We woke up the next morning and dressed in more cheap clothing, then Simone found the menu on the floor near the elevator.

“Ha! We completely forgot to eat last night!”

“Well, you did.” I said to her with a smile, then she got the image of going down on Gleas from my mind and she laughed.

“Should we order breakfast now or grab something when we go out?” Gleas asked.

“We're officially on the clock right now, so let's see what kind of breakfast they are serving before we decide.” I said and we went down the elevator to the lobby. After asking a different woman at the desk where breakfast was being served, she directed us to the dining room. It was half-buffet and half-order-what-you-want. We checked out the buffet and loaded up our plates, then sat in the proper section.

After we ate, we left the hotel and climbed into the rented vehicle. We knew the training camp was near the edge of the town we were in, so we went on another off-road adventure and scouted the location as best as we could. As I had suspected, there wasn't anywhere nearby to safely observe the camp, the people working there, or any of the goings on there.

It was disappointing and not unexpected, so we drove around for another few hours and went back to the hotel. When we arrived, the woman we had seen behind the counter when we checked in was there and she saw our dirt-covered clothes and faces.

“You are just a glutton for punishment, aren't you?” The woman said with a laugh.

“We were so tired after what we did yesterday, we missed having that meal.” I said honestly. “Can we still call you and get something sent up in an hour?”

“You can only order what's on the menu.” She said and looked at Simone. “The kitchen isn't a catering service and only serves the meals as is.”

Simone beamed a smile at her and she blushed.

“That's fine.” I said and led Simone and Gleas over to the elevator and went up to the top floor.

“She's not going to take your teasing for too much longer.” Gleas commented as we all started to strip off.

Simone chuckled. “The funny part? She likes men.” She said and tossed her clothes on the previous pile that we had left in the bathroom.

“Wait, what?” Gleas looked at her and tossed her clothes on the large pile. “Are you serious?”

Simone nodded. “I haven't been around her long enough to find out what she likes about me, though.”

“Wow, I totally read her wrong.” Gleas said and had to laugh. “I'm glad I wasn't feeling envious that she was only turned on by you.”

“Shouldn't that be my line?” I asked and filled the tub. “I mean, she likes men and ignored me.”

Both Gleas and Simone came over to me and each put a hand on one of my shoulders.

Then they pushed.

I fell backwards into the tub and splashed in the water, then was greeted by their laughter when I surfaced. “What was that for?”

“You are not inviting another woman to bed and fulfilling her fantasy.” Gleas said with a stern expression, then she smiled and grabbed the soap. “We haven't finished having our turn yet.”

“Your turn?” I asked as she started to scrub me. Simone climbed in and helped, and I had to admit that having two gorgeous women bathe me was pretty erotic.

“We've teased and talked for a long time, cuddled and talked almost as long, then shared some very scary moments. All of which happened before we came here on this mission.” Gleas said and paused as she looked into my eyes. “I admit that I did want to trick you. I wanted you to feel how much I wanted to make love to you, then when you found out it was me afterwards... and yes, I was going to tell you... you would have already done it with me and couldn't say no.” Her hands ran up my chest and she leaned in close. “I didn't want you to say no.” She whispered and kissed me.

Simone moaned and caught herself on the side of tub as Gleas' mind opened again and she felt all those thoughts and feelings again. She grabbed my arm to hold herself steady and shared them with me. With Simone being the bridge between us, I made love to Gleas right there in the tub. With the both of them very aroused and spilling it over into me, it didn't take long for the three of us to finish. We cleaned up afterwards and dressed in the things we were going to sleep in, then we ordered several meals.

The desk clerk came out of the elevator with them half an hour later, to our surprise. “I have your prepared meals.”

Simone stood up and the thin slip she wore left nothing to the imagination. “Thank you for bringing them up for us.” She said and unfolded her extra arms and took the three meals from the dumbstruck desk clerk, whose eyes went immediately to Simone's large breasts and her extra arms.

“So, that's what you like?” Simone asked and used her free hand to fondle her own breast and made a nipple pop out. She quickly did the same to her other breast and the desk clerk stared at her. “Would you like a hug?”

“Oh, goddess.” The woman whispered and shivered a little. I came over to them and took the meals from Simone, then the woman stopped breathing as Simone used all four arms to give her a tender hug and nestled the woman's face into her cleavage.

“It's okay to want things that someone might think is odd.” Simone said to her as she felt tears touch her skin. She used a hand to pet the woman's hair. “It doesn't mean you're weird or that it's wrong.”

“But... but, I...” ...like men. The woman thought.

“I know.” Simone said and the woman looked at her face. “It's still okay.”

The woman didn't believe her, so Simone leaned in and gave her a soft and gentle kiss on the lips. The woman was startled for a second, then she relaxed. She didn't feel the same excitement that she did when kissing a man.

“See? You're not weird. Just curious.” Simone said and let the woman go, then she pulled up her slip to show off her breasts. “You can try it if you want.”

The woman accepted the invitation and put her hands into the soft mounds in front of her and she let out a satisfied sigh. She liked it quite a bit as she kneaded the flesh; but, it didn't turn her on like she thought it would. Like she was worried it would.

“You can kiss them to make sure.” Simone teased, and the woman laughed.

“No, you... thank you.” The woman said and let her breasts go. “Thank you for letting me try.”

Simone pulled her slip back into place and smiled. “I didn't want you to keep worrying that someone like me was going to come into your life and wreck everything on you.”

The woman laughed again. “All right, I got the hint.” She said and walked over to the elevator. “It's still tempting.”

“Of course it is.” Simone said. “Only this time if it happens, you'll be choosing it for yourself and you can let your emotions carry you, rather than drag you along.”

The woman nodded and stepped into the elevator, then it closed and everything went quiet.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Wow. I'm only wearing underwear and I was completely ignored again.” I said, sadly.

Simone laughed and took the plates of food from me. “Hey, I was the one that was firmly rejected.” She took my arm and led me over to the table and put the food down. “After we eat, you can make it up to me.”

“What if I don't want to?” I asked.

“I didn't ask for your opinion.” Simone said and sat down. Gleas laughed and sat down across from her.

“I feel like I'm being used here.” I said with a smile and sat down.

“Wah, wah, wah. Poor baby.” Simone said with a smile and started to eat.

We ate the food that was actually half-decent and then we went to bed. Even though I had joked about not wanting to have sex with her, Simone asked me and made sure that I actually did. I put her normal hands on the sides of my head so that she could get my thoughts directly, then I pleased her as much as she wanted.

It wasn't as good as it could have been, mainly because we couldn't share Presence. Even so, I made sure that she enjoyed it as much as she could. We went to sleep after cleaning up and the next morning, we started the infiltration of the training camp.

*

“Can you believe this shit?” A guard asked as he looked at the latest recruitment roster. “We're only getting half the people we're supposed to be getting.”

“It's not like we can force them to send people our way.” The other guard said.

“Ugh.” The first guard said and felt a tingle on the back of his neck. “Say, I think there's something crawling on my neck.”

“Lemme check.” The second guard said and turned to look, then froze. “Ah... don't... don't move.”

“What is it?” The first guard asked, slightly panicked.

“It's a crawler.” The second guard said and sighed. Crawlers were scarab-shaped arachnids with venomous fangs and they were very skittish when threatened.

“Get it off. Get it off. Get it OFF!”

“Stop moving and calm down! You know I can't just grab it.” The second guard said and took out a small and very sharp blade, then put a hand on the first guard's shoulder. “Okay, here goes.”

“Easy!” The first guard said. “You only need a little bit of pressure to kill it!”

“I know that.” The second guard said and slowly slid the tip of the blade into the center of the scarab-shaped arachnid and to his relief, the little creature stopped moving. He pulled the blade back with the crawler stuck to it. “I got it, so you can relax now.”

The first guard didn't say anything and slumped forward against the wall, then slid down to the floor. A small trail of blood dripped from the bottom of his skull where the spine had been severed.

“Oops.” The second guard said with a sigh. He looked around and didn't see his supervisor, so he sheathed his little knife and bent down to pick up the other guard and took him inside. He locked the door behind him and carried the body to the medical bay, where they could tell him what to do with it.

*

Nice going, Simone. I thought as we followed the guard into the heavily guarded compound.

Thanks. Simone thought back to me and I felt her pride in constructing the little scenario from both men's fears and responses.

I had to risk using my Stealth technique to cover us and to hide us from everyone's perception. I held onto Simone's hand and she led us into the compound. As we walked, I could 'hear' her sifting through people's surface thoughts and we made our way to the little building that was our first target and avoided everyone's direct gazes. We also tried to avoid what I had estimated to be their best operative's maximum detection range.

We made it to the right building and then had to wait. It took Simone several minutes to find an impressionable mind and then she gave that mind a very strong need to pee. A minute later, the door burst open and we slipped inside as the man ran around to the other side of the building and emptied what he thought was a very full bladder.

We took several wrong turns as we searched for what we wanted and came across the monitoring room. No one was inside, so we slipped in and used the equipment there to search instead. Unfortunately, the computer did not have a list of current prisoners or even the number of prisoners. What it did have was various guards receiving authorization to use the device.

I checked the monitors and found the storage room, then we waited for the guard to come back. When he did, we slipped out of the room and made our way through the building and avoided the people there as much as possible and gave them a wide berth. Getting caught now would be very bad. We found the storage room and we also found out that it was locked.

Simone smiled and used one of the authorization codes to unlock it. The click of the lock was very loud in the silent hallway, so we quickly went inside and eased the door almost completely shut. I took another chance and made a solid Presence box over the part that the door handle shut against so that it wouldn't slide into place and engage the lock. There was no way to add the code from inside the room without using Presence.

No alarm was raised and we didn't hear any running feet, so I pulled the door closed and it didn't lock. Simone nodded and we started to search. Because we couldn't use Presence to look through everything, we had to do it the old fashioned way and opened everything to look inside while still holding hands. Needless to say, it was taking a lot longer than either of us had planned, even with the room not being very big. The shelves were full of boxes, though.

Simone took in a sharp breath. Someone's coming.

We moved over to stand behind the door and waited. Sure enough, someone came down the hallway and turned to enter the storage room.

Open the door in five seconds. Simone thought and I nodded and grabbed the handle.

I opened the door slightly when the code on the other side was entered.

He noticed there was no click and he's on guard. Simone urgently thought to me.

I nodded and took out my experimental device and waited. The man eased the door open and cautiously stepped into the room an inch at a time. Just as his back passed the edge of the door, I put my fist-sized device on the back of his head and hit the button. The man's head shook from the vibrations, there was a squelching pop sound like a wooden bat hitting a watermelon, then he dropped to the floor, dead.

Well, it works. I thought and moved the man's foot and closed the door.

Search him. Simone thought with a little urgency. He was returning something.

We both knelt by the body and found the bulge in his pocket when we rolled him over.

Is that a device in your pocket or are you just excited to see me? Simone joked.

Hope for the first because the second won't help us much right now. I thought and she dug into the pocket and pulled out a small device, barely the size of an old-style cigarette lighter.

There's only one button. Simone said and handed it over.

Once it touched my palm, I felt like I had to use Presence to look at it, despite the risk.

You might as well. Simone said. Even if no one feels it, they are going to notice a couple of deaths if you push it and can't tell what the radius of its effect is.

I stopped my sigh before it escaped and covered the little device in Presence. Thanks to my extensive electronics knowledge, I immediately knew how to operate it, how often it could be operated, and that its range was five feet.

Good news and bad news. I thought. The good news is that it is exactly what we are looking for.

The bad news? Simone asked.

It only has a small rechargeable battery that only lets it be used once, until its recharged. I thought.

And we won't know how long it takes to recharge, or even have the charger. Simone thought back. It will make us very vulnerable if we use it and don't take out as many guards with it as possible.

I nodded. So, what do you want to do?

Me? Simone asked, surprised.

I'm not walking around in here all alone, am I? I asked with amusement. Do we leave and work on making this thing more effective? Do we try to keep sneaking around and find the prisoners while knowing we only have one good shot and then we have to fight our way out? Or do we try and kill as many lone guards as possible, then go find the prisoners?

Simone looked down at the dead guard and thought back to how we had entered. I doubt we could get back in the same way and they are probably going to find this guy before we can come back. She thought. Unless you store it with the other two you have. That will give us a bit more time.

I nodded and shoved the body into my bag of holding. So, what's your call? I asked, knowing what she was going to say.

Simone smiled. We hunt these bastards down, one by one!

I nodded and we moved to the door. We could have stayed there and searched for the charger; but, that was a waste of time, considering I would be changing it anyway. We stepped out of the storage room and instead of avoiding the minds that Simone could detect nearby, we went toward them and I used my handheld device when I could to kill them and stored the body. Sometimes there were two of them and it was a knife to the throat for the second person. If there were three, I didn't bother with my device at all and just snapped their necks.

We even found a prisoner who had just been interrogated. We now knew why that man had been going back to the storage room with the device. We looked at the unconscious man, who had a small scar on the side of his head.

Whoever did this was sloppy. Simone thought. Either they are getting lax in their standards or this guy's not going to be leaving.

Any luck with his thoughts? I asked and she shook her head.

He's too muddled to get anything past remembered pain. Simone said. They roughed him up badly.

We might as well leave him here. I thought. It's the safest place, since we've already cleared the building.

I don't like it; but, he's not waking up anytime soon. Simone thought and looked at the vials of drugs and shook her head. Why wouldn't they just have an experienced telepath do this?

They aren't as smart as you? I asked and she smiled. Let's go. We have more hunting to do.

As if on cue, there was a loud crashing sound and the lights in the place flickered for a moment and came back on. We each felt amusement, because the electrical storm that they had been warning everyone about had just started.

It was going to be the perfect cover for us to continue our covert assault.