Once they were finished dressing, the four made their plans for the remainder of the day. Naeva and Ciera went back to the roof to scout the area and contact Angel followed by Ground Control. Reece and Karina tidied the room up since they had made quite the mess of it.
An hour later, the two women came back down. They had successfully gotten ahold of Angel and Ground Control. Angel told them that their community had exploded in size from all the people Reece had sent their way plus a few others they managed to pick up as well. They were preparing to return to the Kennedy Center since the Order hadn’t bothered with it. They were only after the people apparently.
As for Ground Control, they wanted to meet. They were desperate to get their hands on the hard drive and find out what the Order was up to. Unfortunately, they needed time to repair their landing craft. It had taken damage during their last resupply run. They estimated about three to four weeks, but to stay in touch. They’d give us the coordinates of the pick-up once the day arrived. Naeva told Reece that she had agreed to the idea. Reece nodded in concurrence. They would finally be able to organize the resistance.
Since they had some time to kill, they decided to try and snoop on and perhaps contact whoever was out and about in the city. Karina and Naeva took to the roof at night to see if they could make out any lights that could help pinpoint the location of the city’s other residents.
About ten minutes after they left, Reece heard Naeva on the walkie. “Guys, you need to come up here. Over.”
“On our way, over,” responded Reece into his walkie.
Ciera and Reece rushed up the stairs to the roof and met up with their companions. Karina just pointed deeper into the city. Reece couldn’t believe his eyes. At least five square blocks had lights.
“Well, looks like we found ‘em,” stated Reece dryly. “And there’s a lot more of them than we thought. We’re going to have to be very careful and scout them out. We aren’t yet sure they are part of the Order. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’re friendlies. If not, we need to know what we’re up against.”
“Leave that to me,” cut in Karina as she stepped to the side of the building. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
Turning away, she jumped to an adjacent building that was only two stories tall. The dexterous girl rolled into the landing and came up with a thumbs up to let them know she was good. Then she jumped down another two stories to the street and was gone from sight. The trio talked amongst themselves while they waited for the scouting lilitu to return.
About a half-hour later, a dull thump on the side of the building told them that she had. Reece walked over to the ledge and watched as Karina pulled herself over the edge and stood up. Her eyes were blazing red, and she had a wicked look on her face.
“Some alicarl, clearly a self-important bacraut, is running the show down there,” spat Karina, venom dripping from her words – anger causing her to resort to old Norse curses. “The he-goat looks like he must be one of the Order’s ‘elitist’ leaders. This is a golden opportunity to take out one of these oskilgetinn – err, bastards.”
She took a moment to calm herself before continuing, “Apologies. My anger got the better of me. There’s a couple hundred uniforms present and heavily armed. They patrol that part of the city like police. There’s a lot of worker-slaves there too. They’ve restored the local power plant to operability, as well as the other utilities. He’s also keeping people like captured animals. He’s got dozens of them caged up. Men, women, and children. I believe we need to put an end to this depravity sooner than later. We may be able to even save some of those people.”
“We will,” promised Reece. “You have my word. But first, we need a plan.”
Karina nodded and they retired to their hotel room. Now that they understood the threat better, they started taking turns keeping watch. Reece took the first watch, keeping an eye out the window and listening for any sounds within the building.
Sitting alone and in the dark, Reece contemplated the Order and why they were doing the things they were. He figured it must simply be the next logical step for the thought process of people with the kind of power and money that the Order’s elites had. Perhaps they saw themselves as gods and the rest of humanity as things to be played with and discarded when they broke. It seemed monstrous to him, and he fought to push the dark and disturbing thoughts away from his own mind. Instead, he thought of all the good people that he had met, some of which he considered friends.
He thought of Thato and Thomas aboard the space station, and Angel during those first hours on board. He grieved the loss of his good friend Pasha and his first true love, Aika...gone, but not forgotten. He returned to his new situation, his polyamorous relationship with the three women all sleeping in the same bed. He looked across the room at them from where he sat and smiled, though it was bittersweet.
They all looked contented and peaceful, curled up next to each other. It didn’t seem possible that these three women were battle-tested killing machines. Worry crept into his thoughts. He had thought Aika was a bad ass too, but that didn’t save her.
Looking out the window into the dark streets below, he determined that he would plan his moves carefully and include all of them in each course of action. None of his comrades, whether friends or lovers, would be put in considerable danger without numerous contingency plans in place to ensure their safety. He’d make sure of it.
He forced his mind to wander onto more pleasant thoughts, but his analytical mind kept trying to solve all the problems that they would inevitably be facing. New ideas came and went, all the while he heard and saw nothing concerning during his shift. He rousted Karina for hers, and she yawned groggily while stretching her small but exquisite frame. Standing up slowly, she reached up and pulled Reece’s head down for a good morning kiss.
After releasing him, she asked, “Anything interesting happen on your watch?”
“Nah, nothing of note,” he replied. “It just gave me some time to think.”
“Ah, a penny for your thoughts,” she whispered.
“Nothing specific. The past, the future, our plans...a little bit of everything,” replied Reece.
“Okay then, why don’t you get yourself some sleep?” said Karina, letting him keep his dark thoughts to himself though he could tell she knew he was uneasy about something.
Reece nodded and went to the bed. Ciera was laying on her side right up against the edge. Looking across, he noticed that Naeva was on her stomach with one foot and one arm hanging off the other side. Slipping into bed without disturbing the two sleeping beauties wasn’t going to be easy, but there was plenty of room between them.
Reece shrugged and removed his shirt and shoes before walking around to the foot of the bed. He proceeded to crawl onto the mattress as slowly and silently as he could. He saw Karina looking at him and smiling with amusement. He gave her a playfully angry shrug in return, causing the grinning lilitu to giggle under her breath. Rolling his eyes, he slid his legs carefully under the sheet and slowly got comfortable in his spot at least a half-meter from each woman in the bed with him.
Reece closed his eyes, allowing himself to get comfortable between Ciera and Naeva. Both women rolled over and pressed themselves against Reece, quickly warming his body. He couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at their antics, though he admitted to himself that they felt wonderful. His last thought before sleep claimed him was that the two women had planned this somehow. The rest of the night passed without incident for the rather eclectic foursome, a lycaon, lilin, lilitu, and a regular human man.
Reece awoke with Karina’s small form draped over him, her head resting contentedly on his shoulder. Looking down at her face, she was sleeping soundly. The girl’s platinum hair was draped over the plush pillow she was now sharing with him. Ciera and Naeva were both up and making something for breakfast. As the two worked, they giggled and chatted quietly between themselves. Naeva ran her hand down the back of Ciera’s arm, earning a wicked smile from the younger woman. Ciera leaned in and kissed Naeva and Reece could almost feel the passion from where he lay.
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Reece cleared his throat while he sat up, letting the girls know he was awake. The noise nudged the two women from their lust-filled reverie, and they parted lips and looked in his direction. Far from embarrassed at having been caught, the two women both beamed at Reece when they noticed he was awake. Ciera turned back to the small kitchenette and grabbed something from it. Turning, she had a bowl of something steaming and a metal spoon that she quickly brought over to him. He looked in the dish and then up at Ciera in astonishment.
“Oatmeal! Where’d you find this?” he asked in genuine shock and a little anticipation.
“The grocery store we raided was surprisingly well-stocked,” answered the sexy lilin as she nodded at the bowl in his hands. “It’s seasoned with cinnamon-sugar.”
Reece raised his eyebrows and smiled at the two women before taking the spoon and digging into the rare treat. The taste was heavenly. After years of the same astronaut food and then whatever cans of soup they could scavenge, this was a treat. Even the space center hadn’t reached the point where they had much choice in meals. Suddenly, he realized that all four of them were present.
“Should someone be on watch?” he blurted out.
“Naeva worked with Karina to set up an early warning system. Karina is amazing. She set up tripwires everywhere. Nothing is coming within 50 meters of this hotel without us knowing about it,” explained Ciera as she held up a dark rectangular screen. “Naeva rigged this tablet to sound an alarm and show us which wire was tripped if anything comes calling.”
Reece couldn’t help but be amazed at the women’s ingenuity. He slid out of bed, trying not to wake the sleeping lilitu. She had obviously worked very hard last night. Upon successfully completing that task, he sat down at the table with Naeva where Ciera joined them. The three enjoyed the delicious meal as Karina finally began to wake up.
Once the four were fed and dressed, they were ready for the day. The plan was to scout out the elite’s establishment and get an accurate assessment of the enemy, the potential battlefield, and the locations of the noncombatants. They needed to steer clear of that last one to protect the innocents from battle, if possible.
They left the building, sticking to the shadows and crossing the streets quickly as they made their way closer and closer to the part of the city that lit up at night. When they had determined that they had covered about two thirds of the distance to the area, they found a tall building and climbed the seven stories to the roof. From there, they could make out the part of the city they had noticed the other night much better. It was a very good vantage point from which to plan their next steps. Being this close to the area in question, they had to make sure they weren’t seen.
They could make out people walking around and or working all over the place. Several of the building’s ceilings had gardens growing on them that were being tended by strong youthful men and women. The city had a large park where several groundkeepers toiled away to keep it looking trimmed and mowed. They could see a small delivery truck driving in from the outskirts of the city somewhere.
The tricky part was going to be the guards. They patrolled nearly every intersection in squads of four and each squad had eyes on another squad. Reece closely watched them patrol looking for any break in their routine. It took an hour before they saw it. Another group came out of a nearby building and replaced one of the groups on the street. The two groups conversed for a minute before the old group waved and entered the building that the new group had come from.
“We’re going to hit that building first,” said Reece to the girls. Then we’re going to put on their uniforms and start taking out those patrols. Once we hit the first one, the others will start to converge on us. We’ll need to move to keep one patrol engaged at a time. Let’s watch a while longer to make sure there aren’t any surprises.”
The girls nodded and they patiently watched for much of the day. Each patrol was relieved after a couple of hours, and it looked like the relief came in fifteen-minute increments. A couple of squads swept back and forth along long routes that took them away from the area every couple of hours, around the time the squad nearest them was relieved. Karina shook her head after she noticed something on one of the far roofs.
“We’ve got a problem with that plan,” she explained. “There are spotters on some of the roofs. They would have seen us if we had gotten any closer.”
“Crap,” cursed Reece. “Can you pinpoint them all? There has to be a blind spot somewhere.”
“No, but Ciera can with the scope on her rifle.”
“Ciera, can you?” asked Reece.
“Lemme see,” she said as she pulled out the large gun and positioned the scope in front of her eye.
She scanned all the buildings with the powerful scope and smiled wickedly.
“There are many blind spots actually,” informed Ciera with a dangerous gleam in her eye. “That’s probably why there’s such a big presence of uniforms on this side of the city. Still, I can make out three snipers from here and they don’t appear to be covering each other like the squads below us. Easy pickings.”
“Okay, that’ll work,” replied Reece. “But it’ll require a big change of plan. It looks like we’re going to have to take out three groups simultaneously before we can reach that building, and we need to do it before they can get off a single warning shot.”
The three girls smiled and nodded, clearly confident in their abilities. Reece explained the rest of the plan with Karina and Naeva making a couple of corrections to increase their odds of success. Ciera added a brilliant touch, and they had a relatively solid, if slightly insane, plan. With the plan finalized, all that was left was to wait for the right time and begin the execution.
With the scouting complete, they headed back to the hotel and retired for the evening. They each took a turn keeping watch and Reece snuggled with his bed mates. However, this time, everyone behaved themselves. The next day was going to be strenuous and they needed all their energy for it.
The following morning, they returned to the same rooftop from which they had already done their scouting. Everyone prepared as they waited for the next changing of the guard directly below them to take place. They didn’t have to wait long.
Once the squad below them was relieved and headed back to the barracks building, they nodded and headed off for their assignments. Both roving patrols they had spotted were heading the opposite direction from their location. Reece and Naeva re-entered the building from the rooftop and headed to ground level. Ciera and Karina simply waited for them to fulfill their parts of the plan. Once they reached the main floor, Naeva and Reece split up.
Reece headed for the street straight out from where the adjacent squad to the left patrolled. He found an empty metal garbage can on the way and brought it along. He knew Naeva was doing the same on the right. Once he was in position, he gave his radio two clicks. He heard one click in response. Naeva wasn’t in position yet. A few seconds later, he heard two clicks. He responded with three, then he hefted the garbage can and tossed it into the street. He didn’t bother to look, he just sprinted back to the main building where Ciera was waiting with her rifle.
He met Naeva at the building’s entrance which faced away from the enemies’ little community. When they reached the roof, Ciera was waiting for them, and Karina was nowhere in sight.
“Are we good?” asked Reece.
Ciera nodded.
“Your diversions worked. Both groups looked away, and I took out the closest sniper without the other two noticing anything amiss. Karina was able to leap to the next building with no one the wiser. They seem to be still investigating the commotions. It won’t be long before they realize something’s wrong.”
“Alright, time for phase two,” replied Reece and he and Naeva lined up near Ciera and picked up their guns as well.
They had attached suppressors to each of the rifles, muffling the sound of their firing from the uniforms below. Reece and Naeva took aim at the squad below them, took a breath, and unleashed a hail of bullets on them. Reece started with the guy that had the radio, so they couldn’t alert anyone else to what was going on.
Once they started firing, Ciera took her cue and took out the radio of the squad to the left. She then quickly took out the only two she could see from that group with head shots. The other two had went up the street to check out what had disturbed the garbage can. Then she swung around and did the same to the group on the right. In between her attacks, Reece and Naeva had downed all four of the group below them. That squad’s radio also lay shattered on the ground.
“Alright, phase two complete. Let’s go!” announced Reece.
The three of them gathered their gear and headed downstairs. Ciera popped out first with her rifle at the ready. The three headed to the left towards the location where Reece had tossed his garbage can. They had nearly reached the entryway in the middle of that side of the building when one of the uniformed guards peaked around the corner and tossed something at them. Ciera shot the thing out of the air and it exploded, their element of surprise was over. Hopefully Karina had enough time to finish her task.
Naeva used her speed to round the corner and lit up the two uniforms that were crouched down near the corner at almost point-blank range. Bullets whizzed by Reece as the pair from the right had spotted the group from three blocks down. Ciera turned on them and both went down with a spray of blood where the tops of their heads had been. They could hear yelling as the rest of the nearby squads began converging on their location.
The grenade had blasted out the windows all around the corner of the building, so the three of them headed inside through the breach and made their way to that building’s roof. Once there, they were able to see the guard’s tactics at work. Each squad of four nearby had broken into two-man fire teams while two-men from their adjacent squads backfilled their positions. It was a good tactic but would quickly spread their numbers too thin unless they were reinforced from the barracks-building.
Unlike the first squads, these uniformed people were on their guard and wouldn’t go down as easily. Still, Ciera was busy picking them off whenever she saw an opportunity. With the element of surprise gone, she also took a moment to take out the other two snipers she had spied earlier. They never knew what hit them.
“Time to go,” announced Reece over the walkie.