"White Rabbit Chapter 2" by TdFmN

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esercito sconfitto
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"White Rabbit Chapter 2" by TdFmN

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White Rabbit Chapter 2 - OK, NOW it's Completed
by TdFmN,




--“Tara will drive you to the bus station… but Kathy, are you sure you won’t let me buy you a plane ticket? You know I can afford it easily, and Tallahassee is such a long way to go by bus.”

Sayaka, the highly paid professional assassin, could afford a plane ticket too. But “Kathy”, the young freelance photographer, had to be a lot more careful with her money. Travel by plane was much more expensive than it had been in pre-Cataclysm days.

-“That’s so nice of you, Millicent. I really appreciate the offer. But you know I don’t want to be financially dependent on you. I need to make my own way.”

Sayaka had spent 4 days at Millicent Blanding’s home, each night surreptitiously using the information broker’s computer after her “lover” had fallen asleep. She had secretly contacted one of Millicent’s hackers, a certain “Miss Smith”, and purchased additional information on the base and the personnel stationed there. The base would be on a high alert status after the White Rabbit’s escapades a week earlier and Sayaka had to plan her second mission carefully. After 4 days she believed she was ready. Neither “Miss Smith” nor “Miss Jones” (the equally imaginative name under which Sayaka had contacted the hacker) knew the other’s real name, or what she looked like, or where she lived. All communications between them had been electronic.

“Kathy” kissed Millicent Blandings on the lips and followed Tara, an athletic looking short-haired brunette, about 25 years old or so, out to the car. Tara had an “eagle, globe, and anchor” tattoo on her right bicep, indicating she was a veteran of the Confederation Marine Corps. Now she served as Blandings’ bodyguard and chauffer. She was one of three additional women that Sayaka would have to kill if and when she finally ended her association with the information broker who was wistfully watching as Kathy left for the bus station.

Sayaka had no intention of taking a bus all the way to the Florida Administrative District. She merely wanted Millicent to think she was heading south. Her real destination was Fort Rockford, in the Illiana Administrative District. But a bus trip all the way to Tallahassee, and then back after her assignment was completed, was a good excuse for “Kathy” to be away long enough to complete her mission. She would take the bus only as far as Indianapolis, then fly to New Chicago – which was actually in what had once been Wisconsin. From there she would rent a car using a false ID and drive to Rockford for her “meeting” with Colonel Davis. She still couldn’t figure out why learning about “Bright Angel” had become so important to her. The stewardess flirted with her on the flight and Sayaka… considered… taking her up on the implied offer. But she ultimately – reluctantly – turned down the unnecessary complication.

The Illiana Administrative District consisted primarily of what had once been Illinois and Indiana. But it also included what had once been the eastern part of Wisconsin. Prior to the Cataclysm, New Chicago, the capital of Illiana, had been a much smaller town known primarily for its prowess in an ancient sport in which teams of very large men engaged in ritual combat as their supporters cheered them on while wearing headgear designed to resemble large pieces of cheese. Sayaka rented a non-descript car and payed in cash. Observing the speed limit, the drive would have taken about 4 ½ to 5 hours. But the roads were only lightly patrolled. Sayaka thought it unlikely she would be pulled over.

DAMN!

--“Let’s see your operator’s license and ID young lady. Do you know how fast you were driving?”

“Yukari”, the name on the ID with which she had rented the car, was almost in tears.

-“I’m so sorry!!! I wasn’t paying attention… I was in a hurry… umm… please can’t you… overlook this?”

Patrolwoman Carlson couldn’t help staring at the distraught young woman in the driver’s seat. “Yukari” had swiveled around in her seat so her feet were on the ground. Her short skirt had hitched up quite high on her thighs. Those legs… the policewoman was in good shape but… this girl… Was she perhaps a competitive swimmer, or maybe a ballerina? Patrolwoman Carlson felt beads of sweat on her forehead and her mouth was dry. Something about this girl’s movements, the look on her face, just the hint of some scent the patrolwoman couldn’t place… She tried to force her mind back to her duty.

--“I… You were doing 46 miles per hour over the speed limit. I… can’t overlook that!”

But Sayaka already knew she had hooked her sexy prey.

-“My boss will be furious if I get another ticket! She’ll fire me for sure! Please? I’ll be… good… from now on.”

Yukari looked the shapely brunette policewoman in the eye.

-“I’ll be… very… good.”

--“Uhh… you…”

The patrolwoman’s mouth was so dry she was having trouble speaking.

--“You get out of that car. Turn around and put your hands on to… top of the car.”

If the Patrolwoman Carlson had seen the smile on Sayaka’s face as she turned away and let the officer “search” her, she would have immediately gone for her gun. Not that it would have done any good. By the time the policewoman had confirmed “Yukari” was unarmed and turned the girl back around to face her, the assassin’s expression had reverted to a mixture of nervousness and… excitement. The policewoman’s head was spinning, all thoughts of proper procedure obliterated by the sight, the smell, the… feel… of this girl. Her knees nearly buckled as their lips met. As Sayaka placed her hand under the policewoman's blue skirt and slid it up her moaning target's inner thigh, she figured her arrival in Rockford would be delayed an hour. But at least this would take the edge off that she had felt since turning down that stewardess.

The police car was found six days later, submerged in a small pond about a quarter mile from the main road. Patrolwoman Carlson’s nude corpse was found stuffed in the trunk.

The White Rabbit parked the car in the city of Rockford, in a public parking garage. She carefully cleaned up all trace of her presence – fingerprints, hair, traces of sweat, anything that might serve to identify her. She payed the garage fee in cash, wearing a blonde wig and glasses – though her vision was – much – better than 20/20. Carrying the briefcase which contained her weapons and equipment, some water and concentrated rations, and the synthex suit she would don when she was well out of town, she headed on foot towards Fort Rockford, approximately six miles east of the city.

It was an hour after nightfall as Sayaka approached the gate through which she intended to infiltrate the fort. She had spent two days in reconnaissance prior to making her move. Fort Rockford had indeed increased its security since her last visit. But those efforts suffered from two problems that were not immediately fixable. The first was that the perimeter they had to secure was too large for the number of soldiers currently stationed there. The second, and more severe, problem was that far too many of the soldiers were simply too slack and too poorly trained. I would take months of training and discipline to turn them back into real soldiers, and Colonel Davis had had only had a week since the first attack.

The patrols outside the fence now consisted of four women, rather than two. That wouldn’t have been a problem. The soldiers, while obviously on edge, were too rusty in their patrol skills and Sayaka could easily have eliminated a patrol and impersonated one of the dead women, as she had the first time. But now, her surveillance confirmed, the gate sentries were doing biometric scans as the soldiers returned to the fort, and checking their identities against a master roster. Moreover, the fort was on “lockdown” and no one was being allowed on or off post except on official business. If Sayaka, even with a stolen thumbprint, showed up alone at one of the gates, it would immediately alert the sentries that something was wrong. That left two options, try to defeat the electronic intrusion detection systems that covered the fence, or penetrate a gate, silently killing the guards in the process. Given the sorry competence of most of the soldiers, it was an easy decision.

--“I’ll take two.”

---“I fold.”

----“Dealer takes one.”

-----“You really shouldn’t be playing cards! This is really against regulations! What if the terrorists come back? We need to be alert!”

--“Lighten up, Francis.”

The speaker was an experienced looking sergeant in her late twenties or early thirties, with very short light brown hair. The other three girls were all privates and about 10 years younger. Neither Sergeant Kelso nor any of the others knew the actual origin of that pre-Cataclysm popular culture expression, which had somehow survived when so many more important things had been forgotten. “Francis”, whether or not that was her real name, stormed out the door of the guard shack. But for all her complaining about regulations and being alert, the girl had left her carbine in the shack and was totally oblivious to her surroundings as she angrily stepped outside. Nor did any of the other three notice as Sayaka silently slipped her garrote around the doomed girl’s neck and jerked the frantically struggling blonde away from the door, to where she couldn't be seen by the talking and laughing card players. It was over in moments.

--“Three Jacks.”

----“Damn!”

---“I can’t believe we’re still at Alert 3! Those terrorists aren’t coming back. I don’t know why they came to a place like this in the first place, just to blow up the computer center.”

----“Yeah, the old lady is getting paranoid, I think.”

--“Watch it with that “old lady” crack, bitch! The colonel is only one year older than me! But, yeah, maybe she is getting a little para…UUGHHH!!!”

Sergeant Kelso flopped face first onto the card table scattering cards and chips to the floor, a throwing knife imbedded in her back. Sayaka had thrown the knife with her right hand. Her left hand held the suppressed .40 caliber pistol. Before either of the remaining two soldiers could react, Sayaka dropped the red headed dealer, the bustiest of the four, to the floor with a shot through the sternum. The last soldier stared in horror as the White Rabbit put her right index finger to her lips, the universal signal to be quiet.

-“Shhh!”

It would have been faster and easier to just shoot both the sergeant and the dealer. Maybe she had killed them in two different ways to reinforce the narrative that there were multiple “terrorists”. Or maybe she had intended the visceral shock of the knife kill to intimidate the last sentry into terrified obedience. Or maybe she was just showing off. The assassin smiled.

-“Strip. Everything.”

---“Wha… what?”

Sayaka’s smiled turned cruel.

-“Oh dear. So you want to do this the hard way?”

---“No! Wait, please… I’m stripping, see?”

As the assassin dragged “Francis” into the guard shack, she kept one eye on the frightened soldier stripping off her synthex uniform. Though she needed an unbloodied, undamaged uniform, she could have just killed the girl and taken Francis’s. But she was enjoying the show. As the last surviving soldier slid her uniform off her hips and down her thighs,it was evident that the blonde hair on her head was dyed.

-“When will Central Security Control next check this gate?”

---“Uhhh… 2200 hours.”

That checked with what Sayaka had already observed during her two days of reconnaissance.

-“What’s today’s duress code?”

---“Willow tree.”

Sayaka had no way of independently verifying that. But she was confident the terrified girl was telling the truth. She questioned the now totally nude sentry – from the tan lines her unit had only switched over from the bikini uniforms very recently – for about five minutes gathering more information about the fort’s current internal security measures. Every now and then she threw in a question she already knew the answer to, whether from her observations or from the information obtained from “Miss Smith”, to confirm the last sentry was telling the truth. Finally, she had all she needed.

---“So… so what are you going to do with me?’

The girl was clearly aroused due to the effect of Sayaka’s pheromones in the cramped space of the guard shack. Nice figure, cute face too - but the assassin had to be on her way. Another suppressed gunshot; another pained, shocked gasp; the thud of another body hitting the floor. Her latest victim hadn’t even stopped twitching as Sayaka stripped off her own synthex and donned the girl’s uniform. She didn’t take a thumbprint, however. She had a very specific target in mind for that.

She placed an explosive charge on the door, with a trigger that would automatically activate when she closed the door to the shack. It also had a time detonator and a radio detonator. If all went well the White Rabbit would have completed her mission and left the base before the timer detonated the bomb. But if something went wrong she could use the small but powerful radio frequency detonator she carried with her to blow up the shack and create a distraction. Just as she was cleaning up and getting ready to leave, she noticed the headline on the base newspaper that was lying on the floor. “Memorial Services to be held Sunday for Victims of Terrorist Attack.” There were eight photographs under the headline.

Eight? EIGHT???

She picked up the paper. She recognized seven of the victims. But the eighth, a redheaded 2nd lieutenant named Christy Sinclair, she had never seen before. Sayaka pondered. It’s possible the unlucky Lieutenant Sinclair had tried to open the computer center and triggered the booby trap. Possible but unlikely. The explosives had detonated at the expected time delay, to the second. Sinclair would have had to open the door at the exact moment the timer expired. So had she been unlucky enough to be walking near the computer center when the explosives went off, and been struck by flying debris? That seemed more plausible. But what if… what if she had been deliberately killed by someone on base, who used the havoc caused by Sayaka’s actions as cover for the murder? That possibility immediately raised an additional question. Had this eighth murder merely been coincidental, or did it have something to do with Sayaka’s mission? The White rabbit had a lot to think about as she set the trigger, closed the door to the guard shack, and headed into the fort for her “date” with Colonel Davis.
esercito sconfitto
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Re: "White Rabbit Chapter 2" by TdFmN

Post by esercito sconfitto »

back on top! :)
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