The following day Brooke had shown up as arranged, but that's not the interesting news. I had been watching her ass bounce as she sent rounds downrange with the sniper rifle under Dani's guidance when I had a rather unusual call from Tac. 1. And now there was a cypher agent was waiting at the gate of the compound and requesting an audience.
I had Clea escort him to the impromptu range we had setup in the compound, the cypher raised his eyebrow at me once introductions had been made.
"Well done." he commented with a sly grin in relation to the collection of women currently surrounding me.
"Military or corporate? Not really looking for private jobs." I ignored the good natured ribbing and instead both asked and stated the obvious to avoid any confusion.
"Military, but... ahh" he gave a pointed look at Brooke standing slightly behind the crowd not yet sure of her status within the pecking order, but she was being attentive.
"Oh, ahhh, I could have a crack at breaking it down again if you like?" She asked in her lilting accent, referring to the rifle she had been using.
"Good," The cypher nodded, "shall we?" I couldn't help but wonder if how to be obnoxiously arrogant was an elective for all cyphers.
I didn't bother asking how he had known Brooke wasn't an official member of the team, or how he knew her by sight. It was all there on the ringer database, he likely would have just sprouted some bullshit about it anyway if I had bothered asking. I led him into a small conference room on the first floor, we very rarely had gatherings here but it was nice to have a briefing room set up if the need should ever arise, such as today.
Once we had taken our seats he stepped to the head of the table. Other than cypher, he hadn't offered a name, and I didn't bother asking.
"Needless to say what we are about to discuss here should not leave this room." To reinforce his point he placed a bug checker on the table and activated it, waited for several seconds for the device to register the all clear then proceeded.
"I have come to you with both an offer and a question all nicely rolled up into a little inseparable ball."
"Is there any other way with you lot?" I said dryly.
Ignoring my interruption he continued. "I am unable to discuss the specifics until I have your agreement that you will proceed with the operation, but I can share with you a little background to demonstrate why we are offering this operation to you before putting it out to tender."
I squinted my eyes in suspicion at the cypher, this was beginning to sound more private than government, if it was a planned operation then regular army should be their go to crew, but I allowed him to continue. I could at least hear the guy out.
The cypher ignored me for the moment and instead made eye contact with each of the women in the room. "You are being contacted in part due to your alpha's history with the SAS, primarily due to his participation in Operation Wolf Bane."
It was like someone had hit a magic silence button, you could hear a pin drop. The girls all looked to me with slack jaws, I didn't talk much about my time during the war, mostly because I couldn't, legally speaking. Not even Brianna was aware of my operational history, she just knew that I was a blade. Operation Wolf Bane was probably the most public secret of the war. We were the crazies that had actually volunteered to actively hunt down the wolf warbots when they had first appeared on the battlefields to get as much intel as possible on how to neutralise or kill them effectively. Problem was, when cornered they self destructed, which explains why I had been able to get such a high price for the single unit I had passed on. Brianna wrapped an arm around my shoulder and snuggled her head into my shoulder in comfort.
"The second reason is due to the recent operation the Draugrs participated in that resulted in the first successful capture of a complete wolf, and the conditions of the sale contract meaning that you are already briefed on the technical details." He looked around the room, making sure to yet again make eye contact with everyone around the table, the weight of his words sinking in and allowing us to make our own assumptions on where this was heading.
"Third, due to some very firmly worded complaints against your Alpha from a Miss Veronica Stanton..." He waited for the groans in the room to die down at the mention of my ex-wife. "...in relation to possible abuses of authority, specifically..."
"Are you fucking kidding me! That bitch!" Brianna all but shouted, she slammed the table and fumed in her chair, the cypher the only valid target for her fury. He handled it quite well, but spoke more quickly never the less.
"... acquiring an unusually high number of female operatives we naturally took a closer look. Rest assured Miss Garcia that we found the accusations to be baseless, and Miss Stanton, given her former relationship with your alpha, has been counselled and sanctioned accordingly."
"She fucking well better have been." Bri ground out menacingly through her teeth.
"Indeed. In fact the only reason she remains as your point of contact is because it would take to long to bring someone else up to speed in the time frame available. Which brings me to the balance of the third reason, if I may continue?" At a nod of agreement from Bri that she was satisfied he did just that.
"Our review of Draugr cell in response to these complaints showed that your alpha has an almost singular ability to maintain both discipline and moral in a predominantly female tactical group despite other... interpersonal issues that might typically result in a high incident of transfer requests for shall we say... personal reasons."
That calmed Bri right down, she smirked playfully at the cypher and his description, falling back on her submissive little girl personality. The other girls either watched on with interest or shared embarrassed looks at the knowledge that our little harem was gaining attention and being unofficially labelled as such.
"And so we come to the fourth part. This would be a condition of you accepting the contract."
I raised my eyebrows not sure I was liking the fact he was already trying to tack on conditions and we hadn't even gotten to the actual briefing yet, but I didn't otherwise react so the cypher continued with the briefing.
"As I'm sure you're all aware, our political relationship with Israel has become somewhat strained recently."
I frowned at the cypher, what the fuck current geopolitical events had to do with me and my girls was beyond my understanding. Unless he had a very unreasonably high opinion of our little group and thought we could single-handedly invade the country, his statement was ludicrous. Penny in the air...
"We have been working with a detachment from the wildcats, an all female Israeli unit that specialises in surveillance and reconnaissance, specifically they have been tasked with tracking down leads in relation to recent events surrounding the local deployment of wolf warbots under terrorist control. Unfortunately they have been recalled, but they have as a unit, requested permission to stay and see the operation to a successful conclusion."
... and the penny drops.
"You want to assign them to a tiger cell so they can continue the operation." I stated, drawing the only conclusion I could from the information to hand.
Confused [https://www.royalroadcdn.com/public/smilies/confused.png]><# Ohhh I'll bet your just loving this.
Sumi teased into my head, drawing the same conclusion I had. I really wanted to know what role she had played in landing this in my lap but couldn't question her about it just at the moment.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
"Correct. And you seem uniquely qualified as an alpha to... handle them... that is, their integration as a result of our current situation."
I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose, I simply didn't have the funds for this, well actually I did, but it would send me broke. I wasn't about to send anyone into the field in subpar equipment. And yes, that was in fact my first thought in case you are wondering. Okay... maybe the second, perhaps third... but it's too close to call.
I looked up to all the girls giving me smirking knowing looks, it wasn't hard for them to guess what was on my mind.
"How many? And just so you know, adding however many unknown randoms to my roster, if I agree, will come at its own and separately negotiated upfront cost."
"Well at least you haven't outright declined, ten in total."
"All female?"
"Yes." Even the cypher grinned at my question, one or two of the girls openly giggled.
"English speaking?" AI translators were available, but even a few seconds delay in the field could lead to deaths, and I'd like to avoid that if at all possible.
"Yes."
"How long will they be signing on for after the trial period?"
"That's between you and them. If you agree I'm going straight from here to witness the surrender of their Israeli passports, followed immediately by the signing of their Australian citizenship documents." Australia was one of the very few democratic countries left in the world that worked on a visa system and didn't allow dual citizenships.
"Anything else I need to know?"
"Three things. First is the most obvious, any trial period will be open ended to cover operational requirements. Second, in recognition of the... potential disruption to Draugr cell, the women in particular, they will be signing up complete with combat gear and equipment for their role and a new model Spearhead armoured personnel carrier."
Abby whistled at that approvingly. "What happens to the APC when the job's done?"
"It will be signed over to Draugr cell immediately if your alpha accepts, but it will be reserved for special operations for the duration. Which leads me in nicely to the final condition."
"Okay..." conditions and sub conditions and fuck this, I felt like changing my answer to no.
"The wildcats will be stationed here, but not under your direct command, unless in an operational environment that happens to coincide with the job at hand."
"How's that going to work?" I asked, suddenly realising that being signed on as ringers would mean taking ringer assignments that could take them away from the primary mission, and the very reason for them being assigned to Draugr cell in the first place.
"We'll be bending the typical rules for ringer sign ups, and rather than individually, they'll be signing on as a complete mercenary company, call sign Wildcat. Think... subcontractor. Wildcat will be seconded to Draugr permanently under a special operations flag."
"Never heard of that before, but okay. What happens if they go bat shit crazy and decide to start taking out civies or other stupid crap? Not being within my chain of command, per our agreement, I could hardly be held liable for any damages and the like." And that was about as much legalise as I spoke, and a valid concern in my opinion.
"And any contracts will have wording to that effect."
"Alright, give us a few minutes." I nodded sideways at the door in dismissal. The cypher looked a little put out at the request but complied.
The girls turned thoughtful expressions my direction as the door closed.
"Opinions?" I asked.
"That Spearhead's worth half a mil' on it's own if your looking at it from that point of view." Abby spoke up first, perhaps a little excitedly at the prospect of getting her hands on a new toy.
"You better not neglect us with all the new girls." Brianna pouted, apparently in the middle of deciding if she should throw a tantrum or not.
The girls all flashed their eyes and nodded in agreement, the though hadn't occurred to them. Hmm, it hadn't occurred to me either, have to be careful about that. Assuming of course things went the way they had to date with the wildcats being added to the... group. Okay fine, harem, I said it. They settled down when I hugged Bri close and kissed the top of her head swearing that wouldn't be the case. Being honest with myself I was having a hard enough time balancing the girls I currently had with my recovery and the day to day operations of the cell. Private time was essentially non existent as it was.
"On the face of it, I don't see how it will make any real difference to how we do things now, other than a whole lot of new faces. Looks like it's not really going to effect us one way or the other until their mission is done anyway." Daniela added her two cents.
"I agree with Dani maître, and Bri." Lilou spoke up with a sly look.
"As do I maître." Clea agreed with her sisters assessment, nodding at Bri in recognition of bringing up an important point.
"I'm good either way boss man, so long as I get so long as I get my fair share of... your time, then I'm good." Abby replied nonchalantly.
"So conditionally on my... responsibilities taking priority, it's a go?" I asked looking around the table and receiving nods in return. This was one of the reasons the girls were so happy with our arrangement. They knew I valued their opinions and feedback, unlike most other cells, Draugr was a democracy on the big things that might effect us all.
I headed out of the small briefing room, the cypher was sitting at the unused reception desk across the hall, at some point David had come looking to see where we had all gotten to and was chatting with the cypher while they waited. When the door opened he turned, pausing his conversation and looked to me with a raised eyebrow.
"Good to go." I nodded at him.
"Excellent!" He jumped up and smiled like a smarmy used car salesman, quickly opening a comm channel with a finger to his ear as he turned and walked towards the exit.
I followed at a discrete distance with the girls in a line behind me, it wasn't out of respect or to give him his privacy, I was hobbling along like an old man and hunched over, my body telling me it was time for a break. Just one more thing to do though.
"David might even get lucky." Brianna teased, just loud enough for him to hear with a comment to Clea.
"Boss, you know there's a strange girl with a very big gun in the yard right?" He squinted at Bri suspiciously but otherwise ignored her comment.
"Yup. On my way there now. You might wanna freshen up a bit." I smirked at him, giving him the once over. Bri and Clea snorted playfully at him as we passed.
The cypher spun in the doorway of the side exit to the garage. "I'll leave you to it and see you by days end with the wildcats."
He gave a tip of his hat in mock salute and headed to the waiting aircar just outside the compound. I had second thoughts as I was starting to wince in pain, I had been on my feet for around two hours now. I asked Dani to collect Brooke and bring her into the recently vacated briefing room, indicating Brianna should follow. The other girls went about... well whatever it was they did during downtime when they weren't trying to drag me away to a dark corner.
Brianna was being overly affectionate and doting when Dani returned with Brooke, arm in arm as they chatted quietly like old friends. The girls looked at me as they entered and shared a look before snickering at some unknown joke and sat on the other side of the table.
"First impressions?" I asked, wanting to get this over with quickly to down some painkillers and take a snooze.
"I'm still keen so far. I've checked out a couple of other cells and you guys are the first to actually let me get some hands on time with gear. Well, out of the ones that even bothered talking to me that is."
I nodded, I didn't have any first hand experience of course but I imagine not having any actual military experience would put her on the bottom of the list for recruitment, not to mention she was a tiny cute little thing. Wouldn't exactly inspire confidence in her abilities.
"Dani if your happy enough I'd like to have Brianna continue on." At Dani's nod I turned to Brooke.
"Rather than a couple of days, I'd like to try and sort you out by the end of the day, somethings come up and I'm not sure if we'll have the time."
Brooke gave me a funny look. "I'd love it if you could sort me out by the end of the day." The corner of her lips pulled up in a grin.
Dani snorted and ribbed her with an elbow in amusement. I flicked my eyes between the girls with a grin of my own, clearly Dani had been 'assessing' the new girl for compatibility with our core groups sensibilities. She seemed to be passing with flying colours.
"If Bri's happy enough I'd like to sign you on, but to be honest I'm not to keen on having you participate in OP's without training. So how do you feel about getting your accreditation for aerial munitions dispersal?"
"Oh. I've been saving, but I can't afford that." She took on a despondent look, glancing down at the table as she answered expecting another outright rejection.
"But your willing right? Sign a return service obligation for say three years and I got you covered." I still had plenty left over from the sale of the wolf so it was no biggie. That and having her sign up but flagged as role training would mean we were covered in not having her assigned to an OP until she was ready, no point breaking my toys before I got to play with them right?
I tended to treat cash as fun coupons anyway, so long as I could work as a ringer I would always have at least a (barely) livable income to fall back on. Sumiko had been the one to point out I should start to specify minimum sign on periods if I was going to insist on throwing thousands at random hot women the second I met them.
Brooke's eyes flicked up at me in surprise at the offer. She looked at Dani sitting next to her as if to confirm what she had just heard, receiving an eyebrow wiggle, a cheeky grin and an 'I told you so' look in response, she turned to me nodding in agreement.
"Absolutely! What ever you need." She beamed a smile at the good news.
With that decided I got up from the table and pushed my luck a little to see how the new girl might react to any future advances.
"Dani, drugs and a quickie, I need a snooze before the wildcats show up."
"Oh... I could..." Brooke stuttered out, she flicked her eyes up to mine with flushed cheeks when she realised the room was silent and everyone was looking at her.
Needless to say it was only about half an hour later I drifted off to sleep in contentment as Brooke tip toed from the room with a big stupid grin planted firmly on her face.