Unwilling to Back Down (Survival of the Fittest Book 2)

by Shawn Keys

  Lily grinned, clearly tempted to say more.

  Before she could make a joke about how she was available for that sort of thing if he dared, Kyle rushed to say, “The others are already getting together in the library. We’re going to talk this over, once and for all. I think it’s time we pull the trigger on a little action.”

  Lily sighed. “I knew I should have come home a day sooner. I’m barely going to get the chance to see you.”

  He shared her regret, missing her innate joyfulness. The chalet was a darker place whenever she wasn’t around. “Time’s creeping on.”

  “I know.” Her sad smile remained, but she didn’t object any more. Instead, she tossed her head toward the door. “I’m just going to change into something a little more comfortable. Shall we?”

  The three filed into the expansive entryway, hanging up their outerwear and then walking past Lily’s room. It was fortunately more-or-less on the shortest route through the chalet to the largest of the sitting rooms on the floor plan. It was also the most remote, positioned at the end of one of the wings. It was filled with books to read on a cozy night, furthest from the hustle and bustle of the kitchen and entertainment area. As such, while it was the space that could hold them easiest on chairs, it was also one of the least-used spaces in the chalet. Anyone needing a bit of quiet time alone used it, or on the rare moments when they needed to meet as a full team.

  They paused at Lily’s door. She slipped inside, rummaged about, and could be heard cutting open her package. Not long later, the door opened again and revealed what she considered more ‘comfortable’.

  It did nothing to make Kyle comfortable. His partly faded erection surged back to full power as Lily arched one leg and leaned on the doorframe in her newest robe. It was arguably white, like so much else of what she wore, but the color really only applied to the thin, frilly fur along the hems. The rest of it was little more than gauze, almost completely transparent and leaving only an impression of white haze over her creamy pearl skin. He could see… since he could see everything… that she had nothing else on underneath except equally white, also sheer, thigh-high stockings and killer heels that added a few inches to her. Kyle couldn’t imagine less practical shoes for the back-woods environment, but he wasn’t about to say anything. Her pert breasts ended in hard nubs already firm from her own playful arousal. The sexy ‘v’ leading between her legs was totally smooth, begging to be explored with a tongue.

  His mouth clicked open, hanging there stunned. Words failed him.

  A low, primal growl echoed from somewhere inside him.

  Lily saw it coming. Her bright blue eyes danced with her desire. A flare of lustful victory blazed from her, knowing she had finally pushed him over the edge, welcoming what was coming. For a split second, it didn’t matter that everyone else was waiting. A sinful glow radiated from her as she knew she was about to get seriously fucked…

  Suddenly, a hand clapped onto his shoulder, stalling his total surrender to his need. That hand grabbed him a fraction of a second before he grabbed Lily up, flung her on the bed and did all the wicked things he had wanted to do to her for the last few months.

  Jackie cut in, tugging him back a half-step away from the luscious vision, hauling him definitively out of the bedroom and clearing the path for Lily to come out. “Uh uh. Not gonna happen. You haven’t done anything for months about this. I’m not waiting while you live your sexy-nurse fantasy, no matter how determined she is to make you crack. Meeting time. Go!” She paused, then nudged Kyle forward. “Come on, you first! I don’t want you ogling her cute ass the whole way down the corridor.”

  Kyle smirked as he staggered into motion.

  Behind him, Lily quipped, “You think it’s cute?”

  Jackie growled back, “Don’t even think about it.”

  Kyle heard the smile in Lily’s voice. “Oh, I am… and there’s nothing you can do about it. Here, let me go next, so you can ogle my cute behind instead. Isn’t that what you wanted…?” She let out a teasing laugh. Then, the click of her heels sounded on the hardwood as she swayed after Kyle, both of them preceding the agent down the corridors, around the corner, and into the large study that they had dubbed ‘the library’.

  The first to see them come in was Laura Greene. She lounged with her legs kicked up over a cushy chair, stretched sideways across the cushion. She had recently been roused from bed if her plaid pajama pants and forest green tank top were any indication. The outfit hugged her body well enough to show off her dancer’s body. Her long hair was a little tousled, fanned out and catching the light coming in the windows, giving her a mane of sun-kissed flame. Her bold green eyes first crinkled with a smile as she greeted Kyle for the first time that morning, then widened at the sight of Lily behind him. “Sweet damn, Lily! That’s the best outfit yet. Welcome back!”

  Lily sighed as she stepped to the right, folding herself into her own chair, tucking her silk-covered legs under herself. “I had him, but the fuzz put a stop to it.”

  Jackie actually laughed. “The fuzz? Oh, Lily, I don’t think you can pull off talking like that.” There was a light round of laughter which Lily shared. There was nothing mean-spirited in the banter, after all.

  Megan and Yvette were huddled together on a long couch. Megan was in the middle, with Yvette tucked in under her arm on her right side. As if to complete the poetry of their shared pregnancies, Danielle Nyqvist was nestled up against Megan’s left side. The blonde originally hailed from Sweden before her family emigrated to the States, following her father’s retirement from that country’s special forces. The sequence of events that followed had included a brief friendship with Kyle, separation due to social circles, her friendship with Laura, and most recently being thrust back together with Kyle as part of all this FDPC insanity.

  Along the way, their affection had reignited; the flames had been fanned back toward what might be love, and now she was the third of the trio of women carrying one of his children. She was easily the closest to giving birth, probably somewhere late in her seventh month. Lacking the advanced medical facilities of a hospital, they didn’t have the ultrasound to get any more specific than that. Like Laura, she was a former cheerleader with a lean, athletic body and sculpted limbs. Her pregnancy had added a little more to her curves, but the contentment in her eyes was beyond lovely.

  Two cats, one black and one tabby and both previously located at Megan’s home in the city, were cuddled around the women. They purred as they received their due attention in the form of the occasional petting.

  Claire Erinson was in the next seat over, and the only one who looked like she had been awake for some time. She was an early riser, and had probably been up in her laboratory since dawn. Her understated beauty had a mature grace to it, subtly emphasized by her tailored blouse and pencil skirt. Her legs were folded neatly, her back straight, but not from tension. It was simply who she was. Well put together, exacting and precise in her mannerisms, yet not what Kyle would call aloof.

  The chair next to her was filled by Chloe Erling, the elder sister to Nathan, who was Kyle’s oldest but absent friend. To keep his own lover safe, Nathan had decided to flee north toward Canada, hoping to keep clear of the mess. He had gone with Kyle’s blessing; the bastards hunting him had already taken Nathan and Riley hostage once before to flush him out of hiding. Kyle would rather spare him the pain and hurt.

  Oddly, Chloe had decided to stick around. It had taken a little time, but Kyle had figured out why. The Erling family was not a happy one. Nathan and Chloe had stood shoulder to shoulder against abusive parents and mean-spirited older brothers. With him gone, Chloe had no reason to stay at home. It might even be dangerous. She had considered going with Nathan, but Chloe hadn’t been able to just walk away after she was kidnapped and used as bait. Mingled with a little infatuation for Kyle, she had decided to follow this wilder ride.

  Now, she was becoming something of a jack-of-all-trades among the group. She had studied chemistry in school,
but was broadening her exposure to other sciences so that she could lend her support to Claire in her mini-lab. She had also understudied Yvette in learning the Aeolic Greek language and was making significant progress. Laura, who was by far the best shooter among them, had coached Chloe until she had surpassed the novice level and could even be called skilled. Kyle had even seen her figuring out how to pick locks, pockets, and a few other sneaky tricks. He swore she was determined to never feel helpless or be taken advantage of ever again.

  Like normal for Chloe, she was dressed in a tight, brown halter-top, white cheeky panties, and thick woolen socks that extended up to her knees as if her feet were terminally cold. As always, her eyes gravitated to Kyle. He had the impression that she was continually at war with herself on what to do about him; to either fall in love with him, or give up and walk away. She seemed to be yelling at herself constantly inside to make up her mind already. Kyle was in no rush to force her hand; he didn’t mind having her eyes on him, and her voyeuristic tendency to watch while the rest of them were having sex was down-right hot.

  The last of the group was Debra Simmons, who Kyle had known for years of friendship as ‘Dazz’. Everything about her was abrasive by design. Her hair was a mix of purple and pinks that didn’t quite blend, cut into a punkish style that never looked the same two days in a row. He tank top broadcast her love for an alt-rock band called the ‘Neon Chipmunks’ this morning. Her loose, blue-cotton shorts left her pale legs bare. Eclectic tattoos peeked out here and there from around her clothing. Unlike a lot of punk-types, she didn’t go for combat boots as a style choice. Instead, she favored belted sandals or sneakers, though at the moment she was bare foot. The only thing missing from her normal attire was her ‘I’m my own bitch’ collar with its silver chains, probably left behind in her room until after she got a chance to take a shower.

  The skilled hacker was looking a little owly. She was not a morning person, and had been up all night coding. They had hooked up the cabin with a satellite uplink connection, but it was insanely expensive. Not only that, but it wasn’t untraceable. So, she spent most of her time offline, building up new cyberweapons she could modify and employ once she got back online. She was still going through internet withdrawal. Every minute she could reasonably afford online without giving away their location, she used it keeping up with her contacts and fellow hackers late into the night. Now, she was huddled over a cup of coffee and wishing the sun hadn’t risen so blasted early. The fact that she wasn’t nuzzling in with Megan while insisting Yvette feed her a little affection showed how grumpy Dazz was feeling.

  Kyle perched on the arm of the chair beside Lily, giving Jackie the chance to slide into the last free seat. “We’ve been dancing around the same issue for the last month. When Agent Moraker came out to see us, that put a clock on our choice. Time’s up. We need to scope this thing out. That means that we’re going to need to investigate this training camp of theirs.”

  “Hold on. I’ve been thinking.” Dazz sat forward as she spoke. “What we really want is to get full access to this hidden email server, right? For that, we need the physical, unlocking key. Without that, I can’t even get to the IP address. Dongles like that can be either external or built into the computer’s insides.” Everyone nodded, following her so far. “We found the first two computers using them at the FDPC office,” she continued. “I wish I’d stopped to think while we were there. Didn’t even occur to me to look for one. But why not grab a couple more from another FDPC office?”

  Claire stepped in, coming to the defense of her FDPC department. “We have no idea who is clean or who is dirty. This shadow group must have a lot of field agents loyal to them. Otherwise, they would miss dealing with a lot of ‘non-baseline’ people.”

  She paused and shook her head, worried at the image she was painting. “But there are some who are good. We don’t know who’s who. If we start breaking into random offices, we might end up in a gun fight with innocent people who honestly think we are criminals. If we’re going to do this, we need a spot where we know everyone is guilty in some way. Then we can cause them trouble with a clear conscience.”

  Megan nodded supportively. All her life, she had been a devout believer in social responsibility. Jury duty. Following traffic laws. Paying taxes, so long as she got to vote about it. She saw those things as the glue that stopped anarchy from happening. When Persterim had hit, she had embraced the initiatives of the FDPC as the only way they were going to save the world. That was the driving factor behind why she was pregnant, beyond her honest affection for Kyle. “I agree. We need to be sure.”

  Kyle nodded. “Which brings us back to the camp. That’s unfortunate, because it isn’t going to be easy.”

  “You aren’t kidding. I took a look at it on Earth View Online. Whoever these people are, they have the same protection as military bases get. All the space pictures have been blurred out below a certain detail level. I can pick out rough details and maybe even some building arrangements. They also don’t get photographed all that often.” Dazz grumbled, taking another sip of her coffee. “Cities get re-imaged from satellites on a weekly basis,” she explained. “But the time stamps on these photos are a year old. No-one cares about refreshing pictures that aren’t even clear. One thing we can see is the gatehouse, which is a little further out from the main compound. It is along the main road. You wouldn’t see anything but forest if you were standing at it.”

  Jackie spoke up, knowing how government compounds worked, “If we simply drive up to the gatehouse, it will be game over. We would need cover identities that are ironclad, 100% guaranteed to be unquestioned before we dare approach it. We can’t probe them by pretending to be lost tourists or anything. If they see anything suspicious, they will hold us there while they dig into our identities. They’ll run our car, our names, and our faces through a hundred databases. They’ll keep you there for hours if they want until they figure out who you are. Fake implants won’t stand up to that scrutiny. Not to mention the fact that they might have Kyle’s picture plastered on the wall.”

  Dazz produced a small file of printed satellite pictures, tossing them onto the central table. “We aren’t going to have much luck trying to get over the perimeter fence, either. They will have patrols. I know I would. They will have cameras all along it. Probably electrified. I’d also have WIFI cameras scattered throughout the forest. Probably drones making the occasional flyby. I’d have a security professional make sure there aren’t any blind spots. I could bring a WIFI signal blocker in there, but as soon as they see cameras going black, big men with guns will come hunting us.”

  It all sounded far too reasonable to Kyle. It didn’t leave them a lot of options. “We need someone to give us information on what’s in there.”

  Laura’s head popped up again. “An insider?”

  “That takes time, especially in a camp like this where no-one comes and goes all that often.” Jackie frowned. “They’ll have barracks and lots of supplies up there. They aren’t going to hire random cleaning companies or grocery deliveries. They will bring it all in themselves.” She considered a little more. “If it is anything like the FBI training grounds, police retreats or military bases, the instructors, security staff and support personnel usually have more freedom than the students. They have lives to maintain. They need to spend time with their families. That sort of thing.” She shook her head again. “But this isn’t a normal place. This is a shadow organization’s secret training base. Everyone might be on lockdown.” She shrugged. “Police and federal agencies spend years trying to turn mob members. Spy agencies spend even more years trying to dig moles into other countries. Industrial espionage can be done faster with a big enough paycheck, but we don’t have that much money for a bribe. Not to mention, these people are true believers. Money might not mean a lot to most of them.” She didn’t sound hopeful.

  Yvette shifted in her lounged position in Megan’s arms. “Except, we might have found a lucky chance. We’ve pieced
together a few details from our original, partial download from the first two agents. They talk about new crops of students at one point. They say that they are brought into the camp in a single wave. The students don’t know where it is ahead of time. They are directed to arrive at the Nine Elms hotel in Tacoma. The person who we saw talking about them is nicknamed HeadShot. If you recall, the two agents we dealt with were called BigBear and Cannon on the site.”

  Rolling her eyes, Claire said, “Sounds about right for them.”

  Yvette smiled sadly. “Yes, all their screen names tend to be somewhat brash.”

  Dazz huffed. “Legends in their own minds, and no-one else’s.”

  “From what this ‘Headshot’ person is saying, students are brought into the hotel and spend a week going through final readiness interviews.” Yvette pointed out, “They are vetted ahead of time, of course. They mentioned that there is a standard higher than this baseline they talk about. These are identified believers who meet this ‘superior’ standard. Once they get here, they are put through psychological evaluations and even lie detector tests to ensure they are ready to leave normal society. They might not know everything they are signing up for… sterilization, kidnapping and murder… but they know they are not going to be operating within normal law or the confines of the FDPC.”

  Claire whistled. “In the cases of mafia, I can see family members who turn on their kin because they were born into it and aren’t happy about it. With turning spies, I’d believe that someone wanted a better life outside their homeland. Others might think their homeland is corrupt, so they want outside help saving it. None of that applies here. These people don’t have a country. They are hand-selected. A bunch of eugenicists have blown sunshine up their butts, telling them that they are the chosen few. That they are better than everyone else. How do you subvert someone like that?”

  Jackie looked thoughtful, bending her mind to the problem, never one to quit before she had the answer to a problem. “People are… complicated. When time is the critical factor, the best way is to find a pressure point on someone and squeeze. Threaten them. Sell them the story that we know way more than we do, and that the whole organization is about to come crashing down. Then, we offer them a lifeline: absolution or a reduced sentence. We hope that they buy it and turncoat over to our side hoping for a deal. For that, we need information on them.”