Chapter 17

“This is P.G. Talk to me, Bret,” Tanya said, talking at the circuit board Frank had torn out of her purse.

Her sexy but now-ruined clothes had been discarded and now she wore an old shirt and a pair of pants that Frank had left up here years before.

‘P.G.?’ Frank thought to himself, not believing what he just heard. ‘It’s not possible!’

He looked at Tanya to compare her. With her hair trimmed in that style, and with her secret agent status, ‘P.G.’ could mean only one thing:

‘Pussy Galore!’

Frank sprayed the air in front of him suppressing his laughter.

“Hey, Pus! You’re okay!” said a thin voice coming from somewhere on the circuit board. “We got your ‘Agent Down’ signal an hour ago and just now have a satellite positioned over your area.”

“Yeah, well, you can thank our little ‘X’ file for my health,” Tanya said. “I need to know what’s out there shooting at us.”

“X’ file?” Frank asked.

Tanya nodded toward Béla, indicating that she was the real ‘X’ file and not the TV show.

“There are six bogies within two hundred yards of your location,” the tinny voice said. “Impossible to tell what kind of armament they have.”

“We need extracted,” Tanya said. “Do you see a collection of automobiles a couple miles from here?”

“Yeah,” said the tinny voice.

“We’re going to try for that location,” Tanya told her handler. “What’s between us and our parking facility?”

“If you head directly West, you can ignore the two bogies to the North and East,” she heard Bret tell her. “But there are two immediately outside your structure – about a hundred feet out – and the other two are on what looks like a trail going down the side of the hill you’re on. They’re not exactly on the trail, but if they have automatic weapons, you won’t be able to go that way.”

“Roger that,” Tanya replied. “But we have that secret weapon that already saved my ass once, today. I’ll see if we can put her to good use clearing our exit route.”

“Good luck with that,” Bret chuckled. “We can have a chopper there in a couple of hours, but he won’t land if the area isn’t secure.”

“Got it,” Tanya told him. “We’ll do what we can to achieve that. Do what you can to give us support – at least keep an eye on us and don’t use any rockets. Out.

“Damn!” Tanya said, frustrated. She looked around the kitchen at the somber faces waiting for her to rescue them.

“We’re trapped up here,” she told them. “We can’t get out. There’s a helicopter available, but they won’t land as long as those rogue agents out there could shoot them down.”

“Well,” said Béla, “We’ll just have to take them down ourselves.” She headed for the door, stripping off her shirt for the second time that afternoon as she walked.

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Tanya quipped, grinning at the eager, angry little vampire.

“Hold it!” Frank said, grabbing Béla by both arms from behind and nearly lifting her off the floor. “I know you’re brave enough and dumb enough to walk right up to a cannon and dare the guy to set a torch to it, but we need to come up with a plan we can all live through.”

Béla made a face.

“Don’t be rash, Béla,” Jake said, coming up and putting his arm around her naked waist. “We all have to make it. That includes you.”

Béla permitted him to kiss her cheek, fuming. “They don’t have any right to threaten any of you!” she told them, furious about what was happening to them. “It’s me they want. I’m willing to let them see if they can take me!”

“I’m not!” exclaimed Jake.

“Me neither!” Tanya added.

Frank said, “May as well make it unanimous.”

“Don’t I get a vote?” Béla whined, knowing they weren’t about to let her loose on those rogue agents all by herself, even though she was certain she could take out the whole bunch without any help. They were only men, after all, right?

“So, what are we going to do?” asked Jake, ignoring her even while holding her tightly in his arms so she couldn’t get away.

Béla squirmed out of Jake’s loving embrace and walked around the kitchen – not trying to escape, but looking at the ceiling. “I don’t remember where the attic entrance is. It’ll be dark, soon. I imagine that’s when they’ll strike; when they think we can’t see them. We need to be somewhere they can’t find us.”

Everyone started looking around for the attic entrance and Béla found herself in the bedroom closet looking at the ceiling. “Here it is! Okay, everybody, let’s get up there!”

Squatting down, Béla leaped up and slapped the door upward and into the attic with her hands. Jake growled his approval deep in his throat as he watched. With her second leap, she got one hand on each side of the attic entrance, hoisted herself up through the darkened square and disappeared.

‘Impressive,” Jake said, grinning up at her bare legs as she clambered through the narrow opening, though sorry he could no longer see her bouncy tits.

“Ptthew! Damn cobwebs!” they heard her exclaim. “Hey, it’s warm up here. Now I know where all the heat goes...”

Jake helped boost Tanya and Frank up, then Frank reached down and pulled Jake up. All four of them looked around the tiny space, unable to stand upright.

“There’s the way out,” said Tanya, indicating a small square air vent at the end of the attic. “That should be the rear of the cabin.”

“Makes sense,” Frank added. “When we hear them come in the front, we go out the back.”

“Even better,” Béla suggested, “if we go out now, while we can still see...”

“What about your guys, Tanya,” Frank asked.

“Well, they’re watching us on satellite,” she said, not sounding too hopeful. “If they can get to us, they will.”

Frank heard a sound he didn’t recognize and looked around, searching for it. Béla was tearing the screen off the attic air vent. Before he could reach her, she was outside. It sounded like several rocks suddenly hit the side of the cabin. He thought he heard a ‘yip’, but he couldn’t be sure.

‘Be careful, Béla, ‘ he thought, worried sick about their situation. ‘This could be Waterloo and you could be the Light Brigade.’

They heard small arms fire, then a scream. It was a man’s voice. The three of them looked at each other.

‘One down, five to go!’ Tanya thought, elated. ‘You rock, girl!’

A second later, a short staccato of machine gun bullets echoed through the woods. There was no scream, this time.

Then Béla was back at the attic vent. “It’s clear! Get out here!”

They all scrambled through the vent, stepping down to the shed roof and dropping to the ground.

Even in the twilight, Frank could see the dark red streak decorating Béla’s side and running down one leg. He shook his head, knowing she’d flown straight into the gun muzzle of her target, consumed by her murderous intent. He felt sick in his stomach, knowing she’d probably do it again before this night was over.