"White Rabbit " Chapter 3 by TdFmN

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esercito sconfitto
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"White Rabbit " Chapter 3 by TdFmN

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Colonel Michelle Davis was in a somber mood. Her Cybersecurity Officer, 2nd Lieutenant Angela Garcia, couldn’t help noticing. The earnest young lieutenant was devoted to her colonel – too devoted. On her first operational assignment out of tech school, Lt. Garcia was one of the relatively few women in the garrison who wanted to be a real soldier. Col. Davis mused that she deserved better than to be posted to this backwater depository of losers and slackers and ROAD (Retired On Active Duty – a pejorative term for troops who did the minimum possible to get by, that dated from before the Cataclysm) officers and NCOs.

--“That will be all, lieutenant. You can go home now.”

---“Are you sure, Colonel Davis? You’ve been working so hard. I could…”

--“Go home, lieutenant.”

Colonel Davis hoped that hadn’t sounded too harsh, but she needed to get the lieutenant out of there.

---“Y… yes Ma’am.”

As the colonel watched the lieutenant’s trim figure head out the door of the Brigade Headquarters, she couldn’t help thinking how much she wanted a woman. The fact that Lt. Garcia would be not just willing, but enthusiastic, should the colonel make her desires known, only made it worse. But Colonel Davis was “old school” about such matters and regarded sexual relations between superiors and their subordinates as intrinsically destructive to “morale, good order, and discipline”. Given her preferences, she would have enforced military discipline at Fort Rockford, including prohibiting sexual relations between any supervisor, officer or NCO, and any woman under her authority. But she was under orders – orders she regarded as insane – not to enforce such things. Still, she herself didn’t need to participate in such inappropriate behavior. Unfortunately, since every woman on base was under her authority, and since she also felt it damaging to that same morale, good order, and discipline to visit clubs or brothels in town that would also be frequented by women under her command, she hadn’t been with another woman in months.

She couldn’t help thinking of Clara. They had met in Airborne School; one young lieutenant fresh out of Intel School on her way to Special Forces, and another who had just completed the Heavy Weapons Officer’s Course and was slated to command a mortar platoon in the 15th Air Assault Battalion (Provisional). Since there seemed little chance of either ever being part of the other’s chain of command, they had loved passionately and without reservation. Young, fit, and dumb; they had felt invincible. But a sniper had taken Clara during the siege of Detroit (funny that no one had ever bothered to nuke Detroit during the Cataclysm – apparently it had once been a major automotive manufacturing center) and that had been the last real “love” that Michelle Davis had ever known. She had had sex partners since Clara’s death, of course. But Clara was the colonel’s last lover.

Given how risky her intended course of action for tonight was, she thought it was very possible Clara would be her last love ever. It was going to be tonight. Ever since the attack on Fort Rockford a week and a half ago, Colonel Davis had had Lt. Garcia monitor for attempts to hack the fort’s information systems, and the lieutenant had noticed several intrusions. She was too inexperienced to understand what they meant – why those particular files were being sought out. But the colonel thought she knew. Then there was that civilian police woman who had disappeared a few days ago. Neither she nor her car had been located yet, which meant that they had been hidden by someone who knew what she was doing. And snow was forecast for tomorrow morning, making it much easier to track an intruder. It was going to be tonight. And if the colonel’s expectations were correct, she didn’t want the dedicated young lieutenant who had the potential to turn into a good soldier anywhere around. Lt. Garcia deserved better. She couldn’t say the same for Major Jenkins, as she eyed the sensual but insolent honey blonde seated at the other desk. Major Jenkins was the Colonel’s S4, but she was really a spy for General Elizabeth Gayle. That bitch Gayle was the reason Colonel Davis was assigned to this dump, under orders NOT to enforce proper military discipline, lest that interfere with Dr. Fontaine’s experiments. Well, if Colonel Davis was going to die tonight (she estimated her chances of living to see tomorrow morning as 50/50 at best), it was some consolation that Jenkins was going to get what was coming to her.

Major Patricia Jenkins was almost a case study in exactly why a commander sleeping with her subordinate was harmful to military discipline. She wasn’t unintelligent by any means. But she had been promoted to her position primarily on the strength of her relationship with General Gayle. The general hadn’t trusted Colonel Davis ever since the colonel had advised strenuously against “the project” that Elizabeth Gayle had supported. Gayle had had the colonel assigned as Brigade Commander at Fort Rockford – an assignment that would normally go to an Infantry Officer – under conditions that would virtually guarantee the colonel’s failure, and then further assigned her lover to keep an eye on Davis. Knowing she was virtually immune to discipline from Colonel Davis so long as she remained Gayle’s spy and lover, Major Jenkins was insolent almost to the point of insubordination. Colonel Davis made her decision.

--“So… Patricia, now that the lieutenant is gone, let’s get comfortable…”

The colonel stretched herself languidly, drawing her synthex uniform even tighter around her body. Major Jenkins started in surprise. Colonel Davis, a stickler for formality, never called any of her officers by their first names. But even more surprising was the unmistakably sexual flirtation. The major felt her mouth going dry even as she tried to make sense of the colonel’s actions. The colonel NEVER demonstrated even a hint of sexuality to any subordinate. Had the Ice Queen cracked up under the stress of the recent terrorist attack, and the pressure she was under from the general? Was she losing it, at long last? The major wasn’t sure what was happening but she wasn’t going to let this opportunity go to waste. Even at 31, the colonel, who had spent time as both the Intel Specialist in a Special Forces Team and the S2 in a Ranger Battalion, had one of the fittest bodies in the garrison.

----“This is a surprise… Colonel.”

There was something silkily insulting about the way the major enunciated “colonel”. She enjoyed rubbing her nominal superior’s face in the fact that the colonel couldn’t really do anything to her. General Gayle would just countermand it. Major Jenkins’ insolence-bordering-on-insubordination was reflected in her uniform; a synthex shirt that left her midriff bare, extremely short skirt, and stockings that went halfway up her thighs. That style of uniform, completely unsuitable for the field, was generally only authorized at higher echelons, division or corps. The major’s flaunting of that uniform was in effect an announcement that her “real” boss was someone higher than a mere colonel.

--“We haven’t always gotten along well, Patricia. I wanted to make amends.”

Major Jenkins grinned lasciviously. The Ice Queen had cracked. “I’ve broken you, colonel.” The major’s relationship with General Gayle had never been exclusive, since her current assignment put her several hundred miles from the general’s headquarters. The general would, in fact, be very amused when Jenkins reported the colonel’s abasement. Major Jenkins moaned throatily as Colonel Davis placed her hand on the blonde woman’s bare midriff and then slid it up under the synthex shirt, cupping the major’s breast.

Sayaka, walked towards the quarters where Alice Chen should just be getting ready for bed. Sergeant Chen shared the quarters with three other NCOs, their rank entitling them to better accommodations than the ordinary soldiers. The assassin had purchased the garrison personnel files from the hacker “Miss Smith” and had found a young vehicle maintenance sergeant who bore a close physical resemblance to her. Before penetrating the fort’s perimeter she had even cut her hair to match Chen’s hairstyle from the file photo. Now she needed the unlucky young woman’s thumb print. Paying no more attention to the soldiers she passed than they were paying to her, she knocked on the front door of Barracks 1184. A tall redhead, about 22 years old, wearing only a bra and panties, answered. The White Rabbit opened her briefcase.

-“Ma’am? I’ve got a message from Battalion HQ for a Sergeant Alice Chen. She needs to sign for it.”

------“Come in, Private. She’s… UUGGHH!”

As soon as they were inside Sayaka chopped the redhead across the throat with the side of her left hand, crushing the windpipe. Before the dying woman had even hit the floor the assassin had pulled her silenced pistol from the briefcase and put a bullet between the breasts of the panty-clad blonde sitting on the couch. Those breasts bounced enticingly as the victim flopped backwards and then keeled over to her side.

--------“Maggie? What was that noise?”

Alice Chen wore only a slip as she walked into the living room from the bedroom, only to catch a bullet between her own breasts. She gave out a frightened gurgle as she slumped to the floor but Sayaka was already racing towards the bathroom where she heard the sound of the shower running. That sound was undoubtedly the reason the fourth inhabitant wasn’t yet aware of the fate of her three roommates. The assassin peeked around the corner of the bathroom door at the showering woman – another blonde, short but with a very voluptuous figure. A cruel, sinister smile crossed the White Rabbit’s face as she silently placed her pistol on the floor and stepped into the shower still fully clothed. The synthex material easily repelled the water as she grabbed the astonished blonde sergeant and kissed her.

------“Mmmm… Alice, what are you doing?”

Sayaka entwined her left hand in the blonde hair at the back of the doomed woman’s head as she brought her right hand to the woman’s chin. In the last second of her life, the sergeant realized the woman in the shower with her wasn’t Alice – realized too what was about to happen. The confusion and arousal in her expression gave way to confusion and panic. A violent twist, a sharp, audible “crack”, and the soap-slick nude blonde slid down against Sayaka’s body and lay still on the wet floor.

The assassin stepped out of the shower and stripped off the synthex uniform she had taken from the gate sentry. The material was already nearly dry. She walked into the bedroom, found Alice Chen’s locker, and donned one of the sergeant’s uniforms. She took the electronic gadget with which she had previously “borrowed” Captain Scanlon’s thumbprint and pressed it against Chen’s right thumb. Sayaka ignored the brief feeling of pain as she burned the thumbprint into her own right thumb. Then she set the demolition charge. With one last amused glance at the three dead soldiers sprawled on the entryway floor, she closed the door, automatically activating the demolition trigger, and headed for Brigade Headquarters.

-“Staff Sergeant Alice Chen, 417th Vehicle Maintenance Detachment. I have a message for Colonel Davis.”

A bored voice answered.

---“You know the drill. Step in front of the camera and thumb on the scanner.”

The scanner “proved” her identity and the wide angle camera showed that no one else was standing at the door, nor forcing her to touch the scanner. But the resolution wasn’t high enough to produce a truly high fidelity image of her face. Her thumb print would call up an image of Sergeant Chen for the owner of the bored voice, who would see a pretty young half Asian/ half Caucasian woman standing in front of the camera. Sayaka heard the “click” as the electronically controlled lock disengaged.

There were several desks in the antechamber of the headquarters but only two were occupied. At this late hour the headquarters would be minimally staffed unless something was going on. The owner of the bored voice was an experienced looking Sergeant First Class in her mid-thirties, brunette with just a hint of grey. An equally bored-looking but much younger1st Lieutenant was sitting at a desk against the back wall, engrossed in paperwork.

---“Evening, Chen. Sign in, plea… ggghhh!”

Sayaka’s knife sliced through the sergeant’s throat. The lieutenant looked up in alarm but before she could speak Sayaka had thrown the knife with such force that it embedded itself into the young officer’s forehead. Her victim stared in shock and horror for a moment, then collapsed face first onto her desk. Sayaka’s pistol was already in her hand. She debated whether to race up the stairs immediately to the colonel’s office, but she didn’t know how many people were up there. And there was no indication anyone upstairs had heard. She checked the entry/exit log and saw that only two other women were in the building, the colonel and a certain Major Patricia Jenkins. A stealthy approach to the colonel’s office seemed called for.

The assassin smiled as she silently climbed the stairs. Her nose told her that the two women in the room above had recently engaged in sex. But then … something started to bother her. She couldn’t put her finger on what – but her sixth sense told her something was amiss. But she still wasn’t prepared for the sight when she opened the door.

An attractive honey blonde woman, obviously Major Jenkins, was lying on the carpet. She was nude except for her stockings. One was in its normal position on her left leg. But the other had been tied very tightly around the woman’s throat. Colonel Davis sat on a chair – not behind her desk – so that Sayaka could see her hands. The colonel had re-dressed, though her hair was still damp with sweat. She wore a pistol holstered at her side but made no move for it. Sayaka wasn’t overly concerned about that. Her reflexes were faster than any human’s and her suppressed .40 caliber pistol was already in her hand. The colonel’s bearing, expression, and body language told Sayaka that she knew exactly why the assassin was there but had chosen to meet her anyway. The White Rabbit had no idea what the colonel was up to, though looking at Major Jenkin’s nude corpse staring sightlessly at the ceiling, she had to admit Colonel Davis had a sense of style.

--“Welcome to my office... SP-G602?”

Sayaka recovered quickly from her surprise. She had killed the members of the Special Projects – Generation 6 team but there had, of course, been others who had known of the project. Colonel Davis had obviously been one of them. The assassin sized up her target as she considered her next move. Everything about the colonel; her exquisitely toned body – obvious even through the synthex, her casual awareness of everything going on around her, her deceptively slack posture in the chair – apparently relaxed but in fact perfectly balanced to explode into violent movement; told Sayaka that this woman was a hardened combat veteran, probably with some Special Operations or similarly elite unit.

And… the synthex itself… Sayaka realized it was a camsuit, like the suit in Sayaka’s briefcase. Ordinary synthex, like the late Staff Sergeant Chen’s which Sayaka was now wearing, wasn’t armor, but it was very durable and stood up to considerable wear and tear. It was waterproof, extremely easy to clean, and kept the wearer comfortable over a surprisingly wide temperature range. And it was not terribly expensive considering how long a suit would last even through rough usage. As such, the skintight fabric was widely used for military uniforms as well as some commercial applications. But a camsuit… those were many times more expensive and generally only issued to elite troops. The synthex in a camsuit was permeated with micro-wires and would change color depending on the voltage and modulation of the current from a small power pack worn on the belt. A camsuit would typically have 20 or so pre-programmed camouflage patterns that could be selected via the belt pack’s controls. An old fashioned ghillie suit would provide somewhat better camouflage in the environment for which it had been custom-designed. But a camsuit wearer could switch from forest to jungle to arctic to desert to urban to… all with the push of a button and twist of a rheostat. The fact that she possessed a camsuit further confirmed that, whatever her current assignment, this colonel came from a special ops background.

This colonel was a formidable and dangerous woman. And yet – if she knew who Sayaka was, she surely wouldn’t expect that she could beat the genetically enhanced assassin in combat – not in a fair fight, anyway. Had the colonel set this up to put the assassin off guard and take her by surprise? Maybe – but that didn’t really make sense either. If she had known that Sayaka was going to be here tonight, why did she not have numerous guards around? Sayaka’s more-than-human hearing confirmed they were alone. Well, standing there pondering wouldn’t provide any answers.

-“This is a surprise, Colonel Davis. If you know who I am, why are you here?”

--“To explain to you why YOU are here.”

Colonel Davis knew she was playing a very dangerous game. But she could think of no other way.

-“I’m here to kill you.”

--“No, that’s only incidental to the real reason. You’re here to find out about “Bright Angel”.

-“… Point for you, colonel. But one way or another, I’ll get that information from you, and then kill you. Sorry, but I don’t leave witnesses – ever.”

--“You never have yet. But you don’t yet know what “Bright Angel” means.’



-“All right, I’ll play your game for a while. But don’t waste time. You don’t have too much left.”

--“Am I correct that you were hired to steal the “Bright Angel” file, that destroying the computer center was merely done to cover your tracks, that you killed seven soldiers but not 2nd Lieutenant Sinclair, who was murdered on the same day, but in a way that didn’t fit in with the “pattern” of the other seven, and that – something – has been bothering you ever since?”

-“Correct on all counts. I take it you didn’t kill that lieutenant either?”

Sayaka glanced meaningfully at Major Jenkin’s nude corpse, gradually cooling in the night air.

--“I didn’t – and I never thought you did either. But I do think her murder was related to your previous infiltration. I’ll get to that in a moment. Since I don’t have much time – you probably overheard someone use the term “Bright Angel” at Special Projects Compound 6. Probably shortly before, or maybe after, the death of SP-G601.”

-“Hannah. Her name was Hannah.”

The quiet monotone in Sayaka’s voice was more frightening than any overt threat. Colonel Davis knew she was on the razor edge of death. All she could do was continue on the course she had set herself.

--“…the death of Hannah. “Bright Angel” was the code word indicating a failure of the “containment protocols” that had been programmed into you and Hannah – protocols that were supposed to keep you… obedient. The women who created you naturally didn’t want you revolting against them so they instituted a number of inhibitors to your behavior that would prevent you from acting independently of their control. Those inhibitors… didn’t work. After you killed Team 6, I was brought in as an outsider and given access to the Generation 6 files – most of them, anyway – to produce an independent after-action analysis of what had gone wrong and why the containment protocols had failed. The “Bright Angel” file that you stole was my final report.”



-“Who would want that report?”

--“Best guess? Someone wants to restart the Generation 6 project and hopes my report will give them clues to develop – protocols – which will reliably control the behavior of their “super soldiers”. There’s also a possible longer term goal. Since all women are now, in a sense, genetically engineered – ever since the XY Plague that wiped out half the human race – the half that had XY chromosome sets – they may want to eventually make the entire human race… docile… obedient.”

-“And you stayed, even knowing I would return, because you want to use me to stop this? I would have thought a military woman like you would welcome the idea of perfectly obedient “super soldiers”, as you put it.”

--“An army can be the tool that protects a nation, or that enslaves it. To which end do you believe the women behind this project would put it?”

Damn! This colonel was a true believer. Sayaka was very used to dealing with women who professed loyalty to some higher morality, as a way to manipulate others. She was beginning to think the colonel really believed this stuff.

-“Hmmm… I kind of admire you Colonel Davis. And I don’t say that to very many people. It’s too bad you haven’t said anything that would convince me to spare your life.”

--“The women trying to restart the Generation 6 project know your capabilities and weaknesses. Even you won’t be able to defeat them without my help.”

-“Even if that’s true, why should I get involved at all?”

--“Two reasons. Some of the “foundations” for this control are already part of your genetically programmed psyche. There’s… a chance, I don’t know how much of one… that they could figure out a way to re-activate those foundations – using different stimuli than the ones that failed back in the Generation 6 compound. They might figure out a way to obtain the control over you they always wanted.

-“…Interesting, but I think I’ll take my chances. I’m afraid your time is up.”

--“There’s still the second reason.”

-“Make it quick.”

Sayaka raised her pistol.

--“You would be letting the women who murdered Hannah – get away with it.”

Sayaka looked stunned. Though Davis’s days of actively infiltrating with a Special Forces Team or Ranger Scout Platoon were behind her, she had kept up with her pistol training. If she had gone for her gun at that instant she might – might – have been able to get a shot off. But the colonel had already decided to let her original plan play out. And then the moment was past. Sayaka’s expression turned grim. Then, slowly, and very softly…

-“What did you say?”

--“ Dr. Fontaine – she’s part of the Oversight Group, a behavioral psychologist with Pricom who likes to experiment with “mind control” – hypothesized that the “Bright Angel” behavioral controls weren’t working because of the emotional bond between you and Hannah. It shouldn’t have been possible for either of you to feel empathy or sympathy. Your brains were “wired” to prevent that. But you clearly did have feelings for each other. Dr. Fontaine believed that killing off one of you might shock the other into “re-booting” the control mechanisms and allow the survivor to be brought under control. That didn’t work, obviously. But Dr. Fontaine is still carrying on her experiments, determined to find a way…”

Sayaka was uncharacteristically at a loss. She had always believed the Special Projects Team 6 had accidently killed Hannah through their carelessness, packing Hannah’s parachute improperly for the High Altitude – Low Opening jump. She recalled the sense of exhilaration – of freedom – as she and Hannah had plunged through the night sky. Parachute training was one of the very few times the two of them weren’t under constant surveillance. Suddenly the fierce joy of the HALO freefall had given way to horror as Sayaka’s chute had opened at the prescribed altitude and Hannah’s had not. Neither girl had had a back-up chute. The opening altitude was so low and the speed so great that if the primary didn’t open properly, a secondary could never have slowed them enough… She recalled the strange sad smile on Hannah’s face as she looked back up at Sayaka, rapidly decelerating in her chute; as if Hannah were finally free… She recalled tearing off her own chute after touching down, racing to where Hannah had landed, hoping against hope that with her genetically enhanced physique…

They had packed Hannah’s suit incorrectly and so Sayaka had killed them. She had seduced Dr. Cabot and gotten the scientist to fall in love with her, then used that to neutralize some of the more mundane, mechanical controls and electronic surveillance that constantly monitored her. Eleven days later she was ready. She slaughtered the entire Team 6 except for Dr. Cabot herself. Two days after that, satisfied that she had successfully escaped, she had killed the… good doctor… as well. But if… if… what Colonel Davis said was true, the parachute failure during the HALO jump hadn’t been a mistake, but deliberate. All she had ultimately accomplished was to kill the worker bees who had carried out the orders. The women who gave those orders were still alive.

--“So, how much time do I have left?”

She’ll either kill me within the next few seconds, or let me live, thought the colonel. Damned if I know which.

The White Rabbit lowered her pistol.

-“You’ve got an extension.”
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