Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 117: The First Mission Team

Delphi and Alton had just finished hearing Bill Rutherglen’s oath of enlistment and Ruby was wiping down his newly minted tattoo.

"Bill, come and join us when you’re done," called Alton from an office off the control room.

"All good mate. Piece of cake. Let’s go." Bill sat down with Delphi and Alton and they closed the door.

"Let’s run this through one more time to check for flaws," said Alton.

"Let me do it," said Bill. "I’m the one that has to be believable. So I’ll head back in Pittman’s boat and explain how I’m the only survivor from the patrol. We went to Packenham to see if Bo’s story checked out and got attacked by the same nest of red bellied blacks that killed the girls and you lot. Only I survived because I wasn’t fighting ’em. Pittman told me to keep outta the way while they fought, but everyone died. Should be pretty believable, cause that’s why no one lives here anymore; the place is overrun by tubiàn. I’ll tell ’em there’s dragons all over the place, rakali, plovers, spiders, dingos, the lot! I’ll say we found evidence of his brides’ tracks and the guards’ tracks, but I checked thoroughly, and they all ended at Packenham in the snakes nest at St Patrick’s."

"Perfecto," said Delphi.

"I’m gonna send you back some recruits from our village, General Chastain. I’ll teach them the secret handshake and give them the tattoo so you can recognise them."

"They’ll be most welcome," Delphi said. "The more the merrier."

"We’ve got some good kids. Smart young warriors. They’re fit and rarin’ to go. We’ll get the town set up for you when you come over on the mission next week. My mob owns Squeaking Point, so you’ll be safe there. You can use it as your base for any missions on the Island. We’ll get a safe-house going there for you that’s top notch. It’ll look like an ordinary house from the outside, but we’ll have an arsenal inside and good defences. We’ve been collecting some good stuff over the last few years, getting ready to go."

"That will make the missions that much easier," said Alton. "I’ve asked Han to get you a ham radio ready to take with you when you leave tomorrow. We’ll disguise it inside a water bottle so you can carry it off the boat and it passes muster at an inspection."

"Alright Generals, this is what we’ve all been waiting for for so long. Let’s get this show on the road, as they say." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The three of them clasped hands in the secret handshake.

Delphi was beyond excited to be establishing a secret base on the Island, and for another round of recruits to be coming over before they’d even started their real recruitment activities. They were off to a good start! It felt like the Rebellion was starting to gain real momentum.

"We need to let the team know who’s going on the first mission," Alton said to Delphi. "It’s getting very close to D-day now and we’ve still got a lot of preparation to get through. We need everyone to know their roles and be working in them."

"Agreed," said Delphi. "Why don’t we rally the troops now then? Let’s get this over with."

Delphi and Feifei had pre-agreed that when they announced who was going on the first mission, she would announce her pregnancy at the same time. Otherwise there would be unanswerable questions about why she was staying at HQ. In any event, there were things she could no longer do, so she needed to share her news with the team sooner rather than later.

A call went out over the intercom and the team gathered in the training room.

"Alright folks, we have a couple of important announcements to communicate," said Delphi. "The first one is from Feifei."

Feifei stood up alongside Delphi, who gripped her shoulder in support.

"I have some news, which is unexpected, to say the least, and that is that I’m actually pregnant."

Stunned silence from everyone except Ruby, Delphi and Winter, who rushed over to hug her, yelling "congratulations!" and, "happy news Feif!", and "I’m going to be an Auntie!"

"Is Bo the Dad?" asked Han.

Feifei nodded at him.

Han looked both sad and serious as he walked over to Feifei.

"Congratulations Feifei. Bo’s my best friend, and I know you two care about each other a lot. I’m sorry he’s not here to support you through this. I know he would be devastated if he knew. I want you to know I’ll be here for you. Anything you need you just have to ask me. I’ll stand in for him while he can’t be here with you."

Feifei’s eyes brimmed with tears. "Thank you Han. That means a lot to me coming from you. I know how much Bo loves and respects you."

The rest of the team surrounded Feifei, giving her hugs and kind words of support.

Baer and Niko were both shell-shocked. The news was very unexpected to say the least.

"Bo, that sly dog. I didn’t know he had it in him," said Baer to Niko. "He always seemed so uptight. But meanwhile while I can’t get into any of these girls, he’s already bedded one of them and got her up the duff."

Niko shook his head like he might wake up from a dream. "It doesn’t seem right does it? He’s the most disciplined guy I know other than Han."

Feifei was particularly shy with Tingting, who she knew came from a similar home background to hers, where this pregnancy would be considered particularly shameful.

Tingting approached her and clasped her hands. "The news must have been an awful shock for you Feifei. I just want you to know I’ll be here for you right through the pregnancy and your baby is definitely going to be calling me auntie. I’m going to be her fierce aunt!"

Feifei laughed happily, wiping her eyes. "Thank you Tingting. Of course you’ll be Auntie Tingting!"

"Alright ladies and gents, enough of the happy baby news, you can plan Feifei’s baby shower later," said Alton. "Now down to the serious stuff of mission teams and planning. The mission team leaves for the Island in two days."

There was an audible gasp.

"These decisions have not been made lightly, and they’re based on where we see the best use can be made of your skills. On the mission, we have a mix of men and women because we’ll be using guerilla tactics, so there’ll be combat fighting as well as intelligence gathering, propaganda drops, and a little honey trapping along the way."

The men let out a suggestive roar.

"Settle down gentlemen. You won’t be doing any honey trapping! On the mission are the following pairs: General Chastain and myself, Niko and Indy, Brenner and Opal, Baer and Loveday, Arrie and Wolf. Staying at HQ as the local leader will be Lieutenant Sun Feifei. Also based at HQ will be Winter as Quartermaster, Han as Signals Lead, Kai and Tingting managing perimeter defences, Ruby and Magnus managing the tubiàn patrols, Cormac and Lili managing propaganda production and recruitment and training. We will have some new recruits arriving shortly via our newest recruit, Mr Rutherglen."

"Bill, I’m gonna’ train the hell out of those new recruits of yours," called Lili. "You know the Romans conquered the world because they had continuous military training and that’s how we’re going to win this war. And you better send me some combat chicks too, not just boys. Although boys are good," she said almost to herself. "I really like boys. Especially cute ones... Send me some cute ones, won’t you?"

"Alright Lil," said Delphi, "you were going well for a little while there then you went off piste and crashed and burned."