well. The naked ladies were wonderful. It was the first time I had seen all of Carla’s scales, and I had never before seen anything of Soph between the shoulders and the knees.
Most of the research was dry and boring, and there was a lot of repetition. It wasn’t going to happen in a day. I found the Aussie Army’s report on the animal experimentations on the Anomaly in the outback. That anomaly was a bright yellow, and a lot of fires started. There was speculation it was fire-attuned in some way. There is no mention of emotions or mental effects. Wait up. Fire attuned.
I thought this one was water-attuned, but I have no evidence of that, probably because it was in water. But maybe that is the key to using essence more actively. Water, or in this particular case, emotional water. That sounded weird. I am going to be pretty stuffed if I have to rely on emotions, but water has possibilities. It may not be water, and we can try other things, but water is a start.
I joined the girls and the dogs for a swim just before lunch. Sam is going to have to get her pool filters cleaned more frequently. Everybody was naked, and nobody worried. We were still naked when we got lunch.
Then we discovered Ata had some combat training. “Only the basics. I am a sailor, not a soldier.”
That was how we were all shown basic combat moves for three hours that afternoon. There were only seven basic fighting moves that we practised over and over. We would need a lot more practice, but it was a start. Practising naked was quite fun, except one of the moves was a knee to the groin.
We were in the pool again, cooling off when Sam came home. She came and joined us. She was wearing a bikini but didn’t seem to mind we were all naked. We were a strange lot.
Ata stayed for dinner and then left for the naval base.
I got a whiff of Kate every now and then, so I knew she was around. She was good. I could have hunted her out with my hearing and smell, but I didn’t bother. She would probably just kick my ass. I suppose she could have been the NZ secret whatever, but it is more likely she was a foreign agent on loan to NZ or just working alongside the NZ. Forces. New Zealand is pretty small in world terms. The most likely source was Aussie due to our ANZAC agreements. Aussies get on well with the US, but we don’t. I don’t think we have ever been forgiven for banning their nuclear warships a few decades ago. Our anti-nuclear stance is pretty well known. The French don’t like us because of it either. So, the next most likely source after that was the UK. Kate only ever spoke three words, so I assume she was hiding an accent.
My biggest problem was getting out past the media and nut jobs at the gate. I was surprised the nut jobs had taken this long to make their presence known. A cop car drove into the cul-de-sac and back out about every hour now, making sure the road was clear and making their presence known. I planned to time my exit with the cop car.
I waited until it was dark. Shadows and headlights are a great combination. I loaded the truck, and Buck sat next to me. The security guards were primed. When the cops turned in the cul-de-sac head, they would open the gate. I would drive out on the tail of the cops and disappear into traffic.
It was a good plan, and the only thing that marred it was that the cops saw the opening gate, stopped, and waited for me to go first. Thank you very much.
I headed straight out to the West Coast. It was only an hour's drive from central Auckland. It is only half an hour to the Western suburbs. I got to Piha late and parked in the beach car park. Buck and I went for a night walk along the beach just to hear the pounding waves and feel the spray on out faces. Buck was very excited and ran around like a lunatic. I knew he would love this place. I laid out my sleeping bag in the tray of the truck and dozed off with Buck next to me.