She of the Jade Skirt

by

Sleethr & Draflow

Note:This is Part 8 of 9 and Part 9 is in the can. I just need to let it simmer a bit. Again, a big thanks go out to Beyogi and Draflow's daughter for their assistance. Any tactical errors are my own. Additional thanks again to djkauf for editing and I'm lost count, but I think we add a few more with this chapter.
 

** Part VIII **

I ignored the harbor speed limits and kept the boat’s throttle pinned as we raced for a small public dock located about a mile north east of the warehouse. I felt it would be safe to leave Mrs. Lynch there before I began phase two of the rescue operation. It would be a gross understatement to say that Melody was excited to see her mom, but she showed remarkable restraint.

“Melody Amber Lynch! Stop this boat right now!” Mrs. Lynch screamed from the passenger seat.

I ignored her and refused to acknowledge her request until she began to try and stand, intending to take action despite the risk. “Ma’am, please stay seated.” I calmly glanced over to Mrs. Lynch before I returned my attention to our course.

{“You might wanna slow down some, or even stop. I don’t think I have ever seen Mom looking that upset before.”} Melody cautioned.

We still had a few hundred meters before we reached the dock. I decided we couldn’t avoid the issue any longer. {“I guess you’re right...”} I sighed as I backed off the throttle and slowed the boat to halt.

Mrs. Lynch caught me by surprise when she forciblypulled me from my seat and tried to crush me against her body with a hug.  It had been a long time since anyone had manhandled me so effectively. It was always me crushing my children with a hug, not the other way around.

“Oh my god, Melody! I thought I would never see you again. My baby, my poor, poor baby!” Tears streamed down Mrs. Lynch’s face as she pulled back enough to study my face long enough to confirm that the girl she was hugging really was her daughter before crushing me to her chest again.

{“Umm, Melody? I think you should take over here, but we don’t have much time. I can give you a minute, maybe two, tops. Got it?”} I gave her back control, but I felt guilty limiting the reunion to such a short amount of time, but every second increased the odds against Dr. Lynch surviving to be rescued. If the men in the warehouse discovered their boss was dead, Dr. Lynch would be the first witness to die.

Melody returned her mother’s hug and began to sob in her mother’s arms. {“Oh, Dani...thank you so much!”}

“Mom...” After about 20 seconds, Melody gently pushed herself out of her mom’s death grip. “Mom! Please, you’re crushing me.”

Reluctantly, Mrs. Lynch let Melody go and returned her attention to Melody’s current state of dress along with the gear secured to the deck.  “Melody, what’s going on? Was that really you on the bastard’s yacht?”

“Umm, kind of?” Melody guiltily glanced away from her mom.

Mrs. Lynch grabbed Melody’s arms, forcing her to look at her. “Young lady, answer me. Was that you on the yacht with the guns?”

“Weapons...” Melody made me proud with her correction. “Yes and no, it was Dani. She’s the one who rescued me from the Don’s mansion and planned the rescue. Speaking of which, umm, we need to drop you off so we can rescue Dad.”

Mrs. Lynch crossed her arms against her chest as Melody tried to explain the situation. I could tell she was going to find it hard to believe Melody and let go when it was time to continue.  The boat rocked, forcing her to grab onto the cockpit’s windscreen to steady herself. “I see...” She glared skeptically at Melody. “_we_ will do no such thing young lady. I don’t know what you think _we_ will do right now, but _we_ will most certainly not rescue your father. _We_ will call the police and let the proper authorities handle it.”

“Mooomm, we can’t call the police.” Melody pleaded desperately.

Mrs. Lynch gasped with surprise at her daughter arguing with her. “Melody Amber-”

Undeterred, Melody interrupted her mom. “Look, Mom...the police will only get Dad killed and they are on the Don’s payroll. Who handed you and dad over to the Don in the first place?”

Mrs. Lynch halted in her tracks and I felt so proud of Melody. She stepped forward and hugged her mom. “Mom, I know you’re going to have trouble believing me, but you have to trust Dani. She will rescue Dad, just like she rescued you.”

“Dani? Who is Dani?” Mrs. Lynch glanced anxiously around the small cabin of our boat, as if she expected me to be hiding somewhere.

“Dani,” Melody paused as she hunted for the right words. “Well, Dani is a little hard to explain. She was a Navy SEAL and Chalchiuhtlicue brought her back from the dead to help me out.”

“Ookaay...where is she?” Mrs. Lynch asked, confused by Melody’s attempted explanation.

It made perfect sense to me, but I had a bit of an advantage. {“Okay Melody, show time.”} I decided it was time for me to take over again.

“Mrs. Lynch...” I took a step back, toward the pilot’s chair and gestured for her to take a seat next to me. “I’m Dani and I don’t have time to explain things to your satisfaction; if that is even possible. Your husband is in danger and every second we waste only increases his danger.”

Mrs. Lynch couldn’t comprehend what I was trying to tell her. In her mind, I was Melody, her 12 year old daughter.  I placed my hand on the throttle and turned back to her. “Ma’am, please sit down.” I glanced meaningfully at the passenger seat next to me. “Melody would be most upset with me if you became injured.”

She hesitantly took her seat. “Melody?”

Instead of full throttle, I brought the boat up to 25% throttle and reversed course. “Like Melody said, it’s complicated and now I need to revise my plan of attack because I highly doubt you would willing exit this craft with your daughter on board. Additionally, Melody wouldn’t like it if I threatened to shoot you.”

{“Say what?!?!”} Melody gasped.

{“Kidding...”}

Mrs. Lynch was officially and 100% at a loss for words. Silence is consent and I took the initiative to keep her confused and pliable. “Now, I am piloting us over to the end of the main pier there.” I pointed ahead, to the dock shared by the warehouse. “Once we reach that point, I will exit the craft. I need you to continue another four to five hundred meters south west and maintain station there.” I pointed in the general direction I wanted her to go after I jumped out.

I chopped the throttle when we reached my drop zone point and gestured for Mrs. Lynch to take over as I made my way to the stern of the craft.  She reacted instinctually, but still confused by her daughter’s actions.  I decided to trust the goddess and leave my rebreather in the boat. I grabbed the two backpacks; Ziploc® bagged our cell phone and stuffed it into the front of my suit. It was nice to have a little cleavage to help store small items and keep them snugly in place.

“Melody, what are you doing?” Mrs. Lynch twisted back around.

“Checking my gear...” I said, distractedly as I focused on my gear more than her. I removed the M4’s magazine and seated a fresh magazine. Next, I slung the M4 over my back and double checked my USP 9MM. I restocked my smoke grenades, double checked my knife and satisfied with everything; I climbed onto the stern dive deck with my fins in hand.

“Now,” I turned back to face Mrs. Lynch. “I’m going to swim west and to the fourth to last warehouse. There is an underwater tunnel the Don used for his subs. I’m going to set some charges to blow the subs and then, extract your husband. Probably via the pier here. I will pop a smoke. When you see the smoke, I need you to come get us. Understand?”

Mrs. Lynch glanced from me to my weapons with confusion. “What? Wait, Melody, what’s going on?”

“I told you, I’m Dani.” I sat down on the stern and worked my feet into the fins. “Now, if you do not see us in 30 minutes, something went very wrong. If that happens...” I pointed to the distant lights of the marina we parked the Audi. “Head to that marina. In the parking lot is a black, Audi R8.” Mrs. Lynch looked even more confused. “It’s a very fast sports car, hard to miss. Duct taped to the driver’s side rear wheel well are the keys. Behind the driver’s seat is a million in cash. Take the car and drive directly to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.”

“Oh yeah, and if the roof blows up, that’s just me creating a diversion. Nothing to worry about.” I chuckled at her shocked expression.

{“Do you want to say goodbye?”} I asked Melody.

{“Yes, please!”}

I gave Melody control again.

“Umm, well, sorry Mom, but gotta go. I love you, but please try not to worry too much. Dani is pretty daa-rn good at this stuff!” Melody kind of ruined our momentum by giggling.

I took back over as Mrs. Lynch stood and began to head our way. She looked determined to stop us. “Melody! This has gone on long enough. You stop-”

I missed the rest when I jumped into the water. {“You almost said ‘damn’ there, didn’t you?”}

{“Maaybee, maybe not. Anyway, I don’t think I have ever seen my mom look more confused in my life. That was pretty cool...”} Melody chuckled as I oriented myself and began swimming toward the tunnel.

{“Cool or not, your mom is very worried about you and rightfully so. Anyway, what do you think she will do now?”}

{“Honestly?  I don’t know, but she will probably end up following your instructions.”}

{“What makes you think that?”}

{“She hasn’t jumped in after us yet, has she?”}

A minute later, I heard the sound of our boat’s motor as Mrs. Lynch accelerated; and based upon the fact that the sound was going away from us, she was probably following my instructions. Without the bulky rebreather to slow us down, we made even better time reaching the tunnel entrance.  However; the backpacks with the C4 did add some drag.

The subs were right where we left them, but I didn’t expect them to not be. I clipped my fins to my molle vest and crawled onto the first sub.  The small conning tower hatch was open. So, I set the timers in each backpack for 15 minutes, started them as close together as possible, dropped the first backpack down the hatch and closed the hatch behind me. I repeated the drop and hatch close on the second sub.

{“Okay, 14 minutes to go. It’s party time upstairs!”} I grinned as I unslung the M4.

I carefully climbed the small set of stairs and pushed on the trap door set into the floor.  This is where the plan could go all to hell because if they had something stacked on top, we were screwed.  It moved, but someone stepped on the door and pushed it back down.

“Whoa!” I heard a man’s voice exclaim.

“Que pasa?”

“Nothing, the trap door was just a little loose when I stepped on it.”

{“Hmmm, looks like we will need to shake things up a bit before we make our grand entrance.”} I unzipped my wetsuit and extracted our cell phone.  Without opening the bag, I punched in the number for our IED cell phone on the roof.

[Boooom!]

{“Okay Melody, eyes closed!”}

Melody sighed dramatically. {“Fine...”}

The sound my improvised diversion going off was satisfyingly loud, even from down here.  I heard screams of panic and confusion from above. With the diversion working, I put my back into the trap door and lifted it enough for me to roll out from underneath it.

Chaos greeted me. I loved it when the enemy was too confused to notice the monster in their midst. I spotted one of the Don’s goons and dropped him, no one noticed. I scooted over to a nearby pallet to get some concealment. A second goon ran past and he followed the first to the floor. The hard part about all my lovely chaos proved to be spotting Dr. Lynch.  There he was, the military guy and another goon were attempting to extricate him out the back doors while the majority of the staff worked on escaping via the front doors.

I decided to help encourage them to continue doing so. I tossed a smoke with a fragmentation toward the front entrance of the warehouse. With those two items still in play, I took down the goon nearest Dr. Lynch and the military guy holding him.  The guy was good; he reached cover as soon as the first metallic tinkling echoes of the grenades bouncing off warehouse floor reached him.  The frag only bounced twice before it blew, causing even more confusion and separating the rest of the Don’s forces from my target.  The smoke caused helped me even more, leaving the unknown military guy, Dr. Lynch and myself in our own little pocket of isolation.

Weapon at the ready and in a modified tactical firing position, I raced forward to the next spot of cover, closer to Dr. Lynch.  The military guy spotted my movement and snapped off one shot with his pistol.  I felt the air of his round’s passage. It was a very close call.  The man was good and that was bad.  I popped around the other side of my cover and took aim. He had his pistol tucked securely into Dr. Lynch’s side.  None of that Hollywood held to the head bullshit.  A good solid hit to the chest cavity was just as deadly as a headshot and it was easier to maintain control of the meat shield.

I advanced a few steps forward to get a better line of fire and hopefully make him decide to take a shot at me again. If he did that, I could drop him with less risk to Dr. Lynch.  It didn’t work. He kept Dr. Lynch firmly under his control. I hate Mexican stand-offs. “Fuck me to tears...” I muttered softly.

{“What?!? Is something wrong? Oh my Goddess! He has Dad!”} Melody’s desperation almost broke my control.

{“Damnit Melody, not now!”} I was not happy.

{“Sorry...”} She sniffed.

“American, if you try to shoot me, he dies.” The man spoke with Russian accented English as he kept Dr. Lynch’s body in front of his own.  He also shifted his body around enough to keep me from getting a good instant kill shot.  In other words, he kept his head close to Dr. Lynch’s.

Once again, the Goddess provided me an intel dump and I switched to Russian. “Captain Bogomolov, my briefing told me you would be present, but I did not expect us to meet this way.”

I had hoped my surprise would cause him to freeze or expose himself long enough for me to get a clean shot. It didn’t. “What? Who are you?”

“Captain Natalia Platikanova, FSB, at your service. We seem to be at somewhat of a quandary here, no?” I canted my head to the side and grinned at him.

My announcement certainly surprised him, but not enough to get him to alter his grip with Dr. Lynch. “Impossible! Why would the FSB be here?”

“Believe it or not, Captain, your ex-boss had the right man, just the wrong research. You see the Americans are working on a VX vaccine.” His eyes flared with surprise before shifting to doubt. “No, not a true vaccine, but a way to give their soldiers some temporary protection from the agent and the good Dr. Lynch there is the leading scientist on the team.  The Russian military want his work and I was sent to get it, but your ex-boss beat my team to him.”

“Ex-boss?”

“Da, my team has removed him from play and captured both of the pieces needed to ensure Dr. Lynch’s cooperation, and he,” I gestured to his hostage. “Is the last item we need to complete the set.  If you would be so kind as to hand him over, I will instruct my team to let you walk out of this warehouse unarmed.”

He appeared somewhat skeptical. “Captain, you no longer work for Senor Rodriguez and it will not be long before I will be forced to choose for you. You would not like my choice. However; in light of the years of service you gave to Mother Russia; I am willing to provide you with, what do the American’s call it?” I pretended to hunt for the words. “Ah, yes, a severance package.”  The sounds of sirens were just beginning to be heard. They were maybe half a mile away.

I had piqued his interest. “In the marina parking lot is the Don’s Audi. Inside is a million US, plus some additional funds. The key is taped to the rear wheel well. It is yours if you simply walk away, now.” I steadied my aim and began to count down from five.

“pyat'...”

I pretended to acknowledge someone behind him.

“chetyre...” At four, he held his weapon up and took a step back from Dr. Lynch.

I kept my weapon steady on him. “Excellent choice, Captain Bogomolov. Now, go!” I motioned for him to exit the warehouse as I cautiously creeped forward to take control of Dr. Lynch.  With his pistol held high, Bogomolov cautiously backed out of the warehouse, keeping Dr. Lynch’s between us to prevent me from getting a clean show.  The man was good. I liked working with professionals. You could always count on them to be smart.

I could feel Melody bouncing around with joy and excitement. {“Ohmygoddess, ohmygoddess, ohmygoddess! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You saved Dad and it was so freaking awesome how you conned that dude!”}

{“Damn it Melody! What were you doing watching?”} I was not happy. What if I had to drop him?

{“Oh, umm, well, I kind of heard you talking and I got curious...sorry?”} Melody cringed and I felt her giving me the puppy dog eyes treatment.

She sounded so pathetically cute, I decided to drop it. No harm, no foul. As I passed a thoroughly confused Dr. Lynch, I motioned for him to follow me. Thanks to Melody’s transgression, I actually felt a little upbeat and it showed. “Come with me if you want to live.”

I’m sorry, but I always wanted to say that line.  I even kept the Russian accent to help make it sound more mysterious and to keep Dr. Lynch from recognizing his daughter’s voice. To further aid with my objectives, I kept my weapon in the ready position and used the darkness to keep our features obscured from him. He followed me without question.

While the good Captain Bogomolov was a professional, professionals are also known to fall back into a stronger position before renewing their assault.  He might have noticed I was solo and decided to change the deal after he exited the warehouse.

He didn’t. I spotted him running west and toward the marina.  I tossed a smoke to signal Mrs. Lynch and provide us some concealment.  The fire department and police were bound to come down the backside of the dock sooner or later.

Our boat with Mrs. Lynch sped over to the dock.

“Jennifer?” Surprised, Dr. Lynch glanced back at me for confirmation at what he was seeing.

“Down.” Before Dr. Lynch could become even more confused by the sight of his daughter, I directed him to climb down the rusted steel ladder to the reach the boat while I stood guard. I didn’t follow until he was safely on board the boat.

My plan was to head back to the hotel room we used to change clothes. They had a dock and it would only take five to ten minutes to reach the other side of the harbor from the warehouse.  From there, we could call the U.S. Embassy and work out an extraction plan. As soon as my feet landed on the deck, I pointed east, out of the harbor and along the pier. I wanted to keep our boat under concealment for as long as possible. If the fire department or police drove around the backside of the warehouse complex, a boat speeding directly away would be extremely suspicious. “Head that way ma’am. Stay close to the pier until we clear the tip.”

“Melody?” Dr. Lynch asked, tentatively touching my shoulder as Mrs. Lynch complied with my instructions by spinning the boat.

{“Dad’s talking to us...”} Melody hopefully informed me.

{“I know.”} I cut her short as I glanced over my shoulder.

“Sorry, Dr. Lynch, not right now. We aren’t out of the woods yet.” As we pulled away from the warehouse, I remained, knee down, facing the stern and scanning for targets with my weapon ready to bring up to a firing position. All it would take is for one of the Don’s goons to run out of the back and start firing at us.  Sure, they probably wouldn’t hit anyone, but I wasn’t willing to take chances. Not now when we were so close to the finish line.

No one tried to follow and it wasn’t until we were in the clear that any emergency vehicles started to head down the backside of the warehouse.  There were a lot and I mean a LOT of police vehicles responding to the call. I wondered why. Hehe.  I hoped they didn’t spot the sub pens. I didn’t want any of the first responders to accidently get hurt when the subs blew. I probably should have set the timers for 10 minutes instead of 15. I checked my watch, I still had 10 minutes before they were due to detonate.

When we reached the end of the pier, I pointed to the starboard and out of the harbor. “That way ma’am and you can add a bit more throttle now.”

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed “066”. As soon as the emergency operator answered, I switched back to Spanish. “Oh my god! I was on the fort when the roof of warehouse exploded, but I saw some men shooting machine guns and carrying something that looked like bundles of TNT inside! It was like a gang war or something!”

I hung up and tossed the phone overboard.  I warned them and I hoped they would delay their response long enough for their bomb squad to arrive.  That might keep the first responders out of trouble.

“Okay, back it down now and bring us to a stop.”  I waited until we were dead in the water. “Now, the plan is to get you to a safe place for the evening, make a call to the U.S. Embassy and apprise them of the current situation.  Ideally, I’d aim to get you both out of the country tonight, but I’m guessing the Mexican authorities will be a bit jumpy right now.”

Dr. Lynch glanced anxiously to his wife and cleared his throat. “The Don took our passports; will that be a problem, umm?” He shook his head with confusion as he studied my face.

“Fuu-dge...” I turned back to study the yacht. It appeared dead. So, I guessed the crew was still secure.  They could probably do without their passports, but I’d rather have them. It would give me more options.

“Dani. You can call me Dani.” I could see the disconnect in his eyes. He saw his daughter standing in front of him, but the fact she was armed and in charge of the situation was throwing off his parental instincts. I needed to keep them both off balance for a few more minutes.

Melody was giggling at me. {“What now Miss Bad Ass SEAL sister of mine?”}

I sighed with frustration. {“Melody, language, please...”}

“Okay, Mrs. Lynch. You seem to be doing a good job with piloting.” I pointed back to the yacht. “Head back to the Don’s yacht. Bring us to the stern. I’ll retrieve your documentation.”

“Melody, what’s going on?” Dr. Lynch broke out of his fog sooner than I wanted, but he was a pretty smart guy.

I kept myself busy by replenishing my ammo. “Sorry, Dr. Lynch. I’m Dani. Melody is here, but we don’t have time to explain right now.” I glanced back up and took a quick peek to monitor our progress. “Looking good, Mrs. Lynch. Start backing off and ease us up to the stern.”

As soon as the boat neared the stern, I jumped lightly on board. M4 at the ready, I glanced back at Melody’s parents. Mrs. Lynch was mostly focusing on piloting the boat and Dr. Lynch looked like he wanted to follow me or put a stop to his daughter’s actions. I completely empathize with the man, but I didn’t have time to deal with him right now.

“Thanks,” I pointed away from the stern. “Pull out about 30 to 50 meters in that direction. If you see anyone other than me, put as much distance between you and the yacht as quickly as possible. I’ll signal you when I am ready for a pickup. The crew is still onboard and I don’t trust them to not try something stupid. “

Surprisingly, Mrs. Lynch followed my commands as I quickly and cautiously made my way back through the ship, ready for any surprises. I stole a quick glance in Melody’s parent’s direction before I headed below.  The two of them were stationed about 50 meters off the stern and appeared to be having an animated discussion with each other.

{“I’m surprised they let you go...”} Melody sounded a little wistful.

I shrugged as I turned away from watching her parents. {“Well, not like I was going to give them a choice...”}

I was worried more about the crew because if they were stupid enough to test my dummy bomb; they could try to ambush me below decks.  When I reached the galley area that lead to the cabins, I found the bomb still in place and I heard them inside the cabin.  “I’m back. The police are a little busy with the Don’s warehouse right now. Someone blew a hole in the roof. Hehe.”

“La demonia está de vuelta! Ella va a matar a todos!” It sounded like the cuddler chick was a little stressed out. Seriously, why does she keep calling me a demon? I still felt a little insulted at such a lowly rank. With all the shit I’ve done, I figured I had earned the arch demon or even full fledged devil title by now.

“No, I’m not here to kill you. I just need to retrieve something from the Don’s safe.” I called back as I made my way to the master cabin.

I figured Melody was probably watching and she did not need to see the mess in the Don’s cabin. {“Time to close your eyes. It’s a little messy in there.”}

{“Okay, but we are going to have a talk when this is done. You’re acting weird and I don’t like it...”} Melody sounded a little PO’ed at me and I think I knew why, but it was for her own good. I wasn’t going to be around much longer.

{“Sure, but later.”} I said, distracted as I studied the cabin walls.

“Now, where would the builders put a safe?” I muttered softly to myself before I noticed a likely spot against the stern bulkhead and sure enough, there it was hidden behind a horribly garish bullfighting oil painting.  It did not match the decor at all.  The Don’s password proved to be the same, but it failed to open this time. I noticed a fingerprint scanner set into the keypad. “Crap! Two-factor authentication. The bastard!”  I pulled out my knife and hacked off the Don’s index finger.

Thank the Goddess the scanner didn’t have pulse detection built into it. The simple finger did the trick, the safe popped open and inside were the Lynch’s passports, including Melody’s. In addition to that, a huge bundle of cash and tucked off to the side were a few unmarked DVD’s.

Old intelligence gathering habits die hard. I grabbed the DVDs. They probably had some sort of useful intel on them because I doubted the Don would store pirated DVD’s in his safe.  The cash, I tucked a few ten thousand dollar bundles into my vest. The rest would have to stay.

I felt a presence wash over me and suddenly, I knew we were about to have visitors.  An U.S. Navy SEAL team was approaching the yacht from below while a second team of SEALS were heading toward the warehouse.  I estimated the second team would reach the warehouse a minute or two after my surprises blew while the assault team would reach the yacht in 45 to 60 seconds.

No time to waste.  I grabbed a pillow case and stuffed the cash into it. “Ho, ho, ho...” I giggled at my joke and closed the safe before I left with my haul. The cash, I couldn’t use and I doubted the SEALS would let me keep it, but I did sort of feel bad for the crew.  I stopped and gently tapped on their cabin door.

{“Can I watch now?”} Melody asked, impatient to know what was happening.

{“No, we have some SEALs coming to the party and I still might have to ‘handle’ these folks if they try something stupid.”}

{“SEALs, really?!?! That’s awesome!”} Melody clapped excitedly.

{“No, it’s not. They will fudge up my extraction plan and make it harder to cover up what happened here.”}

{“Oh...”}

{“Now, keep ‘em closed and cover your ears again, please.”}

“Hola in there. I am disarming the bomb.” I ripped the C-4 off the hatch and dropped the pillow case on the deck. “Captain, would you please be kind enough to step out of the cabin, slowly...and with your hands in the air.”

The hatch opened a few seconds later and he cautiously followed my instructions while motioning behind him for the rest to remain calm.

“Excellent job, Captain...” I pointed down to the deck. “Inside that is your crew’s severance package. You can take it or leave it. I don’t care. A SEAL team is about to join us. I advise you to keep your crew calm and not do anything stupid.  Staying where you are is probably the smartest thing you can do. After they leave, I’d call the police and pretend you never saw or even heard anything about the SEALS. They were never here. I don’t give a fuck what you say about me, but it might be wise to tell them it was a group of bandits or some competitor of the Don’s.  They would probably never believe that a ‘demon’ did all this, correct?”

The Captain glanced down at the pillow case before looking back up to me. “Si...”

I began to back away from him while he hesitantly reached down to grab the pillow case. His eyes flared with surprise as he saw the bundles of cash inside. I returned to the main deck and felt the SEALS getting ready to begin their assault.

Crap. No time to warn Melody’s parents.

They would probably freak a little when the SEALS started boarding the yacht. I hoped they didn’t try to get in the way or interfere when they saw the armed men swarm onto the yacht, but I had bigger things to worry about. I was armed to the teeth and I doubted they would take too kindly to that situation. Mainly the M4.  I decided the safest course of action would be to make myself comfortable on the stern lounge and set my M4 on the deck in front of me where the SEALs could see it and not feel threatened by it.  Nothing makes a boarding team more nervous than an unknown and possible hostile with an assault rifle in their hands.

The rest of my gear, I couldn’t do much about, in the time permitted. Ideally, I would strip out of the wetsuit and pretend to be 100% Melody with her parents trying to rescue her, but that plan was not an option because two of the team was coming out of the water now. I sighed and held up my hands as I waited for the remaining four SEALs to exit the water.

They were a little cautious. I think the lack of any resistance at all threw them off their game.  It took almost a full 30 seconds before the first pair made it up to my position. I wanted to say something smart ass and berate them for taking so long, but I figured a 12 year old girl wouldn’t react that way.

Melody needed to take over and play, well, herself. {“Okay Melody. You’re on.”} I gave control to her.

{“What?!?”}

I was not happy with suddenly being put back in charge. I mean, they had their weapons pointed at me. {“Dang it Dani! A little warning?”}

“Umm, hi?” I wiggled my fingers as a wave. “I’m Melody. You’re some of those Navy SEAL dudes, right??”

The two guys looked a little surprised at first, but they quickly got rude. “Down, now!” The pair advanced, weapons uncomfortably aimed at me.

I dropped to my knees and laid flat on the deck with my hands held out in front of me.  An additional two SEALs joined the first pair as one of the men began relieving me of Dani’s weapons. They seemed impressed with the pistol thing, but I felt a pang of concern when they took our knife. “Umm, don’t toss my knife please...it was a present...”

The one guy, he looked kind of handsome and even in his wetsuit thing, I thought he looked very GQ.  That was his team name! Somehow, I just knew it and I thought it was so cool! Anyway, he glanced at it and me, then shrugged and tucked our knife into his vest.

“Thanks, Mr. GQ!” I giggled a little at his and his friend’s shocked reaction. Well, more his friend’s reaction because he playfully punched GQ on his shoulder and chuckled.

“Not funny, man!” GQ whispered fiercely back to his friend.

{“Stop flirting with him...geez!”} Dani sighed.

GQ and his buddy relaxed and let me up while the remaining four SEAL dudes began to “secure”, as Dani would call it, the rest of the ship. I figured they might want to know about the crew Dani locked into the cabin. Oh yeah, and the fake bomb.

“Oh, the crew is in the port side passenger cabin. That’s the left, right?” They both nodded their heads. “Anyway, Mr. Wolfman told them to stay put and pretend they didn’t know about you guys, but he had a fake bomb made with some of that C-4 stuff to keep them honest.”  I put little air quotes around ‘honest’ just because that is what Dani would have said.

That got them nervous. “Brass, possible trip on portside cabin.” GQ said into some sort of high tech mic thing.

“Oh, he took it down a few minutes ago, so it should be safe.” I pointed to the DVDs. “Mr. Wolfman also thought you all might want those. He wasn’t sure what is on them, but he found them in the Don’s safe and my parents are out there on that speed boat. I’m guessing they are a bit worried about me. Can they come in now?”

I heard two muted booms come from the warehouse. “Wow, that’s a little louder than I expected. It sounds like Mr. Wolfman’s nail bomb things went off inside those two subs...”

The guys looked at each other with concern.

{“Did that other team get hurt?”} I asked Dani because she could somehow tell where they were underwater.

{“Probably not. They just reached the tunnel entrance, but their ears are probably going to be ringing a bit.”}

I sighed with relief and two of the other SEALs joined the first pair in confusion. “What was that?”

GQ glanced over at his other two friends. “Jailbait said someone named ‘Wolfman’ put some IED’s in the subs.”

Did they just call me Jailbait? {“What does Jailbait mean?”}

I could tell Dani felt amused. {“Umm, it means you’re underage, but don’t look it.”}

{“Oh, cool! Does this mean I have a ‘team-name’ like you now?”} I liked that name. It made me feel like I was a SEAL like Dani.

{“Weeelll, sure?”} Dani was hiding something from me.

The final pair of SEALs joined us and I could tell Dani recognized one of them. {“Who’s he?”}

{“Brassman, I trained his sorry ass and gave him his team name, but that was over 10 years ago. I figured he would have gotten smart by now.”} She remained alert in the back of my head.

Brassman pointed to the M4. “Ma’am, is the M4 yours?”

“Umm, well, not really. I was just holding it for Mr. Wolfman, but it was pretty cool. A little heavy with that silencer thing on the end.”

Dani sighed. {“Suppressor”}

“Sorry, umm, suppressor thing, but we have more stuff for it in the boat.” I glanced over at our boat as Mom drove it to the rear, sorry, stern of the ship.

Brassman glanced over at my parent’s boat and frowned. Mom was still driving the boat, but they both looked a little worried about me. “GQ, secure her weapon. Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth.”

{“They shouldn’t have approached the ship...”} Dani lamented.

Once my parents were “secure”, we didn’t get a chance to do more that exchange hugs before the SEALs wanted to get us moving. My ‘rents were still a little freaked out by me, well, Dani, but they hid it well and seemed relieved to have me back.  I was too. I missed them so much!

The SEALs were pretty cool, but their reactions to Dani’s prep work was priceless.  They planned on having each of us share a tank with a SEAL, but when I showed them all the SCUBA gear Dani bought for me and my parents, they whistled with a mixture of envy and appreciation.

Mom and Dad were pretty confused by everything, but it did make things easier. I had to help Mom and Dad into their suits and get kitted up in their SCUBA gear. The SEALs helped, but not as much as they expected.  They were all impressed with my skills.  It was mostly Dani telling me what to do, but they didn’t need to know that.

I was also very glad Dani got the underwater communication things.  It allowed us to talk to each other and since the SEALs didn’t have them, we were able to have a private conversation while we waited for the sub to pick us up. I tried to explain what happened, but Dani warned me to leave out any reference to her and to only be Melody right now. Something called “Operational Security” due to underwater comms not being secure.

We got to ride inside this underwater sub thing they called a SDV or Seal Delivery Vehicle and I thought it was pretty darn cool. I mean, how many people can say they were sort of rescued by Navy SEALs and got to ride in one of their subs? My mom insisted on sitting next to me and she held my hand like I was going to swim away or something.  Needless to say, Mom was even more confused by the time we boarded the sub.

Dani almost took over when they found the nasty scotch stuff she insisted we bring with us, but we were able to bribe, I mean gift, the Captain with the bottle in return for getting our knife back. I overheard the Captain ask how dangerous could a 12 year old girl be with a knife.  The SEAL commander elected not to answer his question, but both Dani and I could tell he was a little nervous.

Oh yeah, and talk about the “debriefings”. Those started as soon as they had us in dry clothes. Amazingly, they had a “civilian rescue and survivor” kit on board. We each got a pair of canvas deck shoes, a simple jumpsuit and some clean underwear. They even had bras on board. Well, plain bras. Nothing fancy or anything, but they beat nothing.

During the debriefing, Dani coached me on what to say and helped keep my story straight. All I had to do was tell them the truth as I saw it. I escaped, found some old Aztec temple, passed out and when I woke up, I was back at the mansion with Mr. Wolfman. I was just along for the ride, literally. It was sort of lying, but it wasn’t, because Wolfman was Dani’s team name.

I did feel a little bad about sort of lying to my parents though, but I couldn’t exactly tell them the truth with all the ears listening.  My parents knew something strange happened, but they were also worried about me.  Me, I was worried about Dani because we still hadn’t had a chance to have a good talk. She wasn’t calling me “sis” anymore. I did not like how she was trying to distance herself from me now.

We didn’t get done with the debriefings until four AM. They put us together in an officer’s cabin. Mom and Dad shared a bed while I got the top bunk. It was really the first time we had any alone time and despite feeling exhausted, my parents wanted to try talking about what happened. I couldn’t tell them anything we didn’t already cover in the debriefings.  Mom tried to ask about Dani, but I both Dani and I agreed that telling her the truth now would be a bad idea. Especially since we couldn’t count on our room not being bugged.  I had to pretend to not know what she was talking about as I glanced meaningfully around the room in an attempt to let her know about possible bugs.

Needless to say, I was pretty worn out by the time the ‘rents let me retreat to my bunk. After I whispered good night to my parents, I whispered the same to Dani.

{“Good night, Melody. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely be dead in the morning...”} Dani thought she was being funny by butchering the line from “The Princess Bride”, but it made me not like that movie as much anymore.

{“Dani! Stop it! Why are you being this way? You’ve been giving me the cold shoulder all night now. Pretty much ever since we rescued Mom.”}

She didn’t reply right away and for a few seconds, I almost expected her to not reply. {“Melody, look. We both know that my assignment here is temporary-”}

I interrupted her. I didn’t like her temporary assumption. {“How do you know that!?”}

Dani whispered softly as she struggled to control her emotions. {“Because, I’m just an instrument of vengeance and my mission is complete. You’re safe now and the bad guys are dead. It’s time for me to move on so you can live your life without some old and bitter dead guy dragging you down with his decades of regrets and mistakes.”}

{“How do you know you’re dead and what does it matter if you are? You’re here with me and I’m not going to let you go! I don’t care what the Goddess’s original deal was. You’re my sister now and that’s that!”}  Now I was crying. Well, we were both crying.

My mom’s arms wrapped themselves around me and we cried into her chest. I cried because of Dani and Dani cried because of me. “Shhh, it’s okay sweetie, I’m here.” Mom rocked gently back and forth as she hugged me tighter.

“I’m sorry mom. It’s, umm, you know who. She doesn’t want to stay with me.” I blabbed the big secret, but I didn’t care.

{“That’s not it...”} Dani mumbled softly as I felt her presence sort of back away from me; adding even more distance between us.

I don’t think my mom knew how to handle that. Her breath caught and she stopped rocking for a second before continuing. “I’m sure she has her reasons dear...”

“She thinks she does. Oh mom, what am I going to do?” I asked, knowing my mom didn’t really understand.

“It’s okay; we’ll work it out together. Now that I have my baby girl back, I’m never letting you go!” My mom crushed me even tighter against her chest as her tears began to drip onto my cheek.

I guess I fell asleep with her holding me because I felt a little disorientated when I woke up and discovered I was sitting with Mom and Dad in the ‘galley’ as they called the cafeteria on the boat. I had an awful taste in my mouth and looked down to discover Dani had me drinking coffee. Not just coffee, but black coffee. No cream or sugar! Gross.

{“About time you woke up sleepy head...”} Dani said with a hint of a smile in her voice. {“I’m glad you’re awake now. I grabbed us a bite to eat and sorry about the coffee, but we needed the caffeine. You’re mom and dad kind of looked at me funny when I drank it, but they didn’t stop me.”}

She immediately let me take over. I grabbed the glass of OJ and swished it around in my mouth to get the nasty coffee taste out. {“Oh man, so gross! How can you drink that stuff?!?”}

{“Hey, it’s good! Do you know how long it’s been since I had a cup of Navy coffee?”} Dani tried to defend herself, but I wasn’t feeling it due to it taking over half the OJ to get rid of the taste.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” Mom asked.

“Oh, nothing, hehe, just thirsty!” I smiled at her and tried to pretend like nothing was wrong with the horrible taste in my mouth.

Mom patted my leg and smirked at me. “I tried to tell you the coffee was strong, but you were bound and determined to drink it and we did have kind of a rough night.”

“Oh yeah, I can’t believe I drank it all myself, but wow, I’m awake now!” I did feel pretty energized. I don’t think I have ever had that much caffeine before.  It didn’t take long before I was bouncing up and down in my seat as I waited for mom and dad to finish their meal.

{“Ah shit, sorry Melody. I forgot how young you are...”} Dani apologized for some reason.

The GQ guy and the team leader dude Dani knew joined us at our table. I felt Dani hunker down and go all stealth alert in the back of my head.  “Oh! Hey GQ and, umm, Brassman?” I asked, trying not to laugh at GQ’s expression. “Why do they call you GQ? Is that your team name? Can I keep my team name?”

Dani was trying not to laugh as Brassman glanced nervously at my parents before turning back to his buddy. “GQ, is there something I need to know?”

I know ‘Jailbait’ just means that I was young, but the way he was reacting; I began to suspect Dani didn’t tell me everything.  The color drained from GQ’s face as he glanced nervously back at his team lead. “Umm, I kind of used her nickname on the yacht sir...”

Brassman glared at GQ. “I see, and she overheard you.” He sighed. “Well, ‘Raven’, I guess you can keep it. I mean, if you want to have an official SEAL Team name.”

Actually, I really liked that name. It was way cooler than ‘Jailbait’, but I wasn’t about to let them off that easy. “Oh yeah, can I?” They eagerly nodded with agreement as my parents looked on with amusement.

{“Good recovery...He owes us.”} Dani smirked.

“Great! I love it! Thanks!” I drank another sip of OJ and held my glass to the side of my mouth to block my parent’s sight. “You owe me...” I mouthed silently to both of them. They acknowledged me with a barely detectable nod.

The XO or some officer came and fetched my parents for some meeting. Brassman decided to ask me if I wanted a tour of the sub. Well, the parts they could show me and weren’t Super Top Secret. Dani suspected he was up to something, but I just felt glad that I didn't have to go to a boring meeting with my parents.

“So, Melody...this ‘Wolfman’, how old was he again?” Brassman asked once we entered the part of the sub Dani recognized as SEAL country.

{“Ah ha!”} Dani pounced. {“I knew he was up to something. The bastard could never keep his nose out of trouble. Oh, sorry...”}

“Oh, I dunno. Old, like maybe 30 or something, why?” I asked as his smile faltered for a second.

{“She shoots, she scores and the crowd goes wild!”} Dani cheered from the sidelines.

{“What? Come on, 30 is old!”}

{“Yeah, well, he’s 35 or 36 now...”}

“Oh my goddess! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...” I grabbed his arm tried not to die from embarrassment.

He waved my apology away with a chuckle. “Oh, it’s okay. I guess I am getting a little too old for this shi-stuff.”

His language correction made me giggle. He was just like Dani.

“What?” Brassman asked.

“Oh, nothing. You just sounded like Wolfman with the censoring thing. Too funny, but like I tried to tell him, I’m 12. I’ve heard it all before.”

{“Doesn’t matter...”}

“Doesn’t matter,” Brassman and Dani said in stereo. “A young lady shouldn’t have to hear that kind of language.”

I could tell he was a little down about something. “Oh, do you have a daughter?”

{“He can’t. They’ve tried for years now, but he received a free vasectomy while on a mission in the Sudan.”}

Brassman sighed. “No...not yet...”

“Oh! I’m sorry!” I gave him a hug and was overcome with the urge to give him a kiss. Brassman was kind of tall. So, I stood up on my tippy toes and kissed him on his cheek.  We both felt kind of a shock from the kiss. My lips tingled as I pulled away and he rubbed his cheek for a bit.

{“You didn’t just, umm?”} Dani gasped with astonishment.

{“Beats me, but I just felt the urge.”} I shrugged, feeling just as lost as Dani by the entire thing. I couldn’t believe I kissed him!

Brassman was still rubbing his cheek as he showed me the small private gym the SEALs had in their part of the boat. It looked like they could use the same area for multiple things, but right now there was an exercise mat on the floor and a couple of the guys were practicing karate or something.

{“Jujitsu...”} Dani corrected me.

“So, Melody, have you taken any martial arts courses back home?” Brassman asked.

{“He’s fishing...”}

I was surprised by his question. “Me? Oh no, I did some dance and gymnastics, but mostly soccer now, why?”

“Would you like me to show you some useful escapes and locks? I young lady can never be too careful, ya know?” Brassman casually gestured for the other men to make some space on the mat.

Dani sighed. {“The damn fool...Kick your shoes off before you step on the mat.”}

I felt worried about this, but it sounded kind of cool to know. {“Aren’t you going to take over?”}

{“No...that is what he wants. He’s testing you.”}

{“Oh...cra-ude.”}

Brassman started out pretty easy. He showed me a few tricks, but Dani already knew them so it wasn’t anything special or top secret.  He threw me once, but Dani took over and helped me fall without hurting myself.

She was not happy. {“Damn it! The fucker is pissing me off!”}

“That was a good fall, Melody, are you sure you don’t know any martial arts?” Brassman smiled encouragingly as he helped me to my feet.

“Me? Oh no, but I took gymnastics. I know how to fall!” I giggled because it was partially true. I fell a lot while trying to learn some of the tumbling exercises.

“Do you wanna try some simple sparring?” Brassman asked, a little too casually for Dani’s liking.

{“Okay, that does it! Lemme take over, okay?”}

{“Umm, sure?”} I didn’t know why she was asking me. It’s never stopped her before.

“I dunno Rob, all these people make me a little nervous...” Dani glanced shyly around the room.

I couldn’t believe she used his first name. {“What are you doing?!?”}

{“Wait for it...”}

His eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Out!” He glanced at the other SEALs watching the exchange. “The young lady doesn’t want all you pervs staring at her!”

They cleared the room pretty fast and as soon as they did, Dani turned to face her old buddy. “So, did Admiral West ever figure out who was banging his daughter?” She had him on the mat and in a painful arm bar before he knew what hit him.

“Who’s your Daddy now, bitch?!” His eyes almost popped out of his head when Dani taunted him.

{“Bit of a potty mouth?”} I teased her because I thought it was actually kind of funny how she surprised him.

{“No, it’s what I always used to say...”}

Dani applied just enough extra leverage to keep him honest. “Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way old buddy. You’re too damn smart for your own good, but this time, I advise you to let it go.”

Dani quickly released him and rolled away, springing lightly to her feet in a fighting stance.

I was almost as surprised as Brassman. {“Dani! What tha’ hell? I thought you didn’t want to tell anyone?!?”}

{“Shhh, busy here. He’s going to try an attack now.”}

Brassman rubbed his arm and cautiously regained his feet, keeping his eyes on Dani the entire time. “Maybe I’m just a little slow...” He launched an attack on Dani that I never even saw coming, but Dani did.

She stepped inside his reach and rotated around, slamming our hip into his thigh, causing him to fly through the air. He almost hit the wall, but he managed to twist around enough not to get hurt by Dani’s throw.  He still woofed as the air was knocked out of his lungs.

“Yes, slow, but stupid is as stupid does...” Dani mocked him.

{“Dani! Why are you being so mean to him?”}

He stood up and dusted himself off with a smile. “Damn it Wolfman, she was 18 and I guess I kinda deserved that. Sorry, but I just can’t believe...” He glanced meaningfully at Dani.

She relaxed her stance. “Yeah, me either, but it’s a temporary duty assignment. I did what I had to do and I expect to be off to the farm for real any minute now that my mission is done.”

Brassman appeared surprisingly accepting of all this. He glanced curiously at us. “So, how does it work. Is the Lynch’s daughter really alive now?”

“Oh, you mean Jailbait?” Dani innocently asked.

“Sorry about that. GQ thought she was 18 during the briefing and well, you know...” Brassman trailed off self-consciously.

“She’s here.” Dani pointed to our head. “And she was mad at me for being ‘mean’ to you just now.”

Brassman raised an eyebrow at that.

“Yeah, we kind of have a split personality thing going on here.” Dani chuckled. “Umm, sorry about missing your birthday last year, I was a little distracted...”

“Fu-dge man...” Brassman glanced self-consciously at Dani as she laughed at him. “Sorry...you just look so...”

“Different?” Dani grinned.

“Yeah, I still can’t believe it...” Brassman shook his head with wonder.

“Me either, but it just goes to show you that there really is some shit you can’t explain. I advise you to send a prayer or two to the Aztec goddess, Chalchiuhtlicue every now and then,” Dani smirked mischievously as Brassman glanced up, startled. “Because, if my guess is correct, you might wanna hold off pounding your pud in the shower.” Brassman glared at Dani.

Hey, I didn’t say it.

Dani chuckled at her friend’s reaction. “Melody’s little kiss on the cheek might make you and Brenda a happy couple in a few months.”

Brassman gulped and glanced down at his pants. “No shit?”  He released what he was doing and blushed as he glanced back up. “What do I tell the old man?”

Dani chuckled. “The truth, duh!” She stuck her tongue out at him like I would have. “Melody has zero training, she’s from California and she’s only 12.” She held out our arm and made a muscle. “Can you see this slip of a girl take down a man three times her size using only a knife or being comfortable doing so?”

I felt a little miffed at her for putting me down like that. {“Hey! You did it! And...I’m almost 13!”}

{“Yeah, and going on 21...”} Dani smirked.

Brassman shook his head with confusion as he tried to process what his eyes were trying to tell him against what the evidence he found on the yacht with what his old friend was telling him and I could tell he was thoroughly messed up by it all. {“Lemme take back over sis.”}

“Look, Mr. Brassman..” His eyes shot to my face as he detected the change in our demeanor. “Dani was awesome, but it wasn’t me. I kind of find it hard to believe myself, but we can’t let the ‘spooks’ know about it.  Dani doesn’t trust them.”

Brassman nodded his head with understanding and I was a little surprised at how much they both distrusted those spook people. “And she doesn’t want me or my family to have to deal with them if they found out about ‘us’. So, can you keep it a secret, please?”

Brassman stared intently into our eyes for a few seconds before he sighed. “I guess so, but I expect the full story sometime. Got it Wolf?”

{“Sure, if he doesn’t mind waiting for you to turn 21 and his wife wouldn’t kick his ass for being seen with you...”} Dani commented dryly.

I nodded for her. “Wolf says, not a problem.”

{“You ever consider a career as a translator?”} Dani giggled at me.