Second Mission, Part VI

Posted on Dec 11, 2017 @ 8:19pm by Chloe Nielsen
Edited on on Dec 11, 2017 @ 8:19pm

Mission: Section 31

“Second Mission, Part VI”

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Location: West city, BETA-525
SD: [2.17] 1210.2318
Scene: Hover car -> Hotel Lobby -> Restaurant


Following the successful heist of the artifact and safe escape from the building, Chloe headed for the shopping complex for a rendezvous with Mehta, who handed her the artifact. At that time, the agent informed Poorna that her job as asset was complete and the doctor and her husband were to leave the planet on the same night. Once the arrangements were made, regarding their departure, Chloe returned to the Anonymous hotel, where she stored the item in her room’s safe.

Now she was travelling in a hover car, entirely controlled by the vehicle’s system. A rental that she could summon anytime using her communicator and didn’t come cheap. The hover car was cruising through the city, making its way to an upscale hotel in the south side for an evening with Kyle Ross, the CEO of Triangle Alliance Ltd. When she contacted Kyle about having dinner with him, he was thrilled as if he scored free passes to a luxury cruise.

Chloe couldn’t help feeling a little amused at his expectation that she would want to be with him because of his wealth. Then again, she never understood people who believed wealth and status were everything and that many would take on a life of crime just to attain those two things. She’d not consider having a long-term personal relationship with persons like Ross if she chose to have one in the first place. Of course, her main reason for not having a life partner or spouse, was the possibility of the danger they’d be in, not to mention the strain on the relationship because of her job, which she didn’t really want to give up.

Rummaging through her stylishly, expensive purse, its smooth surface, giving off a silvery sheen, she pulled out a tiny, round mirror and quickly checked her face and hair. The makeup was just the right amount - not too much nor too little. She gave her head a gentle pat to smoothen the hair, when the AI announced their arrival at the destination. Chloe listened to the whirring sound as the car was slowing down until it came to a full stop.

The hatch to her right lifted and the agent stepped out. A tall, dark skinned humanoid man approached her. “Good evening, ma’am. Would like me to take your car to the parking garage?” His greeting was polite, mouth curling into a smile and eyes fixed intently on her.

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Chloe replied in a slightly dismissive tone, waving him off. She walked away, while at the same time, the hover car lifted off, took a left turn and sped away to a lot that she paid for, somewhere near the spaceport.

The agent made her way to the entrance of a large upscale hotel, not paying heed to the stares by mostly men and some women in her direction. She adorned a form-fitting, sleeveless black dress with a high V-neck, made of fine silk. The dress stretched to about three or four inches below the knee with slits on both sides. Neither too formal nor too casual, just an outfit suitable for a wealthy woman, having a nice evening with an old acquaintance. Her accessories included an expensive silver chain necklace around her neck, a pair of silver earrings, a watch-like bracelet circling her left wrist and black, open-toed, high heels. Her hair was let down a little past the shoulders.

She walked through the main doors, making her way across the lobby, displaying an air of confidence and aloofness, past the entrance to the upscale restaurant. An Orion woman greeted her, her mouth curling into a polite smile – well at a fancy establishment the employees couldn’t be too friendly. “Good evening and welcome. Do you have a reservation?”

“I’m meeting someone,” the agent replied, giving her a cool gaze. “Just point me in the direction of the bar and I’ll wait there.”

“Yes ma’am.” The Orion complied, leading her towards the bar. As Chloe took a seat at one of the high tables, the green woman added before taking off, “A server will be with you shortly.”

The bar was where Kyle said he’d meet her and it seemed she was a few minutes early, enough time to plan her next move. She tilted her head, upon hearing footsteps and a young Bajoran woman appeared beside her, a smile across her face.

“Greetings.” The dark haired waitress smiled. “What do you like to drink?”

“A glass of white sparkling wine, please.”

“Coming right up.” The Bajoran turned on her heel and left.

Chloe took a quick glance around her surroundings. The place looked busy, packed with other patrons belonging to a myriad of different species, some of which she didn’t recognize. The galaxy was big with still areas in all four quadrants that remained unexplored and the Triangle in particular, attracted all kinds of groups – some with the desire to start anew and others for nefarious purposes.

The waiter returned with her drink. “Anything else, ma’am.”

“No.” Chloe nodded, taking a sip of the wine and sighed. Poorna and her husband should be on their way to the spaceport around this time. She hoped they’d make it out of the HH complex without any trouble. As the blonde took another sip, a male Ferengi with a rotund physique appeared, plopping himself on the chair beside her with a loud thud and his chubby hands slamming the table. Chloe’s glass shifted a bit, spilling drops of wine on the table.

The Canadian narrowed her eyes, her lips pursed in a thin line, annoyed at the Ferengi, who seemed to be middle-aged, sat at her table, uninvited. She rolled her eyes, watching the orange being open his mouth wide, revealing discoloured and decaying teeth. She cringed at the foul odour coming out of his mouth – not only his dental hygiene was poor, but so was his diet.

Then the Ferengi spoke, his loud, nasally voice, irritating to the ear, “Oh how lucky I am to run into a beautiful female. I bet your delicate fingers will be soothing to my lobes.”

Chloe grabbed her glass and gulped down her wine. Delicate fingers, she thought with dry amusement – that idiot wouldn’t know what he’d be in for if any part of him came in contact with those fingers. But as long as the Ferengi didn’t make any unwanted advances towards her till Kyle came, then there was no need for her to do anything.

“More wine?” The Bajoran waitress returned, picking up the empty glass.

Chloe nodded. “Yes.”

As the waitress turned to the other guest, the Ferengi reached out for the dark haired woman’s chest, his grubby hand resting on it as he leered at her. “How about two glasses of your finest Yridian brandy and a plate of tube grubs.”

Judging from the sour expression on the Bajoran’s face, it was obvious to Chloe, the waitress was filled with disgust at his touch and so was she – ire slowly building up inside her. Under normal circumstances, she’d have dealt with the pervert, however she was under cover, pretending to be a woman who didn’t care for anyone but herself. So she stayed out of it, despite the rising temptation to just teach the Ferengi a lesson.

“Yes sir,” the waitress said, maintaining a calm tone though her eyes blazed with anger. She turned around, forcing the Ferengi to release her. He reached out for her butt but couldn’t touch as the Bajoran increased her pace, rushing to another table.

Chloe sighed, realizing, of course, the waitress couldn’t fight back – the establishment’s policy didn’t allow it. Not surprising in these treacherous parts. Then she felt an uncomfortable sensation, her gaze moving downwards and saw the Ferengi’s grubby little hand sitting on her thigh. At the sight of the Ferengi’s toothy grin and leery gaze, the agent’s expression turned cold.

As Wilhelmina Henstridge, she feigned not caring for others’ plight but the cover didn’t involve sitting meekly and allow the pervert to have his way with her. She reached out and grabbed both his earlobes, her fingers caressing them.

The Ferengi smiled. “Oh an oo-mox. Hmm….” Soon his expression changed from pleasure to excruciating pain and then his mouth opened, releasing a high pitched wail as Chloe gave the lobes a hard twist, her well-manicured nails digging into the skin.

“Stop! What’s the meaning of this…?” He shrieked, forcing him to let go of her thigh.

“I didn’t realize your lobes were so delicate.” Chloe’s voice laced with sarcasm, an icy stare in his direction. As she increased the intensity of her lobe twisting, the diminutive being’s squeals grew. “Such agony and here we all thought I have delicate fingers.” She narrowed her eyes. “Perhaps the pain will make you think twice before you harass another woman.” In reality, she knew that wasn’t going to happen – the pathetic creature was just going to find another female to harass. She guessed he likely hailed from New Ferenginar because of his regressive views.

Releasing his earlobes, she shoved him off the chair, sending him a few feet from her table. The Ferengi tumbled to the floor on his bottom, his black eyes sending the agent a baleful stare. “No female dares humiliate me…” He let out another scream, nursing his lobes.

While the Ferengi howled in anger, Chloe turned her back to him, just when the waitress returned with her second drink, giving the agent a grateful smile. “Thank you.” Chloe took a sip of the wine.

“Well, fancy meeting you here.”

Chloe felt her muscles tense and her expression hardened, upon recognizing the voice. She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. Standing beside the table was a human woman, smiling and her ice blue eyes gleaming with mischief. The agent let her right hand hover above her knee.

“Relax,” Minerva Evans said, the English accent visible in her voice. “I’m just here to talk.” She raised her hands in peace. “So you don’t have to take out your toys.”

Nielsen smiled, knowing Evans referred to her intelligence tech and moved her right hand back to the table, reaching out for her glass to take another sip. “Okay.” She nodded, pointing at an empty chair. “Let’s talk.” She watched the other woman sit down.

Evans’ code name, ‘Red Mistress’ now made perfect sense to the blonde. Minerva dazzled in a form-fitting, crimson gown that stretched down to her ankles with high slits on the sides. Made of fine silk, the dress glittered with sequins and hung off the shoulders, leaving it, her neck and arms exposed. Her accessories were kept simple, a gold chain around her neck, a pair of gold earrings encased with red gemstones and open-toed, crimson coloured high heels. Her bright red hair was styled in a messy bun with loose ringlets, dangling around the sides.

A Risean man stopped by the table, placing a glass of red wine in front of Evans. She was quite conspicuous with the colour. Even her drink was red. Chloe shook her head at the absurdity.

“Quite a situation you’re in.” When Chloe raised an eyebrow, Minerva smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to interfere in your mission. In fact, I very much hope you succeed.”

“Well, Dr. Fischer, I’m relieved to hear that.” The agent returned the smile, yet her pale blue eyes remained cold as ice. The blonde emphasized the redhead’s cover name to make her aware, she knew about her presence at the HH building.

But Minerva seemed unfazed, taking a sip of her drink. “I’m glad we got that out of the way, Ms. Henstridge and by the way, you can call me, Ophelia.” Yes, Evans posed as Dr. Ophelia Fischer, a species trafficker but why?

“Why are you interested in Humanity’s Hope? And how did you find out about my mission?”

“I have my own sources, one of whom told me about this group of human extremists, involved in buying hon-humans from the black market in the region for the past month.” Evans sighed. “After conducting my own recon mission on them, I immediately realized their true purpose wasn’t establishing a new colony out here for disgruntled humans. I mean, really, it was quite obvious even to a fool this group wasn’t going to just abandon Earth and settle on a new world.”

As expected, Minerva wasn’t going to reveal her business with HH. Still, Chloe wanted to make sure she wasn’t going to interfere with hers. “What’s your interest in HH?”

“You’re quite persistent, Wilhelmina.” She grinned, raising her glass. “HH is holding persons of interest and I’m here to extract them, nothing to do with your mission.”

“I see.” Chloe still felt skeptical – the other woman just appeared out of nowhere in her life, first in Toronto and then here after having disappeared more than a decade ago. She believed Minerva had no intention of helping HH but was wary of the latter complicating the agent’s own mission to fulfill her own.

Minerva leaned towards the blonde, lowering her voice to a whisper and sincerity in her blue eyes. “Despite what you were told, I wasn’t a Romulan spy and would never betray the Federation. I’d never want to see Earth harmed.”

Chloe nodded, taking another sip of wine and believed the redhead was sincere in her words. From the files, Section 31 had on her, she already knew Minerva didn’t spy for the Romulans and was framed by the real double agent, leading to Evans faking her death and disappearance.

“Your date’s here.” Minerva grinned, sipping her drink. “And so is mine.”

The blonde glanced behind her and there he was, approaching the table and at the same time, Evans got up and said as she was leaving, “We’ll meet again soon.” Chloe nodded as she returned her attention to Ross, who seemed a little lost for words – mouth open and a fixed gaze on her.

“You look so beautiful,” he said in a soft, whispery voice, extending his hand to her, which the agent didn’t accept as she stood up. Even with high heels, adding a few inches to her height, she could only reach up to his chin.

“And you look quite good, yourself, Mr. Ross,” she complimented as they made their way to the dining area. Kyle looked handsome in his stark white suit – the V-neck blazer over a cream coloured shirt and a silk white strap binding the collars together.

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Scene: Corridor -> Hotel suite
TI: An hour later

Chloe stood beside Kyle as he entered the access codes to his suite. She got to admit – the young man was physically appealing in every way, even though she found him to be a douche. The dinner was nice – the food not the company. Not to her surprise, Ross turned out to be a self-absorbed man with an obsession for power, wealth, which apparently he’d do anything to attain, not caring for the consequences. He boasted about his success as a businessman – refused to call himself an arms dealer, which he really was, and how she should be impressed with his success.

The door opened and the brown haired man stepped aside to let her enter first like a gentleman. The suite was large, opulent and quite obviously expensive with a spacious living area. Ross gestured to a wide cream coloured couch in the centre of the room. “Please have a seat.” Chloe strolled to the couch and sat down, while her host made his way to the replicator at the far side of the room.

“You know, Wilhelmina,” He said, returning to the living area, carrying two glasses filled with light blue liquid – a type of local wine, he suggested she’d try back in the restaurant. “I waited a long time for tonight when you’d finally realize what you’ve been missing.” Chloe rolled her eyes, sighing. “I’ve had women fall over themselves over me, even begging me to marry them, young, beautiful creatures but I rejected all of them, hoping you’d show up in my life again.” He handed her a glass and grinned, sitting down next to her. “So I was content with just Orion slave girls or paid escorts to fulfill my needs for pleasure in the meantime but even then my mind was on you.”

Chloe raised an eyebrow. Was she supposed to be impressed? Absolutely not. It was like he was trying to guilt her into accepting him as a partner after all he rejected all those beautiful women, whom he could have had if it wasn’t for her. If she wasn’t on a mission, where he was a key player, she’d not have given him the time of day.

“To the start of a beautiful relationship.” Kyle smiled – a rather smug smile as they raised their glasses. “Admit it, you know we’d be great together, like a power couple who’d be unstoppable and we’d make really beautiful offspring together.”

From her observations of him, his behavior demonstrated not that of a confident businessman but a man insecure of his upbringing as a poor boy from a backwater colony at the edge of Federation space. He was ashamed to the point where he changed his name and the way he spoke, thinking others would be more accepting of him. He likely believed marrying her would legitimize him in the eyes of sophisticated, powerful persons. On Rigel II, where she first met him on an undercover operation, he spoke with an accent of someone born on a colony and now he sounded like an Earth born human.

Chloe placed her glass on the table. “Kyle,” she began, smiling at a man, nearly a decade younger than her. “Tell me more about this item you’re planning to sell to HH Holdings.”

“Well,” he said, beaming with pride. “It’s a weapon with state of the art tech and with potential to make my company a huge profit.”

“From spending time with the board members, I got a sense of desperation.” She picked up her glass and took a sip. “I received information in private from one of them that they need my funds, used to purchase the artifact and invest in their company to buy some tech from you and this made me wonder.”

“Wonder about what?”

“It’s odd for a company dealing with colony construction to be doing business with a weapons dealer, one with a connection to the Orion Syndicate.” She grinned, noting the confusion on his face. “I had you checked out.”

“I guess it doesn’t bother you that my company is one of the Syndicate’s many fronts,” Kyle remarked, grinning.

“No.” She continued, feigning her smile. “In fact, I’m quite impressed. You were only a driver for a high ranking Syndicate member six years ago and now you’re in charge of your own company.”

“See, I knew you’d come around to me, one day.” His smug expression annoyed the agent, who pretended to be impressed with his so called success. “You know what. Rather than tell you about the weapon. How about I show you?” He got up from the couch and made a bee line for the work desk, where an embedded computer console stood.

“Even better.” She pretended to sound excited, however in reality, anxiety set in. This was the moment she was going to find about the weapon, HH planned to attack Earth. Now her next step was to figure out how she was going to steal it from him.

He returned with a steel coloured pyramid device and placed it gently on the table, activating it. A three-dimensional display of the company logo, a silver triangle, interspersed with stars on a green background, appeared. The display transitioned to rows of text, schematics of the weapon. “I won’t bore you with the details.” Kyle grinned, switching the display, which was fine with the agent as she wouldn’t have understood the information anyway. All she wanted to know was what the weapon did, how it operated and its effects.

Now she was viewing a female Caitian with light brown mane, standing a few feet from an auburn haired humanoid man, both held in a large cell with a wall behind them, surrounded by forcefields on three sides. Chloe narrowed her eyes, when she heard a man’s voice and immediately recognized it to belong to one of the HH board members, Tim Price. She also noticed the two prisoners wore expressions mixed with fear and confusion.

[[Trial one. Subjects alien-034 and human-002 are in position. Vitals normal. Commence the trial.]]

Chloe inquired, “What’s happening here?”

“Just keep watching.” Kyle grinned.

The blonde sported a bewildered expression when observing the two subjects, noting a sudden change in behavior in the Caitian who was demure at the start of the recording and now turned feral. The feline being turned to the human, releasing a low growl and approaching him like a predator, when the screen flashed a message, which surprised the agent as she read it.

{{Humans are the scourge of the universe. They must be eliminated or you will die.}} As soon as the message was displayed, the Caitian lunged towards the man, who screamed.

{{Heela, what are you doing? It’s me…}} His words got cut, when the Caitian pushed him to the floor and was on top of him. Then the screams stopped, which only meant he was dead.

“Okay, Kyle, explain to me what just happened,” Chloe asked in a calm voice, masking her confusion and fury.

Ross nodded. “Well, this was the first trial of the weapon’s demonstration. Look, I’ll show you a couple of holos of various trials that HH conducted to test the weapon.”

At her nod, he had the projector switch the visual and for the next little while, they had viewed holo-recordings of many trials, which were all similar – non-humans attacking humans without provocation but with variations such as in one recording a bunch of non-humans from different species ganged up on a human and in another, a lone non-human attacked a group of humans. In all these trials, both humans and non-humans perished, the latter in much greater numbers. So those non-humans that Chloe spotted, held as prisoners in the HH building, were brought there to become subjects in the weapons testing. This brought up another question, one that bothered her immensely, HH already having the weapon, even though they hadn’t paid for it yet.

She turned to her host. “Okay, now you will talk.”

Kyle sighed, glancing past her with a longing look. Chloe followed his gaze to a door and frowned, the bedroom. He wasn’t keen on continuing this conversation as he had something else in mind. The man had been waiting six years for this evening and she’d be naïve to believe it was just dinner and conversation. Well, she wasn’t naïve and knew his expected outcome of this date. But the Canadian had her own agenda for this evening.

“Alright,” the man said with resignation in his tone. “It’s a mind control device.”

“Mind control?” Chloe raised an eyebrow and didn’t like what she was hearing.

“Yes.” Kyle nodded. “HH has the only device currently in market. If the sale is profitable, then we should have enough funds to put more devices into production.”

Mind control. Well that made sense from the way the non-humans’ behaviour suddenly changed and attacked the humans. But what made them specifically target humans and then she recalled the message that flashed across the projection. She didn’t remember hearing an audio transmission of the message so maybe it could have been shown to them.

“Now what’s interesting about this device,” Ross continued, his eyes glowing with excitement, “is that it has the ability to target a specific species or group of different species by scanning their DNA. Using this information, the device sends out a signal to the targeted species, making them susceptible to suggestion at a subconscious level and the best part, they’re not aware of what’s happening.”

Subliminal messaging and the subjects weren’t even conscious of the words transmitted to them. “So I’m guessing HH wants to use the device to target non-humans and elicit aggression against humans?”

“Yes and the device also has a really neat feature.” He paused a moment. “There is a setting, where the user can lock out specific races, making them immune to the device and HH chose to do that with humans so they won’t be affected by the signal.”

“How long do the effects last?”

Kyle pondered for a moment. “12 hours. The signal repeats itself in a loop for a number of iterations and if the targets survived, they’d just wake up with a bad headache…like waking up from a dream.”

More like they’d be living with immense guilt for hurting others, even though they didn’t consciously do it. Chloe grimaced. This was worse than she expected, yet she wasn’t surprised. HH didn’t want to destroy Earth or eradicate its populations. They were making a political statement with this attack and it all made sense to her now. This group from their trials, set the weapon to target all non-humans, making them violent with the desire to kill humans. HH hoped to use the attack to push their agenda to evict all non-humans off Earth, which was what they meant by taking back their planet. The device would have to connect to a communications array or anything that could broadcast a signal over a specific area, maybe the whole planet.

Although the effects would only last 12 hours, it was enough time to do significant damage, where up to millions of lives could be lost, not to mention the political ramifications not just on Earth but throughout the Federation. Considering the volatility of the political landscape, since the Federation was still recovering from the Neo-Essentialist crisis, the consequences of such an attack would be severe.

“Oh and the humans.” Kyle’s voice contained a tinge of bitterness. “HH tells me they were volunteers who agreed to participate for latinum and they were all from colonies like myself, which isn’t surprising, considering, they’d never use an Earth born human like that.”

That was true. HH was not just prejudiced towards aliens but also to humans not born and raised on Earth. She could tell from Kyle’s body language and tone that the attitude bothered him a lot and he had no affection for the group who didn’t want to be in the same room with him if he didn’t have the thing they so desperately wanted. However, something else bothered the agent.

“Kyle, how long is the trial period for the device?”

“A week,” he replied. “In fact, HH’s trial period expires at midnight and if they choose to not buy the device, then I take it back from them. But if they are satisfied and want to continue using it, then they will need an activation key, which I’ll give, once they provide the payment as agreed upon.”

“And they don’t have the funds yet,” Chloe brought up, rather casually. “Because no agreement has been made between us and I got inside information that no one else has made an offer.”

“Are you having second thoughts, Wilhelmina? Because honestly I don’t care how they acquire the funds or what they do with the device, as long as I get paid.”

Well, he didn’t care about the lives he’d be responsible for destroying with his greed, she thought with irritation. She leaned in closer, placing her hand on his shoulder – the man grinning at her touch. “You know, I bet the Romulans, Klingons, large crime syndicates, despotic rulers or warlords, would pay way more than whatever HH is offering you.”

“You think I shouldn’t sell to them?”

Chloe shook her head. “Not with the potential this device has in making you one of the major players in the weapons business and HH is a failure whose agenda is driven more by ideology rather than practical needs.”

“Why did you make them an offer in the first place?” His gaze briefly moved to the bedroom, a sign of his desire to end the conversation. But Chloe wasn’t done.

“I thought I saw potential from their business portfolio.” She shrugged. “But after I spent a few days with them at the complex, I realized they weren’t into making their business successful at all.” She placed her other hand on his elbow. “If I don’t invest, then they have no funds to pay you.” His gaze fixed on her, she could feel his hand brushing against her arm, wondering briefly if he was paying attention to her words. “If you agree to not sell HH the device, I’ll withdraw my offer to purchase the artifact and invest in their company. Then, I can perhaps introduce you to certain contacts who can put you in touch with more powerful people with the capability to pay more than HH could ever dream of.” Kyle’s gaze didn’t wander, clearly mesmerized. “Unlike HH, these people, if satisfied with your product, would want to do further business with you, thus raising your profile and before long, you’ll be playing in the big leagues.”

“Wilhelmina…you’d do this for me?”

“Yes.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Because I believe in you, Kyle. You’ve come a long way from your chauffeur days.”

“Oh alright.” He clasped her hands, his green eyes shining brightly, filling with lust. “I knew you’d come around and realize what a great team we’d make once I became a successful businessman.” He leaned closer, slowly putting his hand on her back and within moments, they were sharing a kiss.

The intercom blared through the room, interrupting the intimate moment. [[Reception to Mr. Ross.]]

“Ross here.” Kyle’s reply was harsh – a scowl marring his handsome features, clearly angered by the interruption as he let go of her and was breathing heavily. Chloe picked up her glass and sipped the wine rather calmly.

[[Please come down to the lobby. You have a visitor who needs to urgently speak with you and won’t leave unless you meet him.]]

“Fine.” He snapped, his face flushed with anger.

[[Oh and Mr. Ross. The visitor demands you bring the key.]] At the mention of key, Chloe became concerned. This couldn’t be good.

“Understood. Let him know, I’ll be down in five minutes.” After the channel closed, he turned to the agent and gave her a look of apology. “Sorry about that.” He stood up, walking towards the desk and grabbed a tiny black case, which she figured, contained the key, likely in a data crystal. She got a bad feeling and a good guess that the visitor was sent by HH. “Wait here. This shouldn’t take long. I’ll ask the visitor to relay a message to the board that I won’t be selling the device to them and arrangements will be made to return it to me.” He left the room.

Chloe wondered, whether she should follow him as she finished her drink. She had a gut feeling that HH wasn’t going to just let Kyle off, considering how desperate they were into obtaining the weapon. The Canadian was already working out a plan to steal the device and the key from Kyle, assuming he was telling the truth about how it was the only one in the market. Of course the plan didn’t involve ‘mating’ with him. If hotel reception hadn’t interrupted, she’d have put the foot on the brakes – make an excuse to end the evening with a promise to meet again.

The door chimed, puzzling her. Did Kyle order room service? It couldn’t be him as he had the codes. She stiffened, narrowing her eyes, feeling her heart beat rapidly and inhaled deeply. Bending forward, the blonde slipped her hand through the slit, her fingers brushing against a thick strap, hidden from view by a holo-emitter attached to it, around her thigh, just above the knee. She grabbed a couple of what resembled hairpins, decorated with birds and began fiddling with her hair. “Come in,” she called and the doors parted.

Three men, wearing blue uniforms, which Chloe guessed to be members of HH security, barged inside. “Can I help you?” She asked in a cool tone.

The officer in the middle, a tall man with a lean build and light brown hair, came forward. “Ms. Henstridge, we’re here to escort you out of this establishment.”

“Why?”

“Well,” the man said. “We found out some aliens sent death threats to the company as well as you and Mr. Ross and so we’re here to take you and him to a safe house for your protection.”

BS. Chloe set her jaws together, sending them a fixed stare and pulling up a handful of her hair. “Where’s Mr. Ross?”

“He’s already on his way.”

Clearly, he was lying. Protection my foot. HH was up to something sinister and sent their goons to take Kyle and her. That was when she realized, her expression blanching that HH was maybe attempting to steal the key from Ross. If that was the case, then why did they want her? Well, no matter what, she wasn’t going to make it easy for them. She curled her lips into a friendly smile. “Alright, I’ll come with you but can you give me a moment so that I can fix my hair. I really don’t’ want to look like I just got out of bed.”

The tall man nodded, giving her a serious look. “Sure. But make it quick. My boss isn’t a patient man.”

One of the other officers, a dark haired man with tanned skin and a beard, remarked, his gaze moving to her. “Oh I don’t mind giving her time.” He grinned and so did the third guard, a stocky, bald man, shorter than the other two.

Chloe, using one hand, pretended to slide a pin amidst the strands, while holding her hair up with the other. She paused for a moment, eyeing the relaxed postures of the men, the bald one winking at her and then in a sudden move, stood up, removed the pin. Turning on her heel, she threw the hair pin in the guard’s direction at lightning speed, the projectile piercing through his neck – the hairpin hid a thin, monofilament blade. The bald man clutched his neck, coughing up blood – the blade cut open his aorta, and dropped to the floor.

Before the remaining guards reacted, the agent sent two more hairpins in their directions, striking the bearded man in the eye, the latter tumbling backwards, crashing onto a table. The other man only got hit in the shoulder so he promptly pulled the blade out, throwing it aside and turned to face the agent, his eyes blazing with anger. He rushed towards her, growling.

Unfastening her necklace, Chloe quickly tapped the clasp and the silver chain elongated an inch, part of it transforming into a whip. When the man extended his arms to grab her, she swung her arm around, the chain lashing his shoulder. The man howled – the chain-whip was specially designed by the Quartermaster to send a stimuli at high intensity to ensure the pain would last for a couple of minutes, enough to render the victim a little paralyzed. She followed up with a low side-kick to the back of his knee – the pointy end of the stiletto heel making contact with the skin. The man screamed even louder, dropping on his knees and then flat on his stomach on the floor.

Chloe walked towards him, her heels making a loud clacking sound that she imagined wasn’t pleasant to his ear. The man tilted his head, his eyes widening as they fixed on her, a look of disbelief in them. She gently placed her foot over his hand, the heel sitting nicely on the ground. She leaned forward, giving him an icy stare, “Where are you really planning to take me and Mr. Ross?”

“Screw you, bitch.” The man spat.

The agent pulled back and in one swift motion, lifted her heel off the ground to stomp on his hand. The HH goon howled, slamming the floor with his free hand. “Bitch! I’m not telling…” He screamed again, when she pushed on his hand, the stiletto grinding into the flesh.

“Talk,” she warned.

“Alright, alright, they took him back to our complex.” He screamed again, when Chloe shifted her foot from his hand.

“Why?”

“I don’t know and I swear I just follow orders. Boss tells me nothing.”

Chloe nodded. “Alright, I believe you.” He was an underling just following his boss’ orders to bring her and Kyle to the complex. The agent next snapped out a low kick in his direction with immense force, snapping his neck. The man’s head lolled forward – now dead along with his companions. She couldn’t let him warn his superiors about her.

Sighing, she ran her hand through her blonde hair and walked over to the table. Grabbing the holoprojector, she dropped the device into her purse – well it contained valuable information. She turned around, making her way to the door. This was an unexpected turn of events. HH attempting to kidnap her and Ross – either her cover was blown or she was used as leverage to get Kyle to hand over the key. Very likely, they picked up his fondness for her.

Her earring chirped. Chloe tapped on it. “Go ahead.” The blonde’s expression filled with worry. “What do you mean they didn’t show up? You were supposed to depart twenty minutes ago.” She listened in silence for another moment. “Okay, stand down and wait for my call.” It was the transport pilot, a SFI asset, calling to inform her that Poorna and her husband never showed up at the spaceport. With HH abducting Ross and almost doing the same to her, things had now gone badly wrong, when her assets failed to make it for their scheduled departure.

She rushed out, the doors opening to let her through, only for her expression to harden further. “Oh you got to be kidding me.” Standing a few feet away, blocking her path, was the same Ferengi who troubled her earlier in the evening and he was accompanied by a humanoid, Rigelian and Cardassian bodyguards. She narrowed her eyes, when the orange skinned being spoke.

“Oh how fortune smiles upon me, when I run into you again.” He opened his mouth widely, showing his rotten teeth.

“I see, you couldn’t get enough of my oo-mox.” Chloe’s tone was sarcastic, giving him a cold smile.

The Ferengi stepped forward, glowering and wagging his little finger at her. “I will not be humiliated by a pathetic hewmaan female.”

The blonde rolled her eyes, stepping forward and raising her hand, carrying the chain-whip. She didn’t have time for this nonsense, when the diminutive being glanced behind.

“Get that female.” He turned to give the agent a menacing glare. “Let’s teach her a lesson so she will know her place and never disrespect a male again.”

Chloe took on a fighting stance, grabbing more hair pins in one hand and holding the chain-whip in the other, ready to dispatch the Ferengi and his goons quickly. She raised an eyebrow, when the Rigelian and the Cardassian didn’t move and her gaze moved down to their abdomens, where pointy edges of knives were sticking out. She then watched the knives getting pulled out, followed by the two men falling down face forward. The agent’s blue eyes widened, spotting a female figure in red, standing, knives held in both hands, dripping with green and brown blood. When the humanoid lunged for her, Minerva sent a kick to his groin and used a bloodied knife to slice his throat. The man clutched his neck, red blood spurting out as he went down.

The Ferengi’s dark eyes were shooting daggers at both women. “No…not another pathetic female.” Letting out a snarl, he moved towards Evans. “I won’t let a hewman female humiliate me…”

Chloe swung her chain-whip around the orange being’s neck, pulling him towards her. The Ferengi gasped, his fingers clawing at the whip portion. She tightened it further, just enough to render him unconscious. Loosening the chain, she let him slither to the ground. He should be out for a few hours and hopefully she wouldn’t have to run into him again.

Turning to Evans, Chloe nodded. “Thanks for your help.”

“You’re welcome.” The redhead smiled. “I was in the lobby when I saw security personnel from HH take Ross to a hover car and three others heading up in the lift. And that was when I realized you were in trouble.”

“Well, I suppose I’m glad you were here.” Chloe returned the smile until her expression soured. “But I need to hurry to the HH building. They have the weapon, Ross and my assets.”

“I’ll come with you,” the other woman said, following the blonde to the lift.

*************************************************************************************

NRPG: Here is the penultimate chapter :) Stay tuned for the finale in a couple of weeks.


~*~
Ranjani S.
Writing for

Chloe Nielsen
Section 31 Agent