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SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

Haskell

Once again, Haskell woke to a heavy weight on top of her. This time, however, she was on her stomach, and someone was lying half on top of her, biting and sucking on the back of her neck. “Your skills as an alarm clock are only slightly better than Scheherazade’s, you know that, right?” she mumbled.

He let go of her neck and chuckled. “Zade’s out running with Demon. I can have her come wake you up when they get back if you prefer, but then you’ll probably miss breakfast.”

He slipped from covering just her side to lying on top of her back, weaseling his hips in between her legs. She could feel his hard cock along her leg and poking at her folds at the apex of her thighs. She groaned and shoved her head face-first into the pillow.

“You mean I’m not already going to miss breakfast? Parts of you seem to have other things on their mind. ”

He rolled all the way off her on the other side. He stood up at the side of the bed, ripped back the sheet to expose her half-naked body, and slapped her quick and sharp on the ass where the T-shirt she’d worn to bed had ridden up.

“Ouch!” She bucked straight up at the contact, rolling to a sitting position on the offended butt cheek. “What was that for?”

“Since the hickey wasn’t working to move you, I figured that might.” He pushed down the pajama pants past his hips and walked out of the material at his feet.

“I’m not picking those up,” she yelled at his back as he stepped into the bathroom. “And I do not have a hickey.”

She heard him yell as he used the toilet, “I beg to differ, and it’s a great one.”

Haskell bounded up out of the bed and stalked into the bathroom to look in the mirror. “I don’t see anything,” she remarked as she tilted her head to the side, pulling the skin tight from behind her shoulder to get a better look.

Nemo came out of the separated toilet area after flushing. He put both hands on her biceps and turned her so her back was to the mirror. “Look over your left shoulder, kitty cat.”

“Eww. Wash your hands.”

He squinted at her. “I’m getting in the shower. That’s stupid. And so are you. You’ll wash off. Besides… you had my dick in your mouth last night.” He slapped her hip one more time, then ducked into the shower.

Shaking her head, she looked over her shoulder as instructed. She groaned and hung her head. She had a huge bruise welling up on the back of her neck, and it would show when she went downstairs. “Asshole,” she muttered. “And you were clean when I sucked your dick. I’m surprised all the taste buds didn’t burn off my tongue from all the chlorine left behind,” she projected over the shower water .

Nemo popped open the shower door. “Get your ass in here. Water’s getting cold, and pressure is weak since everyone’s probably showering right now. We got shit to do, so hustle, hustle, hustle.”

“Hold your horses, stud. I need to pee.”

She heard him mumbling to himself, something about she could do that in the shower, and she started laughing. “I heard that, and no way.”

She stripped out of her T-shirt on the way to the toilet. When she finished, she came back into the main area of the bathroom, folded it neatly on the counter, then washed her hands. She then stepped into the shower. She was barely under the spray when Nemo had her backed up against the wall, kissing the daylights out of her.

“Double eww… morning breath,” she teased.

“Yeah, you probably should brush your teeth,” he teased back.

“Well, it’s not my fault it’s all dick breath. Keep it to yourself, and you won’t have to taste it.”

Next thing she knew, she was being lifted into the air. Her legs went around Nemo’s waist reflexively, their bodies slippery from the water and the soap he hadn’t rinsed off yet. His mouth was on her again, but this time, his tongue was so far inside it almost made it to her throat.

When he came up for air, he looked her straight in the eye. “Mmm,” he hummed appreciatively. “Make no mistake, sugar cat. Nothing tastes better than your mouth. Your mouth tasting like a combination of my cum and yours that you sucked off my dick? That’s fucking heaven.” He gave her a wink, then a hard kiss to the mouth, before he set her back on her feet on the shower floor and began to rinse off.

Every day, he said something new that stupefied her. Apparently, this was today’s comment. “I have no words for that comment.”

“Good because we are running late, sleeping beauty.”

He jumped out of the shower and began drying off. Through the quickly steaming-up glass shower walls, she absently lathered soap over herself, her eyes glued to his muscles as they clenched and rippled while he passed the towel over his body. Then he caught her stare in the bathroom mirror that was just starting to steam up. She thought she heard him say, “Fuck it,” and then she knew that’s what she’d heard because he threw the towel on the vanity, ripped open the shower door, and slammed it shut behind him.

She smiled at him. “Guess we’re going to miss breakfast.”

“Yup. Now, turn around and face the wall, sugar cat.”

When they came out of the bathroom and down the stairs fifteen minutes later, both were grinning and laughing. Nine faces looked up and over at them as they went into the kitchen to grab fruit and bread that Steel had bought at the market the night before. Nemo grabbed her around the waist and hitched her up to a sitting position on the kitchen counter.

“Dude,” Steel groaned. “I just wiped that counter down.”

“Knock it off. It’s not like it’s her bare ass.”

“Thank God. Save that for your own kitchen counter.” Steel turned back to look at whatever was on Midas’ screen, but Haskell was pretty sure she saw one corner of his mouth tipped up. He clearly wasn’t as grossed out as he’d pretended to be.

She’d just finished peeling her banana when a hand grabbed hers. Nemo shoved the tip in his mouth, then lowered down to at least halfway, bit down, and winked at her, settling between her thighs as he leaned his butt against the counter, his back to her front.

Pulling the peel down farther, Haskell asked, “Had much practice at that, have you? Maybe I should have been asking you if you wanted a hate fuck with Cerberus last night.” She bit off a chunk of the banana.

“I heard that,” Cerberus rumbled. “Not even for an entire cellar of Leroy Musigny Grand Cru.”

Haskell sighed. “Man has bat hearing,” she grumbled.

Nemo just laughed it off. “Man has expensive taste. But sorry, Gem. I don’t share.”

“In all of your exploits, never?”

“Let me rephrase,” he corrected. “I don’t share you . And it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be anyway. You just get in each other’s way.”

Cerberus just muttered something to the effect of, “Then you’re not doing it right.”

Nemo bit into a hunk of bread that he’d slathered honey all over. A drop oozed off the bread on the corner of his mouth. Haskell used her free hand to turn his head sideways, and she tipped forward and licked it off. “I don’t share, either.”

A chorus of “Eww!” “Gross!” and “Eye bleach!” rang out across the room.

TB offered up, “As long as we don’t have to give the pool an extra shot of chlorine.” He looked hard at Nemo. “We don’t, do we?”

Nemo shoved the rest of his piece of bread in his mouth and grinned as he chewed.

“You’re lying.”

Nemo shrugged.

TB made a gagging noise.

Waters winced .

Gilgamesh gave them a long, hard look. “Nah. They didn’t. Accidentally caught a bit of the show from the second-floor balcony. A little foreplay maybe, but no sex.” He clapped his hands. “Okay. Time to finalize. What have we got, Midas?”

“First, Waters talked to Itai last night.”

Waters leaned between Gilgamesh and Medusa at the table, everyone picking up their bowls, plates, and coffee cups when he began to spread out the map. “Itai suggested coming in from West Nicholson. We’ll take the coastline north to Nova Mambone, then cut across on secondary roads to Espungabera. Once we hit the border, he suggested we redirect and take the main road to Masvingo through to Zvishavane. Shortly after that, we can cut southwest on another main highway to West Nicholson, where we pick up at the source of the Mzingwane.”

“It would be faster to follow along the borderline to Beitbridge and head up,” Loki observed.

“Yes, but no sense in the border patrol seeing us,” Medusa countered. “You’re better off going out of your way on the upswing and cutting back. There’s no checkpoint where we’ll be crossing into Zimbabwe, and the airport in Bulawayo is closer when it’s time for me to come collect you. Plus, you don’t have to cross the border into South Africa.”

Haskell hopped off the counter and stuffed her hands in her back pockets. “She’s right. And I’m probably posted at every checkpoint along the South African border.”

“Sweetheart,” TB chastised, “you’re up on the wall at every border checkpoint throughout Africa. How you managed to get on a plane out of anywhere on this continent is nothing short of a miracle.”

She shrugged. “Job hazard.”

Waters continued, “Itai told me that the closer we get to Beitbridge, the lower the waterline is. Something to do with the aquifers being used to supply farmers with water for their livestock and a temporary restriction on the river. Normally, it only has unrestricted traffic in the winter months due to rain. Hopefully, we don’t run into any patrols who want to investigate nonsanctioned traffic. However, if we do, Itai says he has the word of the farmers in question to back him up. They normally work with Itai to run interference on his underground runs.”

Loki nodded in agreement.

Waters finished with, “We should be covered in case of emergency. Our biggest area of concern is if we overshoot the landing due to patrols because then we run into trouble.”

“So, let’s make sure we don’t run into any trouble,” Loki warned.

Midas jumped back into the conversation. “Second on the agenda, I called in a favor from a contact in Johannesburg. He sent up a drone and sent me the footage it came up with.” He flipped the screen around so everyone could see. “There are two guard shacks on the main road in, and there’s a dirt track going out toward the river. In the past twenty-four hours, there has been no traffic on the dirt road, and there’s only one guard. The guard there shifts out every four hours, beginning at zero hundred. The guard does carry a sidearm and a machine gun, but so far, none of them have seen fit to take the latter off the hooks in the back of the booth. I’m guessing no one ever comes through that way, but they put a guard on it just in case. In addition, there’s no surveillance equipment, according to Nova’s scans, so probably more primitive contact there. Walkie-talkies if we’re lucky. Cell phone at worst.”

“Nova hitched a ride on the drone?” Waters asked, concern written all over his face.

“No, I put the old system on the drone. I put a burn-out on Cyclopes in case he was compromised. His program is out-of-date, anyway, since Nova is up and running. I transferred the information he brought back through a scrubber, then gave it to her through a ghost system. It can’t hurt her. So far, Cyclopes is showing no signs of compromise, but if someone did try to download his software, Cyclopes’ll eat himself and blow up.”

Waters nodded. “I know that would suck, but better safe than sorry.”

Steel cut in, “So I’m guessing TB and I will be going in the back door.”

There was a pause. When there was silence, everyone looked at Nemo. He was eating a handful of grapes and studying the footage. When he realized everyone was looking at him, his face turned puzzled. “What?”

“No comment from the penis gallery?” TB asked.

“Peanut gallery, fuckwitch.” Nemo popped another grape in his mouth.

“I know what the saying is,” TB growled, “but when talking to you, sometimes the sayings make more sense if they change.”

Nemo thought about it as he ate another grape. “Nope. No comment.”

TB looked at Demon. “Better check his temperature, dude. Think he’s sick.”

“Har dee har har,” Nemo barked out. “I don’t always have to make a twelve-year-old-boy comment.”

“No, but it’s abnormal when you don’t,” Waters agreed with TB. He looked at Haskell. “You need to stick around. He becomes a human being when you’re here.”

With the exception of the Mythos crew, they all turned back to the monitor, blissfully unaware of the panic they’d just caused. The Mythos team, however, were all staring at her. She couldn’t stay. She knew it. They knew it. Her contract wasn’t up until 2025. When this was done, she was leaving with them.

Medusa shook her head at her, telling her not to address the comment. She nodded in return, then focused on the screen with the rest of them .

Steel was speaking again. “All right, so TB and I will go in the back door, take out the guard. Are we leaving someone there?”

“No,” Waters replied. “We’ll have you go in at the start of a shift. We need to be in and out within three and a half hours. Should be manageable.” He looked at Haskell.

She nodded. “Even if I have to go through tunnel choice B or C, it’ll be enough.”

“And what if you can’t get in through any of those choices?” TB questioned.

Haskell looked TB straight in the eye. “Then we won’t need three and a half hours, will we? We’ll have to abort. But don’t worry. I can get in through tunnel choice A as long as there hasn’t been a recent cave-in.”

TB turned back to Midas.

“Okay,” Midas picked up again. “The main road is a completely different story. Traffic goes in and out pretty regularly. And… no outsiders. It’s all people who belong to the camp. No food vendors, no suits, nothing.”

“That creates major difficulties. We aren’t exactly going to pass as locals,” Demon pointed out.

“Nova did take a walkabout through their limited email system. There’s an inspection planned in two days. ”

The group shared a look around the table.

“Then we either need to go in before that check or after. We can’t do it during.” Haskell chewed on her lip. “I think we’re better going in after. They’ll be more relaxed once the inspection is over. More prone to be careless since they know they’re in the clear for a while.”

“Agreed,” Waters confirmed. “The day after?”

“Midas, the inspection is set for the sixteenth?” she asked.

“Yes. Thirteen hundred.”

She considered his suggestion. “That’s Friday. New shipments of workers come in on Thursdays. Or, as of a couple of months ago, they did. That’s when the other girls and I came in and when the previous week’s girls were shipped out. They also brought in new miners to replace any they lost during the week.”

Demon looked up at her. “What did they do with the ones they ‘lost’?”

“Not sure,” she admitted. “But they certainly didn’t send them out through the front gate. It’s possible they dumped them in a shaft in the mine, especially in a caved-in tunnel. They’re certainly deep enough, and those tunnels are unstable enough that no one goes in there without prompting. No one would find them.”

Demon grunted. “Sounds about right. And smart. Any gasses leaching out of the soil would cover the smell, too.”

“Okay, so Saturday the seventeenth.”

Haskell nodded. “They’ll be extra slow that day. Most of the men will have visited the fresh sex workers, so in their off time, they won’t be roaming around. They’ll be in the old infirmary they’ve created as a brothel.” She pointed to a building on the far west side of the compound with a green roof. “That one. The informally partitioned-off rooms make it perfect for the job.”

She turned back to Waters. “Our best bet is to go in early morning, just after the eight hundred shift change. Workers will be coming topside, some will be heading underground, and there will be some caught in limbo in both places. Once a lift starts, you can’t stop it until it reaches the top or bottom, but there will be fewer workers underneath since they will bring about half of them up before taking people down. Each lift will hold about twenty to twenty-five people, depending on size. And there are no guards in the lifts since there’s no way to get on or off during the ride. Nowhere to go. No side tunnels or anything like that.”

Waters gave his first set of orders. “Okay. So, TB and Steel will hit the back guard shack at eight hundred fifteen. Steel, you and TB will go clean out the infirmary. I want those women on the truck. Demon will go with you in case you need medical assistance.

“Medusa. You’re going to head to Bulawayo once we hit West Nicholson. How long before you reach the facility for extraction?”

“Forty-five minutes if I fly casual,” she replied. “Closer to thirty-eight if I hoof it.”

“Okay. We’ll want pickup at eight hundred twenty-five, so plan accordingly.”

She nodded.

“Loki, Gilgamesh, you’ll have your trucks at Beitbridge, timed to crash through the gates at eight hundred twenty. Don’t be late.”

Gilgamesh smirked. Loki just looked pissed at the mere thought of ever being late.

“We’ll drop Gem, Nemo, and the trio in West Nicholson on Thursday, early morning. Medusa, Midas, and I will stay overnight in West Nicholson, but you five will have to meet with Itai during the day. He’ll have a space for you to hang out. You’ll be loaded onto the boats into his hut space, and you won’t be able to come out until you hit the landing spot. TB, Demon, and Steel will be in the second and third boats. The huts are small, and they’re going to be a tight fit. It’s just over one hundred miles, so he said it will take about ten hours from start to finish without any patrol stops. He’s planning to leave before first light, whatever day we indicate. After we make sure you make it into the boats, I’ll circle around with Midas and set up a base in Beitbridge. We’ll coordinate from there. ”

“Gem,” Loki called out. “These tunnels are pretty narrow. Is Nemo going to be able to follow you?”

“He should be able to. The shafts I’m looking at were carved out by miners with jackhammers. They’re not conventional tunnels, and they’ll be tight, but we’ve both been in tighter spaces.”

Her eyes flashed to Nemo, who was clearly holding back laughter. The smirk was impossible to hide, however. He held up his hands in surrender when he read her tight expression. “I didn’t say a word,” he pointed out.

“No, but you were thinking it, and that’s bad enough.” Haskell shook her head and rolled her eyes before focusing back on the conversation regarding the tunnels. “Many of the miners are smaller, it’s true. Extreme poverty leads to poor nutrition, and that’s what drives many of them to dangerous work. When you have no other options, you do what you have to in order to feed your family, but some of the miners are bigger men, as well. It takes a lot of strength to run the jackhammers for long hours. Strong constitutions to be in the dark, confined spaces. I picked this particular tunnel because its opening looks as if it was carved out by a larger person.”

“But that doesn’t guarantee that it doesn’t narrow once you’re inside,” TB pointed out.

“No, but miners tend to be territorial, especially if it’s a successful vein. A miner would not voluntarily leave his find. This one appears, based on the map, to be a successful vein, so the tunnel should be consistent with its opening.”

She reached to the extra table the men had dragged into the room, where all sorts of maps and blueprints were being kept. She searched for the original grid map Midas had made for her on the plane and the overlay map of the tunnels Nova had found in the email. Waters backed out of the way as she scooted between Loki and Gilgamesh .

Placing the overlay on top of the gridded map, she drew her finger along the tunnel line on the secondary map. “See how this goes all the way to the ceiling of the cavern? That means they drilled through to the actual mine area itself. A miner wouldn’t bother to do that if he hadn’t found a vein after about twenty feet. Maybe twenty-five.”

Steel connected the dots. “So this miner hammered his way at this starting point, and by twenty-five feet in, he found diamonds. He continues to follow until the vein either runs out, or he hits the mine operation below ground since he can’t go any farther without falling however many feet to the floor.”

“Exactly,” Haskell confirmed.

“What guarantees that we can get through that exit opening?” Nemo asked, now making short work of an apple.

Haskell grabbed it from him and took a bite. “Nothing,” she said through her chewing. She swallowed. “Chances are the hole is big enough for me to get through. You? Questionable, but not impossible.”

“What happens if Nemo can’t follow you through?” Waters asked. “And how will you get down into the mine itself without being seen? I imagine a woman falling out of the sky would be pretty noticeable.”

“We’ll rappel down. Nothing we both haven’t done before. And if he can’t get through, he’ll have to backtrack, and I’ll be solo.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely not,” Nemo growled. “There is no way you’re going solo. We’ve already established this. I won’t stop you from going?—”

“Good because you can’t,” Haskell interrupted.”

Nemo steamrolled right through as if she hadn’t spoken. “—but you’re at double the risk if you go in alone.”

“He’s right, Gem,” Midas cautioned. “That’s the third thing I have to tell you all. The hit on you has been picked up. ”

“Do we know who?” Loki asked.

“No. It’s anonymous. Bank account number only.”

TB grunted. “That’s how we always did it when I was The Collector. Numbered Swiss account. Or Cayman. Those banks don’t give up shit, and even if you can get a warrant, they don’t even always know who has the account because backtracking it takes a long time. It’s usually rerouted from there through at least six or seven accounts, if not more.”

“How many accounts did yours go through?” Nemo asked.

“Fourteen. I was extra paranoid.”

“You still have those accounts?” Waters asked.

“Yep. Always have a backup plan for emergencies. Plenty of cash to access.” The two men stared at each other briefly. TB shrugged. “I can go under for a long-ass time if need be.”

Waters turned back to the maps. “Okay. So. The five of you will be dropped off in the early hours of the morning. Itai figures around oh-three-hundred. Gem and Nemo will need extra time to navigate the tunnels and get video corroboration as well as samples of anything found on site. What’s your exit plan?”

“Back the way we came would be best,” Haskell answered. “We’d stick out big-time amongst the miners.”

“No shit. Blonde, blue-eyed female, not to mention Captain America over here,” TB snarked.

“If not, we’ll have to try and exit with a lift full of miners. Risky, but not impossible,” she posited.

“Cerberus”—Waters turned to the bomber—“we’re going to need that distraction right on the money. What’s the plan?”

“Figured your back-door guard shack might be a good starter. An explosion there would draw some of the guards away from the main camp. While they’re dealing with that, we can also set a small charge loose in the mine itself. That will drive people to the surface. ”

“Won’t that cause potential cave-ins?” Gilgamesh asked with a frown. “We don’t want to catch any of the miners in the crossfire if we can avoid it.”

“Not if I’m any good at my job,” Cerberus barked. “There are ways to make small explosions look bigger than they are. What I’m thinking of would be more like an indoor firework.”

“What about panic? We don’t need the guards and workers trampling each other in an effort to get to the lifts,” Demon complained.

Cerberus sat stone-faced. “It could. It’s an acceptable risk. We can also save it as a last resort. Don’t set it off unless we absolutely have to.”

Waters nodded. “Agreed. All of this can be done remotely, I assume.”

“Yes,” Cerberus confirmed. “And if TB, Steel, and Demon have taken care of the guard, depending on what you want to happen to the body, we can either use it to destroy the evidence, or he can be put somewhere safely by the time the explosion occurs.”

“What about topside?” Loki asked. “We need something in the camp itself, even if we don’t use it.”

“I don’t set bombs not to use them,” Cerberus replied. “Unless you want them found, they need to go boom. There’s a maintenance shed near the infirmary .” He said the last word like he had a bad taste in his mouth. “Probably enough chemicals in there to send a fireball so high it could be seen from Madagascar. I’ll start with that. If it’s a no-go, then I’ll stick with the water tower.”

Steel grunted in approval. “Blow the legs out from under that thing, you can probably put out any fire you already started.”

“Exactly,” Cerberus agreed. “I make the mess, and I clean it up. ”

“We definitely do not want these brought back on Tribe,” Waters warned.

“Or Mythos,” Loki added.

“Boss’ orders,” Medusa intoned from the end of the table.

Cerberus and Medusa shared a look, after which Cerberus sighed. “It goes against all my principles, but fine. No signature stamp on the devices. Not that anyone here would look for it anyway.” He grumbled the last sentence under his breath.

“Sounds like we have everything good to go. We head for West Nicholson on the fifteenth, dropping off Gem, Nemo, TB, Steel, Demon, and now Cerberus. On the sixteenth, Medusa will head to Bulawayo, and Midas and I will head to Beitbridge. Gem and the fabulous five will head downriver to the launch point. On the seventeenth, we hit it and quit it.”

“One day to get whatever rest you can, people.” Loki looked each one of them in the eye. “You’re going to need it. Especially those of you on the river cruise.”

Everyone started to break up and head in different directions. Nemo looked at Gem and muttered under his breath. “A whole day with nothing to do. However shall we occupy our time?”

Haskell looked up at him. “I don’t know about you, but I have a book.”

“Kama Sutra?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re such a boy.”

“I’ll show you ‘boy.’”