Part 4

Fortunately for me, Sun/Jun and Mei/Wei enjoyed sex with their counterparts as much as with me! With each girl having three possible partners with whom they didn't share a mind, I didn't wind up as a fuck toy for four very horny ladies, as I had feared I might. I still got my share of attention, but it was kept to a tolerable (actually, a very enjoyable... !) level.

For the week following Sun/Jun's joining our team, we were busy planning the trip to the convention center and my survival up to the moment when the plans were handed over to the lucky winner. Today, the day of the announcement, would be the most dangerous day of my life. My enemies knew it was coming down to the wire. They knew I had to leave my little fortress in the Palo Alto suburbs, and they knew where I was going. Furthermore, they knew, within a few hours, when I would have to make the journey.

This was far too much information for the opposition to have, but it couldn't be helped, so I maxed out my personal credit to hire some additional help, while we worked on changing our strategy.

Mei was just wrapping up the briefing for the hired drivers as I entered our impromptu conference room, while Wei went over the rented limos with a fine-toothed comb AND some pretty sophisticated electronics. The four limos were in a tent in the back yard that was serving as our garage for this exercise. The drivers were hired security guys who had done this kind of work before.

"We will be in number three, with Mr. Hastings. We will take this route..." she pointed to the green line that traced across the Dumbarton Bridge, and onto Highway 880 then onto Tasman on the projected map, "the rest of you know which routes you will take. These limos are armored, but the opposition will be prepared for that, so be alert. Fight, flight or surrender: that is up to your judgement. Just drive your route until you are attacked or reach the convention center, and your contract is fulfilled. Any questions?"

"Yeah," one of the liveried security guys said, "how do we collect if you're all dead?"

"In that case," Mei answered, "the payments will be made automatically from Mr. Hastings bank one week from today. If we don't stop them, they go out. We will only stop them if we survive and discover that you haven't done what you were hired for. Beware, though! The five of us are VERY hard to kill. If you want your money, don't count on our deaths to get it. If even one of us survives, we will stop payment to anyone who hasn't driven his route, is that clear?"

They all nodded.

"Oh, and one other thing:" Sun continued, "If we find that any of you have disclosed these plans to our opposition, you'd better HOPE they get all of us, because if any of us survives, you won't!"

That sort of talk would only discourage the faint of heart, of whom there weren't many in this game, but it was expected.

Three hours before time for the announcement, we all filed out to the tent where the limos waited. Mei, Wei, and I climbed into number three, the rear limo at the far side of the tent. Wei triggered the intercom and spoke to the driver.

"We will be leaving you now. This vehicle has a number of sensors installed, including a GPS position monitor. Should you make an unscheduled stop or deviate from the planned route, we shall know. Do not open any of the doors or windows, as we will know. Any attempt to communicate by electronic means will also be detected. If any of these things happen before you reach the convention center or are attacked, your contract will be instantly terminated by the explosive device installed on the bottom of the vehicle. Is that clear?"

I could see the driver swallowing hard in the rearview mirror but he answered, "Yeah, it's clear."

As soon as number one pulled out, Mei, Wei, and I slipped out the far door of the limo and concealed ourselves behind the bags that had held the tent fabric. The girls had stored them there for just that purpose.

Mei and Wei had searched the drivers and the limos and confiscated anything that could be used as a communication device, but such things are too easy to conceal, and we weren't taking any chances. It was a good bet that someone would have gotten to at least one of the guys we hired.

As soon as number four limo slid through the tent flaps, we made our way back into the house, staying low and moving quickly.

Mei spoke into a walkie-talkie. "Go!"

Jun and Sun, already at the convention center, had verified that all the bidders and my company's accountant were in the conference room, and that they were as free of weapons and communication devices as a thorough pat down and electronic sweep could make them. We had chosen the room at the last minute, and for a particular reason. It had a service door that didn't let out into the main hallways. If things were going according to plan, the girls would now be shepherding the bidders to a delivery van backed up to the service entrance.

Hopefully, the opposition was watching for me to come to them, and wouldn't notice an innocuous delivery van leaving the premises.

Mei monitored Sun/Jun's progress while Wei tracked the four limos.

As the delivery van traversed the Highway 237 undercrossing, it stopped, and the bidders were quickly transferred to another van parked there. The delivery van's driver was paid and told to return to his company.

Half an hour later, the new van pulled up to the creekbed opposite the outlet to the storm drain that led to my escape tunnel. Quickly herding the bidders into the storm drain, the girls politely but firmly refused demands to know where they were going. We went to the basement to welcome them. The telltales showed the booby traps being de-activated, and Jun soon emerged from the escape tunnel followed by a gaggle of business-suited individuals, each wearing the required identification badge - some looking more than a little upset by the change of plan and venue.

No sooner had Sun joined them than Wei, looking at a handheld monitor, said "Someone has triggered an electronic signalling device."

Sun and Jun, with their own monitors in hand started circulating amongst the bidders. Jun stopped in front of the Japanese bidder, saying, "This one."

I wasn't worried about the signal getting out. We had chosen to meet them in the basement precisely because it was rigged with a faraday cage and jamming devices that allowed only pre-wired communications to get out, but a person who would do this had something else in mind, and we wanted it and him stopped here. In our planning, it stood to reason that my presence would be the impetus that triggered any attempts to communicate, which is why I had to be present, despite the danger.

Sun quietly moved the remaining bidders into one corner as Jun held out her hand for the device. Quicker than I could see, even taking Jun by surprise, the Japanese bidder, whose nametag identified him as a Mr. Hashimoto, was behind the diminutive chinese girl, holding her with one arm while the other hand held a slender, non-metallic dagger a fraction of an inch from her eye.

Sun said something in the private dialect she and Jun shared with Mei and Wei - the language I had originally mistaken for Mandarin. Wei, who was closest to me spoke in a whisper. "He is like us! Sun will assist her sister, we must move back."

Mr. Hashimoto said calmly, "Hand over the plans and I will release your little toy here unharmed."

I smiled, and, just as calmly, I hoped, answered as the girls had trained me to do, though my heart was pounding with fear for Jun, "You misunderstand our relationship. That is one of my bodyguards. She makes sacrifices for me, not the other way around!"

"This one?" he scoffed, "A bodyguard? Ha! I could break her in half with one hand!"

Wei and I exchanged glances, and I hoped what I read there was right. I answered, "You have been engineered by your masters for the work that you do. These ladies were engineered to be bodyguards. What chance does one of you have against four of them?"

"Impossible!" Hashimoto replied, "Our scientists proved that females could not be engineered with enough strength and stamina for such work!"

Well, I could have disabused him of that notion, but I guessed the dialog had reached the limits of its productivity, so I quit while he was still unbelieving, for whatever advantage his disbelief might give the girls. I shrugged and stepped back against the wall, Wei in front of me, Mei riding herd on the bidders.

Once she deemed me to be out of harm's way, Jun flexed her calf muscles, driving her body upward with her toes, and slamming her head backward. Hashimoto's nose flowered with blood as did Jun's cheek where the sharp blade of the knife had sliced it down to her chin before her upthrust hand knocked her captor's away. Meanwhile, in a single fluid motion, Sun had flicked out an extendable baton and set about attacking the Japanese man with such ferocity that he had no choice but to release Jun. In desperation, he threw the knife in my direction, but Wei was much too quick and caught it by the handle as it streaked toward her. If she had missed, it would have embedded itself in her body.

From somewhere in his clothing Hashimoto produced a collapsible baton similar to Sun's. Jun's flicked out at the same instant as his, and the dance that ensued was almost a thing of beauty. Totally silent, in a confined space, only the clacking of batons as they were swung and parried, and the occasional thud or crack as one struck flesh.

I could see little more than the ebb and flow and the intricate footwork that accompanied the actual battle, but even though he had a slight reach and strength advantage, it was clear that the Japanese warrior could not long defend himself against the synchronized attacks of the two chinese ladies. Sometimes they attacked together, sometimes from opposite or offset angles. Sometimes their attacks were simultaneous, at other times they hit him one after another, so fast that not even his super reflexes could counter them.

Finally, Hashimoto had been struck so hard, so often, that even his superior constitution could no longer sustain him. He stopped, dropped his wand to the floor, and with the last of his strength, bowed once to Sun and once to Jun, then fell to his knees, ripping open the front of his shirt. He held out his hand in supplication to Wei, and I watched in wonder as she tossed him back his knife, warily positioning herself in front of me, just in case.

With no more sound than a low grunt, he inserted the ceramic blade into the left side of his abdomen, just below the rib cage, jerked the sharp blade downward, then across his body, ending with an upward cut on the right side. Sun had gone to one of the weapons lockers in the basement, and returned with a heavy bladed sword.

Hashimoto gave her a pained nod and bent his head forward. Sun's aim was true and her blade sharp. She made a perfect daki-kubi cut. The assembled bidders gasped as Hashimoto's head sagged forward onto his chest, hanging by a strip of flesh, and blood fountained from his neck. This is not Chinese tradition, but I was discovering that my girls were well versed in warrior lore from all over the globe.