Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 90: Dog Baiting

Delphi, Alton, Feifei and Niko were hidden in the branches of an elm tree in the old botanic gardens.

They were sitting very quietly, with an unimpeded view of the fresh wallaby carcass they had left in a clearing, with drops of Delphi’s blood sprinkled across it.

Alton had tried to convince Delphi of the sense of just him and Niko running this operation, to reduce the chances of them being smelled out by the dogs, but Delphi wouldn’t have a bar of being left behind.

They had carefully positioned themselves upwind, but given the size of these dogs, who knew how sensitive their noses were.

It was an uncomfortable waiting game as they sat on the scratchy branches of the giant tree and tried not to move around too much.

A steady procession of large sugar ants were making their way along the branch and needed to be carefully watched and rapidly flicked before they crawled into your clothing.

Even Niko had to admit that Delphi and Feifei held their own, seemingly ignoring the discomfort and maintaining their focus on the bait.

Alton had decided to leave the dragons behind, as yet unsure about their ability to ’lay low,’ without startling the targets. He planned to get to know their abilities in detail over the coming weeks.

He found his eyes idling on Delphi’s bust, which pleasantly stretched the chest of her t-shirt so that only the ’RM’ could be read of the ’ARMY’ logo. It helped pass the time more enjoyably.

She caught him ogling her and glared at the man, lowering her eyebrows and gesturing her head towards the clearing where their bait waited.

Pay attention man, she thought. While he was staring at her boobs their bait could get dragged away before they could see if her blood had any effect on the animals.

It really was like the consorts had said, women were men’s biggest weakness. No wonder the men in charge of the Island had gone to such great lengths to make women powerless and under their control...

Alton raised a lazy eyebrow at her, slowly turning his gaze back to the much less delightful, dead animal.

A flock of peewees suddenly descended on their tree, filling its branches and chirping angrily at them, drawing attention to the fact that there were large intruders in their territory.

"Piss off!" hissed Niko, swatting at them, but the birds moved just out of reach and got louder, if anything.

Niko drew his sword and used it to poke at a few, trying to scare them off. The birds just hopped a few more feet away and continued with their loud cries of alarm.

"Fucking magpies," Niko cursed, "get out of here, you’re blowing our cover".

"They’re peewees," said Feifei. "I suppose they’re officially called magpie-larks so you’re not too far off, actually."

Niko looked at the girl like she was the one squawking at him, and she stopped talking.

She was a beautiful girl, but she was too smart for her own good, he thought. He really didn’t like intelligent women.

"Rooowwff!" a loud bark and a snarl was accompanied by a huge dingo, that jumped almost as high as the branch they were perched on and snapped at Delphi’s feet.

She drew her legs up just in time and quickly rose to stand and balance on the thick branch they were sitting on, unable to reach the branch above them for support.

Niko and Alton rose and held their swords at the ready, and the flock of peewees rose screeching into the air.

"Now they disappear. After giving us away. Little fuckers," swore Niko.

The dingo bounded on the spot like a clockwork toy, up and down, up and down. It didn’t seem to be getting any higher, but it was awfully close to reaching them as it snapped on the upswing.

"Sorry ladies, I thought this was high enough," Alton apologised, as he swiped at the bouncing war hound with his sword. "I underestimated them."

He held onto the branch above for support while he struck at the dog with his right hand. Alton noticed that Delphi couldn’t reach the next branch and was precariously balanced. He shifted close to her so that she could hold onto him.

He bloody knew he should have insisted that Delphi and Feifei remained at the silo. This was too dangerous, and Delphi was absolutely critical to their success. He was going to need to convince her of the fact they couldn’t afford to lose her, so some missions were just off limits to her.

"Not your fault General," Delphi spoke seriously, getting a good scratch onto the dog’s pointed ear with her sword. "We all thought this was well above their reach."

"Niko, get closer to Feifei so she can hold onto you," called Alton. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Niko looked annoyed to be hampered in his efforts to stab the relentless jumping dingo

The dog was quickly joined by a pack of its fellows, and they all stood around the trunk baying and howling up at them. It was an outrageous amount of noise that muddled their brains.

One of the dogs started to scramble its way up the sheer trunk.

"Oh shit, it looks like they can climb!" yelled Alton. "Get up higher! Niko, push Feifei up."

Niko shoved Feifei up to the next branch above them. She gripped onto a side branch and hauled herself up. Niko did a chin-up, then scrambled up after her, Delphi and Alton following behind them.

They all ran along the thick branch they now stood on, to reach the next branch up. The dingo seemed to be keeping pace with them, climbing its way up the trunk higher and higher, like a bear, making good use of its long claws.

"Jesus bloody Christ, what is this thing, a monkey or a dog?" Alton scowled, as they pulled themselves up onto the next branch.

"We can’t go any higher," he warned. "The next branch up won’t take our combined weight. Delphi, Feifei, get up there and let Niko and I make a stand against the hound here."

Delphi didn’t try to argue with him. It made sense for the two lightest people to ’test’ the strength of the next branch up, which was getting pretty thin looking. She and Feifei pulled themselves backwards around the branch above, straddling it rather than trying to stand on it.

Alton took up the front position on the branch below the girls, with Niko pushing in alongside him as much as possible to help fight the tubiàn.

The dingo climbed up level with them and walked onto their branch, balancing easily with its bear-like claws.

It gave the two men a long low growl, its ears flattened, and all of its teeth and gums bared at them.