Allison spent the day with Vaedrick. He had invited her to dinner with him at a beach steak restaurant. As much as Allison had been tempted, she feigned exhaustion and did something that would have been unthinkable to her just a day before. She snuck out of the suite after dark. She had very discreetly ordered a bikini from one of the shops through Morgan after she was assured absolute discretion with regard to the purchase, which apparently was funded by the SA diplomatic corp.
Under the guise of a walk along the beach with Vaedrick she had cased her own room to see what access there was. She assured herself this was just practice for all that infiltration training she’d been doing. After all she would be a very sad special operations soldier if she couldn’t sneak in and out of her room. It annoyed her that she had Major Ghai to thank for the skills to pull this off. She’d easily identified the security that had been assigned to her by the hotel. The missing piece had been the hotel tracking her via her holo-tablet. Her solution to that had been… illegal but she figured Zebra owed her a favor after the mess the last time she’d been on Titan. So, she had the custom and highly effective data infiltration attack daemons that Zebra used which she had unleashed to cover her tracks.
Tonight, she would truly be on her own and the thought put a flutter in her tummy. Edward had touched her lower back when they parted ways last night. She really wanted to see what else he would touch tonight.
Her escape was easy. The hotel’s pyramid design made it easy for her to climb down. The most challenging obstacle was all the cameras in the Hotel. Zebra’s attack daemons were not up to the task of breaking their real time tracking. This ensured only registered guests and employees were in the dome. So, if Allison changed her appearance drastically, she’d be flagged as an outsider. She did what Major Ghai had taught her, she adapted and overcame the hurtle. She used an attack daemon that would work and inserted a new guest with shorter blonde hair and blue eyes. Growing her hair out again with the vampiric ability Eyre had taught her would be an uncomfortable experience but the difference in hair length was enough to fool the cameras because there were two pictures of her in their guest database.
If it had not been for Zebra she would have been utterly clueless to just how extensive the security system of the dome was. She silently thanked the hacker as she approached the spot, she’d set the meet up with Edward and his gang. She had just finished patting herself on the back when she heard Hope’s familiar voice.
“Allison, is that you? Your hair looks great like that. I almost didn’t recognize you.”
Allison groaned. She had not expected to run into someone from school. Allison plastered a smile on her face and turned to face Hope.
“Hey, so… you’re here. Major Ghai didn’t seem like the type to take a vacation.”
Hope rolled her eyes.
“I know. He is totally in a bad mood. Apparently, some VIP is here, and he’s supposed to keep an eye on the two of you. Are you here on a mission? Are you supposed to be spying on the VIP?”
Allison rolled her eyes.
“Ugg, no, worse, I’m supposed to be dating him. Total set up. They told me it was a ‘vacation’”
Allison did air quotes to emphasize the lie by omission. Her dhampiric senses which always seemed more keen in the dark picked up Edward and his group. She bit her lower lip. She looked Hope up and down. Could she trust her? She closed her eyes and hoped their shared dislike for Major Ghai would seal the deal.
“Look Hope. I snuck out to hang out with some friends from the UK dome, and uh, they don’t know my real name. Could you just call me Allie? I told them I’m from New Amazon.”
Hope giggled and put her hands to her mouth.
“Oh, such intrigue.”
Hope obviously heard the approaching voices.
“Quick, who am I?”
Allison bit her lower lip again.
“You’re Hope, we got to together at a boarding school. We’re roommates. Then you can say you’re from the UK dome and have something in common with them. I mean your accent kind of makes it obvious.”
Hope pouted slightly.
“No code name? So boring.”
Allison hushed Hope who giggled. Allison sighed. She hoped her acquaintance wouldn’t blow this for her by screwing up their story. Edward waved when he saw them. He squinted in the dark.
“Allie?”
Allison nodded. He approached quickly with his friends.
“Yes, I brought a friend. Her dad was driving her insane. Hope, this is everyone, everyone this is Hope. We go to school together.”
Hope smiled at everyone.
“Its worse than that, we’re roommates.”
The new group of teenagers all looked at Hope. One of the twins spoke up.
“Are you from the UK dome?”
Hope nodded.
“Yes. I don’t spend much time there now. We’re at a boarding school.”
Hope’s admission to her home dome immediately won over the group. After formal introductions during which Edward’s arm found its way around Allison’s lower back which suited her just fine. She leaned into him.
“Well, we skipped supper, our parents were going to one of those formal restaurants on the VIP side. Real meat.”
He sounded disgusted.
“Why make an animal suffer?”
The rest of the group nodded in agreement. Allison played along, though she had little qualms about eating real meat. She was a blood drinking dhampir, she came by her attitude honestly. Also, one of the major exports from her colony world was meat producing livestock. Real meat was plentiful on Eden Prime.
“Did you two have any plans?”
Allison shook her head. Hope followed her friend’s lead.
“No.”
Edward looked at the group.
“Should we let the new girls decide?”
The group came to a consensus that they should. Allison glanced in the direction of Winter Wolf 21 and imagined pizza with real beer. Real beer being the brand name for Winter Wolf 21’s various varieties of beer from different periods of history. She spoke up.
“How about beer and pizza?”
Edward looked around everyone nodded.
“Looks like Allie is the winner.”
Allison led the group to Winter Wolf 21. There were a few comments about how commercial it was. Allison bit her tongue. Everything was obnoxiously commercial everywhere, their government was literally run by corporations. She nodded along though. Edward seemed annoyed by the conversation and moved to go into the restaurant proper. Hope followed Allison close behind. Allison tugged his arm. She was pretty confident in her disguise but not confident enough to risk being in front of bright holo and view screens.
“Hey, lets eat on the deck.”
Edward glanced at his male friends and shook his head.
“If we’re going to eat somewhere we can watch the football, we’re gonna watch football.”
Allison sighed and followed them in. She was convinced she’d be outed instantly with this bunch who seemed to be really in tune with the latest news feeds. Surprisingly no one recognized her. Edward patted a spot on the booth bench beside him. Allison tried not to look too eager to join him. She’d been imagining being this close to him before she went to sleep the night before. He put his arm around her shoulders, along the back of the bench. Hope got cozy with the twins who seemed more than happy with that state of affairs. Allison hadn’t realized her preference, not that it would have bothered her. The waitress came around and took their orders. She also asked if they would be separate bills. Hope shook her head.
“No, I’ll be taking care of everything. Just keep the beer flowing would you love?”
The waitress smirked, that was a huge tip waiting to happen.
“You got it.”
Everyone thanked Hope for her generosity. To which she laughed playfully.
“Ah, no thank daddy. If he’s going to drag me here instead of to the UK dome for school holidays, he needs to know the depths of my pain.”
Allison winced. She knew what Major Ghai’s paycheck would roughly be and he would definitely feel this. She actually felt bad for him. So, she poked Hope’s hand.
“Hey Hope, let me take care of it. It could get pretty expensive with all that alcohol.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Hope shook her head.
“I insist.”
Allison winced internally before returning to enjoying being Edward’s arm candy. Sure, Vaedrick could charm her with poetry but Edward was a really good looking guy. A very tasty looking guy. Her eyes focused on his jugular. She shook her head and pushed the thought away. Allison was starting to get a bit worried about Hope’s drink intake. Allison was being moderate with her alcohol intake. Hope on the other hand had finished off three pitchers on her own. Late evening found the group on beach blankets under the light of Saturn. Hope was making out with the twins. Both of them, at once. Allison was also concerned about that; The twins were eighteen and Hope was only sixteen. Hope had nudged her away and told her very quietly to mind her own business. Allison had to admire Hope’s prowess.
“You going to miss this place when you go home?”
Allison blushed and nodded. He shrugged.
“I don’t think I’ll miss here, but I’ll sure miss this.”
Allison didn’t pull back when he leaned in for a kiss. In truth her very first kiss with a boy or girl that she wasn’t related to, that she wanted to take part in. She’d wanted her first kiss to be special but Trixie had ruined that. And after the terrible day she had she just wanted to feel something good. One thing led to another, and hands roamed. She truly appreciated how fit Edward was by this point. Things were getting quite heated, and Allison lost all sense of restraint. Before she realized it, she had her lips on Edward’s neck and her fangs slipped into his skin. His whole body stiffened, and he gasped for air as the pleasure of the kiss, or so it was called by the vampires ran through him. She could taste just how excited Edward was in his blood.
She didn’t want to stop. She savored his blood, drinking it slowly bit by bit. She was taking her time. His arms squeezed her as his body vibrated under her bite. She probably wouldn’t have stopped had she not noticed the glint of her softly glowing golden eyes reflected in Edward’s discarded sunglasses. She suddenly realized where she was and what she was doing. She suddenly broke off the embrace and turned away. She was breathing in gasps trying to catch her breath. She licked her lips behind her hand. The beach was spinning as her nanites struggled to process the direct infusion of alcohol she’d just basically injected into her veins. She closed her eyes trying to force her fangs back in before someone noticed them. Panic rose up in her. Hope stood up and stumbled to a garbage can. She started to throw up. Allison snapped out of her panic when she noticed her friend was not doing well.
Allison rushed over to help Hope. She quickly grabbed her friends long hair to keep it out of the way. Edward put his hand on his neck where he’d felt the gentle pricks that had driven him to the edge of an oblivion of pleasure and he was looking around as if in a daze. His eyes drifted to Allison where they lingered. Allison didn’t notice. She was too focused on Hope.
“Hope, maybe we should get you to the clinic. You had a lot to drink.”
Hope shoved Allison away, her words were slurred.
“I’m fine Allie.”
Allison’s head was rapidly clearing from the alcohol filled blood and she could feel the gnawing hunger coming on, her ever power hungry nanites demanded more. She quickly accessed her holo-tablet’s built in medical scanner. She let out a sigh of relief when it indicated that while Hope was very intoxicated, it did not rise to the level of alcohol poisoning. She let Hope lean on the trash can. She’d already decided it was time to get her back to her room. Allison looked at Edward’s black baseball hat and sunglasses. She crouched down beside him.
“Hey, can I borrow your hat and sunglasses? I’ll bring them back as soon as she’s in her room.”
He was still rubbing his neck and dazed. He didn’t actually form words to answer her, he just offered them to Allison. He finally managed to pull himself out of his daze to speak.
“Hey, uh, just bring them back tomorrow night. I think I had a bit too much to drink… did we… uh.”
Allison blushed.
“Uh…yea.. and I won’t miss here, but I will definitely miss you.”
She gave him a quick kiss on the lips after a glance at his neck she pulled herself away and pulled the baseball cap and sunglasses on. Her contacts adjusted to light amplification mode. She hefted Hope up. She groaned. Hope was much heavier than she would have guessed. After helping her off the trash can Hope leaned on her. Allison asked.
“What room are you in?”
Hope blinked at her slowly. Allison sighed. She swore under her breath and used facial recognition from Hope’s holo-phone to unlock it and track down her room number in the Pleasure Dome app. Keeping Major Ghai from realizing it was her was going to be a real challenge. She did her best to say a few words with a UK dome accent. She was no language specialist. That was on her training list as part of infiltration but she figured she’d just mumble her way through it if she got caught dropping Hope off. She swiped Hope’s hand over the ident chit sensor. It flashed green and with an almost herculean effort Allison managed to get the intoxicated Hope into her bed.
Allison looked around the room. It wasn’t fancy at all. She decided she’d get Morgan to swap the beer and pizza bill to her account. Hope hadn’t thought through her actions and as much as Allison despised Major Ghai, she’d rather explain the bill to the Diplomatic Corp than have Hope deal with the fallout. She filled Hope’s water bottle up and put some ice in it and put it beside the bed. She made sure a garbage can was nearby, and that Hope was laying on her front. Hope’s hair was a mess. Allison pushed the mass of hair aside and sighed at Hope.
“Hope, you are going to have the worst hangover tomorrow morning. Drink some water.”
Hope motioned with her hand as if to acknowledge Allison’s presence. Allison turned to leave she felt Hope grab her wrist.
“Are we friends, Allie?”
Allison nodded.
“Yea, I guess we’re partners in crime now. See you tomorrow. Drink water!”
Hope released Allison’s wrist. Allison did not want to linger too long; She was already pushing it. Major Ghai and his wife could come back at any moment. She swiftly made her way out of the hotel room and had just finished closing the door when she heard Major Ghai’s voice from the direction of the elevator.
“Hey, what were you doing in our room?”
Allison felt a brief panic rise up in her but then she closed her eyes and said the first thing that came to mind. She wasn’t even sure if it was something someone from UK would say, with probably the worst UK dome accent imaginable.
“Hope got pissed as fart, too much sauce. Brought her home. Hold the lift?”
Major Ghai held the lift while his wife rushed into the room. Allison tugged on the front of her cap as a greeting to Major Ghai and moved passed him into the lift. He watched the doors close before heading to see just what had happened to the cyborg.
Allison rushed outside of Hope’s hotel and fanned herself. She pulled off the hat and sunglasses before heading back to her own room. Getting back in was a bit more of a struggle than getting out was but she managed it. She collapsed on the bed and let herself fall backwards and stared at her ceiling while catching her breath. Her hand fell on her stomach, and she licked her lips remembering the taste of Edward’s blood.
*****
Hope waited until Allison left and made her ‘mother’ jump two feet in the air when she sat up quickly. Major Ghai had rushed in to check on her as well. He looked relieved when he saw her sitting up.
“You scared us. Who the hell was that?”
Hope’s demeanor changed. Replaced by Olga’s far more confident body language. Her time with the KGB had taught her many lessons, not the least of which was adopting new persona’s. She stood up and looked at the Major.
“You honestly didn’t recognize your pet project Military Specialist? Either she is getting better at her job, or you’re terrible at yours.”
Major Ghai looked like he was caught between pride and the realization she’d just insulted him.
“I am impressed. Are you alright?”
Olga waved her hand dismissively.
“Yes, go about your business. I can’t actually get drunk. I need to empty this mess.”
They left Olga to her work. Olga started accessing System’s Alliance files for Edward and his friends. What she found was surprising and not in a good way. She opened comms to Earth via encrypted link. Maria answered swiftly, as was usual late at night. She never slept but her human staff did. Olga frowned.
“Hey Boss.”
Maria stood up and dusted her hands off. She was doing what she usually did when she wasn’t being the president, she was tinkering with something.
“I wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon. How is Allison?”
“She’s fine. Besides the fact she snuck out of her room, managed to infiltrate one of the most advanced security system’s in the Alliance and fool it into thinking she was two different people… yes, fine.”
Maria pulled on a hoodie to cover her white undershirt.
“So, Allison used the skills the military is teaching her to get up to no good. Why did my niece sneak out tonight?”
“A boy.”
Maria popped the cap off of a bottle of Synth-O.
“She went out to see the prince?”
Olga laughed.
“You and your board wish, but no, another boy. She’s spending her days with the prince and her evenings with another crowd.”
Maria took a drink.
“Is the boy a problem, or any of the friends.”
Olga waved her hand dismissively.
“No, he got a bit handsy, they got a bit handsy, she bit him, but I managed to drag her away before she did any real harm. He’s got a few speeding tickets, but his record is clean. All of them are, its not the kids, it’s their parents.”
Maria took another drink and motioned for Olga to continue. Olga swept a file towards the holo-link. Maria scanned the files.
“What the hell? The UK dome arm of the Syndicate is meeting on Pleasure Dome 3? How did we not know this?”
Olga shrugged.
“Our eyes have been elsewhere. I can force some distance. It would be easy, she’s been concealing her identity from them and using an alias.”
Maria shook her head and leaned on her desk.
“No, the opposite. I need the both of you to gather as much intel as possible. As much as we turn a blind eye to their businesses, them meeting together like this away from UK dome means something big is up. Have Major Ghai inform Allison of her new assignment. This is much more important than this ploy by the Empress. Do not compromise your cover but support her mission to the best of your ability. We’ll use the funds from Knife-Finger Teddy real name Theado-”
Olga frowned and interrupted Maria.
“I know who Knife-Finger Teddy is, you had me eliminate him and steal his money to fund our black ops. They’ve been trying to track down that money for almost ten years, if that shows up they’re going to make a mess trying to track it down, do you really want to do that on a Pleasure Dome housing a VIP from a foreign power you’re trying to make an Alliance with?”
Maria nodded.
“Yes. It is his presence that makes this con viable. We have Special Operations all over the place and they know it. We have made no secret of his presence. That is why Allison is going undercover as a hacker. You see, neither of you are paying for your stay. We’re going to revoke her fake ID and she’s going to have to fix it on the fly. It needs to happen in front of one or more of the families. Not an employee.”
Olga nodded.
“Are we telling her this ahead of time?”
Maria shook her head.
“No, it has to look real.”
“Okay, you’re the boss, just who exactly are we going to use as bait.”
Maria tapped her chin.
“The governor…”
Maria kept tapping her chin.
“Hire that hacker… the one on Mile’s crew.”
“Zebra?”
Maria nodded.
“Have her backstop a fake ID for Allison to pull and insert it into the Pleasure Dome and Alliance records. I assume since Allison used her tools to break in, that she is capable of doing so remotely if you provide direct access. While Allison is using their computer to gather the information she can plant our spy software.”
“Boss, this stinks. She is relaxed and she is pretty happy considering her life just blew up. Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
Maria nodded.
“Yes.”
Olga sighed.
“She’s going to be upset.”
Maria sighed.
“Yes, at Major Ghai, I will claim no knowledge of the assignment. Are you getting soft on me? Usually if I make a request like this you’re yes, boss, right away boss.”
“No. But she’s just a kid. I know how much it sucked being recruited by the KGB as a teenager. This is no different. And it’s worse, you’re her Aunt.”
“That should tell you how important this is. We do not need instability on Earth with everything else going on. We need to know exactly what they’re up too."