by Jay Aury
Still grinning to herself, Gala climbed back to her feet. She threw open a closet and grabbed a heavy winter coat, throwing it over her shoulders and cinching it tight. She threw open the door and raced out of the room and down the shuddering hall, her mad laughter ringing over the alarms.
Showdown
Audra raced around the pillar of steel. The catwalk rang under her feet. She flew around a corner, grabbing the rail, only to jerk her hand back a second later as a bullet pinged off the metal.
She whirled about, saw Sterling advancing with grim purpose. The men behind him followed at a pace, guns out. Again Sterling fired, the bullet sparking off the wall next to her head. She winced, ducking down. Suppose it was too much to hope he was a shitty shot.
“There’s no escape this time, Vixen,” Sterling shouted over the scream of the machinery.
“That’s what you think,” Audra growled. She hauled herself higher. Another round pinged off the wall to her right. She ducked, turning about and firing back. One of the guards took the bullet in the chest, his back slamming into the rail. With a scream he went over the side, plummeting down the pit the steel column descended.
Audra watched him go, for a moment dumbfounded as the man’s scream went on and on. Right. Mental note. Don’t fall off.
She yelped, ducking as bullets raked her position, clawing gouges in the metal wall by her head and pinging off to plummet into the void below. Scrambling back to her feet Audra kept running.
Something exploded at the base of the column. The sound was thunderous, a wash of boiling air surging up the pit. More explosions ripped through the column. Steel groaned, a sound like the wail of a dying titan. The steel column bent, crashing into the walls. Sparks crackled and lightning spat down the length of the gigantic root of steel. The catwalk jumped under her feet. Two of the guards following Sterling fell, screaming over the side. The remaining one looked up in time for a rock falling from the ceiling to crush him. The squeal of rending metal put Audra’s teeth on edge and made her shudder with pain.
A hand caught her. Wrenched her about. Audra slammed off the wall with a gasp. Sterling loomed over her. The calm of his one eye had cracked, showing her an inferno of hate just beyond.
“You will pay for that,” the ARM director said coldly. His parrot squawked, winging above them.
“Take it out of my tab!” Audra barked back. She slammed her heel down on his foot. Sterling cursed, releasing her. She spun, her kick blocked by his upraised arm. He lashed out with the other. Audra caught a gleam of steel, and only a desperate dive back saved her a second smile across her throat. Nonetheless hot pain raced across her shoulder. She gasped as her back hit the wall.
Sterling raised his wickedly serrated combat knife, her blood gleaming along the edge, his shape cast in shadow as the fire rolled from below, smoke billowing up from the depths of the tower’s base.
“This ends, Vixen.”
Audra groped behind her. Found something.
“It does.
She whipped it about. Sterling’s eye widened at the sight of the fire extinguisher a second before Audra pulled the trigger. The sudden blast of white foam hurled the man off his feet. Sputtering, flailing, Sterling staggered back. His back hit the catwalk’s railing. He jackknifed over the side. His hand snapped up, grabbed the edge at the last moment.
Panting, Audra walked forward. She looked down at her foe, dangling over the inferno far below, his one eye glaring up at her.
Audra smiled grimly.
“Good game, Sterling. But looks like I win.”
Sterling grit his teeth, his fingers slipping. Slipping. “Vixen!” he howled as his fingers slid free. He fell, military jacket fluttering around him like black wings as he plummeted into the flaming pit.
Audra watched the flames billow around the falling figure. She leaned on the rail and let out a breath. She slumped, then hissed, grabbing her shoulder. She brought away her hand, looking at the blood staining her fingers. “Fuck…” she murmured limply.
“Audra?”
The access hatch to her right slammed open. Audra raised her head, staring blankly as a plain faced man poked through, brown hair atumble. Alistair turned towards her, his guard uniform smudged.
“Oh fuck,” Audra moaned. “You better not be a clone…”
“I think I should be saying that,” he said. He stepped nearer. “You’re bleeding!”
“Just a scratch.” She touched her arm again, hissed. “Or not…”
Alistair grimaced. He took her hand. “Come on. We have to get out of here.”
“Got an emergency get away helicopter stashed somewhere?” she asked with a weak smile.
“Not this time.”
She laughed. “Oh well. Good thing I… do…”
Putting his arm under her unwounded shoulder, Alistair helped her through the hatch. A narrow metal corridor lay beyond, already beginning to fill with smoke from the burning mass of machinery they left. The bitter tang of melted plastic and steel assaulted her nose, and Audra coughed until they managed to reach a more normal passage. Men raced past them in every direction. Shouts of frantic alarm echoed up and down the space along with the chatter of distant gunfire.
“What happened?”
“Left our good friends Doe and Deer a note before I left,” Audra said with a weak smile. “Glad they took it seriously. But I’m really not feeling up to a repeat interrogation. Turn here. How’d you find me anyway?”
Alistair chuckled. “Just followed the sound of gunfire.”
Audra laughed weakly. “Always a good indicator. Here. The door’s just beyond… me…”
The pair of them slowed. The door out leading out onto the glistening rocky shore lay open. Leaning against the wall, Gala twirled a long, deadly blade. The silver haired seductress raised her head, and Audra felt a chill at the sight of blood spattering her cheek.
“Leaving?” Gala said sweetly.
Alistair stiffened. Audra grit her teeth as she felt him reach for a gun. Gala kept smiling, her blue eyes bright. Unreadable.
Deadly.
She pushed off the wall, sauntering towards them. Audra tensed as she looked them over. Her hand slipped into a pocket at her side.
And came out with a small hard drive.
“Here you go,” she said, tossing it at Alistair. “All the evidence you need to clear Audra’s name. That the Director’s murder was an orchestrated effort by ARM to destroy G7, and that the man she killed at the police station was an agent of ARM.”
Dumbfounded, Alistair caught it. He looked at the drive, then back at Gala. “…Is this a trick?”
“Be a kind of pointless one,” she noted. The knife flickered in her hand. “I could literally kill you right now without any real effort.”
“Why?” Audra demanded weakly.
Gala glanced down at her. She leaned in and pinched Audra’s cheeks between her fingers. “Hmm. Think of it as payment for a lovely evening. A new lease on life for both of us. And for…” She glanced towards Alistair, her smile deepening. “Other reasons.”
Audra tensed. She bit her lower lip with anger. Alistair’s hand curled around the drive. He gave a single, curt nod and pushed past the sultry clone, bearing Audra away and further down the tunnel.
Audra glanced back only once, spotting Gala idling in the corridor, her blue eyes glittering with cruel mirth. Then they were past, and running once again. They burst out of the doors, icy rocks empty. Jets screamed overhead and helicopters thumped as they strafed the island and exchanged fire with guards. “This way!” Audra screamed over the wind and the distant thunder of explosions.
Alistair didn’t question her. Together they stumbled across the barren rocks and towards the edge of the shore. The cliff rose before them and Audra grabbed the rope, shimmying down and to the waiting aircraft. Alistairr followed, landing with a heavy grunt. Audra threw open the cockpit, climbing it, pulling Alistair in after her. She grabbed the controls as the dome closed, sealing with a his
s.
“Hang on!” she cried, grabbing the controls and heaving. The aircraft roared to life, the single engine thunderous as she hauled on the controls. Maxine’s aircraft rose off the edge of the cliff, then blasted into the open sky.
Epilogue
“Well, Vixen, it seems you were innocent of the charges.”
Audra rolled her eyes. “What a diplomatic way to say you royally fucked up,” she said.
Doe gave her a dark look through the screen. “Yes… Anyway, your record has been cleared and so has your name. We’re still investigating this ARM organization. We will follow every lead in order to thoroughly track down anything we can of their operations.”
Audra snorted. “Well, far be it for me to question your investigative abilities. Good talk. Bye.”
She hung up, shutting the computer with a sigh. Audra leaned back in the deck chair, pushing her dark sunglasses back over her eyes. The Florida sun beat down on her curvy frame, sharply accented in the string bikini she wore, breasts swelling against the cups and her quim just hidden. Only a white bandage around her upper arm broke the vision of pure beauty, but she was healing well. Soon enough she’d be able to get rid of that. The pool shone and rippled in the gentle breeze, Maxine’s villa rising behind her in tier on tier of layered white. Audra sighed, crossing her arms behind her head, fluffing her blonde locks as she stared at the clear blue sky.
She lifted her head at the click of a martini being placed on the small table beside her. “Sounded like it went well.”
Audra tilted down her dark glasses, admiring Alistair’s powerful form as he circled her chair. Covered only by a pair of swimming trunks, there was ample surface to admire. She smirked. “Oh yes. They’re still sorting through what’s left of the island’s facility. Doubt they’ll find anything useful after the mess we left the place. And I am fully exonerated of all the crimes they’ve accused me of.”
Alistair sat down beside her. Feeling his eyes, Audra smirked and stretched, pushing out her palm filling breasts and lifting her mons in a lazy, teasing stretch. He chuckled. “Suppose that’s something, at least.”
Audra saw him fetch out a bottle of tanning oil. Her eyes sparked behind her glasses and she rolled over, humming in low delight as Alistair began to spread the cool cream on her back. “Any thoughts about what you’re going to do next?” he asked.
“Hmm. This seems like a good place to start,” she purred.
“You know what I mean.”
Audra laughed lightly. “Who knows? G7 is gone and that’s not coming back. But I’m still a wealthy heiress with all the trappings of the idle rich. Maybe a world tour or something.” She glanced over her shoulder, her voice carefully casual. “What about you? Going back to work for CSIS?”
Alistair shrugged his broad shoulders, his fingers digging into her back in a way that made Audra’s toes curl and nipples ache. “Not sure. For the moment anyway, I think I have my hands full.”
Audra released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Then gasped as Alistair gently squeezed her soft bottom. “Ooooh. You know,” she purred, reaching back and snapping open her bra. “I think I have something else you can fill your hands with.”
Alistair raised a brow as Audra rolled over, tossing her bra aside to reveal the ripe orbs of her breasts. He grinned and cupped her generous teats, Audra gasping as she lay back, relishing his lazy, massaging hands, her breasts soon gleaming with the tanning oil. “I think you’re right.”
“Mnnn,” Audra moaned as he leaned over and delicately nibbled on a stiff nipple. Pleasure raced through her, her pussy dampening with hot arousal as Alistair sucked and toyed with her delightfully sensitive orbs. “Oooh, yes. Alistair. Right there… How… mnnn… would you like to work for me? I could use… ah… an assistant.”
“I think you need more than an assistant,” Alistair said as his hand slid down her toned stomach, the oil leaving a long streak before he ended at her thong, delicately tugging it down to bare her tufted mound.
“Oh!” Audra gasped, lifting her hips as he teasingly stroked her lower lips. “That’s… a good p-point, Alistaiiiiir,” she moaned deeply. “M-maybe we can… ah… discuss the possibilities…”
Alistair chuckled, sliding up her front. He gently took the glasses off her face, looking down into her bright blue eyes, smoky with desire. A feeling she saw mirrored in his. “I’d like that,” he said, then dipped down and captured her in a kiss.
Audra hummed happily, wrapping her arms around his back and pulling him atop her. He continued to stroke her inner walls, his other hand returning to her lush breasts and gently kneading and toying with them. She gasped, arching her hips, pressing her quim against his stroking finger. “Oh Alisteeeer!”
“Audra,” he breathed.
The phone rang, piercing in the pleasured gasps and pants. Audra groaned in frustration and brought her hand off him. She dug in her purse, pulling the phone free.
“Let it ring,” Alistair breathed as he kissed and nibbled at her neck.
Audra giggled and answered, putting the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
“Well done, Vixen.”
Audra jumped at the familiar mystery voice. “You!” she gasped.
“Me. And let me give you my congratulations for a job well done.”
“I-ah,” Audra gasped as Alistair slid higher, his tongue toying with the lobe of her other ear. “Th-thanks. I appreciate the… the help…”
“No doubt. And we appreciate your efforts. And now, Agent Vixen, I believe it’s time for a meeting.”
“What… what do you mean?”
“Audra Antoinette, it’s with great pleasure that I extend to you an invitation to the Society of Defence.”
Audra’s heart thudded. She sat up, nearly throwing Alistair off her. “S-sorry. What?”
“Exactly what I said, Vixen. You see, Audra, the world you know is a large place, and as you’ve seen, the layers in which it exist go deep. Deeper than simple nations in their scurrilous little battles. We are those who stand against the dark, and we are always looking for capable hands.”
“The Director said something like that,” Audra said. Alistair paused, resting his hands on her hips as he gave her a questioning look.
“He did. Your Director was one of our top recruiters. His loss was a blow to our organization, but he spoke highly of you. We were, in fact, looking to recruit you before this whole business happened. We believe you’ll be one of the best agents we’ve had since the second Civil War. The secret one.”
Audra settled back in her chair, head spinning. “I… this is a lot to think about…”
“Naturally. We’ll give you some time to decide. But, should you be interested, we would be glad to have you and your companion with us. The Society of Defence needs good people, Agent Vixen. The world needs it. I hope to hear from you soon.”
The line went dead. Audra took the phone from her ear and stared at it.
“Who was that?” Alistair asked, peeking at the screen.
Audra looked back to him, and it all came pouring out. He listened intently as she described the voice on the phone that saved her from Doe and Deer’s capture attempt and got her into contact with Gala. She even spoke of von Hammerstein’s claims in the jungles of Brazil, and the Director’s veiled words once the mission was done. Alistair frowned with thought.
“What are you going to do?”
Audra shrugged. “I don’t know… Why are you smiling like that?”
Alistair laughed, pulling himself up her front. “Audra. I think you know exactly what you’re going to do. Let me ask you something. Are you ready to take on a life of quiet introspection? Maybe take a larger hand in the running of your family’s businesses? Maybe idle away a life of leisure in your cavernous manors, throwing parties filled with sin and debauchery?”
Audra wriggled beneath him, humming as the hot sunlight gleamed off her tanned skin. “Mmm. That does sound fun.”
“Or,” Alistair said, l
icking her collarbone gently, slipping nearer, his rough, masculine scent rolling over her to make her gasp softly. “Are you going to go on missions of unimaginable danger to life and limb? Risk it all on the roll of the dice? Be shot at? Blown up? Deal with men and women that treat common human morality and decency with contempt?”
Audra shivered at the thought, her blood racing with the thrill of the dangers he proposed. She groaned, tilting back her head as Alistair kissed her. “Ooh Alistaiiiiir. You know me too well.”
“I do,” he said, kissing her cheek. His finger tugged down her bikini bottom, baring the hot cove of her cunt.
Giggling, Audra spread her legs a little more, gasping as he pushed inside of her. She moaned, wrapping her arms around his head, pulling his lips to hers as he began to leisurely fuck her, plunging his hot shaft into her hot box with obvious pleasure.
Audra moaned, rocking against him, pleasure sparking up her body and tingling in the sensitive globes of her heavy breasts. She gasped, purred as Alistair palmed her mounds, rocking against him as he abused her tender nipples, rolling them between his fingers in clear appreciation.
“Alistaiiir! Yes! Ah! Yes! Fuck me! Fuck me haaaaard!”
He silenced her with a hungry kiss. She answered it with pleasure, pulling him against her as her hips rolled, helping him to plunge his shaft deeper inside of her. Her gasps echoed, keened. With a cry of delight she came, the sudden contractions of her velvety cunt pushing him over the edge. Alistair moaned as he filled her with his seed.
Panting, he lifted his lips from her. “Well?” he said with a smirk. “Made you decision?”
“My grandfather always said danger was the best aphrodisiac,” Audra panted, unable to stop smiling up at her lover.
“Looks like you guys were having fun!”
Audra glanced back, her smile broadening at the sight of Maxine bouncing down the stairs. The stunning blonde skipped across to them, her hair flashing in the sun, baby blues sparkling with unabashed delight.
“Hey Maxine. How are you?”
