She of the Jade Skirt

by

Sleethr & Draflow

Note:I rate this part as "V" for Violent. Much violence happens in this part. If you do not like graphic depictions of violence, skip this chapter. Maybe it isn't actually violent by today's standards, but I still felt I should warn you. Okay, with the extra warning out of the way...this took some time to write. Well, not really, it just took me some time to get back to due to the other story. Sorry. Thanks go out to Beyogi and Draflow's daughter for her assistance. Any tactical errors are my own. Additional thanks again to djkauf for editing and I think it is 13 with this chapter.
 

** Part VII **

After 20 meters, the tunnel expanded into a large pool. Approximately 10 meters above me were two subs silhouetted by the lights above.  We slowly ascended from below and into the darkest corner away from the subs. I didn’t want to pop up right next to someone.  The sub pen area was clear. Not a soul in sight, but I could hear the occasional clang of heavy objects being moved and the muffled cries of men barking orders on the floor above our position.

Melody was still giddy with excitement and the two subs only added fuel to the fire. {“Wow! This is like the super secret villain lair! I guess it’s a good thing he doesn’t have sharks with frickin lasers! Right?”}

I groaned at her reference. {“I can’t believe your parents let you watch that movie...”}

{“That was from a movie? Wow! I thought it was just cool idea. I mean, I would if I was an evil villain.”} Melody giggled.

I found it very hard to maintain my tough guy attitude with her in my head.  She was truly a one in a million girl and I loved her dearly.  I sighed with frustration.

Melody calmed down and got back to the issue at hand. {“Okay, now what?  We sneak in and rescue my dad from the bad guys?”}

{“Sorry, no. We are still gathering intel. Rushing in, weapon’s blazing will only suck for everyone. Besides, we left our weapons in the boat.”} I calmly pointed out.

{“Oh...”} Melody deflated with my reminder.

{“Hey, don’t worry sis. We _will_ get your parents, but we gotta be smart about it.”} I imagined myself lightly tapping her on her head as a reminder to think.

I could tell she wasn’t happy about it, but she understood the reason and trusted me to get the job done, for now. Without leaving the water, we scouted the sub pen.  I didn’t want to leave a trail of wet footprints to betray our presence if someone came down to inspect or work on the subs.  The pens were approximately 15 meters wide by 15 meters long separated by a floating dock in the middle to separate the two subs. A concrete platform on the west end of the pen area opened into a small cargo area and a set of stairs leading up, to the warehouse.

Based upon the large hydraulic pistons on this side and the pictures we took earlier, I figured the entire floor above us would open up to allow workers to lower cargo down to the subs.  The Don spent a lot of time and money on this little operation. That made me wish I had more time and C-4 because I would have loved to drop the entire building into the harbor, but I guess I would have to be satisfied with wrecking his subs. After all, wrecking or even better, sinking his subs would pretty much make this little area worthless to him.  Not that he would be in any position, except hell, to worry about it.

{“Okay, I think we got what we need. Ready to head back?”} I asked Melody.

{“Yepper!”} Melody was back to her normal chipper self.

We made it back to our boat in record time and without the need for a single course correction.  With the Goddess’s help, my underwater navigation was spooky good and I silently thanked her for the assist. Once back in our boat, I began prepping my little surprise presents for the Don’s subs.  I debated splitting the C-4 in half and placing 10 lbs of C-4 in each satchel charge, but I decided to keeps a few pounds in reserve, just in case.  Into two of the backpacks, I placed an eight pound ball of C-4 surrounded by 10 lbs of nails wrapped with copious amounts of duct tape.  You can never have too much duct tape!

With the balls of death complete, I rigged the kitchen timers with a 9 volt battery to give the alarm enough of a boost to trigger the blasting caps.  I placed the jury rigged kitchen timers into a double wrapped ziploc bag with the detonation wire exiting via a small, silicon sealed hole on the bags.  Finally, I secured each timer bag to the C-4 ball with more duct tape, but left the detonator cap out.  Before I set the timer and dropped the backpack into their sub, it would only take a second or two to insert the detonator into the soft, clay-like C-4. I did not want to take the chance of one of these puppies performing an unscheduled detonation.  The bombs were now ready to be armed and I treated them with the utmost respect because Murphy loves fucking with careless explosives experts.

{“I hope you paid attention to all this Melody. If something happens to me, you need to know how to arm these.”}

Melody sighed with exasperation. {“Nothing’s going to happen to ya, but I just stick that stick thing inside the ball and set the timer, right?”}

{“Yep, okay, now to pack...”} I reached for the third backpack.

Into it, I placed the remaining 5 pounds of C-4 along with a few extra detonators and timers sealed in ziploc bags that I pre-rigged with the extra 9 volt batteries. I also added some extra magazines of ammo for both the M4 and USP 9MM. Into the side pockets I added two of the Russian fragmentation grenades and three smoke grenades.

As I finished my prep work, the Don’s speed boat returned to his yacht with four scantily clad and overly excited looking bimbos. I was probably generalizing a bit too much, but any woman who thought it was a good idea to hang out with a known criminal kingpin had to missing a few crayons from their box.

After dropping off the bimbos, the Don’s speed boat departed for the warehouse, again ignoring harbor speed rules as the pilot raced to retrieve his boss. The Don and a couple of his guards returned, leaving the unknown military expert and Melody’s dad behind.  After dropping off the Don, the speed boat departed and returned to the warehouse with the pilot tieing up his craft and entering the warehouse.

{“How about now? Do we rescue my dad now that the asshole is gone?”} Melody asked.

{“Not yet. First, we, meaning just me, neutralize the Don and his goons on the yacht to secure your mom.  With the Don out of the picture, the hostiles holding your dad might just run for the hills and make our job easier.  Well, if I give them the chance to realize their boss is dead...”} I chuckled at that thought. Yes, I could see my previous ‘adorable baby’ thought being completely purged very soon. I loved target rich environments.

{“Geez sis, you’re kinda spooky when you go all badass on me.”} Melody shivered. {“But, I guess they deserve it.”}

{“Yep...”} I checked the time, 2200 hours. I figured it would be best to let the Don and his men get settled in and cozy with the bimbos and the booze.  An hour to an hour and a half should dull their edge enough to make my plans a bit easier to implement. As sloppy and cocky as his goons were at his mansion, I figured the bulk of his security team will be shitfaced and passed out in no time.  It took less than 15 minutes before the Don’s roving security man was nursing a cocktail of some sort while making his rounds. 

At 2250 hours, three cocktails later for their rover and some of the cabin lights began to go dark as the music volume was cranked back a few notches. It looked like the party was winding down and I expected a few of the guards and the Don to be rather distracted with the bimbos. After one final check of my equipment and weapons load-out, we slipped over the side and surprisingly, Melody didn’t say a word, but I could tell she was feeling extremely anxious by the butterflies in my stomach.

Me, I didn’t feel anything except the cool water running through my long hair as we swam 10 meters below the surface. I reveled in the sense of freedom and how easy it felt for my lithe female body to cut through the water. I almost felt like I was a dolphin. I was going to miss this when I passed on, but for now, I simply enjoyed it while it lasted.

Once we reached the yacht’s anchor chain, it was go time and time to bottle up all those feelings. I couldn’t afford to feel anything right now. I had a mission to accomplish and scumbags to kill. Fear or concern for anything else other than the mission only got in the way. 

With that in mind, I removed and secured my diving gear to the anchor chain, 3 meters below the waterline. I had zero problems holding my breath as I equipped the Molle vest over my wetsuit.  From the backpack, I pulled out two of the smoke grenades and clipped them to my vest.  They could come in handy if I needed to flush some rats out from below decks. The M4, I slung over my back so the barrel would point down and allow water to drain from it. The suppressed USP 9mm went into its place on my vest. 

With my weapon’s check complete, we swam under the yacht, still with the last breath I took before removing my diving gear and reached the stern deck without incident. I stayed under the deck until the rover made his pass.  Then, after a 15 count, I climbed aboard without bothering to ask for permission from the officer on deck. I’m sure he would have refused anyway. Hehe. 

I timed my insertion onto the yacht pretty well. I watched as the rover’s back disappeared around the bow of the ship and with my backpack of spares in hand, we climbed the short set of stairs that led up to the stern party deck. Except for some half empty drinks, it was deserted.

Coming from the main lounge area, I heard what sounded like two of the bimbo’s giggling as a male yelled for more to drink. I kept low to the deck as I followed the rover over to the side of the starboard or right side of the yacht.  He was leaning up against the starboard bow rail and lighting a fresh cigarette.  I wasn’t sure if he was going to stay there long enough for me to make my way around the port, or left side of the yacht to come up behind him, but when he took out a pair of binoculars to scan the party happening on the beach, I figured I would have a minute or two before he got bored with the sights.

I doubled back around and crept around the port side to end up behind my target.

{“Okay Melody, now is the time to close your eyes and plug your ears.”} I warned her as I snuck to almost within striking distance using the raised picnic table slash sun bathing deck as cover and concealment.  I felt her internal gasp of surprise and reluctance to follow through with our plan. {“Melody...”}

Melody jerked with surprise. {“I know, I know. Sorry, I just got so caught up with what was going on...sorry. Closing my eyes now, la la la la.”}

K-Bar in hand and tucked, reverse grip under my forearm to minimize the chance of reflection, I calmly stepped forward instead of rushing the man. I discovered a long time ago that rushing someone only alerted them to the danger sooner, while a calm stride threw off their instincts.

My target remained blissfully unaware of my presences until I slammed my knife all the way to the hilt into his back, angled up to puncture his lung and freeze his diaphragm with shock.  A quick twist to find and sever his descending aorta caused his knees to start to buckle. I removed my blade as I guided his dying body down to the deck. I didn’t want him or his weapon fall and clatter against the deck and maybe alert someone below of a problem.

The scumbag was still trying to understand why he was dying as the lights went out inside his eyes and his body relaxed in death.  I moved upwind from his body before the smell of his bowels releasing hit our nose.  I figured Melody wouldn’t be able to ignore that smell. 

{“Okay, one down. Keep your eyes closed...}” I gave Melody an update in an attempt to help calm her nerves. 

Melody whimpered a little with fear. {“Already?! How can you be so calm about this?”}

{“Years of training and practice. Too many years.”} I sighed as I considered all the things I had done. 

{“I’m sorry sis, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”} Melody hugged me.

{“Thanks, but I need to keep moving.”} I reluctantly brought her mental hug to an end.

{“Okay, please be careful.”} Melody retreated deeper into our mind.

I acknowledge her concern with a nod as I made my way back to the stern of the ship. Reaching the main cabin, I cautiously crept forward.  A large sectional couch with a coffee table was on the starboard side of the cabin facing a large, big screen TV on port side of the cabin. Seated, with his back to me was one of the Don’s guards. The top of his head rested against the top of the cushions. He was lightly groaning with pleasure and complimenting someone on how good they were making him feel. The addition of a woman’s muffled moan told me all I needed to know about what was happening on the other side of the couch.

{“What’s going on? What’s that sound?”} Melody asked.

{“Nothing you need to know about right now...keep your ears plugged and sing that silly Starship song, or something, please.”} I prayed to the Goddess that Melody still had her eyes closed because this was not something a young girl needed to see or even know about.  I couldn’t decide which would be worse for her to see. A man being killed or a man getting a blowjob? I  knew she was going to grow up eventually, but I wouldn’t have wanted my daughter to see or even know about either at Melody’s age.

The second girl I heard earlier was nowhere in sight. I decided to wait a few minutes before taking action. I didn’t want to kill the girl if I didn’t have to. My patience was justified when the man groaned and spasmed a final time as the girl gasped with surprise. She giggled and said some things that are best not repeated with young ears present that told me she might wish to clean herself up a little. Melody didn’t ask what she meant, so I hoped she hadn’t heard. Since I was next to this cabin’s toilet, I backed out of the cabin and hid just outside until I heard the girl enter the bathroom. 

As I reentered the cabin, the ‘lucky’ guard was standing with his back to me and attempting to zip his pants back up. I simply climbed over the back of the couch and gently placed my left hand against his shoulder blade. “Sorry I got messy lover...” I whispered into his ear just before I used my right hand to slam my blade into his back.

The second guard went down just as easy as the first, except, as he started to collapse, I guided him back into the couch. I propped him up with an extra cushion and after he died, I closed his sightless eyes and made it to make it look like he passed out.

{“Two down, keep your eyes closed...”} I reminded Melody.

{“I am, I am, geez!}” Melody groused.

I heard the bimbo fiddling with the bathroom door release. With that warning, I vaulted over the rear of the couch and caught her just as she stumbled out of the bathroom. In her drunken state, she barely reacted to my presence before I slammed my knee into her midsection, knocking the air out of her and causing her to bend forward. I followed that up with a quick guillotine choke hold. Her body went limp and I released the hold before I killed her. 

Compared to Melody, the bit-beatrice was heavy, but I managed to get her back into the bathroom and seated on the toilet. “Phew, this lady needs to go on a diet!” I muttered as I quickly ran a strip of duct tape over her mouth and around the back of her head.

{“Whoa! Who is she?”} Apparently, Melody was no longer keeping her eyes closed, but I guess I couldn’t blame her. I’d have a hard time myself and technically, I wasn’t killing the woman.

I sighed. {“Just one of the party girls or hookers that the Don brought over earlier.”}

{“Is she dead?”} Melody asked, timidly.

I was not used to the distraction of having an ever-present civilian overseer in my head, but I refrained from saying, ‘not yet’. {“No, I wouldn’t be using the duct tape if she was.”}

Melody giggled nervously. {“Oh yeah, umm, sorry and sorry I opened my eyes, but I got curious when I heard the duct tape being ripped.”}

{“No problem, but warn me next time. I don’t want you to see something you shouldn’t, okay?”} I asked, gently reminding her of our deal.  Well, of my orders since I never really gave her an option.

{“Ma’am! Yes, ma’am!”} Melody cheered. {“Umm, that’s going to really be hard for her to get out of her hair.”}

{“I could kill her.”} I felt a little guilty about enjoying Melody’s shock with my answer, but she had to expect it from me and there was no way I wanted the girl to rip of her gag and yell bloody murder. 

{“So mean...”} Melody pouted.

With the girl’s gag firmly in place, I duct taped her arms behind her back and pulled her feet as far back as possible on either side of the toilet bowl before I duct taped her feet together behind the rear of the toilet to keep her from going anywhere.  Yes, it would be very awkward and uncomfortable for her when she woke up, but it beat being dead.  I doubted she would appreciate the distinction though.

With bimbo one secure, I cautiously exited the head and made my way through the main cabin, towards the forward access stairs that lead down and into the main living quarters. There were two cabins located, side by side in the bow of the ship. From the port cabin came the unmistakable sounds of a man and a woman having ‘fun’, while from the right cabin, all I heard was snoring.

I decided to take out the sleeper and/or sleepers in the starboard cabin before dealing with the port cabin sex show. From all the grunting and moaning, it sounded like they had a couple of minutes before anything dramatic happened and once it did, they would both probably be a little slow to react when I decided to take action.  In addition to that assessment, the floor plans stated the starboard cabin was configured with a bunk bed system, thus there were probably two targets to eliminate in there and I didn’t want them jumping me from behind if they happened to hear me take out the sex show next door.

Once again, I decided to use the knife as my main method. When used properly, a knife is always more silent than firing a weapon because even a suppressed weapon makes more noise than a simple knife.

{“Eyes closed.”} I reminded Melody and received the sense she was complying.

I slowly opened the hatch to the starboard cabin and entered, closing it silently behind me. I stood next to the door as I waited for me eyes to adjust to the dark room. I also used the adaption time to get a feel for the soundproofing of the cabins.  With the hatch closed, I could barely hear the couple next door. The soundproofing was pretty good and that filled me with some hope in case I needed to resort to firing the USP.  They might not hear it firing.

It was nice having young eyes because they adapted in record time.  While the target on the top bunk was sleeping on his back and snoring like there was no tomorrow, the man on the bottom bunk was a stomach sleeper and his sleeping habits made it easier for me. The bottom bunk target died without a sound, but he did rattle the bunk a bit when he spasmed and filled his shorts with crap.

The spasm, plus the smell is what woke up his buddy on the top bunk. “Shit man, you stink!” He muttered as he began to roll over in an attempt to look down at his buddy.

If I had still been in my male body, I would have had a few more options to take the target down. I probably would have just reached up and dragged the target bodily from his bed, slamming him on the deck before crushing his esophagus with a quick strike to his throat and holding him down while he died, but that wasn’t really an option for me now. Even with my reduced strength and stature, I had no worries about taking the man down, but quickly and quietly in a small cabin where my opponent could brute strength me long enough to yell for help was a big problem.  I decided to take the risk and use the USP 9mm.

I simulated a loud moan of sexual pleasure as I squeezed the trigger when his face appeared below the level of his bunk.  The back of his head splattered against the opposite bulkhead and I hoped Melody kept her eyes closed. Thanks to the swim and the little bit of water still trapped inside the suppressor’s baffles, it did a damn good job of muting the sound of my weapon firing, but I kept up with the sexual moans and even added a few “Yeeeesss, oh, yesssss!” in there for good measure while I listened to see if anyone overheard and identified the single report of my weapon firing.

{“Daaanni, why are you making, umm, sex sounds and what stinks?”} Melody asked.

{“Just creating some noise to cover firing our USP. Two more bad guys down. Keep your eyes closed, it’s a little messy in here.”} I stopped simulating sexual pleasure and listened. The noise from the neighboring cabin was still going strong.  I almost felt sorry for the dude. He appeared to have some stamina.

Careful to not step in any of the blood and brains, I opened the hatch a crack and after confirming the passway was still empty, I stepped out and gently closed the hatch behind me.  I needed to pick up the pace a bit and I wasn’t sure if the girl on the receiving end of my current target was going to be as lucky as the first.  I preferred not to kill innocent bystanders, but sometimes ‘collateral damage’ was unavoidable. Completing the mission took priority and if leaving an ‘innocent’ civilian alive could compromise the mission, the civilian had to die. It was that simple. If she had to die, at least her final moments would be happier than most of my previous targets.

Instead of busting the hatch down or opening it and rushing in, I decided to simply open the hatch, give it a gentle push and let it swing fully open on it’s own. Make it seem to be an accident or that one of them failed to properly dog the hatch.  As busy as the pair was, they might not even notice or care.  The man was on top and the woman was barely aware of anything else as he plowed into her.  I sure hoped Melody had her eyes closed and ears plugged because this was a little less innocent than accidently walking in on your parents in the middle of the night and asking why mommy and daddy are wrestling.

The male target’s head exploded out from his right temple and he collapsed on top of the woman, knocking the wind from her and stunning her. It wasn’t until the target’s blood began to pour onto her face that she started to wonder what was wrong, but before she could process what happened to her companion, I performed a side-kick and slammed the heel of my foot into the side of her head, KO’ing her. I had to work quickly if I was going to avoid killing her. 

{“One more down, keep ‘em closed. Dealing with the girl and may still have to neutralize her.”} I warned Melody.

{“O’kkkay”} She sounded suitably scared.

I braced myself against the cabin wall and pushed the dead body off of the woman with my leg. Dead weight really is, dead weight and it was a bit of a struggle but, I managed. With him off the woman, I pulled her out of the bed and onto the deck.  I quickly repeated the duct tape gag by wrapping a strand around her head and over her mouth. Next, I hog tied her with duct tape to keep her from going anywhere.  Baring her puking and choking on her own vomit, she should live. I hoped she would learn from this experience.

According to the deck plans, I still had two cabins to search before I reached the master cabin and presumably where the Don was staying.  I made my way back through the galley and paused for a few heartbeats to listen for any signs that my handiwork on the upper deck had been discovered. Still silent as a ghost up there, but there were some sounds coming from directly ahead. I moved into the main passageway and after listening in on both cabin doors, decided the sounds were coming from the master cabin area.

It sounded like the Don was enjoying himself with one of the girls. Correction, I heard the sound of two distinct female voices in there. The Don was a real stud to attempt to pleasure two women at the same time, but he probably wasn’t worried about their pleasure. 

But first, I had to check the port and starboard guest cabins to a) find Melody’s mom and b) eliminate any additional targets before I dealt with the Don and his bimbos.  The port cabin was empty, but in the starboard cabin, I found Melody’s mom with her head buried under a pillow and at the sound of me opening the door, she whimpered and wrapped the pillow over her head even tighter.

I felt bad for her and wanted to comfort her, but I knew we weren’t ready to deal with her. I gently closed the hatch. {“Your mom was in the last cabin-”}

{“What!?!? Oh my god! Is she okay? Can I see her? Please, please, please!”} Melody cried with relief.

I pretended she hadn’t interrupted me. {“But, we can’t afford to deal with her right right now. We still have the Don to deal with and I highly doubt your mom would be happy with letting you take care of him, correct?”}

Melody sighed heavily. {“I guess so, but did she look okay?”}

{“She had her head under the pillow.”} I focused on the memory of her mom so she could ‘see’ her.

{“Oh, she looks scared. are you sure we can’t...”} Melody asked, concerned for her mom.

{“No, it would only put her in danger. Now, make sure your eyes are closed nice and tight and your ears are plugged real good because it’s time to dance with the devil.”}

For the Don, I decided that the M4 would be a better way to get my point across to him and his ‘guests’.  I holstered the USP and brought the M4 around. After confirming it was ready to go, I brought it up to my shoulder into a modified firing position that allowed me to move, quickly aim my weapon and fire as soon as a target presented itself. As I approached the double doors that opened into the master cabin, I heard tango music softly playing in the background. It was just loud enough to help cover some noises, but not loud enough to fully cover up the noise of the Don groaning with pleasure and enthusiastically ordering someone to suck harder.

I sighed with resignation as I considered the possibility of Melody overhearing what the Don said. As I silently opened the door a crack, it made me feel a little disgusted with the man’s sexual appetites. As expected, I spotted the Don laying on his back and in the process of receiving a blow job by one of the girls while the second snuggled up against him and giggling happily as he played with her tits.

{“You better have your eyes closed young lady...”} I muttered, hoping that Melody would hear me and not be curious enough to ask why.

She was. {“Why?”}

{“Nevermind, just keep ‘em closed and start singing that song again or something.”}

Yeah, this was not going to be as easy as the first few.  With that in mind, I stepped into the room and it wasn’t until I kicked his door closed that he noticed me.  He reacted exactly how I expected him to react. He made an attempt to reach the firearm hidden under his pillow by pushing the girl off his dick and twisted around to his right.

If he had only stayed still, I would have had a harder time getting a clear shot, but since he moved and effectively cleared my line of fire for me while exposing his back to me; I fired one round into the middle of his lower back.

[Phhhittt!]

The M4 recoiled against my shoulder and the Don cried out in pain.  I worried about his cries alerting or waking the crew his cabin shared a bulkhead with. In effort to help delay or prevent that from happening, I reached over and turned his stereo volume up to party levels to help cover the noise.  Amazingly, beyond the initial gasp of surprise, the girls didn’t scream, but it looked like they might. Before the Don could try to recover and try reaching for his hidden firearm, I ran forward, jumped on his bed and rewarded him with a butt stroke to the back of his head, knocking him out. 

That action broke both of the girl’s paralyses. They squealed with panic and jumped off the bed. The one laying next to him, the cuddler, rolled off the right side of the bed and hit the deck with a thump, while the girl who had been giving him a blowjob rolled off the left side of the bed.  Great, just great.

“You!” I aimed my weapon down and to the right side of the bed at the cuddler girl. She looked appropriately terrified at the sight of me and for the record, standing on top of a mattress is not the best shooting platform. With that in mind, I jumped down, placing myself between her and the door. I hoped she didn’t do something stupid because dealing with both of the girls at the same time was a big concern. “Over there, on the couch. Don’t make me shoot you.”

I could see it in her eyes. She was going to rabbit on me. “Don’t...” I tried to warn her, but she panicked and ran, hunched over with her arms over her head as if she expected falling debris or something. With her arms raised in an ineffectual attempt to protect her head, or just block out what she was seeing, I took a step forward and slammed my right knee past her meager defenses. My knee strike to her stomach took all the wind of her sails, stopping her headlong rush for the door. I followed that up by rotating to my right and driving my left elbow into and through the back of her head. Knocking her face first to the deck and hopefully unconscious. As she was falling, I continued with my momentum and spun around, bringing my M4 back to my shoulder, ready to fire in case the blowjob girl wanted to try something stupid.

She did.  Sadly, she took my momentary distraction to make a grab for the Don’s weapon, a Desert Eagle .50 AE. She had it in her hand and the massive barrel was beginning to swing in my direction. I highly doubted she could hit me with it, but I couldn’t take the chance and the thing firing would definitely alert the crew that something was not right in the Don’s cabin.  A Desert Eagle firing was more than just the Don enjoying a little rough sex.

[Phhhittt!]

My round struck her in her right temple, killing her instantly and spraying blood and brains against the Don’s pillows and headboard. “Stupid bitch.” I muttered, shaking my head with disgust at the waste.  She was beautiful and I had to admire her fighting spirit, but she was also damn stupid. Why in the hell did she have to try to be a hero? All she had to do was, well, nothing and she would still be alive. Oh well, she wasn’t my first and she probably wouldn’t be the last wasteful death.

With the Don unconscious and the threat from the blowjob girl eliminated, I turned my attention to the panicked cuddler girl.  She was beginning to shake off the blow to the back of her head. I grabbed her hair and forced her to knees.  “Over there...” I made her look at the couch located against the port wall of the Don’s cabin.

She shook uncontrollably, lost control of her bladder and I had to forcible assist her, but she managed to follow my instructions while she whimpered at me to please not kill her. “On your stomach...” I duct taped her the same way I did the second woman.

{“Dani, I’m scared. What’s going on?”} Melody voice trembled with fear.

I wished she was asleep like she was at the mansion. I’d feel a lot better knowing she wouldn’t ever have to know about this part of the mission. {“Keep ‘em closed, sis. I love you and I don’t want your soul to be stained like mine is. There are some things a person should never have to see and those things, cannot be unseen.”}

{“Okay,”} Melody hesitantly replied. {“But please be careful...”}

Now, I only had the Don to deal with.  His Desert Eagle was proof he was compensating for a certain lack because who keeps a fucking Desert Eagle .50 AE under their pillow? The damn things are just too bulky to get a good night’s sleep with the overbuilt barrel poking through the pillow.  In addition to that, their bulk make them a bit hard to manage and line up with your target in a last ditch holdout situation. 

Ignoring the dead blowjob girl and the weapon, I pushed the Don onto his back, but unlike the bed as his mansion, this one did not have convenient tie down posts.  I couldn’t tie him down spread eagle like the previous two sacrifices.

Oh well, no time to waste. With the hole in his back and the internal damage, he was pretty close to death already.  I slammed my knife into his chest, just below his rib cage to create an opening so I could reach his heart.  That woke him up, but he was in too much pain to do more than gasp and clutch his sheets in an attempt to raise his upper body up and away from me. His legs did not seem to be working. I guess my round caused a little spinal damage. Good, that made dealing with him a bit easier.

I used my left arm to shove him back down as I reached into his chest cavity and grabbed his heart. With my hand clutching his heart, I stared into his eyes, my face inches away from his. Now that he was about to die, I felt a little disappointed that it was almost over. “Ya know Mr. Rodriguez, you should really avoid pissing off your local gods and goddesses. Your grandfather dying on Chalchiuhtlicue’s altar should have been enough of a warning for you, but oh well, I guess stupidity is hereditary.” His eyes widened with surprise at the last bit of information and with that, I yanked and pulled his still beating heart out of his chest.

I kind of wanted him to reply, but he was having a hard time breathing and I’m sure the fact I just removed his heart had something to do with his inability to form a coherent response.  Still, it would have been nice for him to at least try to say something stupid. You know, like, “You’ll never get away with this...”  That is kind of popular for bad guys to threaten you with, but nope, I got nothing. He just gasped like a fish out of water as his blood poured from the wound in his chest.

On the plus side, he did give me a very satisfying expression of horror when I held up his heart so he could get a good look at it. It was even still twitching a little as it tried to pump.  All the blood made me feel exceptional grateful for our wetsuit because I hated cleaning that stuff off my uniforms. Ignoring the gasping dead man, I walked over to the large bay windows set above the couch. I also ignored the very much scared shitless girl whimpering and crying on the couch. Literally, she was scared shitless and it stunk.

I raised his heart to the moon and whispered my prayer to the goddess. “Lady Chalchiuhtlicue, please accept my humble offering [and thanks for allowing me to avenge my sister’s rape.]” That part I only thought. I didn’t want Melody to accidentally overhear it. “Our people now have one less scumbag to worry about. His life’s ambition was to take from our people, may his blood feed and nourish our people with his death.”

I had no idea why I thought of her worshippers as “our people”, but it seemed to fit with how I felt about her and the baby Melody and I delivered.  Michelina’s family seemed like “our people” for some reason.

Like the late Creepy, the Don stayed alive long enough to witness his heart get accepted by the goddess as a pale blue fire engulfed and fed off his heart until my hand was left empty and all of his blood was cleaned from my body. I glanced down at the cuddler girl. Her eyes promptly rolled up into the back of her head and she passed out.

Now, it was time to consider getting Melody’s mother out of her cabin. My only concern with doing that right this second was the crew, or lack thereof.  Technically, the ship was not secure until all of the crew was accounted for. All it would take for a monkey wrench to be thrown into my plans would be for some crew member to make a trip to the galley and spot the dead guard the main cabin.  While I felt the unfamiliar urge to get her mom to safety right now, I realized that she was probably more secure in her cabin. Plus, Melody’s mom would probably try to stop me from completing the mission.

I sighed with frustration. Rescuing civilian hostages is always such a pain in the ass.

{“What? Is something wrong?”} Melody asked, sensing my mood.

{“No, but before we can pull your mom-”}

Melody interrupted in an effort to correct me. {“Our mom.”}

I would have liked to agree with her, but the Goddess could take me any second now. I couldn’t afford to become too attached. {“YOUR mom,”} I forcefully reminded her as my throat briefly tightened with emotion. {“And before I can safely extract her, I need to secure the crew. I expect her to freak out and try to get all parental on us and I can’t allow that right now.”}

{“Dani? What’s wrong?”} Melody asked, sounding hurt.

{“Sorry...”} I fought back my tears. {“I just can’t. I want to, but my stay here is temporary.”}  I felt Melody mentally hugging me and giving me her love. {“Thanks, but...”} I took a calming breath. {“I need to finish the mission.”}  I was going to miss her, a lot.

I purposely did not look around the Don’s cabin before we exited it and entered the main passageway leading back to the bow. 

{“Okay...I understand. You’re the expert.”} Melody softly whispered. {“Should I close my eyes again?”}

{“Yep.”} I nodded my head and blinked away the excess moisture from my eyes as I crept forward, M4 against my shoulder in the firing position while I scanned for targets.

The ship was still silent and it wasn’t until we stood next to the spiral staircase that led down to the crew’s quarters in the stern that I heard any noise. It was coming from the bathroom where I secured the first blowjob girl.  She was managing to make some sounds through her gag, but they weren’t loud enough to carry more than a few feet from the bathroom.  Thankfully, she was not smart enough to bang her head against the bulkhead.  A noise like that would carry much further and probably alert the crew.

I ran back to the stern and retrieved my backpack with the extra C-4. I had an idea for how to use it, but a lot would depend on how uninformed about rigging explosives the captain and the rest of his crew was. While it would probably be easier to simply kill them, their deaths weren’t required by the mission and I felt a reluctance to simply murder them. As a result, I needed a place to secure my prisoners and prevent them from notifying the authorities before I could complete my mission and rescue Melody’s dad. With some C-4 and a liberal amount of fear to keep them trapped inside, the port cabin across from Mrs. Lynch’s cabin would make a good holding cell.

It would only take me 30 seconds to set up. I ran back down to the cabins and duct taped 4 pounds of C-4 to the outside of the cabin door. I stuck a blasting cap into the C-4 and added some extra duct tape to secure it, then tied a string to the end of it. My plan was to close them in the cabin, then run a line from the detonator to the opposite hatch. If they tried to open the hatch, it would trigger the blasting cap and ignite the C-4, killing them all and blowing a pretty good sized hole in the side of the ship. That is what I would tell them. They didn’t need to know that a string wouldn’t detonate the blasting cap.

Yes, I could make it work, but I couldn’t trust them to not try something stupid with me or Mrs. Lynch still on the ship. A little sleight of hand and fear should go a long way into making them think it was armed and going to kill them.  But first, I had to get them out of their cabins. 

60 seconds later, I crept halfway down the spiral staircase and tossed two of my smoke grenades into the main cabin area below. “¡Fuego! ¡Fuego! Salir rápidamente! Moverlo! Moverlo!” I yelled as smoke began to fill the area.  I returned to the upper deck and heard the sound of people coughing below deck and a man yelling for everyone to get out.

The first person up was a twenty something woman clutching a sheet to her chest, she screamed a little at the sight of me aiming my weapon at her. I gestured for her to go to her right and towards the main cabin. “Over there!”

Behind her was a male, wearing a white t-shirt with his pants half zipped up.  He had a cell phone in his hand and began to reflexively recoil when he caught sight of me.  “Hands up! Drop it!” I growled at him.  He rewarded me by immediately raising his hands and dropping his cell phone on the deck. It clattered against the deck as an older man followed behind him.  Unlike the first two, he was wearing a uniform.  Two more people followed him. An older, maybe mid-thirties woman partially dressed in a maid’s uniform and a male crew member, judging by the grease stains on his hands, he was probably the ship’s mechanic.

“All of you, in the cabin, there.” I used the barrel of my M4 to provided emphasis to my command. They were slow to respond until I fired a round into the deck between the feet of the man I assumed to be the captain. “Move it!”

I maintained a 3 meter distance between myself and my targets. I wanted to have plenty of room to drop any potential heroes and right now, the odds of one or more of them getting stupid were high. Once they were all in the cabin and could see the dead guard laying on the couch, I aimed my weapon at the Captain. “Cell phones! Out, now.”

Two more cell phones hit the deck. One from the captain and the other from the older woman.  I glanced over at the mechanic.  “Do I have to shoot you?”

I could see it in his eyes. His disdain for women and dismissal of me as a threat. I knew he was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. “I don’t understand.” He said in Arabic, pretending he didn’t understand my perfect Spanish. 

I started counting down from three in Arabic. His eyes flared with shock and surprise. I made it to two before he scrambled for his cell phone hidden in his back pocket. I took a step back. “Slowly...” I said in Arabic, ready to drop him in a heartbeat if he pulled out anything other than a cell phone.

It was a simple flip style cell phone, but I was kind of hoping he was going to try to pull something. One less hostile to worry about would have been nice.  “Drop it and kick them all over to me.” I said, still in Arabic.  He complied with my order and I kicked the phones further away, toward the couch.  I moved deeper into the cabin, positioning myself for a clear line of fire in case one of them tried to escape to the stern of the ship. 

I didn’t want to give any of them time to think. I aimed my weapon back at the man I assumed was the captain. “You. Are you the Captain?” I asked him in Spanish.

He took my question as permission to take a step forward, partially shielding his crew with his body in the process, very admirable or stupid of the man.  “Yes, I am. Captain Geraldo Ferdinand. Who are you?”

“That isn’t important right now. What is important is how much do you and your crew wish to live.  The Don...” I spat his name. “Is dead. All of his men are dead.” I glanced over to the dead guard on the couch. “Do you wish to join them?”

He gulped and nodded his head. “No...” He glanced back at his crew. They all appeared suitably scared.

“Good. If you follow my instructions, you will live. If you try something, you will die. It is that simple.” The barrel of my M4 never wavered from Captain Ferdinand’s chest. Again, he nodded his understanding. “Now, Captain, I want you to retrieve the girl from the head and bring her here.”

He entered the head and I heard the girl’s desperate whimpers increase in volume. “Leave the hatch open and use your knife to cut the tape holding her feet. You can worry about the rest later.”  Yes, I knew he had a small belt knife, but I wasn’t worried about it right now. Letting him know I knew about his knife and didn’t consider him or it a threat told him everything he needed to know.

He brought the now hysterical girl back into the main cabin with him.  She nearly panicked at the sight of me, but the Captain was able to calm her. “Good work Captain. I was worried I would have to shoot her and that would have pissed me off after going through so much trouble to keep her alive earlier.”

The girl did not look happy to hear me admit that, but screw her. I had a room full of hostile targets and was feeling exceptionally jumpy because this was the most dangerous phase of my hasty battle plan. If any of them did something stupid, everything could get very messy, very fast.  “Now, down below and into the port guest cabin. It might be a little tight, but I don’t think you all want to be in the Don’s cabin right now.”  I gestured with my eyes for the mechanic to lead. “Captain, you will go last. If any one of your people try something stupid, you will be the first to die.”

The Arabic mechanic glanced back to Captain Ferdinand and received a cautious nod of approval.

I smiled at the man. “Go on Akil, live up to your name. You may be the youngest of five, but no reason for you to join your other two brothers in a meaningless death.” The man’s mouth dropped open with shock, but I wasn’t done. “You should visit your home in Riyadh soon. Your father is not doing well.” I spoke to him in Arabic and I had no idea where I pulled that data from, but I suspect a certain divine being had something to do with it.  It had the desired effect. He listened and followed my orders, leading the rest of his crew members into the cabin across from Mrs. Lynch’s cabin.

I noticed a few of them glance curiously at the duct taped package on the hatch. I held the Captain back. “Okay, I need you to retrieve two additional ‘guests’. Then, I will explain that,” I pointed to the C-4 package. “Before I leave you all in peace.”

Captain Ferdinand frowned at my explaination.

“Now, in the port side bow cabin is another guest. Can you retrieve her?”  I backed out so he could reach the bow. “It will be a little messy...”

The good captain brought the woozy woman out of the cabin, her gag still in place. She never saw me, so she barely glanced at me as the Captain led her past my position. If she was conscious, the remaining woman was probably going to be more of a challenge. Once she was safely in the cabin, the Captain turned back to me. He looked a little pale at what he saw in the cabin. “Good, now you know the stakes, but I am afraid the last ‘guest’ might be more difficult. The Don’s cabin is a bit more of a mess. His second guest tried to be a hero and it did not end well for her.”  I couldn’t help it. The gallows humor made me smile and made the captain appear even more nervous. “Go into the Don’s cabin, the remaining girl is on the couch.”

I heard the Captain puke shortly after entering the Don’s cabin. I guess he had a little too much reality, but he managed to bring the girl out. She caught sight of me and screamed. “No, no, no! Ella es un demonio!” 

I felt a little miffed that she called me a demon. At a minimum, I thought I deserved the devil title. She tried to turn and run back into the Don’s cabin, but the Captain caught her. He looked at me with an anger that would have been admirable if he hadn’t worked for the Don.

“Don’t look at me like that. You know perfectly well how much blood the Don had on his hands, yet you chose to take his money.” I sneered contemptuously at the man.  He glanced away with shame as he lead the now completely hysterical woman into the cabin.

I pointed to the C-4. “This is four pounds of C-4. It is enough to blow this entire section of the ship to bits and kill everyone in this area.” I pointed to the detonator. “That is the detonator and when I close this hatch, I will connect the detonator to the opposite bulkhead.” I pointed to the bulkhead behind me. “If anyone attempts to open this hatch...boom. You all die.”

“We’ve got to get out of here! She’s going to kill us all!” I heard one of the women yell and a struggle ensue. I guessed it was the cuddler from the Don’s cabin.  I waited a few seconds for the sounds to die down.

“Good, work you all. I was afraid we are all going to die there for a second. Now, I will call the police in one hour. From this side, the bomb is simple to disarm.”

With the immediate danger past, I turned to Mrs. Lynch’s cabin and sighed. {“This is going to be difficult...”}

I opened the hatch and peeked inside. Melody’s mom was pressed against the headboard with her pillow over her body for protection.  The light was behind me, casting my face in shadow. I shifted to English for the first time in what felt like days. “Ma’am, it’s time to leave. The Don is dead.” I spoke in a deeper tone of voice to try and throw her off as I motioned for her follow me out of her cabin. 

The expression on her face nearly broke my heart. She looked so relieved and hopeful as she followed me out of the cabin. I kept my face away from her as I lead her up to the main deck. We passed the dead guard on the couch, but the way he died made it look like he was only sleeping. “Is he dead?” Mrs. Lynch asked, anxiously as we passed is body.

“Yes, now come this way ma’am.” I lead her down to the stern landing deck. “I need to leave you for a few minutes while I retrieve my boat.” I slung the M4 over my back and dove into the water before she completely caught up to me.

I was actually a little surprised she hadn’t recognized her daughter yet, but I guess the wetsuit plus the Molle vest and all the weapons helped to throw of her senses. Well, those plus the fact that her daughter was probably the absolute last person she would expect to be rescuing her.

{“When can I hug our mom?”} Melody asked quietly as we swam down and retrieved our diving gear from the anchor chain.  I felt surprised by her question. I expected her to ask sooner or just go crazy and try to take over.

{“Sorry sis, I know it’s tough for you. It’s been surprisingly tough on me, but we still need to extract your dad from the warehouse and I’m worried your mom will make things harder because I doubt she will be willing to let her 12 year old daughter run off and assault a warehouse full of armed men; no matter what we tell her.”}

{“Why do you keep on saying that? She’s your mom now too you know...”}

I sighed as I equipped our fins. {“Yeah, but I’m not going to be in this world much longer. The Don is dead and now we only need to rescue your dad. I can’t afford to get emotionally invested.”}

If it wasn’t for the water, I was sure tears would be streaming down my face. I felt so sad, hopeless and lost. I really loved Melody and would do anything to be her sister for real, but I knew it couldn’t last. Now that she had been avenged and Lady Chalchiuhtlicue’s requirements filled, my time was limited.

I slung the rebreather over my Molle vest to make it easier to carry. I didn’t want to just leave it there. It was some good equipment and I still wasn’t 100% sure if I didn't need to breath while in Chalchiuhtlicue’s domain. Dead people don’t need to breath either, but that morbid realization didn’t make me feel any better.

We made the swim in record time. Actually, we beat the world record 400 meter swim by two minutes, but we sort of cheated. We had fins and the assistance of a goddess.  My mood was still a little low, but Melody was practically bursting at the seams with excitement.  The reunion with her mom was going to be hard. I pulled in our anchor and started the motor.  I could see her mom standing anxiously at the stern of the ship, exactly where we left her. As we pulled up to the stern of the Don’s yacht, Mrs. Lynch’s eyes grew wide as saucers when she recognized her daughter at the helm of the boat.

“M,Melody?” She stuttered.

I needed to delay the inevitable explosion as long as possible. “Hop in Mom. We need to rescue Dad now.” 

She was too shocked to move. “Mom! Get in, please.” I reached for her and she allowed me to pull her inside our boat.  I directed her into the front passenger seat and gunned the throttle to get us away from the yacht and further delay the inevitable Mom explosion.