Chapter Thirty-Four

  Hotori was a thirty year man, one of the first Kitsune literally born and bred for InSec. He was Black operations, specializing in sniper work, and his career was mostly under the radar where the council liked it. He had removed more than a few liberal politicians running for important posts over the years and every time the target had been taken down with a minimum of public fuss. He took pride in that fact, and had never once in his life questioned his duty to the service in all of that time.

  That is, until now.

  For nearly two weeks he, and most of the rest of the black ops division, had been paired out as glorified security guards for normally low security installations like the crèches where he was stuck. He knew why, all because some slut from the investigative service had stumbled across a dark secret no one wanted anyone to know, and she might act to save some kids because of it.

  He sneered at the thought of someone being so impractical. He, unlike most of the human sub-race officers in InSec knew all about the purge of Siren and was completely in support of it. He hated the creepy little bastards, conveniently ignoring the fact that as a Kitsune most humans considered him just as strange. His opinion was, if the government ordered it, it was good enough for him.

  His thoughts and boredom meant he never saw the shadow separate from the bigger mass of the alley’s darkness, nor did he hear it approach. His first and last warning was when a hand wrapped around his mouth that pulled back his face, and the sharp caress of a knife slitting his throat.

  Rei set the corpse down, glancing around to make sure he was the only guard at the selected entrance. “Clear.” He whispered, trusting the small mastoid microphone pasted to his jaw to deliver the message to the rest of the strike team. He dragged his victim back into the alley and waited.

  Seven other men and Noriko Aiko from Natalia’s team, the only woman selected for the mission, slid out of the sewer grate in the alley next to the sprawling, surface complex called simply the crèche. All of them were reasonably skilled in combat, though Noriko and Rei were the only ones with actual, real combat experience. Rei had been put in charge, though frankly he wasn’t sure why.

  “The guards are down, and no one seems to be at the entrance.” Rei whispered softly, holding up the ID badge from the man. “From what Noriko says the place is less secure than InSec Central Command, so it won’t care that a group of us is walking in but stay sharp incase something has changed.” He then counted out as he pointed at each team member other than Noriko. “Everyone who I just counted even, you’re with Noriko. Your job is to get to the caregiver’s dorm and guard them while the lady convinces them to join us. Everyone with an odd number, you drew the short straw. You’re coming with me to take out the administrators before they notice we’re here. You’re sure they’re in a different dorm than the caregivers?” He asked, wanting to confirm the plan one last time.

  “Absolutely certain.” Noriko assured him. “Just follow the signs marked administration, and you’ll come right to the offices. They have their quarters right behind those.

  “I guess they don’t get out much. Don’t you hate bean counters?” He pressed his finger to the comm at his throat. “Talia, this is Rei. We’re getting ready to move.”

  “Roger that, Rei.” Natalia’s voice floated into his ear, where a small ear-bud was nestled. “Saki’s demolitions team has finished setting the charges in the access tunnels to the Diana. Tell us when you’re in route, and we’ll open the door for you.”

  “Will do.” He replied. Looking at the men and one woman under his command Rei couldn’t help but feel terrified. Not for himself, but for the people who were for some following his orders

  He managed to shake that off, nodding more to himself than his team. “Let’s go. Move out.”

  Natalia sighed and looked over at the small crowd of albinos surrounding Saki. Alexander had suggested, late in the planning stages, the use of psychic warfare against any troops that were mustered to resist them. She’d originally scoffed until he, and Kay when she refused to believe him, described the concept of the gestalt.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Basically it involved a large number of well disciplined Siren joining together their psionic abilities, focusing through the strongest member of the collective to achieve what would be impossible for a normal, individual Siren. Where Natalia had seen Takeda, who was among the crowd, subdue a small band of rioters with difficulty in the past, Alexander claimed they could disrupt a reinforced battalion of trained soldiers together. Natalia sincerely didn’t want to find out if he was right.

  She held up her com unit and pressed a button, keying a new channel to transmit on. “Kay, this is Natalia. How’s it going?”

  “For the record, I want to post an official complaint at the weak security in the Cities tube-way tunnels. Not one camera that was real in over twenty kilometers!” The other woman observed.

  Natalia chuckled, and marveled again at how similar the twins were, when they weren’t paying attention. “As a Major in the Internal Security Service I will send a memo to my superiors. I’m sure that’ll get some action, immediately.”

  “Don’t bother.” Kay replied. “All the non-combatants are with me, standing behind the smiley face Saki instructed us to stay behind. Why, by the way, did she use a smiley face?”

  “That’s simple. If you stand in front of it, you won’t be smiling.” Natalia commented dryly. “Who has the detonator?”

  “I have the primary, though apparently Saki has a master switch?”

  “She would. We’ll try to give you a heads up so you can make your own door, but if the hole suddenly blows open by it’s self, don’t ask questions. Just move.”

  “Got it. How’s Rei.”

  “Just entering the crèche now.” Natalia replied. “Natalia out.”

  She slid her assault rifle from its sling, settling it into her hands. She’d been trained in them during her crèche days, but hadn’t used one in years. “We all good here?” She asked Alexander.

  “Yes, though this one refuse to move.” His gesture pointed out the small form of Saki, a splash of color in a sea of albino’s. “Something about not trusting me alone with Takeda.”

  “With your history? I couldn’t imagine why.” Natalia commented dryly. “I’m going to move up to where the primary assault teams are. I’ll contact you if there are any problems.”

  “We’ll do the same. Good luck Major.”

  “Thanks.”

  Rei drifted along, at the head of his small column of troops. All were armed with sonic pistols though he kept his holstered at the insistence of Saki. Even though she wasn’t there with them, he was certain she’d know if he touched it, and would hurt him very badly for it.

  “Noriko here.” Rei heard in his ear, causing him to pause.

  “Go.” He instructed, too close to the admin dorms to risk anything more than his terse response. He knew the rest of his team could hear what she said, saving him the effort of having to explain why they paused.

  “We’re good to go down here. It seems that a few of the black ops guys they had guarding the place weren’t as good at their anti-psi ops training as they liked to believe. The care giving staff have known what’s going on for days now, thanks to reading surface thoughts, but had been sitting on it because they didn’t know what to do. They’re ready to move on our say so.”

  “Well, this is going smoothly isn’t it?” One of Rei’s men, Jim, said. Rei wheeled on him in shock.

  “Did you really just say that?”

  No sooner had Rei asked the question then the door to the bathing facilities swung open, a slim brunette stepping out wearing nothing but a terry cloth robe. Rei’s eyes locked on her own shocked expression and they both froze for a second. Then she began to run.

  Straight for an emergency alert button set into the wall.

  Rei cursed and dove after her, taking her legs just below the knees. The woman went down hard, but her hand came down on the plunger, causing alarm klaxons to pierce Rei’s ears.

  “What’s going on? Rei?” Noriko called out; the alarms audible on her end of the radio as well.

  “We’re blown! Get the rug rats out. My team will try and engage the security forces and keep them off your ass!” Rei replied, punching the struggling woman in the head, and lurching to his feet.

  “Get going, and Jim… You’re on freaking point!”

  Noriko growled as she spun to her team, and the crowd of half-dressed caregivers around them. “Seems things went wrong! I need you go get the kids up and get them moving now!”

  “What do you mean, you’re blown?” Natalia asked, running to reach the assault teams. “I spoke to Rei not even four minutes ago!”

  “I don’t know specifics Sir. I’m assuming someone stumbled across Rei’s team. Either way, we’re going to be running with a bunch of sleepy kids.”

  “ETA?”

  “Do you remember the fire drills they put us through?” Noriko’s voice was ironic, even though the scrambled comm. “We’ll be up and moving in about five minutes, ten tops. Give us ten to get to the hole.”

  “Make it five. It’s a wonderful morning for a run!”

  “Roger that, Sir. Forced march for the four year olds, on the double.”

  “Do your best, Noriko.” She keyed her com to Saki’s channel, even as she got to the main group. “Saki, tell Alexander to start that touchy feely gestalt thing of his. We’re going to need it.” She instructed, before she turned to the man in charge of blowing the entry holes to the Diana’s slip. “Are your men ready?”

  “And willing. Just give us the word.”

  Natalia sighed and glanced at her watch. “Word. Blow the walls in eight.”