The Masque of NeverMore chapter 2

Mel and her helpers were parsing through the information flooding in from drones, both aerial and submarine when she began to notice slight anomalies. There was some time to refine her picture so she sent in a swarm of microdrones. For a time everything looked exactly as she’d expected, no one on deck but life-signs belowdecks, some which moved in the right way to be guards and others which didn’t move in the right way to be restrained prisoners. Heat signatures were all correct, even the signatures which should have been guards sleeping.

For a moment that stuck in her mind. They all registered the temperature range you’d expect from someone who was awake and active, even the ones who should have been somewhat lower in temperature as they slept. That merited further investigation and another of her tools came into play, a tiny fly-bot that located what should be an open ventilation shaft and attempted to fly down it only to be stopped by a crudely welded metal plate which completely sealed the shaft. Others of its kin were dispatched and encountered the same thing, all points which should have allowed access or airflow had been sealed.

By this time others were watching, clearly aware that something was seriously amiss. Mel sent in a somewhat larger drone this time, one equipped with a small but powerful cutting laser and a pinhole camera. The same drone had exquisitely sensitive detectors designed to detect the presence of substances in the parts per septillion range and they showed only the indications you’d expect from such a hasty welding job after many years of use. After another moment’s thought she gave the ok and the laser activated, cutting through the ¼” steel in a fraction of a second.

Suddenly every feed in the vicinity of the ship went blank. For those who were waiting outside they saw a sudden blinding brightness which seemed to climb into the sky and took a few moments to fade. Due to the normal glare of sunlight on water and habit they all wore shades so no one took any damage from it but several took a few moments to regain anything but afterimages of the explosion. Alarms were blaring and those inside quickly assisted the others to shelter before the armored shutters slammed into place and the all sealed tone sounded.

Almost immediately afterward the entire structure shuddered as though it’d been struck although nothing was damaged.

“Everybody on the floor! We’ll be ok but the next few minutes are gonna be a pretty rocky ride and I don’t want anyone getting injured out of stupidity, ok?” Charlotte watched Mel secure the last of her systems before matching actions to words and pulling the smaller woman to the floor beside her.

“What the fuck was that boss?”

“Geoff if you call me boss again I swear I’m gonna come extract the stick from your ass personally!” Charlotte grinned at the two fingered salute that replied.

“That thing musta rattled your brains dude. That was quite clearly a Big Ass Explosion!” Jorge laughed at his own joke. “Hey, you grow up on Vieques, you learn about explosives…”

“That was a hyperbaric bomb. What we just felt was the overpressure wave but that thing was big enough to move fucktons of water so we’re about to get a… Well not a Tsunami properly speaking but something a bit like one. The barrier islands will help shield most of the coastline but the harbor? Its gonna be bad.” Charlotte grimaced at the thought.

“Not as bad as it could have been, I managed to trigger the emergency overrides on the harbor floodgates!”

“Mel if it wasn’t risking a broken bone I’d hug you right now… you’ve just saved thousands of lives…” Just as Charlotte finished the entire structure heaved up and down, shaking violently for several seconds before settling down.

“Stay down! There’s more on the way!” There was and it wasn’t just more it was worse and lasted until every one of them had begun to think it would never stop before finally subsiding.

It was quite a while before anyone spoke.

“Bit sledgehammer and gnat, innit?”

“Says the sheepshagger who goes rabbit huntin with a BFG!”

“Hey that was a really big rabbit and it was attackin me!”

“It was a wallaby you fuckwit!”

“Well whatever it was the bits we could find were pretty tasty!”

That drew a general round of agreement and the good natured razzing between the team eased down as Charlotte was already ensconced in a chair Yves had righted for her and was trying to think.
Mel was bringing systems back online as quickly as possible and was able to obtain some feeds from around the city showing that they had largely avoided the flooding due to Mel’s quick action and even the most flood prone areas of the peninsula were only a half meter or so underwater, not at all bad by local standards. There wasn’t a great deal of damage evident from the shaking but the city sat on the mud rather than being buried in it like Charlotte’s home so that wasn’t really surprising. Building codes were also fairly strict due to the danger of both hurricanes and the periodic earthquakes in the area.

The part that filled her with dread was the total lack of feeds from the immediate barrier islands that surrounded and screened the estuary. There was no protection there aside from the dune lines and the wave height had been well above that mark. Either the damage had been catastrophic or the infrastructure was the cause and the difference between the two possible scenarios was vast.

“Got 3 drones launched, I’ll have some answers in a minute Charlie.” Mel didn’t emerge from her concentration, just threw the words out there and dived back in.

“Am I that obvious?”

“Only to someone who knows you Cherie. Anyone else would think you were just withdrawing or shocked.” Yves was busy helping the others clean up the small mess created by the massive shock. “We’ve all worked with you before and know that bizarro-world brain of yours is running at full steam even if you don’t realize it yourself.”

Charlotte didn’t respond to his gentle gibe. She didn’t feel like she was thinking at all, she felt like the world was at a remove from her, walled off behind impenetrable glass armor. Rather than turning over options and possibilities it seemed like she wasn’t thinking at all, just existing. Even the feeling of relief when the drones gained enough altitude to give a good view and had travelled far enough outward over the barrier islands to show the light damage was muted, echoes of an emotion someone else had felt long ago.

Feeds were coming back online from around the area meanwhile and the appearance of light damage in the area was bolstered by a flood of information as they did so. In a sense that wasn’t surprising, the combination punch of a major earthquake following by 2 category 5 hurricanes in one year had destroyed a great deal of property although the 3 events combined caused less than 500 deaths. What had been rebuilt was almost absurdly overbuilt, designed to withstand everything the area had experienced with minimal impact.

Charlotte was on her feet and headed for ops before she even realized she was moving, doing a little hop and slide to maneuver around one of her crew and over another. The neutral information absorption state she’d been in had suddenly become aggressively acquisitive and Mel frantically reassigned resources to keep her own work moving as Charlotte commandeered increasing amounts of sheer computing power. It wasn’t enough so outward she went and more came online as higher speed data links reestablished. At this point she was using 2 hand inputs and several other means of communication both visual and aural although none of it was obvious to a watcher.

An observer would simply have seen a woman who appeared to be reclined in a rather comfortable armchair/couch affair, face almost expressionless except for what appeared to be random muscular twitches, fingers seeming to tap equally randomly on the arms of the chair. Sounds that weren’t words or any recognizable form of speech flowed from her mouth.

For her it was complete immersion, feedback by displays projected on her retinae, focused sound on each ear and tactile feedback. Much of the technology she was using had been invented to support the life and continued work of one of the great 20th century mathematicians who had suffered from an untreatable form of progressive paralysis. He’d survived for an amazingly long time given his disability and had sadly died just a few years before the neural regeneration treatments that would have given him back his physical mobility.

Finally she disengaged and looked around her, noting Geoff snoring lightly in another chair.

“Some overwatch you are! Wake up boyo!” She rose and kicked at his foot.

The snoring continued somehow even as he cracked an eye open and mumbled “Yarp…”

Charlotte laughed at his antics and made her way out to the main living area with a quick bathroom stop, following the scents of food. She gave a quick kiss and fondle to Yves who stood at the stove and accepted the drink he offered before sitting at the table with Geoff and Tina.

“Mel’s busy bringing some stuff she had in the pipeline forward. We’re gonna need that new armor if nothing else.” Tina took a sip of her beer and studied the label.

“The whole damn thing was a decoy, bait, whatever you want to call it. I found the kids up in North Carolina, ass end of nowhere. We have let them think they got us. Someone knew how and where to find those kids and has enough money and ingenuity to set up a trap they had to figure would kill a shitload of people. Would have done too, if Mel hadn’t hit the emergency trips for the harbor gates.”

“Who the hell could have leaked? You’re just a little obsessive about security…”

“I don’t think it was a deliberate leak Geoff. I think its more likely something minor we missed that caught someone else’s attention and a little digging did the rest. We did do our best to hide in plain sight, even had the kids going to Stella Maris so they’d blend in and have some kind of normal life.”

“Surely you don’t think yon papists…?”

“No I don’t think!” Charlotte snapped and then paused. “I’m sorry Geoff. I know how you feel about that sort of thing but I’ve known these people for as long as I can remember. I used to play with Bertie… Father Condon when we were kids and it was his parents and some of the other local families that helped hide me and others. Everyone who knew anything is someone I’d literally trust with my own life… again.”

“Its easy to forget sometimes, how hard it was for you lot back then. Makes me glad we came back to our senses and never left the EU.” Geoff took a sip of his own beer and lapsed into silence again.

“It wasn’t bad for me, mostly. A little scary sometimes but I knew my parents loved me and would do everything to protect me. A lot of people in town didn’t agree with the government and helped… There were some people from here sent to the camps but it was mostly parents forcing their children. Upstate and lots of other places… lots of violence and killings… people went to the camps because they thought they stood a better chance of surviving that than the mobs. In the end we managed to avoid a full on second civil war but it was a close-run thing.”

Charlotte took a deep sip of her own and let a breath out slowly. “I was lucky. We were lucky. I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if they’d managed to pull a Cheney and keep the bastard alive when his heart gave out.”

“A what?” Yves seemed genuinely interested in the answer, pausing for a moment in his cooking.

“Cheney. He was vice president back at the turn of the century, one of the guys really in bed with the merc outfits of the day… DarkOil or something like that. Maybe I’m mixing them up with the oil companies… They were pretty much all wound up in that whole conspiracy that finished up with the idiot. Anyway, the guy’s heart was about to give out so they put him on an external heart pump for like 6 months or something till they managed to rob a donor heart from some other deserving person who might’ve actually had a heart to start with. The whole thing was pretty barbaric by today’s standards.”

“Wait, they really did that? Take a heart out of a corpse and put it into someone else? That’s just freaky…” Geoff shuddered.

“Well they couldn’t grow a new one back then and mechanical replacement wasn’t a long term option either because the synthetics hadn’t been invented so yeah… it was pretty much the only way and its not like the corpse cared. Caused all sorts of immune problems but they used drugs to suppress the immune response to a degree and it was a workable expedient.”

“I agree with Geoff. Its like zombie stuff or something.” Jorge almost crossed himself then grinned at them and did it anyway.

“Oh it turned out to be a really massive problem in the end. Way too much demand for the supply. People would sell a kidney for the money but of course there was demand for way more than that and it turned into a fairly lucrative business for anyone willing to become a very careful serial killer. Thats actually what pushed the development of the synthetics and as soon as those came on the market the black market for organs disappeared. After all, who wants a zombie organ when you can have a nice safe synthetic that’ll outlast the rest of you and not force you to destroy your immune system?”

“You make me glad I’m not serving fois gras Cherie. That conversation would certainly have ruined my appetite.” Yves’ comment drew a round of general agreement.

“On that subject, what’s for dinner?” Mel came in from the docking bay.

“Air pudding and wind soup at the moment. It’ll be ready in half an hour.” Yves grinned at her and handed her a beer as she joined the table.

“I’ve got the production runs underway now, we’ll have the new equipment ready by tomorrow midday even with the engines you insisted on for the new Bats. Its still gonna be noisy as hell if you have to do a stand up takeoff even with active noise cancellation, just too much ambient stuff to get it all. You’re giving up most of your medium weapons capacity to compensate especially with the safety factors you insisted on.” Mel shook her head. “I’m not even gonna ask why, I’m sure you’ll tell us in your own good time but you do come up with the strangest requirements…”

“Oh I’m happy to share with this one. We’re about go play up in the mountains and I don’t particularly fancy jumping off a cliff to get airborne with a scared kid strapped to me... again. I’d go in there with a knife in my bare skin if I had to ditch everything else to get that capacity. As is our resident mechanical genius made that unnecessary but we’re still going to need some practice before we go in. From what I can tell the little valley they are in is really well fortified and things will be dicey at best. I tried to think of everything that went FUBAR in Cartagena and overcompensate for it but you know as well as I do there’s always something… so we have our ultimate GOTH plan. Strap on a Bat and a kid and blast straight up.”

“That sounds…” Gordy’s voice cut Tina off.

“Like a lot of fun!”

“I was about to say scary as hell!” Tina thought for a moment. “I’ve gotten used to running around with you lot though. My bar for ‘Scary’ keeps getting higher…”

“So you’re saying the only thing to fear is fear itself?” Gordy opened his own beer and joined the others at the table.

“Eh, more Bene-Jesurit than FDR but whatever…” Tina shrugged at him and grinned widely. “How’s the new comms setup running down there?”

“5 by 5. The surge didn’t propagate very far and I only saw light damage about halfway down John’s Island, none at all at the Edisto house itself. Charlie’s place buttoned itself up, looks just as ramshackle as ever but the lift works and everything looks undamaged. Mel jammed the harbor gates pretty good though… Its gonna take a day or two to get em back open.”

“Their own damned fault for not building it right the first time. “ Mel grinned.

“To be fair, you did catch a ship. Pretty sure that’s a scenario no one on the design team envisioned even brainstorming worst case scenarios.”

“Wow… I’m not sure if I’d rather be accused of incompetence or lack of imagination. I’d love to have seen the expression on that captain’s face though!” Tina mimed clinging to a ships wheel while casting a terrified look backward.

The jokes flew for a few minutes until Yves served up a family-style meal and conversation devolved to requests to pass condiments and dishes and even those subsided into appreciative noises until each one finished, took their dishes in to wash them and retired to the living area. Local news coverage was playing on several screens, predictably harried-sounding anchors plucked from behind a nice safe desk and shoved out into the field to find some debris and stand close to it. 2 had managed to hit the jackpot and find standing water with debris in it while one was interviewing the inevitable kayakers in the streets downtown.

Charlotte sat and watched with them for a few minutes before she was willing to disturb the moment of relaxation. She signaled Mel who reconfigured the displays to form 1 large screen displaying a detailed map of mountains.

“Our primary area of operations for this mission will be Ashe County in the far northwest corner of North Carolina. Primary infil and exfil will be via the Ashe county airport which is less than 30 klicks straight line distance. We have several ground approach routes but only two proximity approaches and a single point of entry to the valley. Needless to say we don’t intend to use the roads…” She waited for the laughter to subside. “Much.”

“We’ll get into the details of our action plan once we’ve had a chance to get a bit more intel from the locals. I just happen to know a few people up there since it was one of the places we hid when I was a child. There’s a great spot to practice with the upgraded Bats and I’ve arranged accommodations and food for us so we can have some time to familiarize ourselves with the area.”

Jorge looked worried. “Isn’t it a little odd that they pick another area you know?”

“Not if you assume its another trap. The only way this makes sense is if this batch is somehow tied in with my own history, if somehow it has to do with the bastards who enslaved me years ago. We’ve hurt them, to judge by their response so far quite badly. They want to make sure we, and me personally, are dead.”

Charlotte paused for a moment, “The feeling is entirely mutual…” she ground out through gritted teeth, her lips a grim slash through a mask of fury.

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“Beautiful country up here.” Yves was gazing through the window toward the rapidly approaching ground. “I wish we were here for pleasure instead of just pretending to be tourists…”

“We’ll come back when this is done. I really love these mountains, there’s something here, something that gives you sense of the world and makes it clear that you live within it no matter how much you try to be apart. I want to show you my magical places…”

“I think he’s seen your ‘magical places’ already love!” Geoff chortled at his own joke.

Charlotte replied with a single finger. “We’ll settle in for the day, I’ll talk to a few people and we’ll game this thing out a little better. I really want to do some close-in recon but given what they threw at us last time… I’ll work from memory and the best imagery we can get. Don’t just pretend to be a tourist… like seriously do touristy stuff, go see the local sights, eat at the local joints. We’re on a corporate junket for team building right?”

“Whatever happened to a plain ol ropes course?”

“Gordy I really don’t want to talk about you and your rope-fetish right now…” Charlotte managed a credible shudder and grinned at the answering guffaws. “Seriously though, there is a really great ropes course, a few cool ziplines, that sort of thing. This whole area is predominantly agricultural or tourism-oriented and the locals prefer it that way. It used to be extremely poor but the laws and the world changed and the only legal cash crop was fading into insignificance. You’ll still see the occasional tobacco field because it is prized as some of the world’s best… But way more maize and artisanal vegetables mixed about evenly with hemp.”

“Wait, you make it sound like it should be even poorer. You’re saying it isn’t?” Yves seemed surprised.

“Well there were two serious money-makers that had been regulated underground and suddenly both of those could not only be engaged in openly but traded internationally. A generation or so back you couldn’t buy any sort of distilled liquor in the whole county and even beer or wine were tightly regulated. As for making your own it was strictly illegal… Which meant there was a pretty fair amount of money in it if you didn’t get caught. Mostly distillers and growers made just enough to scrape by and had to be careful not to look like they had money they shouldn’t have.”

“Which made it a good place to hide…” Yves mused.

“Indeed it did. People might have had their own prejudices but if someone needed to hide from the law they were in good company. People have more money now and the bigotries… well they haven’t vanished entirely but the attitudes about law and government haven’t changed a bit. They want as little to do with either as possible.”

The slight bump of touchdown and the rollout brought conversation to a halt as everyone started readying themselves for egress.

“Come on yawl, we’ve talked about this. Less of the spit and git and more laid back. Tourists, remember?” The atmosphere eased back although a few had difficulty overriding their instincts. In the end as they made their way onto the tarmac they managed to look considerably less predatory although Charlotte thought to herself that might’ve had something to do with the loud floral shirts and cargo shorts they were wearing.

Her own camouflage consisted of similar clothing along with a severe looking black chin length bob(A wig of course) and some strategic makeup, used with the objective of adding years to her face. If you didn’t get too close you’d think she was a middle-aged businesswoman desperately trying to stave off the ravages of age.

They were treated exactly as they appeared to be with a small bus waiting to take them away to their rustic accommodations. The driver and a companion made quick work of loading normal looking cases and bags into the cargo compartments and they set off, turning to run across the runway and then doubling back along its length before the land swept it from view as they turned away up old NC Highway 16. It was only a few minutes before they pulled off onto a smaller road that led past several cabins and back out to another road. They stopped near the end furthest from the large barnlike structures and each tried to look like they were taking their time getting their bags stowed.

Shortly after, they all gathered and walked down to the larger buildings, taking time to admire and snap photos of the old wagons and the little plaques that told the history of this location. They quickly found themselves in a private dining area with a huge spread of classic Appalachian food and stuffed themselves to repletion before slowly straggling back to their cabins. The combination of mountain air and being overstuffed meant that most simply went to sleep, knowing they’d want to be rested up for the next couple of days. Charlotte found it a little harder to drop off but eventually she slept, Yves’ arm draped across her waist.

The next day they were up early and took care to recreate the cover they’d established the day before with the exception of Charlotte. She had yet another layer of disguise beneath and so it was that the tour group left with one middle aged brunette and arrived without one fiery red haired woman with an impressive mass of curls and dressed like any other girl of her apparent late teens. She’d stepped off the bus and directly into the cab of a large flatbed pickup and both vehicles drove off in opposite directions.

“Hiya Griff!” Charlotte was excited to see the large man who fit his name so well but a little worried all the same. The last time they’d seen each other she’d had to confess her secret to him because they had to leave… She’d often wondered over the years what he’d thought of her because she hadn’t the time to wait for him to even reply to her outburst. She began to worry a little as it took so long for him to respond.

“Is that really you Charlie?” what could be seen of his face behind the extravagant beard was impassive except his eyes… Those wide beautiful amber-brown eyes she’d fallen into the first time they’d met her own.

“I could ask the same of you! What the hell man, did you eat a bear or something?”

“We were 13 Charlotte. Looks like both of us grew up pretty much the way we wanted if you ask me. You and that French fella… you pretty serious?”

“I aim to have his babies sometime soon and if I weren’t undercover I’d be wearing a wedding ring so yeah… We’re about as serious as it gets.” Charlotte watched as his eyes snapped to her. “Eyes on the road bub.”

“I thought…” he didn’t quite know how to finish and gripped the wheel a little more tightly.

“I am, just like I told you that night but medicine has moved on and now… now its possible for women like me to have kids just the same as any woman born with a functional reproductive system. Speaking of which, I understand you have a new daughter?”

“Charlotte…” He almost murmured the word.

“Yeah?”

“That’s her name. Lilly insisted… I didn’t want to shove a reminder of you in her face but she set me straight on that. I’m glad she did… I can’t think of a finer woman to name my daughter after. You’re a legend up here, you know?”

“Um… what?” Charlotte was confused. She didn’t think anyone outside a few people knew who she was in this area.

“Charlotte… we’re hillbillies, every bit… but we’re not ignorant. It was big news up here when you killed that guy and the whole story of what happened to you came out. People saw you as a heroine and not a single one of them gave a damn at finding out you were trans. You were a woman who’d escaped from slavery by her own hand and brought justice in the same act… How could people here not love you?”

“Fuck…”

“Fuck indeed. When the mass rescues/hits on slavers started nobody knew who it was and as far as I know nobody connects it with you in any way that people even speak about but there isn’t a soul in this county who isn’t dead sure you’re behind it. Now you’re here playing spy games…” Griff didn’t finish the sentence, knowing she understood what was unsaid.

“Greer Hollow.”

“Please tell me you’re joking?” his grip on the wheel became curiously relaxed yet she could still tell it was firm.

“You just saw part of my team. You can chill, we’re under the radar to anyone except, apparently, to every local in the county…”

“And you’re deliberately walking into another trap?”

“Got a better way to spring one?” she grinned at him and watched his posture shift ever so slightly toward that relaxed effortlessness she knew from experience was death on a hair-trigger.

“Fuck!” The word was explosive in the confined cab.

“Fuck indeed.” She smiled to herself as she watched him pilot the truck, deep in thought…

************************************************************************************************************************

“Lilly!” The tall blonde whirled around from polishing the last bit of gleaming brass on the antique pizza ovens, her long braid flying behind. She stared for a moment, confused by the sight before her.

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“In a different life we practiced kissing boys on each other…” Charlotte murmured and watched realization creep over the other woman’s face.

“And discovered kissing girls didn’t do anything for either of us…” She stared, taking in Charlotte’s disguised appearance. “How the… you look like my niece! Holy shit Charlie!”

Charlotte didn’t try to avoid the tight hug, returning the affectionate gesture wholeheartedly. “Wait, you have a niece? Somebody actually got desperate enough to go with Freddy?”

“Oh you haven’t seen Freddy… My dorky big brother grew out of it. Not upwards unfortunately but you know how it is… short men…”

“And if your niece has hair like this that means…”

“Bonnie Doons!” The two women said together and laughed.

“Got it in one!” Lilly grinned. “She set her cap for him senior year and that was it. Poor boy didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. His oldest daughter is the spitting image of Bonnie at her age… not as well developed up top though, lucky for her. With that wig on you could almost be twins.”

Charlotte shook her head “Its still hard to imagine those two together. A Great Dane and a Chihuahua come to mind…”

“I don’t particularly care to think about that part of it but they both seem happy with things. Did make for one hell of a wedding though!” She laughed ruefully to herself “Set a new family tradition too. The bride wasn’t pregnant, there wasn’t a single shotgun in sight…”

“Wait so you…?”

“I was 2 months pregnant with Billy when we got married. We had it all planned already so it wasn’t like we had to… it just worked out that way. Daddy was ok with it and momma…. Well she couldn’t exactly say much given she very nearly gave birth to me right there in the wedding chapel.”

“I’d love to have been there…” Charlotte almost whispered, a dreamy look in her eye.

“I wish you could have been too… we thought you were… I dunno, dead… missing… nobody really knew and it never came out why y’all left in the middle of the night the way you did till that whole thing happened with you and that horrible man. We always knew your family was hiding something but you know how it is up here…” Gina shrugged and tried to busy her hands.

“I know… I’m sorry if it caused any trouble with you and Griff when it all came out.” Charlotte stared at Lilly’s hands twisting the dishtowel.

“Trouble? My god woman…” She tried to catch Charlotte’s eyes, finally giving up and forcing her chin up to pin her with a flinty grey gaze “Look at me. You hear me right now ‘cause I won’t say it again. I love you like my own sister! That never changed and I always knew Griff had a thing for you. Yeah I was jealous, a little… But we grew up and moved on and when Griff finally told me he knew, that you’d told him and then disappeared… I wasn’t angry at you. Maybe a little bit at him but for not telling me for all those years, no other reason.”

Charlotte must have looked a little unsure because Lilly continued “Nobody cares about you being trans… I don’t think anybody would have cared even back then with a few exceptions and almost all o’ them named McJunkin. That clan got chased out of these parts when it came out what old Preacher Bob was doin to the kids at the Revival meetins.”

“That’s the fucker that found out about me… tried to rape me and then freaked out when he realized I didn’t have what he expected to find in my panties. I never wanted to kill anybody so bad in my whole life… up to that point anyway.” Charlotte was staring at the towel again, now swinging from Lilly’s hand.

“Him and a whole busload of his disciples learned about real power one day. Went off the side of a mountain in an ice storm, caught fire on the way down and landed in the river upside down. The ones that didn’t roast drowned or died of injuries, hypothermia, whatever. Far as anybody knows it was just an accident and it might well have been… but nobody really cares to ask either. Point is… it’s a safe bet his last minutes were pretty awful. I know as revenge goes it aint much…”

“It’ll have to do. I’ve got much nastier fish to fry just now anyway…” Charlotte’s expression hardened. “From what Griff says I’m apparently some sort of celebrity around here.”

Lilly nodded, a gleam in her eye at Charlotte’s expression. “Only for locals. I’d be amazed if anybody as far away as Wilkesboro knew who you are though.”

“Good. Last op we just barely managed to avoid some serious casualties when the locals tried to help and the whole thing went south. I know it aint the same here but… These people are no joke. You saw the news about what happened off Charleston?”

Lilly grinned, a sudden wolfish glee dancing around her lips. “Oh I saw. Then I start hearing stuff about you coming in with what sounds like an ops team and I put two and two together… Did you ever think to ask what Griff did between now and then?”

“I thought to look, you know I did. No service record… nothing that says he’s ever done anything but grow some of the finest North Carolina bud around. You’re telling me its exactly what it looked like then?” Charlotte cocked her head quizzically at Lilly’s laughter.

“If you thought it looked like a cover you’d be right on, yeah. He spent most of a decade in one hotspot or another before he cycled out of the PeaceForcers a couple years ago. Standard deal, full anonymity if desired and a lump sum e-cash payout. Half the guys and almost as many of the girls around here served at least one hitch and I did my bit too. DropShip pilot, not a ground-pounder like Griff but you need to know…”

Charlotte didn’t interrupt, allowing Lilly to gather her thoughts.

“Most of his unit retired back here. If you need backup, intel, whatever… Just ask. There’s enough firepower in this county for a medium-sized war and every last bit of it is yours, if or when.” She exhaled sharply. “Whew… that was harder than I thought. I mean it though Charlie…”

“I know you do Lil… and you know why I can’t bring anyone else into this if I can help it.”

“Yeah, I get it and I know you’re right, it makes sense…”

“Then let it go for now, OK? If things go sideways badly enough for us to need help there’s gonna be fuck all can be done about it quick enough to matter. Now with that said it’d be awful nice if folks tried real hard to look like everything is normal, we’re a tour group…”

“So, your ‘tour group’“ Lilly made quotes with her fingers “Is coming in for some pie?”

“A couple of hours, depends on how long they take at the falls. I wanted to make sure they were really clear about the layout.”

“The falls? What the hell are you planning?”

“Nothing… I hope.” Charlotte tried her best not to answer and knew she’d missed the mark.

“Nothing my ass! You planning to jump off the mountain?” Lilly’s eyes were flashing, her tone indignant. “And do what, commit suicide? What the hell Charlie?”

“Not unless I have to Lil. If things go that badly we’re pretty much fucked but no… not suicide.” Charlotte knew she was going to have to tell her friend something and was deciding just how much information to release.

“So I suppose you can fly too? You’re not Superwoman Charlie.”

“You’re right, I’m not. Bit more like BatGirl if you’re gonna reach for comparison.” Charlotte shrugged. “I like my suits better though.”

“You’re actually not kidding…” The anger was gone as suddenly as it arrived and Lilly shook her head in amazement. “Suddenly I almost feel sorry for those assholes.”

“Don’t.” Charlotte’s voice was flat, as expressionless as her face had become. “They earned what’s coming to them.”

*************************************************************************************************************************************************

“Best pizza ever and I’ve had pie all over the world!” Yves enthused. “Where did you learn to make pizza like that and will you teach me?”

Lilly laughed, a silvery tinkle of infectious mirth. “My three times great grandfather came over from the old country with stone masons that immigrated to work on the major works projects and helped build this part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. He served in the army in World War 2, settled in Brooklyn after the war and opened a restaurant.”

“Ok… that still doesn’t explain how…” Yves mused.

“It’s the water. From what I was told his son grew up visiting here and loved the country but it was the water that convinced him to come here and open a pizzeria. He said it was the only water he knew of that was better than New York City’s.”

“I never thought I’d say it but it is really delicious water, way better than the triple-filtered stuff we use. I’m going to have to see about getting a decent amount of it for my restaurant…”

“As long as you don’t try to make it a commercial thing no problem. We have 3 springs on our property any one of which can give you a few thousand gallons per week without missing it. You’ll have to arrange for some way to transport it though.”

“That won’t be a problem and I’ll keep it quiet. It’ll be a little bit before I can take any sort of significant quantity though. We’ll have to build somewhere to store it first. Get me some ideas about pricing and we’ll get it sorted once this op is done. Sound good?” Yves grinned and Lilly returned his smile.

“Just let me know when.” Her face turned serious. “We’ll want to have ya’ll come for a proper visit when this is all done, yeah? Lord knows Deke built a big enough house so there’s no problem with finding somewhere for you to stay. My house is yours, hear?”

“The same goes for you and your brood. If you’ll let me take some readings I’ll make sure you have clearance to all my places even if I’m not there. I expect the kids will like the Edisto house best because its right on a nice beach.”

The two hugged. “God I missed you Charlie. I never want to feel the way I felt when you left and poor Griff… I was mad at you for a long time cause you’d hurt him and he wouldn’t tell me why… I understand now why it had to be that way but…”

Both women were crying. “I hated having to leave but the way things were back then… There just wasn’t any choice.”

Lilly pulled back to look at Charlotte’s face, wiping the tears from her eyes. I… We didn’t know… we thought you were kidnapped or disappeared… no one knew what to think. What happened? Where did you go?”

“We had to get as far away as we could and we wound up living up in Montana with some First Nations people in the far northwest, almost in Canada. They called people like me ‘Two Spirit’ and I was just as normal as any other child to them. I got to spend most of the rest of my childhood not having to hide myself at all. I was just the little girl that liked to do all the things the girls did and all the things the boys did too.”

“It sounds marvelous.” Lilly sighed.

“Eh. I suppose if you were someone other than me that might be so but you know how I am. I can’t do anything without trying to be the absolute best at it and it caused… friction.”

“The guys didn’t like you beating em at their own games, eh?” Lilly raised an eyebrow.

“Nah actually the guys were fine after they pulled a little prank on me and discovered it didn’t really phase me. The girls were a different matter though. One of them actually destroyed a beautiful beaded doeskin dress I’d spent 6 months making, all the way from curing the hide to finished product. She thought I was making eyes at her boyfriend and she wasn’t half wrong, he was that tall chiseled type…“ Charlotte got a dreamy look in her eye for a moment.

“The funny part about the whole thing was that he was more interested in his boyfriend than her so she would up settling for the boy who’d had his eye on her from the start and I hear all parties concerned are quite happy. Love is a funny thing, aint it?”

“You said it sister. Now what was this “Little Prank” the boys pulled on you?”

“Well it wasn’t so little unless you were fairly skilled in winter survival. A whole batch of us went out snowmobiling, smoking a little herb, having a few drinks. It was pretty cold, I mean its winter in Montana right? So we were all dressed for it and had survival packs on the snowmobiles, that kind of thing. There’s a pit stop, the guy s of course just whip it out and let go but I have to go back into the bushes a bit. Well just as I’m wiping myself off and getting my clothes back together I hear snowmobiles cranking up and by the time I get back out into the clearing there’s no one there.”

“That doesn’t sound like a prank, that sounds like trying to kill you!”

“Eh, if you didn’t know these guys you’d be inclined to think that way but you have to remember learning how to survive with nothing is something they learn from childhood. Besides, I had far more than nothing. Hypothermia wasn’t an immediate issue as I was dressed in good quality artic gear so I could focus on the immediate ways to enhance my situation. My Camelback had 3 liters of good water so that wasn’t an immediate issue. I had my survival kit and knife and they ‘d been kind enough to leave a couple jars of moonshine along with nice amount of good bud.”

“That still sounds… I don’t know, really scary or mean or… I don’t even know what to call something like that.”

“No big deal really. Build a platform off the ground, build a roof and walls for it, layer it as heavily with evergreen boughs as you can. Layer your platform the same way. Be careful not to build it right under a tree as the heat from your fire will melt snow, causing it to fall on your fire and put it out. If you have time build a screen around the other side of the fire so it will reflect the heat back into your shelter. The key is not to try working too fast because you don’t want to sweat. That just chills you down.”

“Wow you know a lot about this!”

“Eh, a bit.” Charlotte grinned. “Anyway so I had that done by the time it got dark and I had gathered some firewood. Unfortunately wet firewood… but they’d left me some lovely firestarter and a little bit of grain alcohol along with the striker from my kit got the fire going. I sat there, whittled a bowl and sat nice and comfy, having a little drink and smoke, chewing on some jerky I’d had along. Set out some snares the next day, caught a couple of rabbits and was enjoying my dinner in comfort when they came back to see how desperate for rescue I was. The looks on their faces when I offered them a bowl of rabbit stew each was a memory I’ll treasure forever...”

That still seems awfully mean…” Lilly insisted.

“I don’t know, maybe it was… but it was something all the boys went through at one time or another. They saw me as a girl who was like a boy I guess. Whatever you want to call it, I earned their respect and admiration that day and to me that would have been worth far more difficult trials. They adopted me as one of their own and they are my brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers…” Charlotte wiped a tear away.

“I’m glad you had that… have that. You didn’t tell me how you sorted thigs with the girls though?

“Well as it turns out she’d been jealous because her beadwork was… well it looked like it’d been done by a kindergartner. She just didn’t have the physical coordination for that kind of fine detail work. This was 2 weeks before the big powwow where many bands gathered to socialize and to share the old stories, to keep their culture a living thing. Anyway, I’d prepared several more fine doeskins so I made myself a new dress but I made one for her too. I went with very muted beadwork on mine and went all out on hers, making it just as splendid as I could.”

“That’s… I don’t know what to say really. Kind? Stupid? So what happened?” Lilly was clearly impatient.

“I waited until I knew her family was asleep and left it where she would find it in the morning. I never said anything about it and neither did she but we became friends afterward so I guess it worked.”

“You know one of these days you and I are going to have to take a few weeks just to catch up.” Lilly laughed. “Although it sounds like you’ve had a far more interesting life than I have.”

“Interesting is overrated. A little boring normalcy sounds really nice just about now.”

“Oh please. You’ve been an adrenaline junky for as long as I’ve known you.”

“Yeah okay, I’ll take that one. It’s a little hard not to be when you spend your whole life being scared…” Charlotte looked down at her hands, twisting them together.

“I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you Charlie…” Lilly reached out to hug her friend again and drew back uncertainly when she saw an instinctive twitch away from contact.

“I’m sorry Lil… its not you. I do the same thing with Yves sometimes too. Its just… I guess some things never really go away, you know?” Charlotte made a visible effort to separate her hands and held her arms out to hug her friend.

Lilly moved hesitantly into her embrace and they simply held each other for a few moments, sharing a moment of trust.

“The surgeons did a good job on my body but mentally… They say it takes time and work. I know they’re right but I don’t think I’ll ever be properly whole, sane… I don’t think its possible. They broke parts of me that can’t be fixed.” Charlotte pulled back to look her friend in the eye. “They made me a monster, Lil, a nightmare.”

“You’re no more a monster than Griff or I… Or your own ancestors for that matter. You’re just human Charlie and we’re all broken some way or other. Some people allow that to rule them but you chose the other path. You chose to take the thing that broke you and exterminate it. Hemmingway said sometimes the broken places are stronger when they heal and if I ever saw an example of that she’s right here in front of me.”

“Lil you’re so full o shit your eyes are turnin brown….” Charlotte giggled. “But thank you, I needed that.”

“All the same Charlie… I worry about you. I’ve been paying attention and you’re messing with some seriously nasty characters here. You’re sure you don’t want help, overwatch at least?” Lilly sounded concerned.

“We’ve got overwatch covered Lil. We’ve gamed it out every possible way we could think of and there’s just no getting around it. There’s a good 50% likelihood we won’t all make it out…” Charlotte’s voice was thick with emotion. “We still have to try Lil. I can’t leave those kids, knowing whats in store for them if I do.”

Lilly drew Charlotte in for another hug as her friend wept piteously, rocking her and making humming noises. After a few moments she got herself together and blew her nose on the tissue Lilly supplied.

“Feel better?” Charlotte just nodded in response as she wiped tears from her face. “Look here girl…” She forced Charlotte’s eyes to meet her own. “You’re the bravest person I’ve ever known and if anyone can get those kids out of there and bring her team back whole you’re her. Your man is enough to make even Griff think twice and then back down. Your team… Well lets just say they remind me of a ghost unit Griff used to tell stories about… His team would get to a target and find all but one of the outfit they were after dead.”

“I can’t really get into my guy’s backgrounds Lil… its pretty highly classified. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of them were involved in some quasi-legal activities.”

“I know better than to ask any more Charlie. I’ve seen how they look at you… How they act around you. There’s no question you’re Alpha of the nastiest wolf pack I ever want to see and I have to assume that look of respect in their eyes was paid for in blood. Just remember girl… even heroes can die, just the same as anyone else. I don’t want to mourn you all over again.” Lilly dashed angry tears away with the back of her hand.

“Lil… remember my favorite story back then?” Charlotte almost whispered.

“Yeah I remember… Kipling I think. ‘Rikki Tiki Tavi’. I always thought that mongoose was so brave and so stupid…” She sniffled. “So what, you’re the fuckin mongoose?”

“Stuck with the same choice. Let others be hurt or risk myself doing something to stop it. As choices go it really sucks but that’s what you get for being a mongoose I guess.” Charlotte shrugged and essayed a laugh that came out as more of a grunt.

“Besides, no mongoose ever had the sort of nastiness we can bring to bear. If we do our jobs right they won’t even have time to react. Yeah, you hear us planning all sorts of horrible sounding scenarios and its because we have to. You did the same thing in flight school, ran through every possible Bad Thing that could happen to your craft and a few more besides. Ideally none of that shit happens but if it does you’ve trained for it, know what to do.”

“And this is supposed to make me worry any less?” Lilly tried a smile of her own and managed something approaching a pained grimace.

“Doesn’t make Yves worry any less so no… I don’t suppose it is. I know every time I go into action might be my last and it doesn’t scare me. I’ve already died Lil… so many times I can’t count. It was one of the things they used to do to torture me. They liked to leave me in a tank of ice water for 15 or 20 minutes before bringing me back because they wanted to make sure I didn’t suffer brain damage. They wanted me aware and able to understand what they were doing to me.”

Charlotte’s friend just stared at her, horror in her eyes.

“Death is an old friend to me Lil. I learned to welcome it, to hope I wouldn’t wake up…” Tears fell down her face, unheeded. “But I always did and the torture continued… So no. I couldn’t stop. Can’t stop. As long as people like that are out there I have no choice. I’m just like that mongoose… Only unlike him I have a pack of full grown mongooses, mongeese, whatever... point is I’m not alone, far from it. Each of my team has their own reason for being here and none of them are inclined to show mercy.”

“I’m still going to worry.” Lilly managed a slightly more credible smile this time.

“I know.” Charlotte drew her friend into a hug and whispered in her ear. “I know…”