Chapter 363

The Women's Construction Trailer at The Retreat

Charlotte had put it off as long as she could. The other women had gone to play cards with the men. I have to do this. I can't let them kill Mom, but then again, I can't kill this person, either – this Art Hanes. Why do these people want him killed, anyway, and why have they picked me to do it? If they have the resources to get a gun past all the security out here, surely they could get a professional to do this thing. You read about hit men in fiction novels and you see them in movies. I suppose there are real assassins out there somewhere. Why don't they pay one of them to do this? Why are they destroying my life? Then she asked herself yet again, Who is doing this?

With her cold weather gear on, she stood on the porch looking up at the stars. The snow had stopped and the sky was clear for a time. And with that clearing, the temperature had plummeted after dark. I'm glad we're finally underground with the boring. It's still cold down there, but at least we are out of the wind.

She stepped off the small porch onto the ground. Casually, Girl. You're just out for a stroll to wind down from the day. The stars are pretty tonight; look up at them as if you don't have a care in the world. Go directly toward the camera there, just like you did last night, then walk parallel to the fence. Don't frown. They might be able to see that. These people are wealthy, so it's logical to expect they would have the best equipment.

She followed the path the security guards made as they walked their rounds. Why do they bother? she wondered. I know they can see this area with their cameras. Why trudge around out here in the snow? Yet they do. Someone is serious about security. Is all of it because they're rich, or is there some other reason? Oh, well, following the guards' path makes it easier, so why should I care?

At the corner, she made a left turn and slowly strolled toward the next corner. Just before she got there, she intersected the tracks that the muck vehicle produced as it made its trips to dump rock chips off the edge. Hmmm. The gate is closed tonight. Is that because of me? Did my stroll last night worry them that I might fall or jump off the cliff? She held back a nervous giggle. If they knew why I'm out here, they might want me to take the plunge. Save everyone a lot of trouble. Shit. What am I going to do? I can't kill anybody, but I can't let them kill my mom, either. If I just stepped off into space, my mom would be safe. But she knew her mother would also be devastated.

Well back from the gate, she stood thinking for a moment. With a sigh, she turned to retrace her route from the previous night. The stacks of supplies loomed in the semi darkness, the security lights from the distance blinding her more than offering a lighted path. As soon as she thought she was out of sight from the cameras, she hurried to the big stack of drainage pipe.

Snow had accumulated more on this end of the stack, and she began brushing it off the end caps as she shined the black light on them. Finally, about half-way down the stack of pipes, she saw it: a glowing circle roughly the size of a fifty-cent piece clearly visible on the end cap. Switching the light off, she dropped it into a pocket and turned her attention to trying to slip the plastic cap off the pipe, but it wouldn't budge. With desperate haste, she ran her fingers around the edge of the plastic where it met the pipe, working the snow clear – heedless of tearing her gloves. Finally, with a sharp tug, her strength won, the ice gave and the cap slipped off. Reaching in, she felt an obstruction, but couldn't get a grip on it while wearing her gloves. Yanking one off, she reached in again and felt what she thought was Styrofoam. There was a slight clearance on two sides of what felt like a box, so she dug her fingers in until she could pull the tightly-wedged item out.

She pried the two pieces of the box apart to find a small pistol inside. After gingerly putting the weapon in an inside pocket of her thick coat, she put the box back together and returned it to the pipe, quickly replacing the end cap. Just before she turned to leave, she realized that she had cleaned the snow from approximately half the pipe ends, making it obvious that someone had wiped some of them while leaving the others snow-covered. Hurrying, she pulled her glove back on and brushed the snow off the rest of the end caps while hoping they all looked reasonably the same.

As she turned away, she realized that someone would eventually find the Styrofoam box. It is drainage pipe. It shouldn't be used before we're done with at least one floor of the tunneling, and it was half way down the stack, so it shouldn't be noticed until much later. Crap, maybe they'll catch me before I can do this horrible thing. I don't have any way to dispose of the box, anyway. If I'm in jail, maybe they won't bother Mom.

Jogging through the supply area, she slowed just before she could be seen by the cameras. She forced herself to stroll casually as she made her way back to the trailer. Inside, she was thankful that the women had not returned.

Where will I keep the gun? I could hide it under the trailer, but I imagine there is someone watching the cameras all the time, and they might see me if I do that. I guess I'll have to keep it in my gear. The inside pockets have zippers and the gun is small. I doubt if anyone will notice the difference should they have reason to move my gear, but I'll have to take care to always hang it out of the way just in case.

I didn't sleep well last night worrying about this. I need to go to bed. One mistake on the borer because of my fatigue could result in downtime or someone getting hurt. Get your mind off this, she told herself as she undressed and put on her pajamas.

It didn't work. Sleep eluded her for hours.

Security Headquarters

Sergeant Higgins turned to Lieutenant Mayfield. "Shall we notify the Colonel?"

Mayfield thought for a second. "We knew she would be back tonight to search the other ends of the pipes to find the gun. And ... they're probably still enjoying the reception now that the visitors have left. Besides, the Colonel said the weapon and ammo are non-functional. I think that tomorrow morning will be soon enough to tell him she was successful in her search. If he goes for his run in the morning, I'll let him know then, if not, I'll tell him after I know he's up."

"Sounds good to me, LT. Uh, have you come up with a theory about this whole thing? It just doesn't make sense. I've read and reread everything we have on this woman. She is not a killer, so logic would dictate that she is either doing this because she is worried that someone is going to harm her, or else she's being forced in some other manner.

"If she is being threatened with bodily harm, why doesn't she go to the authorities? Maybe it's blackmail of some sort. The pipe was picked up at the company that sold them to the boring company. How could an operator have enough influence to pull something like that off? We know for a fact that she doesn't have any relatives working for the pipe supply place, and it's fenced and has its own security, although one guard for the whole yard isn't much security. Even if someone could get to the pipe, how could they know which stack of pipe was coming out here? As far as her being bribed is concerned, every dime of her money has been accounted for. She has not received any extra money that we've been able to find, nor have there been any sizeable withdrawals from her accounts. She has not paid someone to smuggle the gun in. Hell, she gives her mother a big chunk of her salary."

Lieutenant Mayfield sighed. "I agree with your assessments. I can't see any other way for the gun to be put into the pipe without some bribes or coercion of an employee of the pipe company. As you know, we're checking that, but it's a big company with a lot of employees, most of whom have access to the yard where the pipe is stored. I suspect someone spent some major money setting this up, and it wasn't some machine operator. I'm beginning to think she's just a pawn in this – whatever the fuck it is. Back to the attacks here. Logic would dictate that this is yet another aspect of those, and unless I miss my guess, Art Hanes is still the target. We're sworn to protect the Colonel and his family. This is beginning to really piss me off."

The Retreat

"Where were you guys?" Diana asked as Jeff entered the bedroom.

Jeff, knowing that all his women always knew where he was, stopped in midstride to raise an eyebrow and grin at her. "Okay. Okay," she continued with a chuckle. "Let me rephrase that. What were you guys doing in the General's office?"

Adapting her typical female response, "Talking about man things," he teased.

Arlene chimed in with, "Daddyyyy, you know what she means."

"And besides," Susan added, entering the conversation, "you know what weddings do to women."

"Uh, nooo," Jeff returned, trying to look mystified.

"It makes us horny," Nat, Nicky and Whitney said in unison, just to show they could.

Jeff continued trying to play innocent. "Now why in the world would that be?"

Ann, already nude, cupped her breasts and winked at her husband. "Because we know what the brides are doing right now, and one of them is getting pregnant, maybe at this very instant. That gives all of us ideas. And I want to be first."

"Who has a baby first has not been settled yet," the Clan Queen broke in to say.

"Same answer, Ladies," Jeff quickly responded, worrying that things might get out of hand. "After we're aboard Ship and are on our way, we will seriously consider it. Even then, your pregnancies are going to have to be spaced out. But before we board Ship, all of you have to graduate from her academy, and somewhere in there, we have to deal with the aliens. We can't leave Earth unprotected with an unknown potential threat in the vicinity."

"Ship could deal with them," Arlene offered, but before Jeff could intervene, she went quickly on with, "Yeah, I know. Their ship could be a distraction to lure Ship away from Earth so another force could attack, but I personally think they are truly stranded while they work on their drive."

"But we still have to wait to see what their intentions are. Just because they have impressive weapons and have practiced firing on a few asteroids doesn't necessarily mean that they have ill intentions toward Earth," Jeff reasoned. "We have to assume the worst, though, while making certain we aren't opening the planet to an attack. So, for now, we wait and watch."

"Didn't you say they're roughly six light years away?" Susan questioned. "Couldn't it be possible that they're not aware of Earth?"

Jeff started to answer, but Arlene broke in. "Unless they're incapable of receiving anything in the electromagnetic spectrum, they can hear our radio and see our TV signals. We certainly had no problem doing just that while we watched the aliens going about their activities. The signals have to be boosted, of course, but they're there, and it's hard to believe that a race capable of the stars would not be able to detect those signals. They know where Earth is, all right."

"And ... in light of that, Dave and Evie are scheduled to leave first thing in the morning to check on the aliens. Ship says she has analyzed the data acquired by the AI and is reasonably certain they are attempting major repairs to their warp drive. She also believes that as the repairs progress, the scout's AI will be able to roughly predict when the drive will be functional."

As she began to undress, Diana continued, "Evie said that Kim and Linda are to begin their academy training first thing after breakfast in the morning. Even with only a few hours our time spent in Ship's simulator each day, they should be well along with their academy training by the time Dave and Evie get back."

"Back to the subject at hand," Arlene said with a giggle as she reached into Jeff's pants and hauled his half-hard cock out. "Your wives are horny knowing that Alesha is busy getting pregnant. We want to practice that ourselves so we'll know what to do when the time comes."

Jeff had been unbuttoning his shirt as his daughter was speaking. He unbuckled his belt and unbuttoned his pants to let them drop, but he couldn't get his shorts down with Arlene holding his dick.

"Uh, Baby. You have to turn that thing loose so I can get out of these."