Chapter 281

Once everything was in place, Robertson stood by the open doorway of the power room and took one last look around.

"Fuck. We're done; let's get the hell out of here," Morales griped.

"What's the matter with you?" Robertson snapped. "I told you we were going to take our time and do this job right. You know what happens to guys who piss Mazarella off. You kept your gloves on the whole time, didn't you?"

"Hell, yeah. And besides, you've already asked me that. I've got sense enough to not leave fingerprints. I've already scuffed up the snow from the back door to the dumpster with that evergreen limb you sent me to get from the woods."

Robertson looked at his partner. "You cut one for me, too, didn't you?"

"Yeah, yeah. It's at the back door. Nobody will notice our tracks, anyway."

"Snow's too deep for us to completely erase all the signs that we've been here, but screwing up our tracks can't hurt. We stuck fairly close to the building, so the heat of the fire should melt most of the snow close by, and that would obliterate our tracks, but the fewer things we leave to chance, the better I'll feel."

Robertson closed the door of the power room, and they stood in the hallway in near darkness, their hands over the lenses of their flashlights allowing only thin slivers of light to escape.

"Let's go," Morales muttered. "This place gives me the heebie-jeebies."

"Oh, everything gives you the heebie-jeebies, but we're set. As soon as we're outside, I'll trigger the accelerant."

At the steel door, Robertson pushed down on the bar, noting that he had to use more force than he would expect.

"Lock drags some," Morales said, "but it still works."

Robertson slammed the lever down several times, and it became easier to push. "They'll suspect arson, but I don't think there will be enough evidence for them to be sure. If the place burns as hot as I think it will, the lock binding a little will never be noticed, steel door or not."

Morales' nerves were on edge. "Dammit, let's fucking go," he hissed. "The hair has been standing up on the back of my neck ever since we got here. I keep looking over my shoulder expecting to see somebody watching us."

"Well, we're just about done," Robertson replied. Once they were outside, he made certain the back door was closed properly, then took out the tiny transmitter.

"Shit," Morales said. "Won't that thing transmit from the car? I thought you said it had a half-mile range."

"Yeah, it's supposed to, but I want to make damn sure our little surprise goes off. Should it not, there's plenty of arson evidence in that room."

"But there's no way they can tie us to it," Morales argued.

"Mazarella can. And his man was emphatic that it not look like arson. I for one do not want to piss him off. I've heard too much bad shit about him. Do right for Mazarella and he rewards you damn well. Fuck up and you disappear."

"Well, fucking do it, then."

"Shine the light so I can see better," Robertson ordered, holding the transmitter out.

There were two quiet chuffing sounds almost in unison. Robertson dropped the transmitter and grabbed his throat. His hand came away with a tiny dart that he could vaguely see in the moonlight. "What the f..." he got out before he plunged face-first into the snow.

Morales just let out a squeak as he toppled over backward.

"Well done," Lieutenant Mayfield told the two troopers over their helmet radios. The Lieutenant had a ringside seat as he sat in his office and watched everything via the troopers' helmet cams. "Helicopter is on the way."

After making sure the transmitter was off, the first trooper took the battery out and pocketed it and the transmitter along with Robertson's gun, while the other picked up the flashlights and retrieved the tranquilizer darts. It only took a minute to handcuff the prisoners, and not much longer than that for a thorough search of the two. Unceremoniously throwing them over their shoulders, the troopers trudged through the deep snow to the front parking lot. Deactivating their camouflage, they stood in the lot, but they didn't have long to wait before a helicopter, visible to them only because of their helmets, settled to the pavement.

A door opened and the troopers tossed Robertson and Morales inside, handed the transmitter and its battery, safed weapon and magazine, along with the flashlights to the Sergeant, then moved quickly away. With little sound, the helicopter was soon gone.

"Be sure both of you keep recording as you disassemble everything," the Lieutenant instructed over their helmet radios.

"Yes, Sir," was the quick response.

A few minutes later at the ski lodge near the Retreat, another trooper, dressed in civies, found the keys to the Lincoln in Robertson's pocket, grinned and headed for one of the SUVs to join his partner. The two had done this before. Later this morning, the Lincoln would be left in front of a bar in a rough section of Denver, the keys in the ignition and the driver's window down. Before long, a gangbanger would be driving a new Lincoln.

The Ship

Jeff and his wives had slept in their suite on the Ship. Arlene had given her usual place to Laura who was snuggled against Jeff's side.

"My Prime," the Ship spoke in Jeff's mind.

"I'm awake," he responded.

"One of your troopers is asking for entrance."

"Okay. I'll meet him in the lounge," Jeff responded.

Wearing a robe, the Prime walked into the lounge a couple of minutes later. The trooper hurriedly put his coffee down and bounded to his feet. "Sir."

"At ease, Trooper. Let me get a cup and I'll be right with you."

Coffee in hand, Jeff sat with the trooper to hear in detail everything about the capture of the two arsonists.

When the story was finished, the trooper added, "Lieutenant Mayfield talked to the General and said that he wanted to talk to you at your convenience, but not tonight because he was going back to bed."

Jeff glanced at his watch, thinking he might as well go for his run, but then he remembered the worried mother that had been snuggled in his arms. He walked with the trooper to the hatch and stood watching as the young man jogged back to the waiting SUV.

Dammit, Ann, you need to get your pretty little ass back here, he thought as he turned toward their suite.

When he entered the sitting room, Laura was stretched out on the couch, a sheet pulled to her waist, leaving her breasts bare. Expecting her to be asleep, he was startled when she opened her eyes and said, "Love me, Husband. Take my mind off my worries for a while."

He tossed his robe on a chair. "My pleasure, Wife."

Laura was still not accustomed to hearing him call her 'Wife, ' and wondered if she ever would be. She always felt her heart surge when she realized that she was married to the greatest guy in the world. Not only that, but her best friend was the Clan Queen. I wonder if I'll ever get used to being Jeff's wife. Being married to him has been my fantasy for years, and now, somehow, it's a reality. She tossed the sheet aside and opened her arms to the man she loved more than life itself.

On the Ship, Arlene walked out of the bedroom of their duplicate suite and into the sitting room. The lights were low, but she was able to see Laura, deeply asleep, lying face-down on top of Jeff. But the thing that interested the teenager most was Jeff's morning hard-on sticking up between Laura's legs and riding against her pussy. Smiling, the young Queen leaned over to kiss the head of her husband's cock. Tasting Laura's pussy, she grinned as she stood back up.

Jeff brought a finger to his lips to caution her, then mouthed, "Let her sleep."

"Okay," she mouthed back before returning to the bedroom to let the others know to be quiet when they came out.

A little later after the wives had left, Diana leaned over and whispered into her husband's ear. "We'll bring you breakfast in a couple of hours." At the door, she turned the lights completely out, hoping her sister-wife would be less tense after several hours of good sleep.

But Laura's much needed rest was not to be. The scout, with its boosted mental signal, was now within range of Earth, and its AI contacted the Ship. A half hour after Jeff's women left to fix breakfast, Jeff heard in his mind, "My Prime. Ann's AI has contacted me. To use Ann's terminology, she is 'hiccupping' in and out of warp as she crosses the system and is dropping pickets every light minute. I will warn you when her scout is on final approach."

"Baby," Jeff whispered into Laura's ear. Laura moved a little but didn't answer.

"Baby, Ann is on her way back. She should be here soon."

That woke her.

Pushing up a little, she stared down at her husband's face. "Did you just tell me Ann is on her way back, or was I dreaming?"

"No dream, Baby. She's in the system dropping pickets as she comes in. She'll be here soon."

Tears were suddenly pouring from Laura's eyes as she tried to kiss her husband and talk at the same time. In the process, she slammed her teeth against his, causing both of them to wince.

She almost shouted with excitement, "When? How long?"

"Don't know exactly. Probably a couple of hours, but we have plenty of time for a shower. Why don't we do that while we wait? I think both of us are a little ripe."

A laughing Laura, tears still flowing down her cheeks, bounced to her feet and tried to drag him toward the bathroom. In the shower, she bent over as the water poured down on them. "We have time for a quickie, Husband." This time it was more in the line of fucking than making love, and Laura screamed out her pleasure.

Dressed, they walked to the hatch where Jeff took out his military cell phone to call the Retreat. When Jennie answered, he simply said, "Ann is crossing the solar system now and should be here soon."

Jennie yelled out Jeff's message to the others, and he could hear them cheering. "How long?" she asked when the racket had died down a little.

"Don't know. She's dropping pickets as she comes in, so you have some time, I think."

Jeff was listening to a dead phone because a laughing Jennie had slammed the receiver down to celebrate with the others.

A few hours later, Jeff and all his wives, along with everyone else who happened to be in the Retreat, were standing on the flight deck of the Ship as the wall shimmered and disappeared. When Ann's scout eased through the force field and came to a stop near the group, the outer hull of the Ship returned to normal. The belly hatch of the scout opened and Ann hurried down the steps, then turned toward the group.

"I..." she got out before Laura practically bowled her over, the mother crying and laughing at the same time.

Bedlam reigned for the next few minutes as Ann was welcomed home. Eventually, Jeff picked her up and draped her over his shoulder. "Let's go get something to eat, Wife," he said, his voice rough as he held his emotions back, but no one was fooled.

As they walked toward the lounge, Ann grinned as everyone followed them. While enjoying the meal the Ship had conjured up from her database, the group listened almost breathlessly as the young wife briefly told of her exploits.

"It took you longer to cross our system than I expected?" Jeff said as a question.

Ann smiled at her husband. "I zigzagged on the way trying to saturate a much wider area with the pickets. It should give us a better chance of detecting the aliens should they come to Earth."

Ship now had an edited version of all the hours of Ann's surveillance compressed into thirty minutes of intense video. The wall screen at the end of the lounge came on, the scenes depicted there so startlingly realistic that they could almost feel the tender as it slipped by so close that a collision seemed imminent. The tension didn't diminish as Ann followed the tenders from one mine to another. There was a collective hiss of breath and Jeff's muttered, "Shit," as the assault craft came out of the great ship.