Watching Yute (46 page)

“
Yeah, that's our boy.”
Keith said, “Where is this?” He looked over his shoulder to make
sure Colonel Nafim was paying attention.

“
Downtown Densfarn.” the
officer replied, “All sightings of this person were within a mile
of each other. We finally stuck his face into the system, and it
clicked with a sketch we had received from you guys.”

“
Can you send me all the
info you have on this guy? Locations, items stolen, times and
dates?”

“
Done. Do you want us to
pick him up for you?”

“
That might not be wise,”
the Colonel stepped in, “If you do spot him, please just track him,
and let us know where he is. We'll be in the area
shortly.”

“
Yes, Sir.”

Keith nodded. “Thank you. Keep us
posted.” he turned to the Colonel. “Should I call Leftenent
Stanton, and tell her we'll be picking her up shortly?”

“
I guess we should. Let's
not drag our heels on this though.”

~~~~~

:::C /45

~~~~~

Cassidy arched back hard, reaching down
between her legs to grab at the back of Cheryl's head with both
hands. She wrenched to the side but was pleasantly helpless to
resist. Cheryl's arms were wound firmly around Cassidy's hips,
specifically to prevent escape.

Cheryl giggled before her final
assault. Cassidy bucked back even harder, pressing her hips against
Cheryl's face. Her breathing stopping with a sharp gasp, her mind
blinded by the moment. Cheryl gazed up along Cassidy's rigid,
climaxing body in adoring awe.

Her sigh accidentally triggered an
extra little sensation to ripple though Cassidy. “Oh! Damn! Stop! I
give up!” Cassidy pushed Cheryl's head back gently, well aware that
Cheryl's hold on her hips was still very much in effect.

As Cassidy began to relax, Cheryl just
smiled devilishly. “Nuh-uh, babe. You're mine, dontcha know?” She
lowered her head again to give a tiny kiss.

“
No no no,” Cassidy gasped
for air, “I mean, yes, yes I am, but stop already!”

Cheryl relaxed her hold, and wandered
her hands around Cassidy's skin to caress gently, being kind enough
not to tickle, despite the temptation. She started to climb back up
Cassidy, watching her deep breathing. “Fine,” She purred with a
sheepish smile, “Mercy. But are you mine?”

As Cheryl came further up, Cassidy
wrapped her arms around her. “Ridiculous question...” Cassidy
replied, trying to regain her composure, “I was yours the moment I
saw you.”

Cheryl stared into Cassidy's eyes with
a look of sultry wit, and began speaking. Her lips moved, but
Cassidy couldn't hear a word of it. She couldn't hear anything. No,
that wasn't right. She could hear something distant.

Screaming. Cheryl's
screaming.

Distant, but it was Cheryl's scream,
there was no question.

“
Cheryl?!” Cassidy looked
into Cheryl's eyes. Cheryl looked calm and seductive in her
'innocent' way, lips moving as if saying something entirely
unrelated to the screaming. “Cheryl, what's going on!?”

Cheryl slowly sat up, straddling
Cassidy's hips, and holding her hands on Cassidy's shoulders,
gently pinning her down. The screaming was getting
closer.

“
Cheryl!” Cassidy was unable
to get free. Unable to even look away from Cheryl's face, which
silently, and calmly talked on. The screaming got closer and
closer. Just a handful of metres away, maybe.

With a violent snap, Cheryl grabbed her
head with both hands, her face distorted in pain, and the screams
were now coming from her, louder and more piercing than Cassidy
thought possible. Still, they stared each other in the
eye.

Cheryl began to turn a brilliant
shining white. Her body tore apart, like shards of paper. The
screams echoed and overlapped themselves, becoming all the more
intense.

Cassidy awoke to the sound of her
terminal beeping madly from the other side of the tent. She
groaned, and lifted her face from the sleeping bag, glad to be
awake. Groping around for the terminal, she turned it on with its
screen still facing the floor of the tent.

“
Stanton here.
What?”

“
Cassidy. We've got a
general location on Samson, A.K.A. Jacob Kirison. Get to the
helipad!”

“
Huh? Keith? That
you?”

Keith sighed. “Yeah, its me. Wake up
and get to the helipad. We're about ten minutes out.”

Cassidy mumbled groggily,
“Kay.”

“
Don't fall back to sleep!
Get moving!”

She replied with more energy, “I said
'kay!'” and disconnected. Alright, wake up, don't think about it,
just wake up. Get out of the sleeping bag.

Inventory check.

Terminal? Stuffed back in the thigh
pocket.

Hat? Re-installed.

Gun? Friggin' Maxine has it.

Go, go, go!

Oh wait. Dressed still? Good. Go, go,
go! She burst out of her mournful love nest, staggering a little
for a few steps before her jogging took real stride. Go. Burn it,
wake up, adrenaline. Go. What the hell time was it? She didn't stop
to check her terminal, but from the look of the sun, it had to be
late afternoon. How long was she passed out? Go. Just
go.

She felt she was making good time, so
she headed to base first. She burst through the door, ignoring
greetings. As she headed to the mess, she hollered out “Maxine!
Gimmie my damned gun! I'm gonna go get this Samson
bastard!”

The first thing she saw in the mess was
a bagel, so she grabbed it and carried it with her mouth. Exiting
the mess, Maxine appeared with the gun. “Cass, here you go. Good
luck.”

“
Mhfmm.” was the best reply
she could manage at the moment. She hated being rushed. Why didn't
she just stay on the airlimb? She ran out the door to hear Maxine
call out behind her.

“
Cass! Catch!” She threw a
deodorant to Cassidy who caught it and kept going. She must have
been pretty rank if deodorant was a priority right after a gun. As
she kept running, reality started to sink in, along with why Maxine
was holding her gun. The bagel broke off, the bulk of it falling to
the ground, leaving her with one mouthful. She hated bagels if they
weren't toasted. What was she thinking? Go, go, the airlimb was
maneuvering to land, and heaven forbid she got in trouble with
Keith..

She got to the helipad moments before
the airlimb set down. Keith was waiting at the open bay door.
Several other Storms were milling around inside.

“
I saw you running, Cass.”
He offered his hand out to help her up, just in case she chose to
accept it this time. “ What the heck fell out of your mouth back
there?”

“
Breakfast.” she replied as
she hopped up unassisted as usual. “Dropped my damned
bagel.”

“
Well, that was silly. It's
not like we don't have any food on board here.”

Cassidy shook her head. “Yeah, I'm an
idiot. Hey, you made it sound like we were in a huge rush! Why
haven't we lifted off yet?”

Keith looked past Cassidy, and pointed
at a lone figure walking down the path, as if out of the sunset. It
was Cipriana. “We got a request to bring her along. Colonel okayed
it.”

Cassidy rolled her eyes with a sigh and
sat on the edge of the airlimb bay, with her feet dangling off the
side as if she were fishing from a pier. “Busted my butt in a
footrace with the princess of serenity.” She sucked her teeth, and
looked around, anxious to get going. She hollered out to Cipriana.
“Cip! Hurry! If you take much longer, Keith's gonna have to put
another quarter in the metre! The Grand Elder already has a
shitload of parking tickets on this thing!” She sighed again, and
got up, heading to her on-board quarters. “I'm going to go get some
breakfast. If Cip ever makes it here, wake me up.”

Keith raised his eyebrows. “Crap,
Leftenent, do you always bust your C.O.'s chops like this? By the
way, it's nearly 17:00. Bit late for breakfast.”

“
She's a tough gal. I dunno,
I'm just ready to get this over with, you know?” She sat back down,
and considered sarcastically cheering Cipriana on. She settled for
just fidgeting until Cipriana came near.

“
Cip, what made you feel the
need to come along? I mean, you're welcome and all,
but...”

Cipriana stepped on board, and crossed
her fingers. “I have a hunch.”

Cassidy gave those crossed fingers a
cold glance as the engines revved up and the ground fell away. “I
thought you were going to stop that.”

Cipriana uncrossed her fingers, and
shrugged slightly. “It's efficient.” Efficient or not, Cassidy was
growing less and less comfortable knowing there was an artificial
mind sharing living space with Cipriana's own. She forced herself
to remember that it was the same one that had lived in Marcus
peacefully for years.

Cassidy just slightly shook her head,
and headed to the airlimb's mess. The mess was more of a 'nook'
than a proper mess. There wasn't any proper place to sit down and
the selection wasn't that great. Still feeling a bit like a visitor
on the airlimb, she didn't want to rummage too much, so she settled
for a 'beef stew' flavoured ration pack and a bottle of water. She
headed to her quarters as she munched. Sliding open the door
revealed Cipriana sitting on the bunk.

“
Hey Cip. Does your little
friend care to elabourate on 'hunch'?”

Cipriana looked off into nowhere,
listening to the ghost. “Not really.” She said, “He says that a
hunch is by nature, difficult to explain.”

Cassidy scoffed. “You wouldn't think it
possible for him to be that vague.”

“
He's pretty unique.”
Cipriana's voice lilted off. She looked back at the spear. “You
might need that.”

Cassidy had planned on taking it, even
though she didn't expect to need it. Aside from having a pile of
Storms on her side, this rogue nerd didn't really feel like the
same kind of target as Horad. Horad respected the spear, and knew
its meaning. This Kirison guy only used Aguei customs to manipulate
Horad. It was far more likely that Kirison would get a laugh out of
the spear before surrendering to it.

That said, the most satisfying time to
shove a spear up someone's nose is when they're laughing at
you.

After finishing her ration, she went
over to the rack, and lifted the spear out. “I'm not going to sit
here picking my nose until we find him. I'm going to go to the ops
room, and pick my nose there.” Then looked at Cipriana for a while.
“The two of you can come along if you want.”

Cipriana stood gracefully, yet nearly
expressionless. Peaceful plus nanites equaled creepy.

Cassidy walked through the narrow
airlimb corridor with Cipriana silently trailing behind. They
entered the ops room, and Colonel Nafim nodded her head in
greeting. “Ladies. We have locals doing the legwork for us. No
sense in landing a StormFront on a random street. Might raise a
couple eyebrows.”

The city of Densfarn sprawled beneath
them, and the early sunset washed a pale orange through the glass
obelisks. Cassidy wondered if the people on the ground could
appreciate it. She leaned on the spear, and shifted her glance
between monitors and windows. The constant babble over the radio
easily melded into the background, leaving a false feeling of
silence.

Keith was here as well, bent over a
control panel alongside another Storm, both of whom were listening
closely for relevant news.

Thoughts of Cheryl made their way into
Cassidy's mind, and she felt the need to hold Cheryl's hand. Only
Cipriana stood nearby, silently crossing and uncrossing her
fingers.

“
Stop that.” Cassidy
whispered to her. Cipriana looked at her hand, and stopped. “Sorry.
It has become habit.”

“
Well break it.”

“
I think I will.”

Suddenly, a red circular icon appeared
on several displays, marking a location. The text “PRITAR” was on
top of it. Keith spoke up. “Colonel. Local authorities just sent us
a VTag. Confirming. Yup. Primary target. It's Kirison.”

Nafim stepped forward to see the
virtual tag though the front window. Get me who's in charge
there.”

“
Roger. Alright, you're
live.”

“
Hello?” Nafim spoke clearly
to the microphone in the ceiling. “This is Colonel Nafim of the
G.E.G.. Who am I speaking to?”

“
Captain Lemic, fourteenth
precinct, Sir.” returned a man's voice, “We have a positive I.D. on
your fellow. He's walking around. It's a fairly populated area. He
doesn't know anything's up yet.”

“
Good. Do not engage.” She
gave a hand signal to Keith, and he zoomed one of the displays in
on Kirison's position. “Listen,” Nafim continued, “we want a clear
target, and we don't want him noticing he's being isolated. Can you
do that for me?”

“
I can quietly get as many
innocents away as I can. Give me ten minutes, and you should have
all the elbow room you need. Anything else?”

“
Yes, but not quite yet.
I'll be in touch.”