Just then Sally Navarro joined them. She said, “Hey, guys! Have you heard the news? Sharon got engaged. Lee finally popped the question and she’s wearing the ring. She says she doesn’t want to take it off yet. I think she’s only trying to make the rest of us feel jealous.” She grinned.
Nell said, “I don’t see any ring on your finger, Sally. Is it working? Are you jealous yet?” They all laughed.
“Nope, not me. My Troy has proven his commitment in ways far transcending what mere mortals seem capable of.” Then glancing at Missy, she added, “Or, as your friend Tracy would say … he’s really great in bed!”
“Very funny,” said Nell. “Now who’s trying to make people feel jealous.”
Missy said, “Nell’s boyfriend might be giving her a ring sometime soon. He was checking with her parents and got their approval. I’m betting he’s only waiting until graduation, which is now just two months away.” May 23rd would be graduation day for the Class of 2020.
“Congratulations, Nell!” exclaimed Sally, with genuine warmth.
“Don’t jinx me, girls!” said Nell. “Besides … I still have to decide whether or not I’ll say yes. Please allow there to remain a bit of mystery surrounding all this.” Looking at Missy she added, “I should have known better than to confide in you!”
Sally giggled and said, “Drama queen!”
“Hey, don’t be blaming me, Nell,” said Missy. “You told Tracy already. That automatically releases me from any confidentiality requirements.” They all laughed. Then Tracy arrived, almost as though she’d been waiting for the right moment to make an appearance.
“HI everyone! Guess who’s gladly granting great gifts for gratuitous gluttony! We have a new chef and I think I’ve gained five pounds gorging on all the gooey goodness.” While they were on their way into the mess hall, Tracy was on her way out.
“Oh, someone’s been spending way too much time with my brother,” said Missy. “Oh! That’s right.” Looking at Nell and Sally, she said, “Tracy and John were together all last week. Please give her a few more days until the post-coital bliss goes away.”
Nell giggled and said, “Missy, if the stories Tracy tells about you and Mike are only half true, you probably shouldn’t be teasing her. And, after what Sally was just admitting about Troy in bed? I’m definitely starting to feel some jealousy. I’m the only one not getting any in spite of how wonderful my man has been.”
-----
Not long after her last class, Missy got a phone call from Ben Marchitto. She let it go to voicemail but then walked to a spot where she could talk freely. When she listened to his voicemail, he had asked her to call when it was convenient. She called and when he answered right away, she said, “Hello, Ben. Sorry, I couldn’t take your call earlier. What’s up?”
“Missy, thank you for calling back. There’s no emergency but we thought you and your friend Robert should know that Zhu-Gung organization is back.”
“Really? They’re back? What are they up to this time?” Missy knew how Robert had actually met with Sal, agreeing to handle things when Zhu-Gung had been attacking Sal’s places. Then, after the arrests at the Long Island casino which ended Morelli’s agreement with Zhu-Gung, they’d approached Sal offering a similar agreement in exchange for having their guys testify against Morelli. Sal had refused and called Robert instead. Robert had provided Sal all the evidence he’d needed concerning Morelli. She knew Sal had then forced Morelli to get in line, probably with some payment of damages, and they’d all thought Zhu-Gung had returned to Hong Kong.
“They have been offering to provide certain products to other organizations. Not ours and not Morelli’s.”
“Okay. Give me a moment.” Missy realized Ben was concerned about their call being recorded. Hence his cryptic response. She figured the product was probably drugs and that Zhu-Gung was selling them to the other three New York crime families. She focused and, sure enough … she was able to sense Wagner Shen and Antony Ying were both somewhere in New York City. Wow!
She also figured Sal must be concerned they were again attempting to set up operations, looking to pit one crime family against the other. That would likely interfere with the truce currently in place, which she was looking for Sal to maintain.
Missy said, “Ben, I will let Robert know. Please tell Sal we’re very grateful for this information. Don’t hesitate to call me again if further updates seem appropriate, okay?” Now she was being cryptic since, for all she knew, other branches of the FBI might indeed be listening in on Ben’s calls. “Nice hearing from you, Ben. Bye, now.”
-----
At Major Khan’s special languages class, Missy finally saw Sharon and congratulated her on getting engaged. Tracy was there, of course, and seemed to be amusing several of the others with all the new Pashto curse words she’d learned. She wasn’t able to explain how or why she’d managed to expand her vocabulary but Missy knew it had been from dealing with the WIJO terrorists in Germany. Captain Bonomo and Sergeant Town knew about that too, of course, but they weren’t telling anyone.
Major Khan explained how he was quite pleased with how everyone’s ability to speak Pashto had now developed and that, for the next two months, their focus would be more on Farsi. They’d not worked as much on that language as they had on Pashto and he wanted them to become fluent in both by the end of term.
As always, the time at his class seemed to fly by. When it was over, the cadets all headed directly towards the barracks. This first day back had been a long, full day for each of them. They were not interested in stopping at Cullum Hall or anywhere else but merely wanted to go to their rooms.
Missy said goodbye to everyone and, as usual, sent Mike several mental messages. She was glad these were once again merely telling him all about things at the academy rather than about various WIJO members the way she’d been doing the week before. Sharing her thoughts with him, typically in a stream of consciousness manner, was how she relieved whatever stress might accumulate inside of her and she’d grown to really depend on that.
On entering her room, she found Danielle Portis was chatting with Karen. Danielle had been Karen’s closest friend at the academy until Missy became Karen’s roommate. Danielle had nothing good to say about Missy at that time and, gradually, as Karen got to know Missy, Karen and Danielle had drifted apart. Then, just prior to spring break, Missy had helped exonerate Danielle when she’d gone before the Honor Board concerning a big cheating scandal. That had completely changed Danielle’s opinion about Missy and now she and Karen were renewing their friendship once again.
Missy said, “Hey, Danielle! How was your spring break?” Over the last month, Danielle had really made an effort to show her appreciation and Missy wanted to extend her friendship to her, willingly ignoring all the hateful things Danielle had once said.
“Hi, Missy. Mine was okay. Karen has been filling me in about how she and Marty enjoyed theirs … together.” She grinned and it was obvious she was happy for her friend. “What about you?” Although she’d talked to Missy a couple of times since the cheating scandal incident and Karen had reassured her Missy could be a friend, she still felt insecure.
“Mine was good and it’s nice to be back. But, after spending so much time with my boyfriend, that just makes me miss him all the more now.” Missy shrugged her shoulders, took a deep breath and sighed. “Oh, well! We’ll both be busy so it’ll be a few weeks before I see him again.”
“Yeah, not like our girl Karen here. She and Marty get to see each other practically every day.” Danielle wasn’t able to completely hide how badly she wished she had a boyfriend.
“While that was mostly true before spring break,” said Karen, “Marty will be super focused on finishing up at the academy now. He knows I’m his and how much I want to support what he’s doing, so we’ll maybe not be together quite as much.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet!” exclaimed Danielle. “Well, I guess I’ll say good night so I can focus on what I need to do here. Righ
t now, that means getting a good night’s sleep because tomorrow will be another day.” She waved and left the room.
Missy said, “It’s too bad she doesn’t have a boyfriend. You told me that was behind her animosity towards me earlier … my getting her boyfriend kicked out because of that whole Caesar Club scandal.”
“True, but that bastard was only taking advantage of her, Missy. She now has finally seen the error of her ways. Rather than having a relationship with the guy she was merely giving him blow jobs and hoping. He dropped her right away when he left. I think she’s finally gotten over all that but, like you say, she really is a little needy right now.”
“Well, life here at the academy is pretty demanding.” Missy grinned. “Having a love life does help. Maybe if I put my good friend Tracy on this, she’ll find a solution. She still claims credit for fixing you and Nell up with Marty and Ron.”
Karen laughed. “You were just as guilty of that as she was, but we’ve forgiven you. Marty tells me he and Ron are ever so thankful for the way you two blackmailed them into asking us out. If we all get married someday, you two have standing invitations to our weddings.”
“Oh, we’ll be there. You can count on that, just as long as it doesn’t interfere with our marriages to Mike and John. We’re probably going to get married in the West Point chapel two years from now. Maybe you guys can schedule yours on the same day.” They both laughed at that and then got ready for bed.
Chapter Eighteen
Tuesday, Mar 24, 2020
Emily Robinson arrived at the practice range and looked for Missy. In spite of there being no more rifle matches on the schedule, she wanted to prepare for the upcoming Sandhurst Competition now less than a month away.
Each year since 1967, West Point competed in this. It began when the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, a military academy in the United Kingdom and a training center for the British Army’s officers, presented West Point with a British officer’s sword as a prize in the competition. Aimed to promote military excellence among the Corps of Cadets, the criteria included athletic participation, sports performance, physical fitness tests, drill and ceremonies, company evaluations and, of course, marksmanship. In other words, the intent was to test the cadets’ ability to ‘shoot, move and communicate’ and to increase military excellence in the field.
For the 2020 competition, there would be fifty squad teams, with several of the thirty-six West Point companies providing a squad along with those from visiting service academies. Britain’s Sandhurst was providing two teams. There’d be a team from the Naval, Air Force and Coast Guard Academies plus various ROTC schools. Other foreign schools would include Australia’s and Canada’s Royal Military Colleges and even the National Military Academy of Afghanistan was competing.
Each squad would comprise nine members with at least one being female. All four West Point classes would be represented on each of their teams. A volunteer female cadet from West Point needed to participate on the Afghan team since there were no females in their school. Emily had been thrilled when she was selected, largely due to her proven marksmanship skills. Missy had agreed to work with the Afghan team since she was now fairly fluent in Pashto.
Each squad would be required to perform a series of military tasks along a thirty-mile route which takes most teams approximately four hours to complete. There would be individual and squad-based events. Scores get determined by combining the points they earn performing these tasks along the route with the points for completing the course within the four-hour time frame. Examples of events include rappelling, building and crossing a one-rope bridge, obstacle course navigation, combat swim (with full gear), pistol and rifle marksmanship, a raft paddle, twelve-foot wall climb, and weapon handling skills.
When Missy arrived, Emily said, “Thanks for agreeing to work with me today. I know how busy you are. How was your week away?” She knew Missy had gone to Afghanistan to spy for General Blake but did not know any of the particulars.
Missy said, “Hey, my helping is the least I can do. My company B-3 is pissed that I’m the one who will be helping the Afghans. The B-3 squad actually won this event back in 2011, you know. They were hoping for a repeat with my help but now that I’ve defected to the dark side, they’re asking me to promise I’ll only coach rather than actually do any shooting.”
Emily laughed and said, “Well, that’s understandable. Thanks for coaching me. Of course, if you’ll be doing all the other events with that Afghan Team, that still makes it a real challenge for any of our teams to win.”
Missy noted how Emily’s scent now included Donald’s as well, so she couldn’t resist asking, “How well did Donald take finding out about supernaturals? It’s obvious that didn’t scare him away and you’ve succeeded in your goal of seducing him.”
Emily laughed and said, “I can truly say his eyes were opened and he has fully embraced joining our world of witches. I had my wicked way with him for pretty much all of last week. I’ll be bringing him to a couple of coven meetings this summer.”
“Well, good. Let’s see if bonding with your soulmate has increased any of your human abilities. Even though you don’t have any supernatural ones, you still have some witch DNA in you, so that wouldn’t surprise me.”
They spent the next hour firing weapons and, based on how well Emily did, Missy was convinced Emily may indeed have benefited from her soulmate bond. Missy was not surprised and no longer questioned what the Fabulous Fates sometimes seemed to be doing in the world of witches.
-----
When Missy finished at the range, she felt she finally had some free time she could spend checking on her new pack. While she could mindspeak with them when they were nearby, she’d found that ability was limited. Once she was a mile or so away, that dropped off. So, she called Fred on the phone.
When Fred saw it was Missy’s number calling, he was pleased and answered saying, “Hi, is this Missy? Are you back from your vacation?” She’d told him she’d be out of the country and unavailable for a week or so. He was thrilled to finally hear from her.
“Yeah, it’s me, Fred. How are things going with our pack?”
“Well, I have to say, it’s good that you insisted I quit my job. I gave my two week notice and have only been going in part time. Everyone in the pack has been calling me, trying to understand all the changes you told me to explain. I can see this will continue and I’ll be very busy for quite a while.”
“I trust those changes are acceptable to everyone, right?”
Fred chuckled and said, “Oh, yes. Only, most of our pack are thinking what you’ve promised sounds too good to be true; they keep double checking with me, one on one. Brody had all of us living in such fear all the time.”
“Well, I hope I can do even more which they’ll feel good about. This is all new for me too, you know. I just haven’t had a chance yet to figure it all out.” Missy had been so busy she’d worried she’d maybe neglected some things, without even knowing what they might be. ”How’s your Anya? Has she met with Alice?”
“Anya is beyond happy. She can’t believe it. She’s saying it’s like coming out of the closet, being allowed into our world as my mate. But I haven’t introduced her to Alice yet. She doesn’t really need help. Just being allowed to openly join our pack is enough.”
“Well, I’m glad to know that. And, I look forward to meeting her. Make sure she’s at our next full moon ceremony. Have all the other girls who’ve been hiding the way she has be there as well. I’m asking Alice to be there then and I want them all to talk to her.”
“Okay. I will. And, your friend Alice has been here several times already. She’s amazing.” Fred had truly been impressed with the way Alice had met with every female, regardless of their age. “Her help has made real believers of just about everyone. They’ve all decided to send that Roseanne Fund of hers what they would normally be paying their Alpha, since you insisted you wouldn’t accept any tithing for yourself.”
“Well, she know
s how to reach people about abuse in ways I can’t and about issues which I simply can’t even relate to. And then, she finds just the right way to get them whatever help they need. I’m glad that’s working.” The Roseanne Fund now had two full time psychologists on its staff plus several others who helped part time.
“I’ve actually been kept even busier dealing with all the other packs. Missy, you have no idea what your taking over our pack means. It’s a pretty big deal. They all want to schedule a meeting with you. When I explain how limited your time is due to your being at West Point, they then insist on meeting with me.”
Missy laughed and said, “Wonderful! I’m sure you’re much better at dealing with them than I ever will be. Perhaps we can invite representatives to join us at our full moon ceremony in June. That’s on the fifth, right? I’m Maid of Honor in a wedding on the seventh.”
“That sounds good. I can work with that. And, you’ll be up here for the full moons in April and May as well … can I invite anyone then?”
Missy paused to think a moment. “Yes, as long as it’s only one or two and they understand I’m only there for the one night. I’ll only be able to spare a few minutes for whoever decides to come then. And, Fred? It’s okay for our pack to know about my being a witch but I don’t see any need for that to be shared outside the pack. You understand.”
“Absolutely! And, I’m keeping your secret about the teleporting as well. I’m frankly finding that quite incredible. You really can do that? Be up here in … what did you tell me? In a blink?”
“Yep! That’s how I’ll be coming up there in two weeks. I’ll have Alice bring over some clothes for me to wear. Just show her which room will be mine. You got rid of everything Brody owned, right?”
“Well, all his clothes and personal items are gone. Should I send you photos of what your bedroom looks like? You might want to change some of the furniture.”
Missy Goes to Hong Kong (Missy the Werecat Book 8) Page 12