Crazy Seduction(erotica)

Once she was through, Mick had them run over to the General’s office. Firetrucks and police cars were lined up before the parking structure, and scorch marks showed where a car had exploded.

“Shit’s getting real!” Yablonski exclaimed.

Mick faced her squad and ensured she had their full attention. “The cloud cover will hide the infrared, so we’re going top speed to meet the General. Follow me.”

She saw wide smiles as they rarely got to run that fast.

Mick shot away, and each of them joined the line until they vanished from visible sight.

Seconds later, they were grouped behind a motel on the edge of town under an awning.

“I saw the General in a cab three miles west of the hotel,” Feinberg noted. Several heads nodded as they’d seen the same.

They waited in the shelter from the blowing snow until the taxi appeared, slowed, and pulled into the parking lot. The moment it pulled away, Mick rushed around the corner and approached the General. “K2,” she called out.

He turned and looked at her in surprise. He hustled over to the side of the building, and she guided him back to the rest of the squad.

“How did you get back so-Ah! Magic Door. Never mind,” he said in relief.

“How did you know they’d boobytrapped your car?” Mick asked.

“I didn’t. I was almost inside when everything went dark, and the next thing I knew, I was across the street hiding in some bushes while my rental car burned,” he said, and the soldiers all shared spooked glances.

“Henry said if you need anything, just ask,” Mick explained.

“What’s he doing up there?” Gordon asked.Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

“He’s celebrating Christmas with the families of his friends. He’s also isolating himself from pre-transformed people because his body is currently throwing off huge waves of energy.”

The General locked eyes with Mick. “He’s a source of the energy that transforms people, and he’s shedding large quantities?” The Sergeant nodded. He smiled. An idea was forming in his mind.

Gordon Crane wasn’t going to wait for these bastards to try again. He was going into the lion’s den to take the fight to them.

-=-

General Brixton stared at the chess pieces on the board before him as his mind worked on a completely separate challenge.

His plan to eliminate the threat in the woods on the Connecticut border while taking out Crane’s freaks had done neither. What should have been a simple fait accompli was now a race to eliminate the evidence trail.

He knew he had sympathetic ears in congress who would have quickly jumped to support his efforts to bring sanity back to their lives. All this talk about strange new sources of energy, followed by the report of the flash of super-intense light from what had always been a quiet region of the state, signaled activity from one or more of these mutations that were popping up all over the world. Eliminating what was obviously a threat would prove the human way of life would continue, and humanity would be the dominant species on the planet.

While he wasn’t keen on using terrorist tactics, the car bomb had been effective in tying off the loose end of that idiot, Brigadier-General Internet. Perhaps with the head of that freak team cut off, he’d be able to get the Silver People repurposed. Maybe even for medical experimentation.

His cell rang, and he frowned at it. It was too soon for Hollis to contact him. He looked at the screen and froze.

Crane was alive? He’d have to play ignorant.

He quickly composed himself and answered the call.

“Crane, don’t you know it’s Christmas Eve? Why are you calling me?” he growled in full bluster mode.

The man’s voice came through the earpiece in gasps, like he’d been running. “Yes-sorry… but,” He took a deep breath. “… someone just tried to kill me with a car bomb. My team was at the coordinates when US Air Force jets fired upon the civilian residence! I began investigating immediately and may have uncovered a conspiracy! My efforts must have caught their attention as they booby-trapped my rental. I’ll have more evidence soon! We need to get the other members of our committee to join us back at the Pentagon. I’ll be getting a call in forty minutes. The commanding officer of the airbase where jets flew from says he’s digging up all the correspondence from their computer systems on the attack. He’ll send it to me then. Can you get the others?”

Brixton nodded to himself as this could work. Even if Crane was trying to play him, he had more resources to reach out to for closing off the loose ends. The Colonel at the airbase was one he could easily deal with.

“Again, it’s Christmas Eve, so some of them aren’t available. I will get who I can. We’ll be there in thirty.”

“Good, good. Listen, I’ve been in this location too long. I have to keep moving. I’ll see you in thirty.” Crane hung up.

Brixton would be there in fifteen minutes to prepare their conference room. He’d ensure the recording system was deactivated, and he had a few trusted men in security ready to deal with surprises if Crane planned anything.

He called Hollis and Densbridge and told them to be in the room in twenty minutes.

Then he made a quick call to Bentford Air Base to have his man deal with a certain nosy Colonel.

Back to the situation at hand, if Crane came with evidence, he wouldn’t be leaving with it. There were better than even odds he wouldn’t be leaving at all.

-=-

General Crane walked briskly to the Pentagon’s front doors and pulled one open, pausing a second before entering. He walked up to the Security and made a fuss about looking for his access card. Then he signed in and headed down the cold empty hallway to the elevator bank. The building was never vacant, but there was definitely a reduced presence tonight.

He pressed the down button, and an elevator door opened. He stepped inside and held the door as he listened, but the hall remained silent and empty.

Nodding, he pressed the button for the subfloor their meeting room was located and leaned back against the rail to go over the plan once more. He’d grilled the Sergeant, Feinberg, Dane, and Blayne on their roles, but he wasn’t sure if it wasn’t all going to go to hell once he stepped into that room and faced Brixton. He was pretty sure his acting on the call was a disaster, but he knew the man wouldn’t refuse the bait and miss the opportunity to take care of what he’d failed to do earlier.

When he stepped off the elevator, he turned left and noticed two junior officers at the far end of the hall glance up at him then quickly look away. Well, that wasn’t obvious at all.

He strode down the hall purposefully, and midway he turned to the door to the chamber and took another deep breath as he rubbed his temple. He pushed open the door and stood just inside, looking at the two men he’d expected to see and one he hadn’t.

“This is it? Three?” he said with a scowl.

“It’s fucking Christmas Eve! You’re lucky you got us.” Brixton snapped back. “Besides, you’re almost late yourself.”

Crane pulled his cell phone out and moved to join the other Generals by the desk. The phone rang so he answered it and put it on speaker. He touched his lips to get the others to remain quiet as he set the cell on the table surface.

“General Crane here.”

“General, this is Colonel Miller.”

In the corner of his eye, Gordon caught Brixton clenching his jaw.

“Yes, Colonel. Were you successful in retrieving the records?” Gordon asked.

“I was. I can ship you the records immediately,” he replied.

“Excellent news! Please do! In the interim, can you give me the authorizing name on the order to send the jet fighters on the live-fire mission in New York State?”

“Major-General Hollis,” Miller stated clearly.

Crane looked to Hollis, whose face was red with suppressed anger.

“One second, Colonel,” Gordon said and placed the cell on mute.

He locked eyes with the Major-General. “What do you have to say about that?”

“Fuck you is what I say,” the angry man responded.

“Hold that thought,” Crane said as he disabled the mute. “Colonel, was there anything else you need to report?”

“Yes, you were right. Someone did attempt to silence me tonight. He was quite surprised to be captured by the two Silver Soldiers you loaned me. They proved to be equally successful at compelling a confession out of him. He said he was ordered to do it by General Brixton just moments after you spoke to the General.”

“One second, Colonel,” Gordon said again, but only pretended to put the phone on mute this time.

Now it was Brixton’s turn to face Crane’s piercing stare. “Any words, General?”

Instead of speaking, Brixton pulled a monstrous handgun and fired it point-blank at Crane’s chest.

The man flew back and landed in a crumpled heap.

“FUCK!” Densbridge yelled as he looked back at the corpse cooling on the meeting room floor. “Was that entirely necessary?” he barked.

“Of course, it was necessary, Rick! The asshole restored the digital data trail I was informed was permanently removed. They got Hollis for ordering the attack-”

“That was your order!” Hollis barked at Brixton in his shock.

“Don’t be a pussy, Hollis! You know it was required, and you participated, as did Rick.” He looked back at Densbridge. “I don’t know how they got the confession out of my guy at the base. Probably tortured by one of those silver freaks. Now they have me for ordering a hit. Why is tonight falling into the shitter?”

Hollis suddenly slumped and fell to the floor.

“Gawdammit!” Brixton cursed and watched Densbridge kneel to check on the man, then jump to his feet with a shout of fear.

“What the fuck!” Rick said, pointing at the prone man who seemed to be shrinking.

Brixton watched in shock and yelped when Densbridge toppled over as well.

“What? What’s going on? This is bullshiiii…” His gun dropped from his grip as he staggered forward, dropped to his knees, and flopped forward onto his face.

The room went silent.

-=-

Henry was kneeling next to Crane and checked his pulse. He breathed a silent sigh of relief as his heartbeat was strong and steady.

He felt another of his personal force fields brush against his, and suddenly he could see the Sergeant as their fields merged into one two-person bubble. She touched his arm, and he felt her guilt and fear. He pushed his reassurance that the General was alive and would survive.