by Cary Caffrey
"Someone doesn't want us to get out of here," Leta said.
Khepri shuddered. "What do we do? Do we go back?"
Suko shook her head. "No way. What if there's more of these guys—what if they go after the others? We have to go after them."
Khepri's jaw dropped. "Go after them! With what? Shock-rounds? We don't even know how many there are."
"Fuck it," Leta said. "Let's kill 'em all."
"How? Where!" Khepri protested.
Suko gave her a firm, but calming look. "If someone's jamming us—if someone's really after us, then they'll go for the cargo beacon. If they're not, then Jia's team should be there. Either way, that's our target. We have to at least check it out."
"Fuck, ya," Leta said.
"Wait," Sigrid said. "What if this is one of Rosa's tricks…?"
"Then I'll kill him," Suko said drily.
There was nothing more to be said. The girls gathered their gear and headed to the target drop.
A dense thicket lay between them and their target. The four girls approached the area cautiously using all the tricks Rosa had taught them. They advanced quickly and in silence, flitting from cover to cover, little more than shadowy blurs in the dark woods. Not a twig was broken, or a leaf disturbed. All the time, they watched their flanks, scanning ahead with their thermal and chemical optics for anyone hiding in the underbrush.
At the bottom of the hill, just as Suko had predicted, they found the container—guarded by five men in the same green uniforms. Like the first man they'd encountered, they all wore light body armor and bulky night-vision goggles. All of the men carried assault rifles.
"Shit," Leta said.
Suko looked at Sigrid. "Any sign of Jia's team?"
Sigrid pulled out the sniper rifle and scanned. She shook her head. "Just these guys."
"What are we going to do?" Khepri asked.
A familiar, determined look came over Suko's face. "We take these guys out."
"With what?" Khepri looked at her weapon in disgust. "They gave us bloody toys."
Leta growled, "You know Rosa's training. We don't need weapons. We can take these assholes."
Sigrid continued to scan the men through her scope. "I can get one easy. Maybe two before they know something's up."
Suko's eyes were still fixed on the scene before them. "Well…the others won't likely stand around waiting to be shot. We'll need to get close."
Leta's face lit up. "Ooh! I have an idea." She started pulling off her shorts and shirt. "Rosa's always going on about misdirection, right…" In a matter of seconds she had stripped herself down to her underwear.
All the girls had gone through a rather healthy growth spurt thanks to their modifications and enhancements, but the process provided an added effect on Leta and her more obvious womanly attributes. Leta untied her hair to release the tight ponytail she kept and shook out her voluminous curls. They cascaded over her shoulders and down the curve of her bare back, reaching down to the narrow tuck of her waist. At nearly six feet, the term statuesque hardly did Leta justice. Her full, curving hips gave way to a pair of long and stemmy legs; the simple bra she wore labored to contain her shapely breasts. Sigrid felt positively like a child in comparison.
Suko grinned. "This is your plan?"
Leta wasn't done yet. With a wink to Suko, she took out her bowie knife and slashed a large gash in her hand.
Suko held up a hand, trying to block the ghastly sight. "Gah!…what are you doing?"
Leta let the blood pool into the palm of her hand before rubbing it over her face and chest. She grabbed up handfuls of muddy earth from the ground, slathering the muck all over her arms, face and stomach. "Do my back," she said.
Picking up on the plan, the girls joined in, with Leta adding even more blood from her injured hand. The effect was ghoulish.
"One last thing," Leta said. The girls watched as Leta contorted her face, her mouth curving down. She seemed to heave and convulse a little before the tears came as she made herself cry. "There—that should do it," she said, pouring forth an impressive stream tears.
"Dear God…" Suko said, torn between horror and amusement.
"This'll distract them!" Leta said. "A little…misdirection. Just like in our training. Wait for me to get close, then move in."
Sigrid grabbed Leta by the arm. "Are you crazy? They'll kill you."
"I don't think so. Look, they tried to stun me the first time—and you. Besides," she said, "you guys got my back."
"Yeah, but they killed Jia…"
"Just be ready to move in."
Still very uncertain, Sigrid let go of Leta's hand, and the girls headed toward their target and the group of men guarding it. Suko moved to the right in a flanking maneuver, while Khepri slunk around to the left side. Sigrid found a spot where she could cover them all with her sniper rifle. When the other girls were set, Leta strode forward, putting on quite a show; she thrashed through the thicket in the darkness, sobbing and making quite a racket.
Through her scope, Sigrid watched as the men's attention shifted. She could hear Leta calling out to them, "Help—help me, please!" Three of the men moved cautiously toward her, but the others kept watch on their flanks. When Leta crashed into the clearing—a sobbing, half-naked, bloody mess—the other men couldn't help but turn to stare at her.
As Leta collapsed on the ground, crying, the men hurried to the beautiful girl in distress. The men on the perimeter also began to head over to witness the drama.
Sigrid had one of them in her sights; she saw the pale flash of his exposed neck and squeezed the trigger. He stood up, stock straight, convulsing as the little slug unleashed its charge of electricity. Before he hit the ground, Sigrid aimed at the man on his left and fired, hitting him in the back of the thigh. The man went down in a heap.
The men on the perimeter were completely focused on the chaos in the middle of the clearing when Suko and Khepri rushed silently out from behind them. Both girls fired their eSMGs. Suko hit her target in the unprotected area by the man's rear, but Khepri missed. She was still rushing at the man when he turned, leveled his assault rifle and blasted her. Khepri screamed and fell—unconscious or dead, Sigrid didn't know.
Sigrid fired again; the shot glanced off the man's armor, but it was enough to distract him. Suko jumped on him from behind, tackling him to the ground.
Leta was unarmed and had to improvise. She leapt on the back of the only man still standing. Her legs wrapped around his waist as she held his neck, clamped in the crook of her elbow, while her free arm provided extra leverage. She looked like a wild animal, bloody and filthy, and with her red hair flailing madly about as she clung to the man's back. He clawed at her, stumbling, trying to throw her off, but she kept her grip, even as he fell over backward, landing hard on top of her, until he finally went limp.
Sigrid turned the scope back on Suko. She was pinned down, wrestling the last of the men. Both of them had their hands on his assault rifle, grappling for possession. Sigrid aimed, looking for an exposed spot; she couldn't let anything happen to Suko…
She heard, more than felt, the thwack of the stun charge as it hit her in the rear. There was no pain; that would come after the effects of the stun wore off. The rifle fell from her hands and she slumped to the mossy earth, face down in the mud. Her head swam and she kept losing focus, but she didn't lose consciousness. Her genetically modified body could handle the effects much better than the men. She experienced a moment of terrible panic when she tried to breathe and choked back a mouthful of dirt, but someone grabbed her from behind and flipped her over. She spat out mud and a twig, and concentrated on breathing through her nose.
She struggled to focus on the man sitting on her chest. He clutched the collar of her shirt, gathering it in his fists, pulling her face close to his. His mouth hung open as he scanned her from behind the bulky night-vision goggles. His breath smelled foul and felt hot on her cheek.
He tapped the communicator clipped on his ear. "I got one
!" he shouted, clearly happy with himself. He waited a moment and tapped the transmitter again. "Stevens…Martinez…?" He waited again, scanning the woods around him. "Son of a…" Tearing the goggles from his face, he drew a long, black ceramic-bladed knife and held it to her neck. "…bitch."
He cuffed her across her chin with the side of his fist. It hurt like hell. Then Sigrid realized, yes—it hurt. The shocker had a paralytic effect, but it was wearing off remarkably fast. She wiggled a finger—she could move. Slowly, she reached down to her hip and unclipped her pistol, but her fingers were still clumsy and the man heard the movement.
"Bitch!" he said again and grabbed the gun away from her, tossing it aside.
He was still watching the gun fall when Sigrid pulled the knife from her belt. She slashed at him, cutting him in a wide gash across his arm. He grabbed her wrist and kneeled on both her arms.
"Fuck!" He looked at the blood flowing from the cut. "What the fuck are you girls on?" He held the tip of his own knife under her chin. "I'm not supposed to hurt you, unless you resist." He drew the tip of the knife down along her neck to the collar of her T-shirt. He lifted up the shirt collar with the tip of the blade, slitting the fabric. "I think we're past that…"
Sigrid felt her pulse quicken as he drew the knife down her chest. He made a quick upward slash and more of the light fabric parted. He smiled. Sigrid tried to lift her legs; she wanted to grab his neck in a scissor hold, but was still weak from the effects of the stun.
He struck her hard with the back of his hand—the knife grazed her cheek and cut her. "I told you to keep still!" Sigrid tried to kick him again, only to be punched hard and repeatedly. She felt blood dripping from her nose as her vision became fuzzy. When he punched her again she almost blacked out.
"Get your hands off her, fucker!" Suko's scream rang through the trees like a war cry.
Sigrid saw only a blur as Suko dived over her and onto the man. She tackled him high, slamming hard into his neck. They both rolled over in the mud in a wild and grappling heap. The man still had his knife, but Suko had hers as well. She parried his swipe easily and brought her own blade down hard, twisting it as she plunged it deep into his chest. His body twitched in a last, violent spasm, spitting up blood as his life leaked away.
With the fight over, Suko ran, stumbling, back to Sigrid. "Seeg!" she called out, pulling her close and hugging her hard. Sigrid lay limp in her arms as Suko wiped the mud and blood from her face. "Sigrid!" Deeply concerned, she checked her friend's condition. Sigrid's eye was swollen and her nose was a bloody mess. "Tell me you're okay!" she cried, trying to shake the life back into her.
"Ow…not so hard!" Sigrid said in mock protest. "I'm okay—just feel a bit…woozy, is all."
Leta arrived at the scene, panting for breath. She knelt beside Suko, wrapped her muddy arms around Sigrid's neck and hugged her almost as vigorously as Suko had. "Thank God you're okay." She looked over at the limp form of the young man and saw Suko's blade sticking out of his chest. "You…killed him."
Suko wiped her sudden tears away with a dirt-streaked fist. "I thought—I thought he was going to kill Sigrid."
Sigrid thought she may be right.
"Why would Rosa do this?" Leta demanded, tears flooding her own eyes. "Who are these guys?"
None of the girls could answer that one.
"Let's get to the beacon," Sigrid said. "Let's get the hell out of here."
The others nodded and they made their way back down the slope to the cargo container; Sigrid leaned heavily on the two girls. The body of the other man Suko had killed lay on the ground where he'd bled out from the gash in his neck, but the others were gone. The stun charges were only effective for a short time and the other men had escaped.
Leta looked around frantically. "Where's Khepri?"
They all scanned the woods, holding their weapons ready, but there was no sign of the men or their friend.
"They must have taken her," Suko said.
"Fuck it," Sigrid said. She slapped the homing beacon on top of the container that would send a signal to their transport to come pick them up. Nothing happened. Sigrid activated her implant and scanned the transponder. It was armed, but not transmitting. "Dammit!"
"Jamming…?" Leta asked.
Suko huffed. "Well, this is going right down the gurgler."
"For once, I think I actually know what you mean." Sigrid tried accessing her com-link again. Nothing. A horrible thought occurred to her. "Do you think there are more of them? Do…do you think they're going after all the girls?"
Leta stomped her feet in the mud. "What the fuck is going on?"
Suko hushed her with a hand. "Quiet!"
Sigrid also heard it—the sound of a transport coming toward them.
The three girls moved quickly into the cover of the surrounding trees. The transport was on them fast. Sigrid could see it was a large craft—not the T-48s they'd flown in on. Neither was this one painted in the red and black colors of Kimura, but rather a dark-olive-drab, and with no markings on it.
It hovered above them; its four heavy thrusters blasted up fragments of dust and dirt and rock, forcing the three girls to shield their eyes. It hung there for what felt like an eternity before spinning horizontally on its axis, scanning the area with two floodlights suspended from its belly. Sigrid almost cried out as her optics were overloaded by the blinding, bright lights. She quickly dialed down the implant before opening her eyes again. She got a good look at the pilot in the cockpit. He wore the same dark-green uniform, but he wasn't anyone she recognized. Two more crew members manned the hulking chain-guns mounted on each side.
They had to have spotted them. Sigrid quickly calculated how she'd react, where she'd move, if the thing opened fire. But then a blast from its thrusters pushed it up and over the crest of the hill and out of sight.
"What the hell was that?" Leta said.
"Wait, look!" Suko pointed off in the direction the transport had gone. They could all hear its thrusters powering down as it came to rest beyond the copse of trees that concealed them, landing less than a kilometer away.
"Come on!" Sigrid said. They took off as fast as they could through the trees, and within a minute they saw the transport sitting in a small clearing near a rocky creek. Suko raised her fist, signaling the others to stop. She dropped to her knee. Leta and Sigrid instantly followed suit, taking cover in the brush.
Down below, just ahead of them, were another group of men gathered around the transport. Her heart sank when she saw four of the other girls lying face down in the dirt. Khepri was definitely one of them, and so was Mei, and possibly Lei-Fei. There was no way to tell whether the girls were alive or dead, but Sigrid and Suko and Leta all shared an unspoken resolve—they would not let the men escape with their friends.
Suko signaled Leta to flank around to the right. Leta nodded, disappearing quickly into the woods.
"Sigrid, I want you stay here, just like last time. We'll wait for you to take the first one out."
"No!" Sigrid said, grabbing Suko's arm. She didn't want Suko to leave her again. But when she looked again at the fallen girls she knew it was the only way. "Okay—I'll be okay."
Suko squeezed her shoulder and headed off.
Sigrid un-holstered the sniper rifle. The men were hurrying to load the girls into the transport. At least they were alive—she hoped. She couldn't let the transport take off, but her weapon was useless against the craft.
She heard the boom of the thrusters powering up; she couldn't wait any longer. Sigrid fired her first shot, hitting one of the men in the face—not the most effective spot for the stun-round, but it gave her a certain satisfaction. She aimed at the next man and fired. He fell hard, lying twitching in the dirt. She heard the shouts and ducked back down as the men opened fire—real bullets this time. She cursed. If only she had some actual lethal ammunition. One explosive round could take out the lot of them.
Sigrid heard more firing, this time from Suko and Leta shooting from th
eir flanking positions. They each fired quick, efficient bursts and all their shots hit home. The pitch of the transport engines increased to a whistling howl. She couldn't let it take off, not with the girls still inside. Before she knew what she was doing, she was off and running down the hill towards it, covering the seventy meters in less than eight-seconds.
The large craft was already lifting away from the ground. She dived, grabbing onto one of the landing struts. Suko darted after her, barely managing to get a hand onto the tail gear at the back. Sigrid quickly hauled herself up into the belly of the craft. The two crew in the gunnery pods looked up, startled. Strapped into the pods, they were completely helpless. Sigrid showed them no mercy. She threw her bowie knife, burying it in the chest of one, before smashing the butt of her rifle in the face of the other.
She almost failed to react in time as the pilot fired back at her with his sidearm, but it was a wild, desperate shot, which she dodged easily. She was already off balance when he threw the controls hard over, banking the craft so steeply Sigrid almost tumbled out of the open port.
Sigrid clawed her way the three steps to the open cockpit. When the pilot reached back to fire at her again she was ready. She grabbed his wrist, and without even bothering to disarm him, she twisted his arm around and fired three times into his chest. The pilot slumped forward on the stick and the transport nosed sharply down, hurtling toward the ground not far below.
She made a mad grab for the control stick and heaved it back. The thrusters screamed in protest, and the transport bucked, leveling out moments before impact.
Sigrid slid into the co-pilot seat and throttled down. Her actions were greeted by an abrupt and eerie silence—she'd somehow managed to kill the engines—the huge transporter dropped the last fifteen feet and crashed to the ground. The four captured girls looked up at her blearily from the back of the compartment where they'd been piled, still bound, still suffering under the effects of the stunners. But they were alive.
And then Sigrid remembered—where was Suko? She hadn't made it into the transport.
"Suko!"
Sigrid leapt from the craft and landed running, frantically searching for her friend. She found her lying in the little creek bed, sprawled on her back, motionless. Sigrid ran to her, splashing through the shallow water, calling out to her.