by Jessie Wolf
I thought about it for a few seconds. Between my family and me, we should be able to ensure the Princess security for that long. So long as the security staff does their jobs. “Yes, that’s fine. Talk to you later, Mike.” After disconnecting I turn to Alice. “Darling, I know you were not happy with how I was going to do this, but it must be done. Is the way I’m doing it now any better?”
She wraps her arms around me in a tight embrace, and kisses me again with the passion she had before. When we break she smiles down at me. “Yes love; this is a far better solution than bringing in two whole combat platoons of Jump Infantry. Yes, I know that the troops that are being sent here are Death Dealers, but they’re ones that are soon to be discharged or retired. This way no one can say you’re using your position as the First High Lady of the Death Dealers to influence the Parliament and Hall of Lords by holding their children hostage against their good behavior.”
“Ok, love I get it. I almost went too far. There I admitted it, are you happy now?” I was starting to get pissed off. Why couldn’t she just understand that all I want is to be a simple person and not what I am now? Someone that causes fear in some people, awe in others, respect in some, and for a very few love. “Why can’t I just be a simple kid damn it. I have a second chance at life and for the last month and a half I have been forced by events to be something I hate!” I was close to tears by this time; I was so tired of having to watch everything I say, do, or think.
Sure I know, and so do a few select others, that behind this face of a teenage girl, is the mind of a ninety-seven year old man. Why can’t people just let me be, and do their damned jobs right like they should; leaving me the frack alone? Sure, I could have just gone with the flow, and let the rebels take over the Empire, but then I would have still been fighting a war against them only that way I would have been the rebel. Now, instead of sitting back and learning how to be first a girl, then a young woman, and finally a lady, I’m still acting like a front line battlefield commander. Securing my base of operations, removing any threats to my rear, and seeking out the enemy before they can strike.
My little rant must have hit one or two buttons with Alice because she pulled me back into her chest and hugged me. Once there I began to cry. The stress of dealing with first being a schoolgirl on her first day at school, the first confrontation with the ‘Heathers’, Mrs. Caroline, being made one of the instructors besides a student, finding the glaring lapses in security, trying to find a way to fix them without being called a terrorist, plus all the other crap I have to deal with as the H.B.I.C. for the Death Dealer divisions, and finally my first period was just too much.
After letting me cry myself out Alice pulled back to look me in the face. “Feel better?” that was all she asked.
“Yah, sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me just then. I never used to be this emotional before; even after I changed I have always had pretty good control over my emotions. I just don’t understand why they’re so lose right now.”
When she starts to giggle I almost smack her a good one. Then she explains what’s so funny, at least to her and most likely every other woman in the universe. “Maiha, love you’re suffering from PMS, dear. Every woman and girl goes through this during their cycle, and before you say anything. It’s just a little harder on you as you don’t have any experience from this side of things.” I just looked at her. There is no way it can be that simple, than again I did start feeling this way the other day. Could it really be that simple of a reason and if it is can I learn how to keep better control of my emotions during my cycle? “It’ll get easier baby. I know what’ll make you feel better right now though. Come on let’s get undressed and go to our bathroom.”
I don’t know what she is up to but I follow her advice. As I’m removing my swords and obie I hear the water running to fill the tub in our rooms tub. She comes back a few seconds later and helps me finish undressing. Then it’s my turn to help her. By the time we’re naked the tub is half way filled. When we climb in she lets the hot water run for another few minutes before shutting it off.
She pulls me so I’m leaning back against her chest. For the next half hour we just relaxed and let the warm water ease first my cramps, and then my emotional state. It was the prefect medicine for my current state of mind and being that I started to fall asleep. Alice got me out of the tub, dried off, into my night grown, and finally in bed just before I fall asleep. The last thing I remember is her reminding me I needed to use a tampon.
Meanwhile back at the Admin Building….
Sergeant Major Charlie Bronson, formally of the twenty-first Regiment; the Royal North British Fusiliers, now Security Chief for the Joan Eunice Smith School for young Ladies, was for the first time in a good mood after returning from the Head office. All the men who were on duty just looked on in amazement as he opened a full bottle of Scotch and pored them all a drink. Once everyone had theirs he raised his cup in toast. “Gentleman, raise your glasses, the Bitch is truly Dead! To our new Headmaster and Head Chairwoman of the Board of Regents, drink up!” the big man put action to words and downed what was in his cup.
Security Officer Christopher Stasheff looked up from his monitor at his Chief. “So it really did happen, Vasectomy Vickers has been dismissed, Chief?”
“As I live and breathe lads, as I live and breathe. That isn’t the only good news. I have just talked to the new Head Chairman for the Board of Regents. You know those upgrades you’ve been wanting to do Chris?” when the man nodded his head Bronson just grinned. “Well, what would you say to a blank check for those upgrades?”
Chris stood up and walked over to his Chief. “You’re drunk already aren’t you, Sir?”
“Not, even tipsy, my boy.” Charlie never lost the grin on his face.
“You mean, I can do whatever it takes to upgrade our systems?” Charlie nodded his head. “Do I have a freehand? No restriction on equipment? No price limit? Nothing but the top of the line gear?” the entire time Charlie just stood there nodding his head yes. When Chris finished he took the Scotch bottle from his Chief’s hand and took a very unhealthy swallow straight from the bottle. One strong enough to cause an elephant to chock.
“Easy there, lad, that’s not some rotgut whiskey you be drinking. Besides, you might want to save some of that for the rest of the good news.” When he had every ones undivided attention. “As you all know for the past several years now we have had a problem with investigating the all too often failures in our surveillance system? How we could only look for an outside source? Well no more. We can finally go after whichever one of these young ladies that have been playing merry hell on our systems.” A very heart felt cheer went up at hearing this, as more than one of these men has found a young girl in tears shortly after surveillance black out. They were sick and tired not being able to go after the bullies who were the cause. “That isn’t all, lads, not by a long shot. I have it on good authority that we can soon be getting some help in making sure some of our more high profile students are safe. Yes, you heard me, the twelve hour days and six day weeks are soon to be a thing of the past.”
From across the room one of the youngest security officers yelled out for Charlie’s attention. “Boss! We got a situation here! We just lost all the camera feeds for the gymnasium!” He was pounding away at his key board trying to bypass whatever was jamming the signal.
“Get me that signal, Mal. It’s still there, find it. We’ll need video proof for whatever is going on there.”
“On it Chief. They can’t stop the signal.” The young man was one of the best computer system programmers and engineers there is, and happy that he was finally able to go after the little bitches that have been missing with their systems. From the time he came to work for his boss, Security Chief Bronson, he had been frustrated at not being able to take down the main cause for these black outs. It was an insult against his pride as the team computer and surveillance system engineer, not to mention being one of the best and most wanted Hac
ker in five systems. To his friends on the net he was known only as ‘Mr. Universe’ the all-powerful protector of the signal. Five minutes later he had the signal back and what he found chilled him to his core. “Boss, we need to get over there, now! We have four of our students unconscious and stripped naked in the locker room! It looks like they were assaulted!”
“Mel, see if you can if the lost video feed from those cameras. Nevins, Tucker, Fleming, get over there and secure the seen. Stasheff, find the school nurse and get her ass over there, also contact the local authorities. We might have a case of multiple rapes here.” Chef Bronson had seen the same thing as Mel had, only he took in one more detail that his systems engineer hadn’t. “Mal, get me a line to Mr. Longfellow senior at the Green Serpent Inn and Restaurant.”
Larry Nevins, Wilson Tucker, and Jake Fleming all rushed out the door at full speed. Each of them for different reasons. They too had seen the feed from the locker room. All three had been cops in the past but for different departments and sections. They had all seen the results of rape, and assault. They all had their own private ghost that haunted them. Of the eight day time guards, only Mal had never been on the ‘job’. Even the Chief had been a cop at one time, sure it was with the military police, but still he was a member of the Brotherhood.
Back in the security office, Mal was hard at work trying to take down the missing video feed. His partner Chris was hard at work trying to figure out how long the feed had been down. From behind him he heard “Son-of-a-bitch! Chief! We got a massive SNAFU in our system!” It was Chris’ shout that pointed out to him what was going on with the security cameras.
“Oh Shit! Chief, four whole sections of the surveillance system are in a loop!” his own carry of outrage brought their Chief running from his office.
“Alright, lads, calm down both o’ ya’s, and tell ma’ what yea have.” When the two men began to talk at once, Charlie held up his hands to stop them. “One at o’ time. I’m not some bloody robot. Chris, you go first.”
“Yes, sir. I found out where the security breaches have been coming from and you’re not going to like it.” From the look on his face Chris was extremely upset over what he had found. Charlie waved for the man to get on with it. “The breaches are coming from the Dorm mother’s com systems.”
“Bloody hell! You’re right I don’t like it. Are you sure they’re coming from those systems?” Charlie had to be sure. Because if he went charging off accusing the dorm mothers of messing with the security systems without proof he’d lose all credibility with the teaching staff, right along with his men’s.
“Sir that is the way it looks from here. I won’t know for certain until I can see their systems first hand.” At least Chris is telling the truth, he thought. Turning to look at Mal he waited for the young man to collect his findings and thoughts.
“Sir, as of right now we have four sections of the surveillance system cameras running in a loop. From what I have been able to track down they’re the ones for the outside of the gym, second floor of the eighth grade dorm hallway, the freshman dorm second floor hallway, and finally the second floor hallway of the seniors’ dorm.” When Mal looked over at Chris. “And I believe that the ip addresses for the breaches have been spoofed. See look at the code origin for the loop commands. That one for the seniors’ second floor says it came from this office. I hate to tell you this Chris, but someone is fracking with your baby, and hard.”
When Chris heard this he ran another search and came up with a whole new batch of origin codes. “I don’t believe this. Whoever they are, I have to give them this much, they’re grade A hackers. Damn I have seen anything like this since I left the cybercrimes division with New Athens PD.” The man was impressed, not since his days of trying to track down the elusive and virtually unknown ‘Mr. Universe’ had he seen anything like this. “Damn, Mal, whoever this is they’re almost as good as you are, or even ‘Mr. Universe’. Can you see if you can back track their switching code? Some body wrote this, and I want to either shake their hand or wring their neck, as soon as I figure out which.”
No one on the security staff knew about Mal secret on-line identity, he placed a lot of safe guards to make sure, but his friend Chris was a cop with the NAPD back in the day. Thinking about what Chris had just said and then asked he realized his secret was still safe. “I’ll give it a try, but right now we need to get eyes on those hallways.” After a few clicks and a half dozen swear words he was once again receiving a live feed from the high jack cameras. What he saw made him do a double take. Where the feed from the gymnasium locker room made his blood run cold, these made him want to bust out laughing. On all three monitors were what appeared to be three or four girls, all of whom belong to the security offices favorite douche bag list the ‘Heathers’, naked, hog tied, and gaged. Pointing at his screens and trying to keep from losing it Mal called out. “Oh my God! Chief, you have to see this.”
When Security Chief Charlie Bronson saw what was on Mals screens. He began to laugh right along with him. “It looks like are favorite little ‘angels’ are starting to pay their dues.” Hearing this Chris walked over to see what was up. Upon seeing the screens he also began to laugh.
As the three men were laughing over the plight of the ‘Heathers’; Nevins, Tucker, Fleming arrived in the gymnasiums lock room. As they checked over each of the girls there they couldn’t help but to notice the heavy tattooing that covered more than a third of the girls’ bodies. Keying up his radio, Nevins called in.
“Chief, Nevins here, we’re in the locker room. From the looks of it the girls were given something to knock them out, then transported here, were they were stripped and left to be found later by someone else.”
Charlie quickly radioed back “Were they assaulted in any other way?”
After checking with the others and finding the girls were fine other than being unconscious and naked. “Negative Chief. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say this is pay back of some kind for a past prank. Because they were left right inside the door, right where everyone and their sister would find them. Say, didn’t we have one of the T-girls found like this last year?”
Charlie, had to think about it for a moment, and then remembered the incident with Anita Blake. “We sure did, do you think this is payback for that?” She was a sophomore t-girl who had been found stripped naked and out cold last year in the very same locker room covered in blue paint. The more he thought about it and compared what was going now with what had happened in the past it seemed to fit. The more he thought about it the more he kept coming back to the same motive for everything that was going on. Revenge pure and simple. Every one of these acts was almost exact repeats of stunts pulled on the t-girl students.
As if reading his mind Fleming, who had the most experience with revenge motivated crimes radioed in next. “Chief, I’m willing to bet my next paycheck that we’re going to find more than a few of our little ‘angels’ hog tied, gagged, and naked in the hallways of the dorms in front of the dorm mothers rooms.”
Mal just looked over from where he was studying the video feeds, “Chief, would you believe me if I said that he was dead on the money?”
“Mal, right now I’d believe in the Tooth fairy, sandman, Jack Frost, Easter Bunny, and Santa Clause.” For the second time today, Charlie Bronson, a man known for his quick wit, was at a loss for words. “Alright lads, this is what we’re going to do. Nevins, Tucker, Fleming, wake those girls up and get them back to their dorms. Stasheff, Clark, I need you two to head over to the eighth grade dorm and release those young ‘ladies’ there and hand them over to that dorms mother only they are not to leave until they speak with me, then head over to the freshman dorm and do the same, and then head back here, understand?”
Both men gave him a salute and head out to carry out their orders. “Mal, I need you here to cover the monitors and the desk. If anyone wants me I’ll be over at the seniors’ dorm taking care of the mess there. Have Nevins and Fleming meet me there once they
’re done with their four and Tucker come back here to relieve you on the desk.”
The young man gave his boss a smile. “Sure thing, Chief, I’ll keep working on trying to find that lost video feed. They can’t stop the signal, Chief, no matter what they do.”
Security Chief Charlie Bronson had seen a lot of things, and people in his life, but no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t understand Mal. The man was more comfortable with his computers and coms system gear than with the men he worked with or the students he helped to protect.
“Oh, Chief, what should I do if I find out who beat the crap out of and then tied up the ‘Heathers’?”
He thought about it for all of point three seconds. “Nothing, lose the recording and forget you saw it.”
Chapter 7
Shortly after dinner, Fuyuko Nakatoma’s room….
Looking at her younger sisters, Nanase and Nanami “Look I know we promised sissy we wouldn’t do anything to the ‘Heathers’, but I’ve been talking to some of the other girls in my dorm.”
“So have we, sis, and what we’ve found out isn’t good.” The way Nanase was talking showed that she was pissed. “I hope we’re not going to let her take on those bitches all by herself?”
“No joke, everything I’ve heard only bears out what Cassidy was saying. One of our roommates has an older sister who was stripped naked, covered in blue paint, then dumped in front of the dorm mothers room hog tied. Just because she is a t-girl.” Nanami was visibly upset as she related what she had found out. “When the girl tried to get the ‘Heathers’ in trouble for it, they went after her little sister, who was only in the seventh grade! What they did to her only forced her sister to back off before she got really hurt.”
“That’s just the tip of the ice berg. Those bitches have run off more than forty T-girls in the last seven years. Either through directly targeting them, or their families here at school.” Nanase was very quick to point out the ‘Heathers’ normal operating pattern. “They have already come at us. I say we use their tactics against them.”
