by Estes, Danny
“How so?” Jill questioned, her dislike of the interruption plain in her tone.
“Because the trip-beam starts from that window across the way,” Randolph accused. “And any idiot would know all it would take is a single bird in flight to set these bombs off prematurely.”
“Okay, so file a grievance with the committee of fair-play later,” Jill snapped, “In the meantime, leave me alone, I’ve almost got this one disarmed.” She placed a spare jump wire into the circuit and cut the detonator switch out of the loop. “Now that I know the wiring sequence, the others won’t take so long,” Jill announced in satisfaction.
Randolph looked down on the internal workings and Jill’s handiwork as she prepared to move on. “Hold it, Jill, I wouldn’t go celebrating yet,” he piped in. “That battery’s ground wire is far too thick to be just one wire.”
“What do you mean?” Jill looked back on the inner working.
“I mean there’s a second battery under this one.”
Jill looked up at Randolph and made a face of annoyance. She inspected the battery a moment before she shifted it out of the way and found Randolph was right. “How would you even know to look for that?”
“In my line of work, you expect redundancy. Most alarm systems have some sort of backup system; however, the richer you are, the more elaborate the redundancy. That’s why the city jails are full of criminals.”
“Hmm all right. Go on ahead and start pulling off the covers. I have to recheck the wiring for this second battery. With the covers off, it’ll save us some time.”
Randolph nodded he understood. If Jill had informed him of these exercises, he would have had his own tools, but as Jill had decided to withhold such valuable information, this necessitated their limited course of action. A critical flaw in any partnership, which was why he worked alone; Randolph learned most people tended to do so just so they would look valuable at times of need.
Once Jill held the correct sequence, she moved about the devices till all were disabled with ten minutes to spare. She stood and rotated her back about to loosen up.
“Do we discount the beams now that the bombs are disarmed?” Randolph asked.
“Unfortunately, no,” Jill said replying her tool kit. “Although we can take our time now, we’re still in the test till we reach the ladder.”
At the top of the ladder, the duo leaned on the walls, soaked to the skin in sweat and quite relieved the trial was over. “So how many times a year do we have to do this?” Randolph asked as the lights in the large chamber went out one by one.
“Six.” Jill pulled off her passkey before she inserted it in a slot in the wall. To the left of her hand, a blue screen turned on to revealed a set of numbers in red and green.
Randolph looked on the readout of two lines as Jill smiled. The first line indicated the human dummies while the other listed video-cams. To the right each followed a percentage. At the very bottom, an average had been tallied and presented. “So what’s that supposed to represent?”
“It’s a readout of all the cameras that spotted me and for how long. Anything under ten percent is acceptable. Now let’s see how well you did,” Jill said with a bit of a smirk in her voice, and removed her card to motion Randolph to insert his own. But when Randolph’s readout displayed on the blue screen, his numbers were a quarter less than hers. While Randolph looked over his score without smugness, as in truth the test was unsuitable to be associated to the real world, Jill asked him, a bit testy, “How could you have been spotted less than I? I was right on your heels the entire time.”
Randolph shrugged. “Blending in is near on second nature to me. The military, I’m sure,” he went on to say, for Jill looked about to argue, “taught you to move and move fast. For hesitation is death to a combat unit, where as in my field, fluidness, along with using the natural cover of the city is learned or you wind up in jail.”
Jill leaned back on the wall with its screen now flashing a comparison of their scores, and commented, “I’m sorry, Randolph. I haven’t been giving you the respect you deserve. I hadn’t considered what it really took for you to have escaped arrest this long.”
Randolph shrugged acceptance of her apology as she pushed off the wall.
“Come on, let’s grab a shower. Mel doesn’t like us walking through the office all smelly.” Jill headed off for the elevator, but stopped prior to the keypad to push open a door bearing the universal sign of her female sex. Noting the same universal sign for men on the opposite wall, Randolph turned for the men’s shower room when Jill grabbed his arm. “No, Randolph, this way.”
“Uh, Jill? The men’s room’s on this side,” Randolph explained.
“That’s true, but you and I need to get acquainted, so the next time my sex won’t be an issue,” Jill said evenly.
“In real life, it wouldn’t have been an issue,” Randolph remarked with frankness. “Hesitation can get you caught.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve heard that a thousand times in the Corps. And 99 percent of them were wrong. So get your fanny in here, because you and I are going to get well acquainted with each other so you won’t slip up and get me killed.”
“But what about the other women?” Randolph stammered, forgetting where he was.
With a strong grip, Jill pulled Randolph into the women’s bathroom and asked as they walked into the changing area, “You’re not still a virgin, are you?”
“Of course not!” Randolph blurted a bit hurriedly, as she opened a locker with her name on it; in fact, the only locker with a name on it.
“Good! Now strip,” she ordered, tossing Randolph a bar of soap.
Just catching the bar, Randolph watched as Jill pulled off her sweatshirt, then the athletic bra, allowing her white A-size breasts to bounce free of their restraints. A bit on the smallish side for my tastes. Randolph couldn’t help sizing her up in his mind, but then he wasn’t about to pass up a chance to ogle a woman’s body so freely displayed for his eyes, not even one that didn’t take advantage of today’s best bronzing creams. Next off, to Randolph’s delight were her shoes and sweat pants, which revealed lacy, pink, see-through panties and very firm buttocks.
Jill dropped her sweatpants and caught Randolph’s look of adulation, which she rolled her eyes at before she put her fist on her hip, turning, allowing him to see she even shaved before she commented dryly, “Yes, Randolph, I’m a woman, with all the parts you men can’t get enough of. So if you’ll get out of your sweats, I promise you’ll get to do more then look at them.”
Randolph looked up into Jill’s brown eyes and caught the meaning of her words. But when he walked into the shower room moments after her, Randolph found he’d had some time to consider the ramifications this little dalliance could install. And with that time, an insurgence of nervousness, which he then shook off. After all, I’d been with my share of women, but then Jill isn’t a one night stand. She is by circumstances my new partner, and getting involved with one’s partner could get a guy caught. My last fiasco with a woman client proved that. Now that he understood where his reluctance came from, Randolph decided for their own safety it would be best if he left their relationship platonic. Sure, I wouldn’t mind seeing her naked from time to time, but for my own self-preservation, that’s as far as it should go. With this mindset firmly in place, Randolph took the shower next to hers, and lathered up, paying her only a neighborly token of attention.
When Randolph reached up to turn off the water flow, Jill stole up from behind and put her arms around his chest, fingers spread. “I haven’t had sex in six months,” she whispered, pressing her cheek into his lightly tanned back. Jill gave Randolph a passionate squeeze before allowing herself to let go to move around so he could look down into her desire filled eyes. “So why don’t you quit pretending I don’t exist and prove to me you’re a man?”
Up until this point, Randolph had been true to his decision, but now with her arms placed around his neck and the way her eyes looked up at him, desire over r
uled practicality. Unable to stop himself, Randolph laid a hand to her oval face and felt her nuzzle his palm, vanquishing any residuals of restraints still lurking within his soul. With inhibition scattered to the winds, Randolph leaned over and took her lips in lustful hunger as he moved his hands down her sides, so he could lift her off the floor. Once Jill’s feet left the tiles, he felt her powerfully athletic legs wrap around his torso. With her held so in place, Randolph pushed her up against the wall while Jill’s mouth gave as good as she got. After a time of only their mouths and tongues in play, Jill’s needs pushed up against Randolph and she reached down between them, learning he was far more than ready to explore the depths of her womanhood.
With the aid of Jill’s other hand, Randolph grabbed her buttocks in anticipation of her move and let go of Jill’s mouth to raise her face up into the spray as she guided him in. With a moan of pleasure escaping Jill’s lips, she lowered her face to the side of his and nuzzled Randolph’s ear, as he flexed his muscles in prelude to their private dance.
Once into a wonderful rhythm, with Jill aiding their movements, Randolph felt himself reaching the point of no-return far sooner than he’d have wished. So he dredged up an old problem he’d yet to solve and set his mind on a quest for an answer in an attempt to distract his mind and body in an effort to enjoy their physical activities just a bit longer. However, as Jill’s strong legs squeezed him like a grape in her own cry of release, Randolph could not retain his thoughts and climaxed as well.
After their delightful moment of attaining paradise had sailed into history, Randolph reluctantly allowed Jill’s smaller feet to find the floor but found in her eyes she, too, wasn’t ready to rejoin the world. So amidst the warm spray of water, he sat down and drew her onto his lap, whereupon Randolph soon discovered a softer Jill, a woman who kissed and touched him gently, one who showed timidity, now that their urgency of mutual hunger had been satiated.
After he’d found heaven a second time, Randolph rolled off Jill’s slimmer frame and lay stretched out, panting, only partly within the spray of water where Jill relaxed. As Randolph had done most of the work in propelling them into the heights of ecstasy, her more times than himself, Randolph continued to work air down into his lungs.
Jill sat up. “Not bad. Not bad at all, Randolph.” Jill approved of his performance all business-like, in-between her own intakes of breath.
Randolph rolled his eyes onto her from his place on the floor, wondering how she could act so vulnerable and shy one moment, then tough as nails the next. “Now that I’ve worked out the shyness in you,” Jill commented, “I’ll tell you this. I enjoy sex. And I wouldn’t mind sessions like this twice a week.” With that admission of her needs laid out before her new partner, Jill got her legs under her and stood up off the floor, adding, “Besides, Mel will probably send us off as a married couple, or corporate executives, with you as my personal secretary. So being familiar with each other’s bodies will only aid in this dissipation.”
Randolph watched her begin to stretch in all directions from his place on the floor and decided to ask, “If you like sex that much, why’d you wait six months?” He watched as Jill’s eyes slid his way, then moved elsewhere. When Jill doubled over and touched her knees with her forehead, Randolph followed up his question and added, “I mean, don’t you have someone special to spend time with?”
“I did,” Jill answered, somewhat reluctantly. “He was an ensign in the Corps. He became possessive and accused me of sleeping with the men. It was my mistake really, believing he could handle my taking showers with my unit.” Jill stepped away from the spray so she could shake the water out of her hair, and continued her story. “He was so possessive, one night he believed I was out screwing one of the men on guard duty when I didn’t answer my page. So to catch me at it, he snuck out to the guard post. Unfortunately for him, an alert sentry saw his behavior, and acting on base orders to shoot first, did so.” Jill looked down on Randolph with remembrance in her eyes then finished her story with little emotion. “Because of this, I’ve sworn off relationships. A good thing too, considering where I ended up. Now I only screw my partners to keep my basic needs in check, and as Jessup was killed six months back, well...” She tilted her head back and stared at the white ceiling a moment to regain her composure, then squared her shoulders. “Now come on, I’m starving.”
Chapter Seven
Randolph found during his limited time off, his green badge let him explore only a few places with-in the building. His warden, Mr. Bennett, evidently not trusting his pet project of abducted criminals the room to venture into the everyday workings of the corporation. A good thing too, he thought, with so many computers busy in everyday corporate America, I could get myself in a lot of trouble. As for the up keep on Mr. Bennett’s master criminals, the smart executive satisfied his pets’ restrictive world with food and socializing, some of which was attained by lunchroom privileges with all the daily workers, just as long as they dressed the part and behaved themselves. Of course there is one other way Mr. Bennett can and does use in controlling his band of thieves: companionship. For although the threat of being killed by the touch of a button kept his pets relatively contained, the ability to order in companionship took the edge off the prisoners’ boredom. But for Randolph, he held very little opportunity to order up this kind of entertainment, as Jill kept him well-occupied with her own needs.
A few days later, Randolph opened his door for Jill and heard Mitch and Patrick coming down the hall, announcing, “Morning, Jill, Randolph. Looks as if our boredom’s over. Mel just called Mitch and me into his office.”
Jill turned as they walked past her. “Has he given you any hint as to what’s it about?”
To this Mitch snorted, while Patrick answered, “You know better than that.”
“Yeah I know,” Jill replied. “Just wanted to check to see if he’s slipping up.”
“But you know yourself,” Patrick added over his shoulder, “that’s not the worst of it. Mel loves to sit there all stately in his executive’s chair, giving you only half the answers to the job he wishes done, just to see you squirm till he’s ready to fill in the gaps.”
“Keeps you sharp!” Mitch said through his nose without turning his head.
The two made the elevator by then, so Jill cut the conversation off and walked into Randolph’s room looking peevish.
“Why the face?” Randolph asked.
“Mmm, oh, just tired I guess. As much as it scares me to take on a mission, I envy those two and their chance to get out and see the world.” Then her nose got a whiff of the eggs and sausage aromas, and her face relaxed. “At least if you get bored, you could work in the cafeteria, and I dare say improve the food in this place.”
“Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve worked the mind-numbing world of a daily job, and you can have it. That’s why I’ve stuck to thieving. Every job is different, every home or business presents new challenges to keep my mind sharp and invigorated. Besides,” Randolph continued, as she took her first bite of his homemade omelet, “I don’t ever want to catch myself asking, ‘you want fries with that?’”
Jill snorted at his quip and made a grab for her napkin, making Randolph smile in return. To give her a moment to regain her composure, Randolph removed the chilled glasses of orange juice from the refrigerator and sat next to her in the new chair he ordered. But as he set them down, Jill made a statement which almost made him spill the drinks. “It’s about time we started sleeping together.”
“Uh, isn’t that what we’ve been doing?” Randolph asked in some puzzlement.
Jill eyed Randolph in annoyance before she turned back to her plate and used her fork to cut another piece of the omelet before she clarified herself, a bit sarcastically. “No, dummy. I mean sharing a bed for the night. We need to deal with each other’s idiosyncrasies so as not to fight with each other over something as stupid as a night’s rest.” After that statement, Jill gave Randolph a little time to digest her words before she
washed down her eggs and announced, “I’ll move some of my stuff in today.” She placed her glass down and tapped her lip in thought. “I’ll need two shelves behind the mirror in the bathroom, half the closet, two drawers in your dresser for underwear and one for folded clothes. Oh yeah.” She snapped her fingers in remembrance. “If you haven’t got one, I’ll need a trashcan by the head, with disposable bags. I can be a bit messy for a few days each month.” Jill turned to look at Randolph after this and found him staring at her as if she were a bug-eyed creature from a distant world. But rather than comment on his insult, she continued to tick off items or things he’d need to get or do, as she finished off her meal. With the aid of a napkin, Jill regrettably ended her meal and told him, “Well, times a-wasting. We’ve a full day ahead of us. First the gym then a long run. Lunch after a shower, and then we need to spend some time getting reacquainted with the world news. After which I’ll move my stuff in while you make us dinner.”
Randolph remained motionless for a second or so after Jill stood, digesting her incredible announcement, and wondered in whose universe he had signaled she should move in with him! But before he could stabilize a comment on how intrusive he felt her suggestion to be, Jill eyed him with a look that spoke louder than words what she would do if he even tried to weasel out of her move.
Later, Randolph found Jill wasn’t kidding about reading up on the news. He’d never thought he’d have to spend so much time watching back issues of the world events just to understand today’s reports. I guess, as I’ve always kept myself abreast of the daily world, I never considered how much information is splashed out at the common man. When she patted his head in reward for his thoroughness before leaving to gather her things, Randolph refrained from telling her his true curiosity was to see who was suing who and what corporate owner was screwing over his or her employees. For these were the people who gave him his next challenging job. At least they used to, he amended. Then after dinner and an explanation into the origins of their historic plates from Mexico, before it sold out to the unified corporation Vinco, a Greek and Italian conglomerate looking for cheaper labor, Jill headed for the shower while Randolph cleaned up the kitchen. After which Randolph sat down with his adventures in a spicy tea concoction and took a sip, turning on the video-screen, he looked down into the dark brown liquid. It still needs something, but what?