Chapter 6

A few days later, we were flown to Miramar airfield in California, then driven to the Naval Hospital at Camp Pendleton. We were in a secure ward where I was started on hormones while Kat was given a series of minor procedures to change her facial features to be close to how I was expected to turn out. She was not happy undergoing the changes, except for the operation that augmented her breasts. She was stoic, though, taking one for the team.

After about a month, I was deemed ready to be worked on, with the main procedure first. I think that it was set like that so I would accept that all the others that came after were needed to complete the look. Kat, or should I say Cate, as she would be known as, was taken to a house besides the Camp Pendleton Harbour, where we would both recuperate and then run through a revisionary course with the divers. It would be, for me, the way for me to learn about the changes that my new body was going to make with my buoyancy.

By the time I joined her in the house, she was starting to show, and had completed her course. For me, walking out of the hospital to a waiting car in a dress was life changing. Just the swirl of the fabric on my legs, and the wind catching my now long hair, was proof that I was on a different path to what I had expected. I had undergone several operations, as well as many hours of training with experts. I could look after my body, hair, nails, and apply make-up before I was allowed to leave.

The procedures had thinned my face, given me full lips and a smaller nose. I was now the same breast size as Cate. When she was taking me through the hospital doors, I caught a glimpse of the two of us and we did look like sisters. We sounded similar, with my vocal cords reworked to be like hers. At the house, she had amassed a wardrobe full of clothes for me to get used to, with time to be spent learning to walk in heels alongside the time I would be spending in the base diving tank.

We were now Cate and Nikki Armstrong. Sisters who were originally from Boston, which covered my English speech style. The vocal training would concentrate on making me sound upper-class Boston, which was how we had the money for our project, our parents having died, leaving us a good bit. We both were taken through a course in Spanish.

We stayed in the house until I was thoroughly transformed into a woman in all my speech and actions. Sometimes, I even thought that I had always been a woman. Cate gave birth to our daughter in the Naval Hospital, and, a few weeks later we were ready to relocate to Florida. The building work had finished, and the house had been refurbished. There was a nursery for our Jennifer. We were ready to start equipping the business and advertising for customers.

We flew from California to Boston, staying for a few days to get a feel for the city, and learning to travel with a baby. Then, we flew down to Miami. Ward was there when we arrived and gave us both a hug. He had arranged, as our accountant, to open bank accounts for each of us and the business. We stayed in Miami for a week, getting used to the climate and buying two vehicles. One was a workhorse F 250 for towing a boat, and the other was a Cadillac XT6 with a baby seat fitted. We also bought the boat for the business.

The boat we chose was a Sundancer Shaft Drive 320 with plenty of room and a rear ledge for diving. It wasn’t new, so we had to take what it already had on it, which was pretty much what we would need. It was about as big as we could get and still be towable. The sales agent hinted that it had been used for smuggling cigars from Cuba. That may have just been a smokescreen, but it did have an extra fuel tank which would enable us to go to Cuba and back. The F 250 was fitted with a strong towing hitch and, when we left Miami, Cate was in front with Jenny, while I drove with the 320 behind me. It was a tiring trip, with some detours needed because of damage to the road after the recent hurricane and heavy rain.

In the back of the Ford, we had stored the diving tanks and all the kit needed to run a diving or fishing charter. The house already had a compressor for filling the air bottles. What it didn’t have was a launching ramp but did have a mooring place at the side of the channel. When we were ready to put the 320 in the water, we needed to go to Key West Marina to launch it and then fill up the fuel tanks. Cate drove the Ford and trailer back to our property, while I took the boat out into the open sea and north to the entrance to our waterways.

The actual business was located in a shed beside the house, where we would store all the equipment and have a small rest area for customers. There was plenty of parking for a few cars, but we expected that there would only be two or three extra passengers on the boat when we went out. It certainly wasn’t a big diving school but blended in with the surrounding properties and the general population of retirees with money and a boat.

We settled into the house and made ourselves visible in the neighbourhood. We would shop in Key Plaza and left our new business cards around, especially making ourselves known to the local tourist office. We found that a couple of women with a child weren’t all that uncommon, and I learned to talk to the men we met with confidence. We would make a point of stopping at El Siboney for a meal.

Gradually, we started getting bookings. We would take customers out into the open water after going through training sessions in the channel by the house. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. After about six months, with Jenny now walking, we watched a TV documentary about the coup in Russia, with the details of how Yuri planned to kill the President. It was strange to be sitting in our lounge, sipping an evening wine, and seeing us both on the screen, along with all the others in the plot.

Somehow, they had film of us in Monaco, without showing me in detail, just saying that I was a crewmember. There was no connection with the death of Michael Brown, although there was a comment about Gregor and his buddies causing the death of a ferry passenger. Yuri was, as I suspected, ex-KGB (or FSB as it was now known) and a previous friend of the President. The ending stated that everybody was killed when the ship was hit by multiple missiles.

The official story was that the Admiral reacted to the events. It didn’t say that he had been part of the group backing Yuri. We knew that he had killed Yuri and sunk the ship to eliminate all of the crew, always meaning to use the cruise missile strikes for his own advancement. The thing with Russia is that under every cloak there’s a sharp dagger if you’re not careful.

The Admiral was a pragmatist in the Gorbachev mould, so was willing to pull the world back from the brink. He did a deal with Ukraine to pull his troops out if Ukraine pulled back behind the border again. Crimea was still a sticking point, though. He did do the very Russian thing of purging the administration and military of followers of his predecessor. I expect that the old dungeons had a new layer of sand to soak up the blood,

We were ticking over nicely with some scuba training but hadn’t had any fishing trips booked. I knew about fishing from my younger days and could fillet a fish. I had been out with Cate and Jenny a few times but hadn’t had much luck.

I was in the Key West hardware store one day, getting some wood and fasteners. I was the handywoman in the house and was thinking about building a tall cover for the boat behind the house, in the lee of the prevailing winds. We had already installed concrete and eyebolt tiedown points for the boat on the trailer should there be a hurricane. The Ford was outside, with ‘Armstrong Dive and Fish’ now sign written on it. I had been in the store often enough to be called Miss Nikki by the owner.

While I was selecting woodscrews, a couple of guys came in and greeted the owner.

“Al, Herb, how are you guys these days?”

“Can’t complain, Jerry. The truck outside, is the guy here?”

“That’s Miss Nikky, over by the screws.”

They came over to me and introduced themselves.

“Ma-am, I’m Al Cook, and this is my brother Herb. We believe that you have a Sundancer 320 for charter?”

“Hello. We do. We got it second-hand in Miami. I believe that it had been used for smuggling.”

“Exactly right, Ma-am. We used to crew on those runs over to the island. We were lucky that we didn’t go with the owner when he tried selling cigars to a government agent. How are you going with the business?”

“We have done some dive training for tourists. Both me and my sister are accredited for that. We have been out fishing on our own, but without a lot of luck.”

“Are you interested in a trade? You teach us to dive, and we’ll show you all the best fishing places.”

“That sounds doable. How about you come over tomorrow and we’ll take you through the basics. That’s mainly having you use the kit on dry land. A lot of people draw the line when they realise that they have only the tanks for breathing. We do have the latest full-face masks with radio, so you’ll be able to talk. If you can last thirty minutes, we’ll go to the channel and see how you go. Another day, we’ll take you out and we’ll dive a wreck nearby, then you can show us where to fish.”

I gave them our card and we agreed on a time. I would have to fill three sets of tanks in the morning. On the drive home, I thought about this encounter. I wondered if the brothers had further plans, perhaps of restarting the cigar trips. They would have the connections at both ends. I wondered if they had gone all the way to Cuba, or just met another boat halfway.

The next day, I filled the tanks and checked the equipment, then changed into a bikini so that I was ready to dive. They arrived on time, and the looks that they gave me was evidence that my pain and suffering had been worth it. When Cate came out to meet them, they were almost drooling.

We did the initial explanations of what the equipment did, the safety instructions, the need to monitor the gauges and the method with changing tanks on a longer dive. Then, we got them both into the harness and tanks. I put a full set on to show them what to do. We didn’t mollycoddle the trainees, as they needed to be able to fend for themselves. When they were kitted out, the three of us started the air and put the face masks on.

While we sat in the shed, we talked. They told me about their life as normal guys who liked to fish, and the odd jobs they had done with tourist charters. The smuggling had been the most constant work they had done until it stopped suddenly. While we were sitting there, Cate was in the house with the standard waiver forms that they had filled out. She was in email contact with Ward, checking the brothers out and letting him know of their links to Cuba.

At the end of the half hour, we took off the masks and I looked at them. Al was sweating a bit. He saw me notice and told me that he did have some worries with enclosed spaces. Herb was all right. We all had a drink and replaced the single bottles with another, adding swim fins. Cate had been down to open up the boat and lock the rear ladder in place.

Their first dive under water was a success. I joined them in the channel, and we swum under the other boats moored there. I kept it to just the fifteen minutes up, then fifteen minutes back. They were all smiles as we took the kit off in the boat. I have to say that they looked like the fit fishermen that Cate had spoken about, and I was not feeling my normal self.

We carried the kit back to the shed and they got dressed. They looked at the fishing tackle we had, told me that they would bring the bait, and agreed on an early start in the morning. When they left, Cate was standing beside me, holding Jennifer’s hand.

“Couple of nice lads. Ward gave them all clear. Just some high jinks when they were younger. I was listening to the radio while you were talking, and there’s no record of them being involved with the smuggling.”

“They knew the boat. Told me it was called ‘Panatela’ in its past life. Not a name you would expect with smuggling cigars, is it?”

“No wonder the authorities set up the sting. What else did they show you?”

“A secret compartment that was missed. It’s in the diving deck. Big enough for an assault rifle and a couple of nine mils. We’ll need to collect them after dark and make sure they’re fit to use.”

“They were happy to leave them with you?”

“They said that they had their own in their truck.”

“What did you think of them, as guys?”

“They are nice lads, obviously hard working when they can get the jobs.”

“Come on, you were interested, weren’t you?”

“I was. All this time on hormones and now having a woman’s body must be making changes I never expected.”

“I wondered. When we use the double dildo, you have stronger orgasms than I do. I don’t mind if we get friendly with those two. Who knows, we may be able to kill two birds with the one stone.”

I thought about that as I purged the tanks and cleaned the kit. Had Cate given me permission to explore my femininity with a man? That evening, we put the fishing rods on board, checked that we had full tanks, and then, when it had gone dark, we took the weapons and the spare ammunition to the house to strip and oil up. After making sure they were all good and cleaned, we put them back in the hiding place.

We had alarms on for next morning and got Jenny ready for a day out on the boat. She did love being out on the water and loved seeing the seabirds. When the brothers arrived, we loaded up with the swimming gear and the bait. The boys had an ice cooler with drinks, which could be used for any fish we caught. We were all in high spirits as we left the mooring and headed for the open sea.

Cate was our captain and took us to a GPS position where there was a wreck for the boys to enjoy the attraction of scuba diving. I shucked off my jeans and top, to reveal another bikini, then waited for the boys to get down to their own bathing outfits. We kitted up, with them only needing to be reminded of a couple of things. With the tanks on our backs and the masks on, I checked us over and then got them to get into the water and wait for me.

When I was in the water, I told them to follow me and led them down to the wreck. With the tide level, it was only about thirty feet down and was an old sailing schooner. As we explored it, I talked them through the history of it, and showed them the open hatch. I warned them about the dangers of rushing into a confined space and shone my flashlight into the gap to reveal a rather large octopus. When we had enough, we surfaced and got back on board.

The brothers were smiling as we towelled down, saying that they had never realised what a great experience it was to dive. Al said that once he had got used to looking out of the mask, he wasn’t worried about enclosed spaces, seeing that there was a wide world down there. We cracked some beers, and they guided us further out to an area we hadn’t been to. When I looked at the fish finder, I saw that they knew their fishing places.

We drifted and fished, filling the spaces where the beer had been with fish. I impressed them with my filleting skills, saving the best fish and throwing the others back. Jenny was the nominated one to put them back into the water and wave them goodbye as they swam away. In all, it was a very pleasant time. The boys didn’t make a pass, but I could see that they had a hard time holding back.

When we were asked about our earlier days, Cate gave them the basis of our cover story.

“We’re twins, as you can see, and our parents ran a business in Boston. They weren’t happy when we both enlisted in the navy as soon as we left senior school. Being good swimmers and having dived, we were both taken into the diving group, and we both were taken on as SEALs when we passed the basics.”

“You’re both Navy SEALs?”

“Yes. We left the navy after our parents died, leaving us enough money to come down here and start this business. We’re both on the Reserve, so may have to head for Pendleton for upgrading.”

“Now it all makes sense. The way you’re both comfortable in handling the boat is explained. I expect that you could handle us equally as well if we got out of order.”

I laughed, enjoying myself.

“Well. Al, you favour the left arm, so I expect that you had an accident and broke your right. It could have been the same accident where Herb broke his left leg. If I needed to fight you, I would go for the injured limbs first.”

“Wow! That’s right on the money, Nikki. We were playing about on a motorcycle in our early teens and lost control. We both had helmets on but were only wearing tees and shorts. Why would you go for the bad limb first?”

“It’s easy. You both have memories of being in plaster. Hitting the bad limb takes your brain back to that time, and you will tend to lead with the good side, instead of leaving it for a follow-up hit. It effectively ties one limb behind your back. Not that I’m planning to hit either of you. You’re both too nice for that.”

We all laughed and opened the last of the beers as we headed back towards Geiger. Al shook his head.

“Tell me that you stripped and cleaned those guns last night.”

“Correct. If you want to see how well we shoot, we have all those empty beer bottles. If we put them in the water, we can use them for target practice.”

I opened the hideaway and pulled out the weapons, loading each one with a magazine. We slowed down and put the bottles in the water, with a dozen or more bobbing behind us. I gave Al one of the pistols and he fired off the entire magazine without sinking any. I went next to him and sunk six with six shots. My mind went back to when I dropped the crewman as we were escaping, and I stopped at that, giving the pistol to Cate.

I took her place, cuddling Jenny in her earmuffs, while she went to the back and sunk another five. Then, she picked up the rifle and took one shot to get the sighting, and then sunk all of the other bottles as we moved away from them. The boys were looking on with their mouths open. I guess that we had proved our story.

That day, in their eyes, we had gone from a couple of girls to a pair of killing machines. It was time to soften the situation. I stood, with Jenny in my arms, and went to Al, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“It’s training, Al. That’s all it is. You know where to fish and a lot of things that I have never learned. It’s just a matter of what you know. I bet that you learned a lot about Cuba while you were smuggling. Maybe you can teach us about that. Who knows, someone may want us to take them there one day.”

He looked at Herb, who nodded.

“About that. If we talk to our contacts, would you be happy taking us to the halfway point. We grow weed in our place, and they’ll be happy to swap cigars for it. Although they can now export a lot of things, the cigars we get are top of the range, and not on the export list. We have a ready market among the ex-pats.”

“On one condition. You charter us for the trip. That gives us an out if were picked up by the Coast Guard with a heap of Mary Jane on board.”

“Done! Shake on it?”

We shook hands and Al held mine a lot longer than needed. I saw that Herb held Cate’s a bit longer as well. He then held on to Jenny while Cate controlled the boat, and I cleaned the guns and reloaded the magazines before returning them to the storage. At the mooring, we unloaded everything, and the boys carried the scuba gear back to the shed for me to clean and store. We cooked the fish on spits over coals and had them for dinner with some potatoes and salad.

When they left, we had agreed to go out with them for dinner the next evening. After we had tidied up, Cate insisted that it wouldn’t be right for us to sleep together, and banished me to the second bedroom, the one we had prepared in case someone stayed overnight. I took the single dildo to bed with me and had two orgasms with it, imagining that it was attached to Al. Five minutes later, I heard Cate having an orgasm of her own. She always was loud.

Next morning, by unanimous consent, I moved my clothes into the second bedroom. Our time, together, had been wonderful, and Jenny was still my daughter. We had both realised that, in order to maintain our cover, we needed to be our own women, and a man each would boost that story tenfold. We had a call come in with someone wanting to charter us for a fishing trip in the morning. That was now easy to say yes to.

That afternoon, we both showered and went to our rooms to dress. We had clothes that hadn’t yet seen light of day, and I took a while to choose something that showed off my assets without declaring that I was easy. With the early morning start, there was no way we would be staying overnight, even if they did offer.

When the boys arrived, they were dressed in Keys casual, with short-sleeved shirts and long trousers. For contrast, the two of us looked like a million dollars, in dresses and heels with elaborate make-up. I think, by the tightness of their trousers, that they were suitably impressed. Jenny was in a pink party dress, and the place that we were going to catered for tourists with children.

It was a nice meal, with wine, and Jenny was at another table with other children, jabbering away in baby talk. We told the boys about our charter in the morning, so we didn’t linger over coffee. They lived with their mother, who welcomed us in and took Jenny off our hands while we were taken to separate rooms, where I had my first orgasm with a man’s weight holding me down and his penis in my body. I had pretended that I was broody and had asked him to wear a condom.

When I had redressed, Al took me home, along with Jenny, leaving Cate in the throes, if the sounds coming from the other room was anything to go by.

Marianne Gregory © 2024