by Michael Todd
“You need to put them all together, fold them tightly, and remember to put them the fuck on,” Katie said, pushing the pile of Pandora’s clothes down.
Pandora shrugged. “Who needs underwear? And seriously, what is with these clothes you are packing?”
Katie sighed exhaustedly. “You need to take clothes with you for the base. Not just your super-tight fighter gear, but all kinds. We aren’t going there to work this time. You know this.”
Pandora groaned. “Please tell me I’m only lugging this shit through the portal.”
Katie shut the lid and pushed down, struggling to fasten the clasps. “We are going on a plane as a family, and if you can carry a boulder, a person, and your ego, you can make it from the car to the plane carrying your suitcase.”
Pandora shook her finger at Katie as she walked to the door. “I’ll have you know, my ego is actually light as a feather.”
Out in the hallway, Katie grabbed her bags. “Great, so you have more strength to carry the suitcase. Come on, the plane and the others are waiting for us.” She shook her head and started toward the door, still talking. “You can jump to it for a damn donut, but this is like pulling teeth.”
Pandora dragged her case to the elevator, and they headed down to the car that was waiting to take them to the airport. When they arrived, pulling into the private hangar bay, Angie and Juntto were waiting for them. Angie was jumping up and down and rubbing her arms, trying to stay warm as steam rose off Juntto. He was watching something on his phone and laughing.
Katie raised her eyebrow at Angie, who shrugged and followed her up to the steps to the aircraft. “He recorded a new show last night, and he finds himself incredibly funny. There was some incident with a piece of beef and an animation of sorts. I don’t know. I stopped trying to figure it out.”
Katie giggled, putting her arm around Angie as they reached the door of the plane. “Don’t worry about it. We are going to the base to celebrate our dear friends and their baby. Sofia’s baby shower should be really interesting, with everyone there.”
Angie rolled her eyes. “Great. I get to watch grown men sit around a pink and blue room and talk about babies. Exciting. Thrilling. What I’ve been waiting for all my life.”
They all boarded and took their seats. Pandora sniveled, looking at her finger. “Broke a nail on that damn suitcase.”
Katie buckled her seatbelt. “I love how everyone is in such a fantastic mood right now. Come on, guys, get excited! How often do we board a plane without having some sort of bloodthirsty demon attack going on?”
Angie smiled. “You’re right. Changing mood…done. So tell me, what have you guys been up to for the past few weeks? I feel like we see each other for breakfast, and that’s about it.”
Pandora smiled at the healed nail and looked at Angie as the plane went hurtling down the runway. “Katie and I have had the pleasure of working with New York’s finest the last few weeks. And no, it is not as bad as it sounds. They love donuts, they find me funny, and the case is really interesting, even to me. That, and I have managed to yank off a couple of the guys in the evidence room.”
Katie scowled. “That was too much information, just like we talked about.”
Pandora looked at her with wide eyes and mouthed the words, “I’m sorry” to her. Katie chuckled and looked at Angie. “It actually is pretty interesting. There is a case, or several together, involving mass hallucinations. People in apartments have been seeing things. Weird shit, really.”
Angie looked at her with fear on her face. “Oh, my God. That sounds terrible.”
Katie raised her eyebrows and tilted her head from side to side. “It doesn’t seem to be too bad. At first, I thought it sounded like we had another Kabbus the Leviathan on our hands, but the reports don’t line up with that. No one is reporting nightmares, or anything else overly horrifying. I don’t know. It’s an ongoing case right now, and we get the fun of tagging along.”
Angie snorted. “Better you than me. I have a gaming tournament coming up, and I’m actually starting to make money doing the Twitch stuff. Nothing more than a coffee fund for the month, but still.”
Katie nodded. “Hey, that’s good. Coffee is expensive in New York. That can’t be too bad a check. And you get to do something fun for you and entertaining for others. I’m glad it didn’t interfere with your work with us. I wouldn’t want to lose you.”
Angie flapped her hands. “Please. I love my job. It’s more like a lifestyle than a career. It’s great. This is just something fun on the side. Like Juntto here.”
Juntto looked up excitedly. “I have twelve subscribers now on my YouTube channel, so I would say that things are going great for me. One day it’s twelve, the next day it could be a million. You never know.”
Pandora giggled. “A million morons finding entertainment in animated beef patties.”
Juntto opened his mouth angrily but then put his arms up in excitement. “You watched!”
The plane’s door opened, and Calvin hurried up the steps and waited at the entrance. He could hear Sofia grunting as she got up from her seat with the help of the attendant and shuffled toward the doorway. As she appeared, the light cascaded over her warm tan skin, her eyes were glistening brightly, and her smile was slightly crooked. She hurried forward with a slight waddle with one hand on her lower back and the other on her stomach. She was VERY pregnant at that point.
Her eyes flashed and she giggled, shaking her head. “Come here and kiss me to remind me how much I love you. Your kid here has been trying to convince me otherwise with a good shove in the pelvic bone every few minutes.”
Calvin put out his bottom lip and pulled her close, kissing her deeply. As he pressed his body against her stomach, he felt the baby kick. Calvin chuckled and moved back, getting down on one knee and pressing his hand to her belly. “Don’t worry, buddy. From the moment you came into the picture, I became, and will forever be, the second most important person to your mom. And I’m not even mad.”
Sofia chuckled as she rubbed the back of his head. He stood back up and offered her his arm. “You ready to get off this plane?”
She rolled her eyes. “Three bathroom trips ago, which was like ten minutes. And I’m freaking starving.”
Calvin helped her down the steps slowly and carefully. “What are you in the mood for?”
Sofia thought carefully about it. “Definitely some vanilla ice cream, ooh, and those little sweet pickles that you get. Not the bread and butter, the mini sweet pickles.”
Calvin chuckled. “Very cliché of you.”
Sofia got to the bottom of the steps, winded. “Wait until you hear what I eat the rest of the time. I want to orgasm and die every time I eat a meal. It’s terrible.”
Calvin threw his head back and laughed. “You forget that I live with a whole bunch of young guys. The shit they shovel in their mouths sometimes baffles me. Did you finish that paper you wanted to get done before you came?”
Sofia took her small carry-on from the plane’s staff, smiling. “Yeah, I did. This semester has thankfully been very easy. Still, I am looking forward to taking a few months off once the baby is born. I am burned out, to say the least.”
Eddie and Turner were training some troops just to the right of them. Eddie looked over and waved excitedly at Sofia. Turner glanced over his shoulder and then whistled, yelling at the troops, “Everyone, drop to one knee and freeze! Now bow to Mrs. Calvin and the future Killer in her belly!”
All the troops did as they were told. Sofia giggled and returned their bows awkwardly as she passed them. Calvin gave them two thumbs-ups. Eddie laughed as the guys got back up and continued their exercises. “Baby shower weekend!”
Turner raised an eyebrow. “Uh, why did you say that like I would say ‘stripper weekend?’”
Eddie shrugged. “Family time, man. We were both invited.”
Turner stopped and turned toward him, putting his hands on his hips. “Wait, you’re actually going to the shower?�
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Eddie furrowed his brow. “Uh, yeah. I was invited, and my demon Coco was once inside of Sofia.”
Turner blinked at him. “Why does that have anything to do with her baby shower?”
Eddie scratched his head. “The way I see it, that makes me and Sofia practically cousins, you know? And Coco was the first being to have met the baby. Actually, the only one so far, so he should be there for moral support and all.”
Turner rubbed his face. “You do realize you’re talking about your demon, right?”
Eddie nodded with a grin on his face. “Yeah, sure. You know how it is. It’s an intimate experience, and I don’t mean that in a creepy demon lover way. Just, a soul in your soul. It makes you attached in a way.”
Turner put out his hands. “Dude, it’s a baby shower. Seriously? Like pink and blue puffy things and diapers, and women with all kinds of emotions and crazy thoughts going on in their heads. It’s a total chick thing. Dudes don’t usually go to them.”
Eddie looked around him. “But we’re all a family, and let’s face it—there aren’t that many women here. Sofia’s party would be like three or four people.”
“But the games!” Turner laughed. “You are going to have to play like pin the diaper on the baby or something.”
Eddie winced. “Remind me…if I ever knock anyone up, don’t let you babysit.”
Turner pointed at him. “That’s a deal I can make. I just think you are going to want to claw your eyes out by the end of it. I’ve seen the pictures of baby showers. Weird cult shit goes on in those.”
Eddie snickered as he picked up some of his gear. “Right, but there is also one really amazing thing.”
Turner’s eyes shifted. “What? And I hope you’re not getting creepy.”
Eddie smacked his lips. “They have those little cakes.”
Turner stared at him for a moment. “Petit fours.”
Eddie shook his head, putting his fingers out in measurement. “No, what? Those little cakes. The delicious ones.”
Turner let out a slow annoyed breath. “I know what you’re talking about. The little cakes, they’re called ‘petit fours.’ That is what you are going to the baby shower for? A fancy little cake?”
Eddie lifted his stuff onto his shoulder and gave him a toothy grin. “Hey, they’re going to have really good food and booze, even if Sofia can’t drink. So yeah, I’m going. If it means I have to play dumb games, then bring it on. I’ll wear a diaper and hit a pinata.”
Turner covered his mouth, trying not to burst into laughter. “I feel like the two of us have a really unhealthy view of what actually happens at a baby shower.”
The evening service bells of Westminster Abbey could be heard echoing across London and through the cracked window of one of the most prominent members of the British Intelligence Committee, Powell. Though the bells were loud, the sounds coming out of the place were a bit more interesting.
“Whoop,” Powell squealed, adding a light giggle behind it. “That’s right. Daddy was a bad boy today.”
One of the women behind him put her shiny, high-heeled latex boot on his back and pushed him down, then reared back and flung her arm forward, cracking a fringed leather whip across his ass. He hissed and began laughing. “This was just what I needed after a full day with those stuffed shirt blokes on the Committee. Come on, then, don’t be greedy. Give it to me some more. I thought you were supposed to be dominating me?”
The woman knelt, grabbed his cheeks in her hand, and squeezed. “Then shut the fuck up.”
She threw his face down and whipped him again, his eyes popping hard this time and a smile tugging on his lips. Walking over, she grabbed him by the shoulder and flipped him on his back. He put his hands up, his laughter weaselly and high-pitched. She stepped down, her foot just centimeters from the leather bikini bottom covering his balls. She dangled the whip over his chest, tickling his skin before reaching down and tugging hard on the rings through both of his nipples.
He rolled his eyes back and groaned, tilting his head. His phone began to ring but he ignored it at first, hoping whoever it was would call back later. It just kept ringing, though. His eyes opened and he growled, his lip quivering. “Fuck. Goddamn it!”
He tried to get up, but the woman raised an eyebrow, wagging her finger. Powell shook his head and tried to grab the phone. “Stop. Wait. What’s that bloody safe word? Uh…grapes! No, that’s not it. Oh! Tangerine!”
The woman pouted and stepped back as he picked himself up clumsily and stumbled over to the phone, putting it to his ear. “There’s a limo waiting out front. Dismiss your weird freakishly tall woman with the boots and get your ass dressed. It’s not safe to talk on this line. Be downstairs in fifteen minutes.”
The phone clicked off, and he shrugged at the woman. “Sorry, love, duty calls. I’ll call yeh next week. We’ll set something up. I owe you, after all.”
She clomped over to him, reaching down and roughly cupping his balls. He grunted and smirked as she ran her lips across his cheek. “Damn right, you do.”
Powell got dressed and wiped the red smear of lipstick off his cheeks and chin, then grabbed his wallet and shoved it in his back pocket before heading down to the limo waiting for him out front. The driver nodded, opening the door and keeping an eye out around him. They drove across town to an older building with no lights on the outside, and one car parked out front. Powell got out of the limo and headed inside and down the hall. Walking through the last door, he sneered. It was a tech room just like Timothy’s, but it looked more like an old run-down factory version that hadn’t been cleaned for pretty much ever.
Inside were tables upon tables of technological gadgets. Guts of computers thrown in heaps, falling to the floors in piles. Near the back, a single light hovered over a slightly neater desk with several computers hooked up to large state-of-the-art screens. The man nervously switching from keyboard to keyboard looked up, his shimmering sweat highlighted by the bright bulb swinging gently over him.
Powell put his hand up to block the reflection. “Xian, I was rather unfortunately summoned here. Please tell me it was worth getting up and walking away from a very good time in my condo.”
Xian pushed his black-rimmed glasses up and nodded, not caring what he was talking about and, quite frankly, really not wanting to know. “The World Council put a lot on us. This system is so complex. It’s almost ridiculous how much I have to do to just keep up.”
Powell grimaced at a rat running along the wall. “Yes, well, it’s not exactly the most pleasant of jobs. And the system is that Timothy fellow’s work. We all knew he was a genius hacker, but we are tracking down the Leviathans for the Council. This is incredibly important, not to mention that it is good for both our careers.”
Xian pulled up an image on the screen and nodded at it. Powell walked over closer and squinted at the screen. “What are we looking at?”
Xian typed a few more things in. “I think it is a Leviathan. It’s huge, and seems to lumber in the oceans like an underwater land mass.”
Powell dropped his head and groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Suddenly he turned, grabbed Xian by the collar, and lifted his feet from the ground, slamming him against the wall. “You bald idiot, that’s Baylahn. You have been wasting my precious time and resources hunting down a Leviathan that’s being tracked in all of our intel offices.”
Powell was pissed. “You were supposed to correct for the ones we know about. Juntto and Baylahn are already here.”
Xian nodded nervously and Powell dropped him to his feet, pushing him toward his desk. “Find something! Do not stop looking! Fucking useless! Everyone is fucking useless.”
4
The plane touched down on the runway to the base, coming to a gentle stop at the hangar. Katie looked out the window, seeing, besides the base, only miles of sand stretching as far as the eye could see. Never in her life had she ever thought the sight of sand and dryness would be so warm and inviting, but there she was, delighte
d at being back home without some crazy emergency messing up her plans.
Pandora, on the other hand, snickered at the scenery, slung her carryon over her shoulder, and started flipping her hair around. “I love the family, don’t get me wrong, but this place is so drab and sad-looking.”
Katie grabbed her bags as well and laughed. “It’s a military base. What do you think it should look like?”
Pandora shrugged and grumbled as she walked to the door. “Less like Alcatraz and more like Beverly Hills.”
The door opened and Pandora pulled her sunglasses down, raising her arms. Katie ducked so as to not get popped in the face and looked down, smiling at Stephanie and Calvin, who were waiting to greet them. They went down to the bottom of the steps and set their bags down. Katie walked over to Stephanie and gave her a big warm hug. She knew that she was struggling without Korbin, and really felt for her.
Pandora, on the other hand, grabbed Calvin and yanked him into her. She hugged him far too tightly, so much so that he was struggling to get oxygen. Calvin’s eyes bugged, and he jumped as she slapped her hands down on his ass and cupped both of his cheeks very tightly. Closing her eyes, she sighed, grinning from ear to ear. Calvin couldn’t move, and his hands were straight out, not touching her.
“Good to see you again, Daddy,” she cooed.
Calvin’s lip twitched, and he felt her release enough for him to actually breathe. “You know, when anyone else calls me ‘daddy,’ it’s cute and sweet and full of the idea of my child. When you say it, it just sounds weird, and slightly creepy in a ‘you keep locks of my hair in your drawer’ kind of way.”
Pandora giggled. “I like momentos. Just be glad it’s hair. I’ve been known to take much more precious samples. But that’s all behind me now that I’ve got my wings back.”
