Chapter twenty-six

Getting what she needed from Celina’s home was as easy as Natalia had hoped. Once she had the chip, and a set of the woman’s dirty clothing, she and Saki made their way to the Sydney station bathroom, which was still being ignored. Natalia wondered how long it would be until people started using it again.

Natalia took a deep breath and began shape shifting and re-tuning her body. She shifted her hair to an ultra short blonde bob and her eyes turned a soft grey green. She changed her face so that it looked softer and rounder and added extra fat to her breasts and buttocks. Sergeant Celina Yu liked her curves. Lastly, she deadened her pheromone glands, and wiped her body down with cleaning fluid from the bathroom sink. She did not need Kitsune still loyal to InSec to pick up her scent.

“I don’t like you going in alone.” Said Saki as Natalia stripped and changed into the used uniform, which covered her in her friend’s scent.

“The more people go in the more likely we are to get caught.” Natalia said, her voice changing as she spoke, modifying it to match Celina’s.

Saki hugged her. “Be safe.”

She smiled. “I can’t, but I will be careful.”

Natalia got onto the tram and leaned against the tube-train’s wall concentrating on keeping her heart rate down. This is a mission, just like any other mission. She told herself. When the tube stopped, she sauntered out with the soft subtle twitching of her hips that Celina was known for. She looked at the InSec headquarters, gleaming white spires sparkling within a plasticine shell, looking like a haven against the muddy yellow brown of the sky. False promises she realized.

She wished there was some way to let all the teams know what had happened, but she wasn’t sure how to do it.

She scanned Celina’s chip and walked into the main building. People were milling around and there was an air of grief that hung over the place. Natalia’s heart pounded in rage as she saw a small memorial set up for her and her team, a small paper sign bore a funerary haiku:

They stood for the City.

Dead in the name of Duty.

May Gaia hold them.

There was a framed picture of her team’s graduation photo, as well as individual pictures. Surrounding it were dozens of small notes, messages for the dead left by grieving friends. She turned and walked away before she betrayed herself with either tears or rage. She picked up a file sitting on a desk as she walked past it and made her way to the elevator.

It was hard to not break her cover, all around her she felt the ghosts of her team, whispering old memories to her. She took the elevator up to the twelfth floor, administrative offices, then snuck to the stairs that spiraled up and down the Tower. Shido used the stairs whenever he visited his lovers because they were not as heavily monitored.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

She made her way up the seven flights of stairs to her team’s floor, and punched in the code Shido had seduced out of the maid. The door popped open, and Natalia slid in. It was like a punch in her stomach as a lifetime of scents filled her nose. She trembled as she walked through to the main living area, imagining Miyuki painting her nails, and Haru and Regin holding animated telepathic arguments. She stopped as the sick sweet smell of blood worked its way into her nose. She followed it to Douglas’s room. She closed her eyes in pain as she saw a bloody smear on the computer. He was just a baby. He didn’t know anything. He shouldn’t even have been here!

She turned and resolutely went into the old war room. The files had been ransacked. Shredded paper ankle deep covered the entire floor. And there were holes where the comp-pads had been ripped out of the table. She made her way to the chairs and began turning them over till she found Shido’s, where she unscrewed the wheel and a small data chip fell into her hand.

Carefully she began to shape a tiny pocket in her flesh, a tiny pouch just under her navel. She slipped the chip into the pouch and shifted it closed. She ran her hand over the area, and nodded. She didn’t feel anything.

She left the war-room, resisting the urge to go into her bedroom, or her office, although the stores of cred-chips she’d stock up on were tempting.

As she slipped back into the stairwell, closing the door behind her became one of the hardest things she had ever done because she knew she was closing the door on everything she had loved and been taught for the last twenty years.

She began to work her way back down when the alarms went off. She ran for the door to the level she was on, and heard the door his as the pressurized locks went off sealing her in the stairwell. She rushed down to a security terminal and saw Celina’s face flashing. Of course she would decide to come to central today. Why wouldn’t she? Damn it I just needed five more minutes and I would’ve been clear!

Natalia heard boots thundering up the stairs, she spun around and raced up. When she heard more steps going down, pinning her, she saw only one chance. She ran down the stairs, hardening her skin, and leapt into the half dozen men scaling them to send them tumbling down the stairs. She landed on her feet and moved to run when a stun bolt slammed into her back.

Natalia grunted as she rolled down a half dozen steps. Before she could blink she was in shackles and five minutes later she found herself being pulled in front of Colonel Trencher.

She could not keep the rage out of her eyes as she looked at him. This was the man who had ordered her team killed, who had murdered her family. He grabbed a needle and pulled a syringe of blood out of her arm. Putting a drop of it into an identifier unit, he blinked as he read the name.

“You killed them.” She hissed.

“I did what I had to so that humanity would survive.” He moved over to his desk and typed a quick message.

“If there had been any other way, I would have taken it. But for us to survive…sacrifices must be made.

“How about named. Haru! Aaron! Miyuki! They served, they fought, they bled to protect this City and you killed them, and Gaia knows how many others to keep your damned secrets!” Natalia snarled.

“Their sacrifices will be honored, and so will yours.” Trencher pulled a pistol out of his desk drawer and tuned it to lethal. Natalia glared at him, and raised her chin defiantly. His comm unit beeped and he glanced down. A sad look crossed his face as he holstered his weapon.

“That was command. I would have preferred to give you a clean death. You deserve that much for all your service. But I am being ordered to hand you over to Osaka for breeding.”

He turned to the men holding her. “Take her downstairs to the loading docks. I will arrange to have transport to meet you there. And gag her. She is not to speak to anyone.”

One of the soldiers ripped the front out of her uniform and shoved it in her mouth before they half carried her down to the med bay and dragged her kicking body out to the bright green MRD van as she fought them with everything she had. They strapped her down then shoved another needle in her arm shooting something into her system that within moments had forced her into unconsciousness.