Project Trouble X Three

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Recap

I walked over to Sophia and handed her a few extra weapons to put in her hair. I had found more of the stiletto blades and wanted to share them with her. She nodded and twisted her hair into a knot on top of head, adding the sticks to hold it up. I put a holster around her hips and added more throwing blades and two more guns. I checked her weapons and nodded my head.

“Can you run with all your weapons on and carry your rucksack?” I asked her.

“You bet I can. I’m ready, Cat,” Sophia said with guts and determination in her voice. I was so proud of her. I knew this was hard on her but she hadn’t complained once.

We walked back into the main cavern and waited on the rest of the Shadow Cats. When they walked up and looked as menacing as ever I knew they were ready.

“Ready to show us a way out of here?” Madrid asked as he walked up and inspected all of us.

“Yes, sir, but we are going down instead up this time,” I told him as turned quickly towards me.

“Down?” He asked as if it was the most ludicrous idea of the century.

Cats POV

I laughed at Madrid. “Yes, down. I have four false tunnels with a few surprises and two downward.” I chuckled. “My tunnels of doom.” They all laughed and I chuckled with them as I brought up my wrist, punching in my code. The table raised with the floor, shocking everyone. Their mouths were agape and their eyes widened.

“You are full of surprises, Cat,” Madrid said, awe in his voice. I only nodded and ushered everyone into the tunnel one at a time. They slid down the tunnel and came to a stop at the bottom. I heard their feet touch down and I followed the rest of our crew down, landing softly.

“Where now, Cat?” Claw asked as he looked around.

“This is where it gets fun. You need to follow in my exact footsteps, okay?” They all nodded and I opened another tunnel wall. They followed my exact steps until we came to another wall. I opened it and brought down all the surprises in the next tunnels, making sure I put the table down and locked the inside of the tunnel.

My mom looked at me. I could tell she was wondering what I was doing but she was going to ask useless questions. My mom was almost as smart as me. I got my tinkering skills from both of them, but I taught myself even more. I was always reading books and trying out different things. It wasn’t as if I was smarter than her, it was I watched and learned more technology than she did.

Madrid cleared his throat, bringing me out of musings. “The tunnels split here. One goes South East and the Other South West. We need to split up and meet up at another place. I will give you.” I pointed at Madrid. “The coordinates. Stay out of sight when you get there. I don’t have another bunker made.” I paused and looked at my dad, a smile on my face when I saw him smile. “Unless my dad has another one made.”

“Um, Madrid do you remember my old bunker?” Madrid nodded. “Well, I’ve fixed it a little more. We could go there and come up with a plan.”

“It’s better than the hut I had. There’s no tunnels or anything,” I explained as I looked at Madrid.

“Let’s use the other bunker. You better write down the coordinates for Cat. We need to get going,” Madrid stated as he picked up his rucksack and waited for my dad to write down the information. I looked at it and knew I wouldn’t have to look again. I placed inside my suit. I had made a pocket in my suit to hold my important things.

“Let’s go,” I said as I nodded at my parents and Madrid.

“Hold up.” I stopped and looked at him. “Tesso, you are coming with me and Byrd you are going with Cat. You did nothing wrong Tesso, but they needed a seasoned warrior with them,” Madrid explained as my mouth dropped at his insinuation. He thought we needed someone seasoned to watch over Sophia and me.

“Yes, sir,” Tesso answered and moved over to Madrid as Byrd moved over to us.

“Really?” I questioned sarcastically, arms crossed over my chest.

Madrid turned around and looked at me. He walked over and whispered in my ear, “I need someone stronger to keep an eye on Sophia, okay?”

I looked at him in the eyes and sighed. “Alright. I understand.” He nodded and waited for me to open the tunnels. I made sure my team was ready and Martim was near. I saw Sophia move closer to me, too.

I opened the four tunnels and waited for my dad to read the symbols, but Sophia surprised me and showed our dad which tunnel to go down. I shook my head and moved over to our tunnel, Sophia joining us. I scrambled the codes on the tunnels and stepped into ours, closing the way as we all cleared it.

“And, here we go,” I heard Dragon sing, causing the rest of us to laugh.

“Yep,” I said as I started our walk. This tunnel went on longer than the one Madrid went through. It also had a uphill ramp we had to climb. I had made sure they dug this tunnel deep and then I burnt the blueprints. I broke into the contractors house and destroyed all the blueprints he had of our bunkers, too. I didn't want anyone to get hold of them and be waiting on us. I made sure the tunnels didn't come out the same distance, plus, we needed to get out of range of the cartel grunts and the twins. This tunnel was perfectly situated to come out right in the middle of some trees and brush.

When we got to the end of the tunnels, I put my finger up to my lips and looked out of the camera in the trees. I had made sure to let my dad know about the cameras at the end of their tunnels too. I gave him one of my backup codes. I wanted him to be able to get out without being spotted. I opened the tunnel and quickly stuck my head out, motioning for the rest to come out.

“I see light at the end of the tunnels, does this mean I'm dead?” Byrd questioned quietly, the rest of us shaking our heads at his bad joke.

“Do you want to be?” I asked quietly through my mic as I climbed one of the trees, the men and Sophia following my example. “Sophia, make sure to ask your jaguar to hide your scent. That goes for all of you.

“She’s already hiding it and has been since this morning, Cat,” she tells me with a smile on her face. I nodded and smiled at her.

We started off into the trees. I noticed how quiet Sophia was being. I was so proud of her. She was trying hard and I hoped she kept it up. I was wondering if she trained more when I wasn’t with her. She looked as if she was a trained soldier. She was keeping light on her feet, her breathing was light. I was happy she was retaining everything she was ever taught before.

I was proud of her

Damn proud

“Piss ants at two o’clock. They are ten minutes away,” My jaguar told me, a dark chuckle following her words.

I held my hand up in a fist. They knew I was asking them to stop. “As my jaguar told me, ’we have piss ants coming at us at two o’clock, ten minutes away.” The guys snickered quietly as we got up in the green of the trees. Everyone knew to squint their eyes. If they didn’t it would be easier for us to be spotted. I checked to see if Sophia had remembered to squint her eyes and saw her smiling at me, her eyes squinted. I nodded my head and smiled back.

“Are we taking these men down?” Byrd asked me through our mics.

“We will play by ear. We need to get to the bunker as quickly as possible,” I answered quietly. I could hear three men coming our way and moved my head slowly to spot them.

Fun time

“They are mine.” I couldn’t wait to pay these men back for their lewd comments. It seemed as if I had been waiting for a long time to pay these fuckers back. Martim knew who they were and he nodded his head slowly but mouthed a ‘be careful’. I nodded back and waited for them to show up.

The three fuckers strolled up and decided they were going to take a break. Of course, they started to talk about what they were going to do when they found me, not knowing I had more guys with me. They weren’t paying attention to what was above them, but they were going to pay for their mistake gravely.

I slithered down the tree, Martim and Dragon following closely. They fanned out and bled back into the trees. I walked up as if I were taking a leisurely stroll and fake gasped when I saw them. I backed up into a tree and played as if I was scared and shaking. They smiled, but it wasn’t a nice one.

“Me first,” the leader of the bunch said as he walked over to me. The other two guys sat back down and waited. I was about to hurl from their looks. They licked their lips as if I was an all you could eat buffet. I think I threw up in my mouth a little. “I’m going to enjoy this, little girl. You embarrassed me in front of the twins and I don’t take too kindly to it, so you will be bare and embarrassed yourself.” He smiled smugly at me and I smiled back, all semblance of the scared little girl gone.

I smirked at him and threw two blades, hitting them two men in their hands and away from their radios. “Your turn.” I jumped up as high as I could go and came down on his head. He clawed at my legs but my suit kept me safe. I stabbed him in the head, shorting out his nervous system. He dropped dead and I landed on my feet.

Damn it!

Too fast

Way too fast

“Didn’t you two want a turn?” I asked as I walked over to them. “See what happens to rapists or want to be rapists? I saw one of the guys reach for his radio and threw my blade. He was now sporting two new pieces of jewelry. I knew we didn’t have a lot of time to get to the bunker and I knew I had to make this quick. I hated that I couldn’t torture them a little, but it had to be.

I pulled a long blade out and slit his throat. The other guy was trying to run, but Martim stopped him with a blade to the back of his head. I nodded and we quickly hid the bodies in the hole Digger had dug quickly. I wiped myself down with wipes and put them in a zip lock baggie, tossing it in my rucksack.

We climbed back into the tree and grabbed our stuff. I wanted to make sure Sophia was okay and maybe explain to her why I did what I did. I took a huge breath in and looked at her...